Domovoi Part 32

Striker could think of a multitude of things to say regarding their situation at the moment, all of them some degree of profane and more than one using Lightcap’s name in some manner that would turn her bright red.  He kept them to himself, though, and focused on launching missile after missile at the massive bulk of Armada.  A long list of expletives might make him feel better in the short term, but would do little against the kaiju unless they suddenly developed a crippling weakness to profanity.

Armada howled again as five of the six missiles he’d launched so far met their marks, blasting blue-tinged craters out of its gray flesh.  It shook itself like a dog and leveled a glare at Striker, lashing all three of its tails in fury.

“I think that just pissed it off,” Chuck noted.

Ya think? Striker retorted.  Gipsy, keep firin’!

I’m running out of power! she protested.  I can’t keep this up much longer!

Keep it up long as you can! Striker ordered.   The more we can weaken this sonofabitch, the better!

Gipsy swatted at a cluster of fliers that battered at her Conn Pod like persistent gnats, then fired another blue-white blast at Armada.  The jolt of plasma impacted against its throat sac, sending a cloud of turquoise-colored ichor roiling through the water and leaving the loose hide in hanging tatters.  The massive kaiju howled in agony… though was it Striker’s imagination or was said howl weaker than before?

Think we’re makin’ progress.

“Don’t drop your guard now, Striker,” Herc advised.  “Keep it up!  Finish this monster!”

“We’re outta missiles!” Chuck shouted.

“We got one more in reserve!” Herc corrected.  “Aim carefully, Striker, you won’t get another chance at-”

Striker roared in pain as sharp plates of bone tore into his side.  Razorback had left Scunner to its own devices and now struck at the Mark V, its armored tail slashing through the water like a bladed whip, and Striker barely sidestepped another attack.  His final shot went wide, missing Armada by a good twenty feet and impacting into one of the domes, shattering the shell as if it were an egg.

Oh, you bloody little…  Striker cut loose with another string of venomous profanity, not caring that Razorback couldn’t hear a word, and let his arm blades slide out.  Razorback barely had a moment to twitch in surprise before the Australian Jaeger was atop it.

***

Sasha shook with the force of the rage and hatred that poured through the drift.  It swamped all her senses, filming her vision red and searing every nerve ending in her body.  She had only ever felt Cherno so angry before a few times… when Katschei had felled Eden Assassin, when Gorynych had crushed Nova Hyperion’s Conn Pod, when Otachi had struck down Crimson Typhoon at the first battle of the harbor…

Staghead! Cherno howled, oblivious to the fact that the antlered kaiju couldn’t hear him.  I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve done!  I’ll tear you apart!

“Cherno!” Sasha called out as their Jaeger pushed himself to his feet.  “Calm down!  Crimson’s alive!”

That doesn’t change the fact that Staghead’s hurt him! Cherno snarled.  His fists clenched, the Tesla coils crackling with energy.  

“Cherno, watch out!” Aleksis bellowed.

The rage in the drift faltered, and Cherno stumbled to the side... an instant too late, as Scunner’s horn clipped his shoulder and sent him spinning again.  He dug his foot spikes into the sea floor, sending up clouds of silt as he struggled to keep his balance.  By the time he was sure of his footing, his anger had drained away and Scunner had whirled for another attack.

This time, however, Cherno was ready, and met Scunner’s charge with a fist to the skull.  The impact jolted up his arm – and both Sasha and Aleksis gripped their arms as they felt his pain as their own – but Scunner staggered back, stunned at the blow and shaking its head furiously.  

Come at me, ugly, Cherno thought, crouching and pounding his fists together.

“Easy,” Sasha urged.  “You get angry or arrogant, and you make mistakes.  We cannot afford mistakes… not today.”

Cherno sent back a pulse of agreement, but he didn’t break his stance.  Scunner pawed the sea floor like a bull, then gave a roar and barreled forward again… only for another punch from Cherno to send it reeling.  It kept to its feet and struck again, trying to hook one horn under the Mark I’s chest armor, and only another fist to the skull kept it back.

Scunner bellowed and lunged one more time, this time striking with teeth instead of horns.  Powerful jaws clamped down on Cherno’s arm, and double sets of claws raked at his armor.  Cherno’s engines roared in pained fury, and he slammed his free fist down on Scunner’s head over and over, cracking one horn and completely obliterating eye.  The kaiju hung on like a bulldog, however, and seemed oblivious to its own damages.

Fall, Cherno growled, lashing out again and again.  Why won’t you fall?

