Chapter 24: Bottom of the River

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[A/N: I am still slowly updating this, I swear LOL. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! (At this point, we're maybe 1/3 of the way through the timeline that I've got planned for this series, so there' s much more to come!)]

2025, January 12 – 07:52 – Hong Kong Shatterdome, Hong Kong, China

Herc Hansen pressed his lips together, closing his eyes. His teeth clicked as he grinded them, silencing the guttural cry stuck in his throat. This moment — he gave himself this one moment to mourn.

No one was ever prepared to lose their children. Herc had tried, God knows he did, from that very first attack in Australia when he thought he'd lost both his wife and son; from that very first deployment with Chuck at his side inside of Striker Eureka; from the very last time he saw his son march into the lift with tears in his eyes.

Nevertheless, he wasn't ready for the absolutely cold and debilitating pain that filled his chest when the readouts from Striker Eureka went completely dark.

As they conducted evasive maneuvers, the belly cameras on the Super Sikorskys showed the titanic wave caused by the detonation. On the console holoscreen, Striker's green dot turned red, blinked once; STATUS – INACTIVE; and then it disappeared altogether.

An abrupt change in the LOCCENT's atmosphere was evident as everyone took in the loss of their Marshal. There was an emptiness in his gut that told him that his only son was gone. The silence was so thick that someone could have cut it with a literal knife.

Dr. Newton Geiszler was the one brave enough to do just that.

"What are they doing?" he asked quietly, watching the feed of Gipsy Danger on the holoscreen. Crippled limb, leaked fuel, breached hull. Their Jaeger was in the red, but even then, Raleigh and Mako pushed on.

With his voice wrought with emotion, Herc replied just as gently, "Finishing the mission..." Herc knew his eyes were shiny with tears; he probably even looked worn, exhausted, just like he felt.

Herc turned slightly, taking in a shaky breath, and was surprised to see Greyson kneeling on the ground. Her head was down, dark hair curtaining her face, with hands mechanically scratching behind Max's ears as he whined. He hadn't even seen her move to console the dog, who likely picked up on the sadness blanketing the command center.

Raleigh's voice broke through the speakers: "LOCCENT, we have the kaiju carcass. We're heading to the Breach."

Greyson's shoulders visibly tensed up, and Herc watched as she raised a hand to palm at her face, swiping at her cheeks.

"You guys better be right. Because one way or another, we're getting this thing done."

Tendo eventually returned to relaying the incoming data. "Almost all systems are critical," he informed them with a sigh. "Gipsy Danger is losing power."

They were so close to finishing out the mission, with two pilots still out on the field. Emotions had to be bottled up, just for a little longer. There was no more time to mourn. There was never time to mourn.

Herc took another steadying breath, blinked back his tears, and squared his shoulders. He was at Tendo's side within seconds, slipping into the role of an Acting Marshal naturally. "Can you reroute it?"

A brief pause as Tendo looked him in the eyes, blinked, and then responded, "I'm trying." His attention returned to the heads-up display feed: Mako's vitals were already starting to drop. Oxygen deprivation. Overloaded damage from the Jaeger.

The remaining external feeds showed that Slattern was making movement difficult for Gipsy Danger's co-pilots, but the two of them had hit the rear jets and jumped off the edge of the sea cliff and into the trench below. Mako drove the Chain Sword into the kaiju and held on; even withstanding the Jaeger's failing systems. Raleigh kept steady, triggering overload protocols and forcing a fuel purge from the chest heat vent, burning right through the son of a bitch.

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