Okay, it's storytime, then. Raleigh leans back a little from his unappetizing meal and his voice takes on a more narrative quality.
"Well, the war's been going for twelve years, just ramping up and up. They're adapting too fast for the Jaeger program to keep up, so it was defunded to put more effort into the wall. The wall that they could just smash through, or climb, or fly over as of Otachi, but whatever, we were just out of options and needed to pretend something could work. There were four Jaegers left -- three still in operation and mine, Gipsy, that Mako restored. I'm the last living Mark 3 pilot, so. My old Marshal, he came and found me, said he had a plan to try and hit the Breach one last time. All or nothing, destroy the portal the Kaiju come through. I went back. Compatibility's not really about similarities or even necessarily getting along, most successful pairs are related but if you're going in alone they do brain scans to narrow the pool and then you train together to see who's the best fit. If you can anticipate the other person and be able to fight in sync. The whole thing was sort of a gamble. We didn't have time or resources to do any simulations, to learn each other. Just had to go for it."
He hesitates, then shrugs. It wasn't just about the fighting. From their first drift, even though it was sort of a failure, he'd known how strong their bond could be. How Mako's mind was a complement for his, how each of their strengths supported the other's weaknesses. And how for things that really mattered, they were already in sync. As far as he's concerned, she'd healed him. Helped him feel like a person again.
"The attacks kept coming so we wound up doing the mission with just two Jaegers. We lost Striker on the way in, and Gipsy's gone. Into the Breach. But Mako and I made it out, and yeah. Being here without her would've made this a million times worse."
no subject
"Well, the war's been going for twelve years, just ramping up and up. They're adapting too fast for the Jaeger program to keep up, so it was defunded to put more effort into the wall. The wall that they could just smash through, or climb, or fly over as of Otachi, but whatever, we were just out of options and needed to pretend something could work. There were four Jaegers left -- three still in operation and mine, Gipsy, that Mako restored. I'm the last living Mark 3 pilot, so. My old Marshal, he came and found me, said he had a plan to try and hit the Breach one last time. All or nothing, destroy the portal the Kaiju come through. I went back. Compatibility's not really about similarities or even necessarily getting along, most successful pairs are related but if you're going in alone they do brain scans to narrow the pool and then you train together to see who's the best fit. If you can anticipate the other person and be able to fight in sync. The whole thing was sort of a gamble. We didn't have time or resources to do any simulations, to learn each other. Just had to go for it."
He hesitates, then shrugs. It wasn't just about the fighting. From their first drift, even though it was sort of a failure, he'd known how strong their bond could be. How Mako's mind was a complement for his, how each of their strengths supported the other's weaknesses. And how for things that really mattered, they were already in sync. As far as he's concerned, she'd healed him. Helped him feel like a person again.
"The attacks kept coming so we wound up doing the mission with just two Jaegers. We lost Striker on the way in, and Gipsy's gone. Into the Breach. But Mako and I made it out, and yeah. Being here without her would've made this a million times worse."