***

Gipsy keened worriedly as a final, weak spurt of plasma hit Armada’s shoulder.  Plasma cannon’s out of power.

“It’s okay, girl,” Raleigh told her.  “You did good.  It looks weaker already.”  He was exaggerating there – Armada wasn’t even limping despite the holes and burns riddling its hide – but he wanted to give Gipsy some satisfaction that her efforts weren’t in vain.

What do I do now?  Her mental voice was far softer and smaller than any voice coming from a titanic mecha should be… and it trembled with fear.

“We close in,” Mako replied.  “Get as close as you can.  We killed Slattern up close… we do the same with Armada.”

Okay.  Gipsy didn’t sound at all sure of that strategy, but she nodded anyhow and took a step forward, one chain-sword sliding out of its sheath.  Armada retaliated by draping its body over the damaged dome and snapping at her, and she backpedaled in a hurry.

“We need a distraction,” Raleigh realized.  “Striker, can you give us a hand?”

I’M BUGGIN’ BUSY RIGHT NOW came the reply over the readout.  JESUS CHRIST, HOW’S A MECH SUPPOSED TO DO ANYTHIN’ WHEN HE’S GOT A BUGGIN’ KAIJU LOCKED ON HIS ARSE?

We have to help him! Gipsy insisted.  Razorback’s got him, and he won’t last much longer!

“Focus, girl!” Raleigh urged.  “Gipsy, I know you’re worried about Striker, but you’ve got to focus on what we came here to do!  We’ve got to take out Armada!”

Mako’s brow furrowed behind her face screen as the massive kaiju huddled lower over the dome, like a hen settling down on a clutch of eggs.  “It’s guarding that dome.  Whatever is in there, Armada is protecting it.”

Raleigh’s eyes flashed in realization.  “You think it could be…”

The second Breach, Gipsy finished.  They’ve built the dome over the Breach to hide it from us!

“Then we change plans,” Mako decided.  “We have to help Coyote get to the-”

A scream of agony reverberated through the drift as Staghead lunged in from Gipsy’s right, clamping short but powerful jaws on her arm just above the elbow.  Metal squealed as impossibly-sharp teeth sheered through the limb, and it fell to the sea floor in sickening slow motion.  Raleigh and Mako’s screams filled the Conn Pod as they shared in Gipsy’s pain.

“Bastard,” Raleigh growled through gritted teeth.  “You’re gonna pay for that!”

Staghead simply tossed its head in reply, and lightning flickered between the prongs of its antlers as it readied another EMP attack.  Gipsy trembled, and Raleigh knew that even her analog systems wouldn’t escape a direct EMP jolt unscathed – she wouldn’t need hours to reboot, but she would still be knocked offline for a few minutes.  And a few minutes would be all it took for Staghead to rip her apart.

The antlered kaiju brayed in shock as another titanic form bowled into it, and Staghead and Knifehead went tumbling away in a tangle of limbs and fangs.  They smashed right into one of the smaller domes, shattering it like china and sending jagged chunks of shell – and shapeless chunks of organic material that Raleigh tried not to look at too closely – erupting in all directions.  

Whoops, sorry, Brawler mumbled, his “voice” managing to reach Raleigh and Mako as he limped toward them.  Hope I didn’t cut that too close.

Thank you, Gipsy told him, still clutching the stump of her wounded arm.  Really… I don’t know how much longer we could have lasted…

“Thank us later!” Caitlyn shouted.  “We’ve got company!”

Raleigh didn’t have to ask what kind of company – the milky armor of the Precursor Jaeger gleamed through the silt-laden water as it approached, moving with an alien grace.  Even as Brawler and Gipsy watched, it raised both sets of arms, releasing twin blades from each wrist that resembled ivory fangs.  

This ain’t gonna be good, Brawler groaned.  

***

Tendo had never felt so helpless in his life.  In the past his position in the LOCCENT had felt strangely empowering – he had never seriously entertained the idea of piloting a Jaeger himself, but acting as a “mission control” of sorts had always made him feel like one of the key players in the Kaiju War.  The Jaegers might be the brawn of the war, but the LOCCENT was the brain, and keeping said “brain” running smoothly and optimally during a kaiju attack was just as important in his mind as actually beating the snot out of the monsters.

But that was in the past, when they either matched or outnumbered their kaiju attackers and when a double event was almost unheard of.  Now, faced not only with multiple kaiju but with an enemy Jaeger, he had no idea what to do.  They were all in over their heads, and he could only hope this mission wouldn’t end with the Precursors finishing what the PPDC had set out to do – wiping out the Jaegers once and for all.

