Anshan

After overcoming countless dangers, Rosen finally found Angie in the Jaeger storage bay. Just as he had imagined, she was supervising the inspection and maintenance next to her beloved "Anshan."

However, completely absorbed, she hadn't noticed Rosen from afar. She was simply leaning against the railing, gazing up at her steel partner – like a child admiring their favorite toy.

Angie rarely looked so serene. Rosen couldn't help but pause, following her gaze.

And then, the massive "Anshan," a machine into which he'd poured his heart and soul, filled Rosen's vision, standing tall before him.

Anshan – the most powerful 7th Generation Light Jaeger, peerless and extraordinary in performance.

That was Rosen's assessment.

This white-painted Jaeger wasn't tall; it was arguably the shortest Jaeger in the Hong Kong Shatterdome, standing at only 130 meters. It was also the lightest, weighing just 3,750 tons fully fueled, less than half of an 8th Generation Jaeger. Its power core was an X14 Super Monomer Processor with a built-in nuclear reactor, and its operating system was the "Leader" all-around tactical response cockpit, both considerably more advanced than Kunlun's.

Anshan's overall form was humanoid, with curved armor designed to reduce wind resistance. It was the Jaeger most closely resembling a human in appearance. Additionally, mimicking the "Eureka Striker," it sported a pair of massive T-18 mechanical shoulder fins on its back, commonly known as "Angel Wings." These fins extended from its shoulders down to just above its waist like a pair of fish fins, helping to maintain the Jaeger's balance in close combat through aerodynamics.

All these design elements were in pursuit of Anshan's ultimate attribute – maximizing speed.

Anshan was, without a doubt, the fastest Jaeger ever created.

It was equipped with a total of 24 omnidirectional vector thruster nozzles, large and small, scattered across its body. Commonly referred to as "Hell Divers," they were located on its shoulders, elbows, back, lower back, behind the knees, and at the ankles and soles of its feet. These nozzles could rotate 360 degrees in any direction, up, down, left, or right.

Theoretically, if all of them fired backward simultaneously, Anshan could reach supersonic impact speeds from a standstill in just 5 seconds. Of course, that was purely theoretical.

No living organism in the world could withstand such acceleration.

When these nozzles fired in different directions, Anshan could perform maneuvers far more complex than any of the world's greatest gymnasts. It could even use these thrusters for short glides in mid-air.

No other Jaeger could surpass it in maneuverability – absolutely none.

Perhaps flying Kaiju could contend with Anshan for a while, but they would eventually tire, unlike Anshan.

Thinking this, Rosen felt a surge of excitement. Piloting a flying Jaeger had been Rosen's biggest childhood dream. Although it still seemed a long way off, at least now he had hope.

However, pursuing extreme speed came with a price.

Firstly, Anshan couldn't carry a large payload of conventional or ion weapons like heavy Jaegers. Its armament consisted of just two items: the wrist blades on its hands and the "Tathas Impactor."

The two hook-shaped, silver-white wrist blades were made of corrosion-resistant metal and normally retracted into metal sheaths on the outside of its forearms. The blades were equipped with carbon nanotubes for heat dissipation. The friction heat generated when cutting through Kaiju would be rapidly absorbed and dispersed by the nanotubes, greatly extending the blades' lifespan.

The "Tathas Impactor" was a large electrostatic collector, as big as a truck, housed within Anshan's forearm. Whenever Anshan moved, the impactor would collect all the static electricity generated by the friction of its parts. Then, when Anshan's fist made contact with a Kaiju, the 40 million volts of static electricity would be released in a pulse. No Kaiju could withstand this pulse; they would be briefly stunned, leaving them at Anshan's mercy.

Angie herself had used this method to eliminate at least three Kaiju.

But the biggest problem was...

Both of these weapons were melee weapons.

This meant Anshan was helpless against enemies beyond a certain range.

Secondly, these thrusters caused severe wear and tear on the Jaeger. Every time Anshan returned from a sortie, it required extensive repairs in the workshop, significantly reducing its deployment frequency and efficiency. This troublesome issue remained unresolved to this day. The total repair costs for Anshan had nearly exceeded the Jaeger's original price.

Perhaps Anshan was the last light Jaeger designed with speed as its core focus.

Looking at the massive white figure, Rosen thought to himself.

At that moment, several technicians were suspended by safety ropes in front of Anshan's left hand, inspecting the wrist blade retraction mechanism. Another team had secured a mobile scaffold to Anshan's right knee, inserting hoses into various feed ports to fill it with coolant, lubricant, and anti-oxidation agent.

A third team was operating a drone from a work platform. Their drone was equipped with a metal detector, slowly scanning Anshan's surface inch by inch. They were checking for any undetected fractures or hollow spots beneath the armor.

Angie tilted her head and watched, never interfering. She was only responsible for piloting; she knew nothing else, and meddling wouldn't benefit anyone.

Just as Rosen was contemplating how to casually greet Angie, someone else beat him to it.

"Hey! Angie!"

From not far away, two agile figures were running towards Angie. One was broad-shouldered and burly; Rosen immediately recognized him as Tang Jia. The other was tall and slender – Tang Yi, a pair of twin brothers.

Rosen remembered that the two brothers had joined as cadets a year after him. However, Rosen had already spotted the tattoos on their right forearms – "Jiang" and "Stingray."

In Rosen's memory, the 7th Generation Light Jaeger "FL" also bore the "Jiang" marking on its right arm, while "Stingray" had always been the designation for the 6th Generation Jaeger "Dongting."

"..."

Rosen suddenly felt like everyone in the world was a Jaeger pilot except for him.

The two brothers quickly reached Angie and began to shower her with attention.

"Angie, want to go for a simulation training session together?"

"How about we grab a meal first?"

The combined offensive from the brothers clearly flustered Angie. Her small face instantly turned red, and she quickly waved her hands.

"Um... I'm still waiting for Anshan's inspection and acceptance report."

"Then we'll wait with you."

The two brothers seemed to have planned this, planting themselves on either side of Angie. They even glanced at each other provocatively. Rosen suspected they had made some secret pact regarding Angie.

Angie couldn't handle this kind of attention and anxiously looked around for help—

Just then, her eyes met Rosen's!

"Rosen!"

Angie waved and ran towards Rosen.

"Rosen, what are you doing here?"

"I... I came specifically to see you."

Rosen hadn't quite figured out what to say yet, so he could only respond somewhat awkwardly.

At the same time, Rosen immediately sensed that the two brothers didn't have a good impression of him. Upon seeing Rosen, they hadn't even budged from their seats, and their eyes were glaring fiercely at him, as if they could spit fire.

Great, now he had three more enemies just from taking a stroll.

Rosen felt his head throbbing even more.