The Roar of a Jaeger's Engines

The air had turned cold again. Icy snowflakes kept falling from the sky. Raleigh stopped and stood still, letting the snow strike his body.

The cold that day was much like the cold on the day he had lost his brother.

"I won't pilot a Jaeger again, Marshal," Raleigh said with his back turned. "You know why."

At the construction site, people mocked him. No one believed he had once been a Jaeger pilot.

That was because he had never shared his most painful experience.

He had piloted [Gipsy Danger] alongside his older brother to fight Kaiju, more than once.

But on their last mission, he had witnessed his brother's death with his own eyes-and experienced every moment of it through their neural connection.

The expression on his brother's face when he died, everything he had felt as death took him... it all lingered in Raleigh's mind even now.

His heart, his soul, had been brutally cut open by a blade called guilt.

No matter how he stitched himself back together, scars remained that he could never forget.

"There has never been a shortage of good pilots in this world."

"Besides, you'll have Xia's help."

"His power is beyond anything a Jaeger can match."

When Raleigh had asked Marshal Stacker for permission to leave five years ago, he had already decided he would never become a Jaeger pilot again.

Getting a massive Jaeger to move required at least two pilots working together, and they also had to share a deep connection at the level of the soul. That was why most Jaeger pilots were siblings, parents and children, or lovers.

His brother's death would haunt him for the rest of his life. He could not allow himself to form a neural connection with anyone else.

He did not believe anyone else in the world could connect with his soul, and he feared seeing the same tragedy unfold before him again.

"Do you think I'd entrust the responsibility of saving the world to Mr. Natsuki?"

Marshal Stacker called out to Raleigh's retreating back, his voice ringing with conviction.

"It's true that he saved our lives, but that doesn't mean we can dump all our problems on him!"

"This planet, Earth, is humanity's home. We must protect it with our own hands!"

Marshal Stacker knew that even though Natsuki had shown goodwill toward humanity, he could not ask too much of him.

The commanding spirit he had once possessed as a marshal surged in his chest.

"Why do our Jaegers exist?!"

"Why do we exist?!"

"Tell me, when that Kaiju came just now and you saw everyone fleeing in panic, what were you truly thinking?!"

"Tell me, when Mr. Natsuki saved you, did you remember who you used to be?!"

"A hero!"

Marshal Stacker's words were like arrows loosed from a bow, piercing Raleigh's chest with unerring accuracy and seizing his beating heart-a heart waiting to be awakened.

Raleigh still did not turn around, but he closed his eyes.

Scenes from that final mission flashed through his mind.

The marshal's orders... the freezing seawater... the heavy Jaeger... his brother.

Back then, he had ignored the marshal's orders and confronted the Kaiju head-on to save a fishing boat.

They had repelled the Kaiju's first assault, but in the end, its surprise attack had left them with devastating casualties.

Because of his decision, his brother had been lost to the sea forever.

Conflict.

The will to fight for his duty and the guilt of his past erupted in his heart at once, pulling at the tangled, conflicted emotions within him.

"Raleigh, we're already living through the end of the world."

"When disaster strikes, we should act and take the fight to the enemy, not expect some damned wall to protect everyone."

"Recently, I've brought together every Jaeger I have left. One of them is a machine you know better than anyone."

As he spoke, Marshal Stacker's voice grew stronger.

"I've devised a plan, a plan to strike back at the Precursors, and I'll commit every ounce of strength we have to it!"

"Make your choice, Raleigh Becket!"

"Die helplessly among the ruins of the Wall of Life, or slaughter the invaders in the blazing fire of a Jaeger!"

Even the snowflakes drifting from the sky seemed to tremble at his words.

His impassioned voice reached Raleigh through the wind and snow.

He had not tried to tempt him with lavish rewards, nor had he threatened him with his authority.

He had simply laid out the state of the world for Raleigh.

They had reached the end of the road.

As the Kaiju grew stronger by the day, all of humanity would eventually face extinction. That was not alarmism, but a brutal, bloody fact.

Now they needed to stake every ounce of their courage on a future in which everyone could survive!

Those words struck like a heavy hammer, fully awakening Raleigh's fighting spirit!

Deep down, he knew better than anyone why he had joined the Jaeger Program and stepped into a Jaeger cockpit.

He had never been at the top of his class. He had no exceptional physical gifts. All he knew how to do was fight without any real technique.

But.

He knew there were things he wanted to protect, just as his brother had.

He knew this world needed him. This world needed everyone to save it together.

He had to act.

For his brother, too.

"I hear it." Raleigh kept his eyes closed, his breath misting in the air. Snowflakes drifted past his face, brushing him with their icy touch, as though he were listening to the wind and snow.

Countless fragments flashed through his mind.

He slowly opened his eyes and turned around. The icy snowflakes gradually melted against his skin, while the wind kept tossing his dirty, disheveled blond hair.

Those fleeting fragments, his memories... as his outlook changed, they gradually became his strength.

His gaze grew resolute, all his earlier hesitation and uncertainty swept away. He said, "I hear it. The roar of a Jaeger's engines."

Seeing the renewed fighting spirit on his face, Marshal Stacker smiled with relief.

He said softly, "Welcome back, Raleigh."

As soon as the words left his mouth.

The helicopter the base had dispatched from nearby to pick them up roared overhead and landed a short distance away.

Seeing the helicopter's cabin door open, Marshal Stacker said to the two men beside him, "All right, gentlemen. Come catch a ride with me."

With that, he led the way toward the helicopter.

Raleigh and Natsuki followed close behind.

"Your marshal is a good man. Looks like my time carrying out this mission here will be interesting," Natsuki said as he walked, turning his head toward Raleigh.

From everything Stacker had said, Natsuki could tell that the marshal was a gifted leader with considerable standing. Working with someone like him would surely make his investigation into the anomalous spacetime fluctuations much smoother.

"Yeah."

"Without him, we might not have made it this far," Raleigh said with a smile, recalling his days working with Marshal Stacker.

Soon.

They boarded the helicopter.

They left the ruins behind, left Sitka, and flew toward the Pacific Ocean.