With every Jaeger locked in battle visual feeds were next to useless, so Bishop had switched the readout back to the normal tactical display.  It still didn’t look good – one Jaeger was still down, his Rangers refusing to evacuate his Conn Pod, and of the others only Brawler Yukon hadn’t suffered some kind of debilitating damage.  Both Cherno Alpha and Gipsy Danger had lost the use of a limb, and while Striker Eureka and Coyote Tango were both still on their feet and fighting, they were rapidly losing vital fluids from various hull breaches.  And while the Rangers appeared to be fine so far, their oxygen wouldn’t last forever – they had come prepared for a quick strike, not a protracted battle.

There was only one thing to do… and though it was practically a surrender, they had no choice.

“Fall back!” he ordered.  “All Jaegers fall back!  Regroup just over the rise!”

OH HELL NO Striker retorted.  JAEGERS DON’T RETREAT.

“Disengage and fall back NOW!” Tendo ordered.  “Bring Crimson with you if you can.  Hurry!”

A general grumble issued over the radio from the Rangers, and the readout was soon cluttered with identical protests from the Jaegers.

“That is an order,” Tendo insisted.  “And this is NOT a retreat.  We need to pull back and reassess the situation, not keep fighting blindly until they pick us off.”

That seemed to mollify the Jaegers, and one by one they slowly pulled away from the fighting, green figures on the display sliding away from the amber forms of the Precursor base.  The scarlet blots of the kaiju made no move to pursue, instead clustering around the hulking scarlet form of Armada.  A single violet figure – the alien Jaeger – chased after Gipsy and Brawler for a short distance, but once they rejoined their teammates it pulled back, warily circling the base like a watchdog.  

“Switch to visual,” Tendo ordered.  “Coyote if available.”

Bishop complied, and a huddle of Jaegers materialized onscreen.  Tendo couldn’t keep himself from wincing.  Claw and fang marks marred every Jaeger’s armor, and cracks riddled more than one Conn Pod.  Cherno’s left arm hung limp at his side and bore a crescent-shaped bite that exposed wiring and struts to the sea; Gipsy’s right arm terminated in an ugly stump just above the elbow, oil and coolant swirling in the water around it from severed tubing.  Brawler held Crimson in his arms in a bridal carry, a blackened starburst smearing his chest, his Conn Pod dark and ominously still.

“Team Crimson, can you hear me?” Tendo asked.

“We’re here,” Jin replied.  “Crimson’s still with us.  Got a couple inches of water in the Conn Pod, but nothing serious.”

He flinched again.  “ANY amount of water in the Conn Pod is serious.  Get into your escape pods NOW.”

“We’re not leaving him, and that’s final,” Hu snapped.

Tendo opened his mouth to order Bishop to override the controls and force the three of them into their escape pods… then closed it again when he remembered that the overrides had been disabled by his own command.  “How fast is the Pod filling up?”

“Not fast,” Cheung replied.  “Seems to be a slow leak.  We’ve got enough oxygen for a few hours even if this place does fill up.”

“Same with all of us,” Herc added.  “Nine hours, ten or eleven if we push it.  The question is if that’s enough time to do what we came here to do.”

“We can do it,” Chuck insisted.  “Just gotta plow through them an’ plant the bomb!”

“Easier said than done,” Sasha pointed out.  “These kaiju are persistent.  And both Armada and that blasphemous Jaeger are intent on not letting us get too close.”

Gipsy’s text flashed on the readout.  ARMADA IS GUARDING THE LARGEST OF THE DOMES.  WE THINK THE NEW BREACH MIGHT BE UNDERNEATH IT.

Tendo blinked at that.  “Are you sure?”

NO, she replied, BUT IT WOULD MAKE SENSE.  IF THEY KEEP IT HIDDEN, THEN IT WON’T MATTER IF WE DESTROY THEIR BASE.  THE BREACH WILL STILL BE INTACT, AND THEY CAN JUST SEND REINFORCEMENTS AND BUILD ANOTHER.

SO WE HAVE TO GET PAST ARMADA, BREAK THE DOME, AND DROP THE BOMB INSIDE, Cherno added.  IT SOUNDS SIMPLE… BUT ARMADA ISN’T EVEN SLOWING DOWN, NOT EVEN WITH EVERYTHING WE’VE THROWN AT IT.

