theshatterdome | not all who live are skin and bone

{ … WELCOME TO SINE_NOMINE.EXE

… REINITIALIZING

<<<

… OVERWRITING SINE_NOMINE LAYER

… NEURAL SYSTEM ONLINE

… LOCAL FILE SYSTEM REMOUNTED

… STREAMS DEVICE[S] ACTIVE

… SYNCER ACTIVE

… DRIFT INTERFACE REINSTALLED

… NETWORKING STARTED

... NOW IN GIPSY_DANGER.EXE LAYER

… HOST NAME IS RB_OS

-

-

-

-

… HELLO. THIS IS RALEIGH BECKET. ALL SYSTEMS OK.

|||| _ }

Tendo said he could whatever he wanted. Raleigh knows it's not something he should take literally, but the permissions granted are helpful. It's been..a long time since he could do anything for himself outside deployment and even then--

--even then he's still--

He can't bring himself to say it. Nothing can be done about it.

But now? At least he's not quite so alone.

Which, in many ways, only makes him feel more alone. Because no matter which way you look at it, RALEIGH_BECKET.EXE is still as isolated as ever. Humming static through the speakers in LOCCNET control every so often. He renames himself and the prompt disappears, waves of garbage code rolling over the screens quicker than anyone can catch. Not that it would make much sense. Most of the classes are broken, being reconfigured and rearranged to hold just long enough to execute a command before it fails and another has to take it's place.

How He is operational is anyone's guess. But damn is he effective in the battle field.

Tendo puts LOCCNET control on high alert. Only the most skilled staff are allowed in with the exception of Chuck, whom Raleigh has taken a liking to. Whom Raleigh accredits with the initial bypassing of his lock down. But even then, Raleigh stays quiet. He has a lot to think about and it prompts him not to think at all.

Until one night. Late as it is. The Shatterdome's wifi has been glitching all day but no one can find out exactly what's causing it. A corrupt network adapter is the best guess or a sever over ride but it could be one (or more) of many things. The system goes down for what must be the fiftieth time that day and automatically reboots, cutting any audio or TV streaming service that might be playing on the holowscreen of Chuck's barracks.

When it does restart, a small command prompt is open on the bottom left of the computer screen, green text pulsing on black background. The speakers give a burst of static and if there was anything playing before it's been stopped.

"Chuck-?"

Quiet. He's not trying to be intrusive.

"Are you there?"

After the conversation with Raleigh Chuck leaves LOCCENT to try and rest, try and...get some fucking sleep but he can't. All he can do is toss and turn and twist himself up insie and out and burrow into his thin blankets, eyes wide open and staring into darkness.

Fuck, Raleigh Becket -- this just didn't seem possible and the whole thing still made Chuck feel fucking sick, sick and angry at the goddamn PPDC or whoever made the call, whoever thought it was okay to disrespect Raleigh and butcher him up like that.

Most nights end up like this one, now -- restless, tossing and turning. Insomnia overtakes him and Chuck's finds that more often than not he's lingering outside of LOCCENT's door, looking for an in. He's got clearance but Raleigh's been quiet a lot since that talk and so Chuck's not needed.

Striker sits as silent as ever in his bay, waiting to be called up but there's no threats lately, just silence.

More and more silence and Chuck's anxious, wondering when the axe will fall.

He's taken to watching shitty late night tv because it's the only thing that's on, but it's been a pain in the ass today because the goddamn systems keep going down and secretly, Chuck thinks Raleigh's fucking around with them, jerking their chains a little because he's got nothing better to do.

When the TV shuts itself off again for the millionth time and then reboots, Chuck's not really surprised.

What does surprise him is the voice.

"Jesus Christ."

He sits up straight and nearly falls off the bunk, then scrambles back, head smacking the wall.

"Raleigh?" Max scrambles off of Chuck's bed and onto the floor, then under the bed in shock and Chuck sits up, rubbing the back of his head and staring wildly around the room, wondering if he's having some kind of lucid dream.

The black Jaeger had been the first reeled out of J-science upon the return of the Breach. Eyebrows were raised, wondering if the scientists had been hoping the Kaiju would return so they could test out their latest toy. They insisted the AI they'd installed was more than capable of Drifting with a single pilot to operate the machine and the higher-ups had been eager to get their hands on it since if it fell, that would only mean the loss of one pilot as opposed to two. They decide to leave it nameless until its got a formal pilot and team.

The team put in charge of the strange new Jaeger tried not to speak of it with others. There's something... off about it. They'd been around since before the last Breach had been sealed, they recognised that core parts of it were taken from what little could be salvaged of Striker Eureka. But that wasn't what made their skin prickle or cold sweat to break out when they were tuning him up. They couldn't bring themselves to refer to it as an it or even the traditional she. It was male and it was wrong. And he was waiting for a pilot.

Unwilling to waste a new machine on mediocre pilots, they'd insisted on having it tested and hopefully permanently piloted by either Mako Mori or Raleigh Becket. However, when they tried to initiate the Drift between Mako and the nameless titan, the system had forcibly expelled her and shut down completely, no power able to go in. Even the non-religious members of his team began to believe it was haunted and no amount of threatening or blustering would make them dig into the circuits to fix up the power. Frustrated, a different team was brought in, one that had been around the Mark Vs and would therefore recognise a bit of his build... to no avail. They tried fiddling with the reactor, crossing wires and even going so far as to plugging him into an external power source, he refused to switch back on.

