jaegeracademy | [ closed ] when kaiju with incomprehensible names attack

Entry tags:

[ closed ] when kaiju with incomprehensible names attack

Characters: Herc & Chuck Hansen, Yancy & Raleigh Becket, Nguruvilu
Location: Cape of Good Hope, South America
Date/Time: March 7th, 0739 Chile Time Zone (UTC-04:00).
Summary: The Kaiju Nguruvilu comes to shallow waters at Cape Horn, looking to cross over into the Atlantic Ocean. Striker Eureka and Gypsy Danger are present to make sure that's not what goes down.
Additional Notes: Current tag order will be Kaiju -> Herc Hansen -> Chuck Hansen -> Kaiju -> Yancy Becket -> Raleigh Becket, and so forth. Any player may declare a "pass" on their round by informing the next person tag-order to skip over them for that round.

It was midway through the morning when Nguruvilu came within range of Striker Eureka and Gyspy Danger. The spotters and jumphawks were in air, watching the waters with a careful eye on fuel reserves as well.

Why the hell was that Kaiju all the way out here? The possibilities were technically endless, but a great deal were chilling to consider for long. Almost as chilling as the swimming form that rises up out of the depths, powerful limbs shooting the massive animal forward through the water. Nguruvilu was completely submerged until he was within a mile from shore. When it crested, alarmingly bright coloration down its face and sides marked it as a further oddity, feather-like protrusions shedding water when it reared back and screamed a challenge at the Jaegers.

They were in the way of where Nguruvilu wanted to go. Diving back beneath the waters, Nguruvilu's form was distorted under the sheer amount of water it was displacing on a pointed rush at one of the waiting Jaegers.

Helicopter pilots and crews called out to each other while LOCCENT read information directly to both Ranger pilot pairs. Andrea's voice came over the comms.

"Word's been handed down from Pentecost. Nguruvilu doesn't cross to the Atlantic. Understood?"

[ ooc note: If we can have Herc Hansen tag in first here, the top post will be the Kaiju's first "tag!" ]

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"We hear you, LOCCENT," Herc answered, eyes flicking over Striker's instruments. "Current's on our side, but the wind's on the kaiju's. Try to keep us on the east and it on the west and keep an eye out for rogue waves."

The information raced through his mind, through the headspace he shared with his son. Experience blending with research. A jaeger could weather a hundred foot wave, but a hundred foot wave coupled with a strike from a kaiju could end in a surprise submerging, and without vents sealed, that could be hell on a powerplant. That was a chance, though, not a guarantee, and they had work to do.

"Movin' in! C'mon, boy, let's get one under your belt!"

With a strong mental push and a decisive shove forward, Herc started them into the fray. Time to intercept.

Chuck is vibrating with excitement – it’s his first real deployment, the first time he’s actually seen action, the first time he’s been announced as one of Striker’s pilots, and the first time that he and Herc have actually debuted together. Raleigh’s assumption was right, Chuck wasn’t an open candidate for assignment because he already had a co-pilot - his father.

He manages to keep the low hum of anticipation at the back of his mind – Chuck’s a trained cadet, he’s a fucking Ranger, he knows that there’s danger in this and his first deployment could well be his last. He’s not a stupid kid – if he was, he never would have made it as far as he has.

The neural handshake is strong and holding, and he gives a cursory glance over Striker’s panels at the same time Herc does and he’s not sure if it’s because of the Drift or because he’s a bundle of nervous energy.

“Like that’s any question,” he shoots back, all confidence and arrogance echoing in the pod, “Gipsy’ll be lucky if there’s anything left for her to play with.”

Nguruvilu continued at them at full tilt, cresting a hundred yards out as it fought past the currents in the area. Water cascaded off its back, flashing the bright orange-red of its skin in the daylight. It'd almost be pretty if it wasn't coming at Striker Eureka at speed.

Its head pulls free of the water and it pushes itself up, mouth open and extending toward Eureka's face. Taloned forelegs were a beat behind, but its goal was unmistakeable, leaving it wide open for anyone outside of its narrow focus on the Hansen's Jaeger.

Ours!

Yancy confirmed with LOCCENT as well, double and triple checking all the instruments when Ranger Hansen called the conditions. Yeah, that's right. Of course, the pipsqueak Ranger piped in too, maybe a little over enthusiastically. Hey, first go. At that age they were lucky the kid wasn't chattering all over the channel. But he was locked in with a seasoned pro, they'd be fine.