“And that’s not even counting the other kaiju,” Raleigh added.  “We’ve wounded some of them, but they’re still kicking… and Staghead’s got the ability to take Jaegers out from a distance.  And the Precursor Jaeger…”  He didn’t finish, as if his nerve failed him on the spot.

“Sounds like it’d be pretty straightforward to me,” Hannibal put in, scowling at the screen.  “Seven Jaegers versus six kaiju and another Jaeger – seems pretty even odds.”

“Except one of those kaiju is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before,” Tendo reminded him.  “Even Slattern wasn’t as big as Armada.  And the Precursor Jaeger’s a wild card – we don’t even know what kind of weaponry and abilities it has.”

“Wait, seven?” demanded Mako.  “There’s only six of us – five with Crimson down.”

Tendo knew that Newt would be disappointed in him for ruining the element of surprise, but they had far more important things to worry about at the moment.  “There have been some sudden developments on that front.”

“Oh my god,” Caitlyn murmured.  “Are you saying…”

“Mustang Omega has been reactivated,” Tendo finished.  “He has a new set of Rangers, ones willing to work with him and encourage his sentience.  And he’s on his way to Koko Guyot as we speak.”

Caitlyn whooped with delight.  “I knew we shouldn’t give up on him!”

“That’s good news,” Sasha added, her voice thick with relief.  “We could use any backup we could get.”

IS HE STILL MISSING HIS HEAD? Striker demanded.

“You hush,” Herc ordered.

WHAT, JUST ASKING.

“How long before Mustang actually gets here?” asked Raleigh.  “And more importantly… is our air going to hold out that long?”

“About ten hours.  And if Marshal Hansen’s calculations are correct, then yes… barely.”

The Jaegers exchanged glances at that, and though none of them had recognizable faces to emote with, Tendo could guess what they were thinking at that moment.  It was Coyote who spoke up, confirming his suspicions.

ALL JAEGERS EJECT YOUR RANGERS IN THEIR ESCAPE PODS, she ordered.  

“No,” Aleksis retorted.  “We started this together.  We finish it together.”

THIS ISN’T WORTH YOUR LIVES, Brawler protested.  US JAEGERS WERE MADE TO PROTECT HUMANITY… AND THAT INCLUDES YOU.  WE WON’T SEE YOU GET HURT.

“We knew the risks when we came with you!” Jin replied.  “We accepted them then, and we accept them now!  We’re all seeing this through together!”

I’M NOT GOING TO LOSE A BROTHER AGAIN, Gipsy retorted.  OR A SISTER.  RALEIGH, MAKO… LISTEN TO US.  PLEASE.

“No, Gipsy… it’s not fair to you,” Raleigh replied.  “I left you behind to die once… I refuse to do it again.”

THIS IS DIFFERENT.

“It’s no different.  We do this together, or not at all, girl.”

Gipsy whimpered, but nodded.  THEN I’LL DEFEND YOU TO THE DEATH, RALEIGH AND MAKO.

“Are you all sure about this?” asked Tendo.  “You DO have the option to back out.”

“Not us,” Sasha replied, and there was a note of dark humor in her voice.  “Russian Jaegers have no escape pods.  But even if they did… we will not leave.  If Cherno goes down… we go with him.  But we have no intention of letting that happen.”

The fierce determination burning in her voice sent a chill up Tendo’s spine.  Despite everything that had happened in the past year, there was still so much he didn’t understand about the Rangers… or about the bond they shared with their Jaegers.  Perhaps it was something one couldn’t know unless they had bonded with a Jaeger themselves.  For all his experience with the program, some part of him would forever be an outsider to it.

He shook that thought off and spoke again.  “The most pressing question is… do you think you can hold out until Mustang gets there?”

WE CAN, Striker replied without hesitation.

“We can hold out,” Herc added.  “The biggest worry right now is that the Precursors’ll up an’ move the base on us while we wait.”

“They won’t,” Hannibal put in.  “They’re sittin’ on top of the Breach as we speak.  They leave it now, they as good as cut off their escape route.”

“Or the route for reinforcements to come in,” Raleigh noted.  “So they’re not going anywhere… and neither will we.”

Tendo nodded.  “For now, let’s try to cut down the number of Kaiju guarding the Breach.  See if you can’t lure one away and gang up on it.  The fewer you have to contend with while you take down Armada and the Jaeger, the better.  And in the meantime, we’ll try to come up with a plan for taking down that Category 5.  Right now it’s our biggest obstacle, Precursor Jaeger notwithstanding.”

“And when Mustang comes?” asked Sasha.

Tendo drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.  “Get busy cancelling the apocalypse.”