Turns out it's unnecessary because when Raleigh's brought in for the trial Drift, the system boots up on its own, the quiet thrumming of the machine... anticipatory. Eager. One of the mechanics crosses his chest while his face goes white, backing away from the menacing machine and leaving Raleigh to do his thing.

Raleigh is...mostly resigned to the fact that the kaiju are back, that things are going to shit all over again and that it would never truly be over. When he'd first heard, he'd gone into a full blown rage, breaking half the things in his room at the Shatterdome, stopping only when Mako interrupted him, barging in to stop the destruction with quiet precision, tone osft but still somehow razor sharp.

There was nothing they could do but continue to fight, to keep pushing forward. Backing down was never - and never will be - an option.

They have to keep moving, otherwise, humanity will suffer extinction - themselves included.

It doesn't mean that he has to like it, especially when they chose to butcher Striker Eureka like that. He understands that resources are low and the UN is, once more, throwing everything they have at the Jaeger program but they can't build them that fast and this one is already complete.

It's fucking terrifying. No one likes going near it, no one likes dealing with it or performing maintenance on it and Raleigh? Wants nothing to do with it either. But when it expels Mako and doesn't respond to anyone else, Raleigh's guts start twisting up, like he knows somewhere deep down it's gonna be him in that beast and sure enough, he's asked to test it.

He doesn't want to. Mako tells him in quiet, hushed tones that it's nothing like Gipsy, nothing like a jaeger should be. It recognized her, that much she is sure of, and that?

Indicates intelligence.

Terrifying.

Raleigh has to go, though, and when he settles in for the trial, nails digging half moons in his palms, the jaeger 'accepts' him. Anticipates him. Drifts with him.

Jesus Christ, he thinks, a tremble shuddering through him. It's like it knows me.

The jaeger hums with life and there's no AI voice mechanically announcing the stages. Instead there is text on the monitors, but the way it appears is just as abnormal as the machine itself.

This is s̴̢͑t̄̒͐̈́͞%̡͋ͥ̍̄ͮͯ̆͝c̷̋̾ͦ͑̊̄̇̆̓k̶̢̆̇̍͋́%̷ͮ̊͛͑̈͑ŗ͑ ̓͠p̏̓͒̀͟%ͦ̇̔ͧ͐́̊͋n̸̿̀̅̐t͊͑̽̈̄ͫͫ͜͞%̇͛ͦ͊̀ͥ͂͡cͫͬ̅̌̉̐҉҉%̷ͭ̓̊͊̂͏͝s̛͑ͮ̍ͫ͆ͨ́t̨̾̏̾ͪ͂̕͢.

All systems set for test-mode.

Test pilot recognised as RALEIGH BECKET.

...

...

...

... Test pilot accepted.

Prepare for neural handshake, MR. BECKET.

Edited 2014-04-06 00:33 (UTC)

"God, this is so fucking weird," he mutters to himself, shifting and adjusting the test pons.

Tendo makes some kind of harrumph noise in the back of his throat as he moniters from LOCCENT, flipping switches and leaning back in his chair.

Looks like you're good to go, man. You ready for this?

Not really. Not really at all, but there's not a lot of choice.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Count it down."

Don't even think about touching those switches if MR. BECKET is not in any obvious distress MR. CHOI.

Engaging now.

Pilot to pilot protocol INITIATED.

The Drift sequence starts and it's from there that Raleigh should realise this is nothing like connecting with just a machine. In the rush of blue where there should be nothing but blank space, or at the most walls of code, there's something almost like static - a storm. The barest glimpse of faces, faint echoes of voices and honest to God emotions ranging from joy, soul-crushing anguish, elation, triumph, grim determination-

And then it's all bottled up, all firmly sealed as only the most experienced of Rangers can do, and there's a definite presence surrounding Raleigh's mind, and a deep voice that rumbles, "Synced at 99.4%."

Tendo's incredulous what the fu-- is drowned out almost immediately because Raleigh is swept into the Drift, protest lost on his lips the moment he's pulled in.

Holy shit.

He struggles to maintain himself, everything barreling past him at top speed. He's unable to latch onto any one thing, but that voice that echoes in Raleigh's mind?

Completely familiar.

"Holy shit."

"Control your language, Mr. Becket," comes the smooth response, and then that presence is guiding Raleigh's arms into the 'ready' position. "First the basic katas."

The voice might be familiar but there's a slight disconnection to it. As if the owner is just reading a page of text, dull and emotionless, personality sealed up apparently with those brief flashes of what could only be memories in the Drift.

Raleigh is nearly paralyzed. There's no way that's not Stacker Pentecost's voice and it shakes Raleigh to his very core.

He moves robotically (pun intended), going through the motions but he's equal parts freaked the fuck out and curious.

"Synchronisation drop to 95%. Concentrate, Mr. Becket."

The voice is still flat and emotionless but slightly chiding as they keep going through the movements.

"I am concentrating," he protests, going through the motions but--

he's suitably creeped out. Like, beyond fucking weirded out right now.

There's nothing but white noise for a moment and then the Jaegers arms are dropping, the voice almost sighing in Raleigh's head. "Powering down. We will try again on another day."

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Return of the Kaiju, dun dun DUUUUH

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