Speaking of locked in, Yancy caught that urge of Raleigh's to retort rising up. Let it go, kid. He's just rutting on the kaiju tree. He thinks, but doesn't volunteer over the airwaves. Instead he checks the instruments again and 'watches' Ngu...whatever doing her thing. Birdlike, but swimming in ways no water fowl could ever dream of.

Getting the movement patterns of the damned things down could be half the battle sometimes. Those talons...they'd need to keep an eye on those. "Gipsy, holding position." Yancy confirmed. Time to make like a roadblock. The entire eastern seaboard and beyond were at stake.

Yeeep, roger that, everybody is holding steady and ready to kick ass. Ha ha, yes. They say your third time is lucky and Raleigh can't wait to see just how true that is. The thing coming for them is ugly as well but he figured they've had worse.

Aw, c'mon, Raleigh thinks to his brother with a grin. I was only kidding. And what's a little healthy banter right before a kaiju beat down?

Ah, screw it. He says it anyway. Just like Yancy knows he will.

"Those are fightin' words, Striker, heads up." All good natured, of course.

"Striker, she's coming at you at 45 knotts. Do not take that hit head on." Andrea's voice was firm over the comms, while the monitors showed outlines and readouts of the kaiju as it leapt at Eureka Striker's chest.

"You've got one shot with the chest canons before you're tagging out to Gypsy. When you make that call, make it count!"

Do this right, we won't even need 'em, whispered through the headspace. He was already calculating as he pushed Striker in, appreciating the strength and speed behind his movements. Seven would always have a special place in his heart, but this new jaeger was definitely a piece of work.

With one smooth move, Striker's fist swung, giving Nguruvilu a heavy uppercut to the jaw, spinning the thing so those claws were little more than a graze. The move left an open back and a head crest that Herc grabbed for. It was easy to wrench the thing's head to one side and back, but Kaiju bones were strong and stubborn. A movement that would've broken a man's neck did nothing but piss Nguruvilu off. "Go for its throat," Herc ordered, exertion making the words harsh. Some things, he still needed to speak - just to make sure that Chuck understood. Even with his experience, as a pair, they were still new.

Eyes on the prize, he agrees.

Striker's like a bloody dream; fluid and smooth and fast. A gorgeous jaeger, one Chuck is proud to be piloting.

Fighting in real life is nothing like fighting in the sims -- it's fast, it's dirty and kaiju don't play fair. They bite and claw and throw and it's a totally different experience.

But Chuck listens, he gauges reaction time and he acts in conjunction with orders and what his own brain is telling him to do -- which is go for the throat. He snarls, and while Herc grapples with one arm, Chuck uses the other to go straight for the throat.

Chuck's hit lands, cutting off a strangled scream from Nguruvilu. Its talons clawed at Striker's arms, tail thrashing around and arching up out of the water behind the kaiju's mass.

Only that wasn't quite right either. Nguruvilu's tail pulled away from where it rested along the length of the kaiju, unfolding dozens of thinner, clawed legs. Nguruvilu's tail had been a smaller, joined kaiju.

With a high pitched shriek, it launched itself at Striker Eureka's faceplate.

Andrea's voice came over the comms. "Gypsy Danger, engage the main body of Nguruvilu immediately! Striker, we're feeding you schematics on the second kaiju - beware that tail, its trying to wrap around you!"

"Gipsy, engaging." Yancy called back, shifting quickly to the toggle the new info and, with Raleigh's help, moving forward. Don't say anything stupid and break another piece off of this bitch. He thinks, fleetingly, and then they're lined up to go for that plasma strike that Striker had been intended to take.

"Let's aim low, this thing's avian and it's extremities are suspect." Put some kaiju in your kaiju, he muses absently. Raleigh's probably too young to get that one anyway, but it wasn't really directed at him. The following thought sort of is, though. Half of the world at stake, let's keep it in check. Ego and all. Focus now and aim true, we've got this.

It's best if Raleigh doesn't get too overexcited. Unpredictable kaiju can mesh well with unpredictable pilots, but the kid needs a ground wire to complete the circuit. They've got this.

Edited (I'm smart shhh) 2014-03-07 06:27 (UTC)

Oh Yancy, you don't have to pull him back so hard. He's right there with you. Excited as hell and rearing to go, but he knows what's at stake. He knows when to put down the banter and pick up a gun.

Plasma canon, even. A very big one.