***

It had taken years for the Mark I Jaegers to develop sentience – years of nurturing at the hands and hearts of their Rangers, years of frequent drifts and slow but sure forging of bonds.  Mustang Omega seemed to be blooming to full sentience in a matter of hours, as if sensing how far behind he was compared to the rest of his kind and rushing to keep up.  For the entire flight from Hong Kong to the Hawaiian Islands he kept up a steady stream of feedback with his new Rangers, absorbing everything they could share with him, nearly bursting with sheer joy and excitement at every moment.

Newt, for his part, was grinning so hard his cheeks were starting to ache.  Now he understood why the Rangers were so attached to their mecha… and he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“Easy now,” Hermann urged, though when Newt shot him a glance he caught a rare smile on the mathematician’s face.  “You’ve got a battle ahead of you, Mustang.  Don’t wear yourself out beforehand.”

Mustang pulsed back an assurance that he would be careful.  But it was hard – there was so much to experience now!  He had Rangers, ones that cared for him, and the possibility to become fully mobile and autonomous like the other Jaegers.  After so long being the freak of the Shatterdome, the odd one out for being stagnant and immobile, he would have a chance to be like the rest of his kind!  And he was dearly looking forward to being able to move on his own, and see properly rather than through the eyes of his Rangers…

“All in good time, dear-heart,” Hermann chuckled.  “All in good time.  We’ll work toward that goal when all this is over.”

“Shouldn’t it be ‘core’ and not ‘heart?’” Newt pointed out.  

“Oh, hush, the sentiment is the same.”

Newt nodded and kept his gaze on the rolling seascape projected onto the plastic of Mustang’s Conn Pod.  It was surreal, really, being so far from the action and only being able to see and react to it on a screen.  Small wonder it had been so easy for Lance and Lexi to divorce themselves from their Jaeger’s actions and just see it as a fancy video game – because the RC Conn Pod pretty much reduced a kaiju battle to nothing more than a fighting game.  He made a note for the mechanics to properly attach this thing to Mustang’s shoulders the first chance they got.

A flutter of nervous excitement from Mustang.  How far were they from the islands?  How much longer?

“About four hours,” Hermann replied.  “Save your strength, Mustang… you’ll need it.”

“Four more hours,” Newt repeated.  “Dammit, I knew I should have gone to the bathroom before I got in this thing.”

“This was your bloody idea, Newton, why didn’t you think of that before…”

A chuckle trilled through the drift.  Somehow their bickering just amused Mustang, as if he wouldn’t have the two of them any other way.

Newt had just opened his mouth to ask Mustang how he was hanging in there – knowing full well the pun would drive Hermann nuts – when something stuttered in the drift.  His vision flared blue, and something alien clawed its way to the fore.  Hundreds of miles away, Mustang squealed and jerked against the cables suspending him over the ocean, nearly falling in and taking the team of Jumphawks with him.

Not again! Newt cringed, gritting his teeth and shoving against the invader in the drift.  He’d thought this was over… that Mikhail’s interference had meant he’d never have to deal with the kaiju drift again.  Evidently he wasn’t going to be that lucky…

Sea of blue… Jaegers fleeing before Armada and its lackeys… the Precursor Jaeger taking a swipe at Gipsy before she danced out of reach… then drawing back, returning to Armada’s side… willing to be patient, knowing the Jaegers would come to it…

Gipsy’s arm laying on the sea floor… ivory talons sliding from the Precursor Jaeger’s wrist guards, slamming down into the severed limb… the arm seeming to spasm, life-like… then slowly crumbling to brick-colored dust…

“Dr. Geizler!  Dr. Gottlieb!  Someone answer us!”

Newt came back to himself with a full-body shudder.  In the back of his mind he could feel Mustang trembling with worry, and he took a moment to soothe the young Jaeger and assure him he was all right before replying.

“I’m… I’m okay,” he replied.  “We’re okay… we’re okay, right Hermann?”

“For a certain definition of ‘okay,’” Hermann replied.  “What’s going on?”

“We spotted extreme fluctuations in the drift,” Bishop replied.  “Are you sure the two of you are-”

“It’s the Precursor Jaeger,” Newt burst out.  “We saw it – i-in the drift – and it’s got some kind of weapon…”

“You’re still connected to the Precursors,” Tendo realized, a slight waver in his voice.

“That’s beside the point!” Hermann retorted.  “The point is that their Jaeger is far more dangerous than you realize, and if any of our Jaegers approach it they’ll be going to their deaths!”