"Activating Plasmacaster, hold on." He calls, keeping LOCCNET and Striker cued in like they always do. A good pilot always calls their moves regardless of their partner already knowing them. They communicate quickly in the Drift, entire conversations snapping back and forth in a tenth of a second, but no one else hears them and everyone knowing the plan is vital to any mission you're hoping to come back from.

Raleigh glances over at his brother with a grin - let's toast this bitch - before they launch forward to engage, to grab hold and fire directly into the belly of the beast - ugly tail and all.

"What the hell is this?!" Two. Two?! Herc's mind spun as he grabbed for the kaiju that used to be a tail. Were they like anglerfish? Were they symbiotic? If two kaiju had come out of the breach this time, what happened next time?

All of his questions went past in a flash, his reactions undulled. One of Striker's strong hands wrapped around the smaller kaiju and flung it away. "Stingblades!" he ordered. This one was too small for the missiles. Small enough that it should be an easy kill. Let Gipsy play with the big one a while.

"The fuck!"

Is it a starfish?

Whatever. Doesn't matter.

He follows Herc's lead, automatically defaulting to the right hemisphere and rolling his shoulders automatically, activating the stingblades along with his father, eyes narrowed - on the prize.

The former tail kaiju splashed down into the water, disappearing beneath the surface and swimming in an arc toward deeper waters. It was aiming to come back around Striker if it could, much faster than it's larger counterpart.

Tthe tail's swinging back around behind you, Striker!"

Gypsy Danger had a hold on the larger body, talons raking at it's arms while the jaws of the beast clamped down on part of her shoulder. A direct hit to the stomach tore thorugh the kaiju's side as it twisted around, cauterizing the wound even as part of its intestines fell out of the hole.

Left shoulder. It's a left shoulder hit and Raleigh's cry can be heard over the comms as the relays in his suit spring into overdrive with searing pain. The scream of metal to their side as powerful jaws aim for the Jaeger's joints.

The Plasmacaster releases, a thump of energy pulsing back, the vague feeling of standing too close to a base speaker at a concert.

Eat it!

Guts go everywhere with minimal spillage.

All in an instant, and as a reflex, Raleigh pulls back to grab at the kaiju's neck (or punch it in the head - which ever they decide), canon still primed and ready.

Damn. The thing had an extra flexible neck, of course it did. That was a bird characteristic they hadn't accounted for. Yancy hisses, and concentrates on steadying them again. No time to waste, they still have a job to do here.

"Damage sustained, left shoulder. Still engaged. Gipsy charging plasmacaster." Yancy calls over the comms, and then turns quickly to Raleigh. "You okay, kid?"

The plan is this, to hope the kaiju keeps biting them for another 12 seconds while they coordinate, charge, reposition and fire off another blast. At this angle, especially with it sprawled that way now they have access to the soft underbelly. It's not the underbelly that they want, though, it's the chest. The heart will be sitting behind that ugly breastbone, and they're going to blast right through it. Raleigh wants to go for a head shot, but it's too risky. The kaiju's head is too close to where they are, and angling that blast would be difficult. This one will be smooth. If it lands true, it should stun and hopefully even kill the damned thing.

There's no need to explain or confirm any of that aloud. The Becket brothers are experienced drift partners, comfortable in each others thought spaces and able to communicate in the drift so quickly that it'd make most people's heads spin.

Yancy sets the maneuver up, waits until there's a moment to fluidly reposition and shoot off the charge with minimal interruption, then with Raleigh's help they shift the left elbow at the same moment as the right hand reaches up and presses the plasmacaster to the tender spot between breastbones and what should be ribs -though they aren't visible so who knows- on the kaiju. Rapidly, the blast fires off.

Striker was fast and Herc had him turning, tracking the smaller kaiju. He was already three-quarters turned when he heard the screech of tearing metal and the shout of pain over the comms. Curses rolled through his thoughts, coupled neatly with the thought that while the Beckets were good Rangers, they were still young, didn't have the experience, and giving them the larger one was a mistake. Now Striker was on a kaiju that was too small for the missiles, and the kaiju that was big enough was in too close proximity to Gipsy for the missiles to be used safely. Catch-22.

"Come on, Gipsy," he shotued over the comms. "Take the bastard down."

They'd turn, he thought. As soon as they got this overgrown skin louse down, they'd turn, they'd run one of these stingblades through Nguruvilu's spine, and they'd see their fellow Rangers safe. But for now, they had to take down the one that was leaving ripples that Herc spotted in the glint of one of the chopper spotlights. "Spotted the second kaiju," he announced. "Going in!"

The idea and the movement came at the same time. A few fast steps, calling on that smooth speed, and they were brought in range. Herc trusted his boy's bloodlust and his bone-deep desire to make this work to go along with what he'd come up with. His blade, he used like a skewer, swinging Striker's arm to spear the kaiju with too many legs and leave the rest of it for Chuck to kill. It was small enough, it should be simple. Striker's speed would be to their benefit.

Raleigh's cry fuels Chuck's bloodlust and his anger -- he's fucking pissed it got a hit in, pissed there's two, pissed that they're in the position they're in.

Fucking hell, he's snarling in his mind, jaw set, eyes narrowed. Herc swings the arm and Chuck leaps at the opportunity that Herc's given him to try and spear the bastard right where it counts.

If they're successful, Chuck's gonna be pushing hard to go to Gipsy's aid.

The blade enters the smaller kaiju, which shrieks and pushes itself further down the blade. Its spinal column remained intact, and while it bled, it wrapped around the offending arm and tore in with all it's many teeth and legs, biting in and down in its death throes.

"Gipsy! If that thing's down, get it's carcass on shore immediately! We don't want the currents down there pulling it around into the Atlantic and taking Kaiju Blue out of our control. Striker, do you have the second half handled?"

The larger portion of the kaiju continued to scrabble weakly against her, but the second hit had been fatal. Blood and organs came out, with most the cauterizing from the plasma cannon slowing down the contamination rate.

"Roger, LOCCENT. Gipsy reporting to shore with kaiju remains." Yancy replies professionally, but in his head it's more of a crow. And kaiju remains is replaced by something more graphic, though only Raleigh is privy to that. Raleigh already knows it anyway, it's not a new sentiment.

Together they grab hold of the ugly thing, trying to keep most of the weight on the right side to make up the difference for the damage, and drag it toward the shore. They keep an ear perked each, just in case Striker needs anything, but by the look and sound of things all is well. They'll all have three kills under their belts now, (minus the kid of course, who they'll be congratulating on his first success,) and it'll be the second time the Beckets have successfully teamed up with Herc Hansen.

While they weren't around for that first, nearly disastrous battle that Lucky Seven fought, the Academy had gone over the footage extensively. If Herc and Scott hadn't been able to think on their feet after sustaining that kind of hit, it could have been ugly. Between that and the battle they had fought together in Manila, it appears that Herc and Chuck make a better team right out of the mold than Herc and Scott ever did. Of course, that's only the outward impression, and it's just a fleeting thought. Either way, yeah, they'll have to congratulate the kid. He did good. Really good. Hell, they all did. Yancy will be up late tonight studying the footage all the same, but for now they can drop the stinking kaiju carcass off and call it a morning.

Yancy flips the comms off from their end, though he doesn't cut the connection with LOCCENT yet, just in case. "That decontam shower is gonna feel good. Whaddaya think, find somewhere they grill fish and get something decent today?"

He gives something of a whoop when LOCCNET says it's dead and relaxes back for a second to take a breath.

Raleigh nods, rolling his shoulder as they grab the kaiju and turn back. Yeah, he thinks. The kid's good. Meaning the Hansen younger, of course. They're both impressed with the fluidity of the new team, the new Jaeger, how quick and brutal they are. Not that the Beckets had much of a chance to watch their comrades fight but they'll both review the footage later.

Yancy more than Raleigh, but it's fun to re-watch the battle form the outside perspective. Look at what they did well and what they can improve on.

We should bring him the kill stamp. They count their kills but he's never seen Herc do it and Chuck seems the type to start. Congrats are in order..nothing quite like your first kill.

All fleeting thoughts though as they carry the body of a monster back to shore to be broken down and destroyed.

"Oh yeah. But after this I think we deserve steak. A big one."

"It's almost dead - hit it again!" It was clinging on, ripping, tearing - one step away from dying. All they had to do was get it that one step further, and Herc knew Chuck could do it. His hemisphere, his arm, his blade. Herc could hold the thing's weight, even with all the claws. His teeth were grit against the feedback. Nothing he wasn't used to. Nothing he wouldn't feel again.

Herc knew Chuck could do it and he doesn't let his father - or anyone else, for that matter - down. Chuck strikes again (and maybe one more time for good measure), ensuring the thing goes limp and stops fucking tearing his jaeger up with those teeth and claws.

Chuck's loud whoop of victory is audible over the comms.

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[ closed ] when kaiju with incomprehensible names attack

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order shift

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