A Different Kind of Jaeger Fly

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 Setting
 Arc / track
 Initiating author
 Notes

The three block walk from the train station has Jamie sweating and extremely glad he'd forgone the tie this morning.

He presses the intercom.

""Yea?""

"Jamie Walker; here to talk with Cam. She's expecting me."

""Lemme check.""

Jamie sighs and mops his face with his handkerchief.

""Her Jaeger Flyness will see you.""

The lock buzzes.

Jamie ducks inside, revels in the A/C. He glares balefully at the stairs and goes in search of an elevator. No flippin' way he's climbing today, even to the second floor.

'Staff Only' is just a suggestion, right?

He hops off the lift, weaves his way out of some sort of mechanical room, and finds the proper door. He knocks.

A long pause.

He frowns, knocks again.

""Yea, yea, yea, I'm gettin' there,"" grumbles the voice from the intercom.

The bolt and chain draw back and the door swings open.

"She's in her room," announces the flatmate.

"Thanks." Jamie bobs his head and sets off across the crowded flat to the farthest door.

He raps on the doorframe. "Greetings, oh mighty Cameryn!"

"Jamie!" She bounds from her chair, smothers him in a squishy hug. "Long time, no see! You haven't gone dry, have you?"

Jamie squeezes her back and grins. "/**Never**!{.} Needed a refill on that ridiculously sunny smile of yours; just been too busy to drop by."

She punches his shoulder, a little harder than generally considered polite. "You gotta make time for friends and beer." Grins. "Have a seat." Gestures to a spare swivel chair, drops into one of her own. "Whatcha need?"

"Besides your smile?" Jamie straddles the chair.

"Flatterer."

Jamie pulls his mobile from a pocket, engages the recorder, sets it on Cameryn's desk. "Oh great and benevolent Jaeger goddess, enlighten me about the VS series."

"/**VS?**" Cameryn brightens. "VS? /**No** one cares about the VS!" Furrows her brow. "Why do /**you** care about the VS?"

"I'm full of surprises."

Cameryn snorts. "Well, first off, only three of 'em were built. I mean, usually the Corps builds between five and eight of a model—one for every Shatterdome, right? Or near enough? But the VS is /**so** specialized they stopped at three." Takes a sip from a bottle of green coke. "It's nearly /**impossible** to find pilots to jockey 'em. /**Five** Academy classes and they only had /**three** pairs qualify. One of 'em just /**barely** squeaked through, too. So they stopped production." Shrugs, gulps coke.

"You said they're 'specialized'. What does that mean?"

"/**Means** the VS doesn't fight like any other Jaeger." She pops to her feet and rummages on a shelf above her desk. "Here."

Jamie accepts a third-meter of Jaeger in royal blue and chocolate brown plastic.

"/**This** is a scale model VS. Accurate as you can get at this itty-bitty scale."

Jamie tilts it to and fro. "Looks pretty standardly Jaeger to me."

"No no no!" Cameryn waves a finger in his face. "Look! Look at the Conn-pod—"

Jamie looks blank.

"—the head! Widest field of vision—two-hundred-thirty-degrees!—of any Jaeger. Comes the closest to being able to see its own feet—best downward visibility, too. Its arms are the longest and torso the shortest and narrowest at the shoulders of all the Mark-IIIs. And the legs! The legs are proportioned for maximum efficiency. They actually use /**gravity** to supplement engine power to move. /**And** those engines have an automatic standby-and-quick-restart mode, too." Takes a very, very deep breath.

"Huh," says Jamie, setting the model on the edge of Cameryn's desk.

She rolls her eyes. "You have absolutely /**no** idea how /**awesome** and /**unique** all of that is."

"Not a clue, sorry."

Cameryn heaves a dramatic sigh. "Why do I bother talking to people like you?"

Jamie smirks. "Because you love the view from your soapbox."

She laughs and reaches again for her coke. "Seriously, what makes the VS such an odd duck is the way they're /**not** built for power or even speed, which is what you expect in a war machine, yea?" Takes a sip.

"Fair point."

"It's all about /**endurance** with them. They were designed as long-distance patrol units. They're /**super** fuel efficient—they- they're fucking /**wolves**—run you down and /**nibble** you to death."

"'Nibble'?"

Cameryn rolls her eyes. "They're /**weaklings**. They've only got two weapons: fists and a pair of railguns—and the guns create Blue fog so they're not supposed to use them. Turns out the projectiles don't get as hot as expected so they don't cauterize ...." She blinks. "Where was I?"

"VSs are weaklings."

"Right! They don't hit hard, but keep hitting and hitting and /**hitting** until the Kaiju drops dead of exhaustion. At least, that was the plan." A sip. "Two problems showed up in the sim runs. One, if they didn't get backup, pronto, they tended to go down. Light armour, see, 'cause of the fuel efficiency?"

Jamie nods understanding.

"And, two, it was so /**hard** to find pilots who could run the long patrols /**and** survive the long fights. They, sorta, could get one or the other, but not both."

"Huh. Where are they now?"

"VS-01—well, I /**suppose** it's VS-04 now, what with the dead pilots and all—out of Sydney and VS-03 out of Anchorage are still active. VS-02 from Lima wrecked—totaled—two years ago." Takes another gulp of coke. "That was the one with the barely qualified pilots. Went down its first actual fight—backup didn't get there in time." Sighs. "Made it through dozens of patrols first, though."

"How many teams have run 'em so far?"

"With the new set in Sydney, four." Sips. "Three's still running on its original pair. The, uh, May brothers? I think that's their name. I'm not so good with pilots."

"'s'okay. I can track that down easy." Runs fingers through his hair. "This may not be your thing, but which of the original pairs would you say was the the best?"

"One's. No question. Hands down." A sip. "They're the only ones with an actual /**kill**. Three's only got a couple of assists. Mostly patrol units, remember?"

"So losing Riley and Egan was a bit of a blow to the program, ay?"

"Those One's pilots?"

Jamie nods.

"Yea. Definitely." Looks dreamily at the VS model perched in front of her. "Really hope the new pair is up to it. Losing another VS would be a /**tragedy**." Wistful sigh. "Won't find a more awesome machine."

"Thought all the Jaegers are awesome."

"Of /**course**, but the VS is just so /**weird**. It's /**special**."

"It's your favourite."

Cameryn's eyes twinkle. "Yea. I like 'em weird." Another sip. "So, until they build a three-armed one or something, I'll be loving on the VS."

Jamie thumbs off the recorder, slips the phone back into his pocket. "Thanks, Cam." He leans forward conspiratorially. "Now, I know you have information on the Jaegers no one else does." Bat his eyelashes. "I'd love everything you've got on Sydney's VS and her pilots."

Cameryn leans back and crosses her arms. "Only if you tell me why you suddenly care about Jaegers."

Jamie shrugs. "Lotta weirdness going on around that particular Jaeger in the last year. I'm looking into it. Figured I should check with my favorite expert about it." His eyes sparkle and he smiles winningly.

"Flatterer." She digs among the detritus on her desk, mumbles, "Know there's a drive around here somewhere."

"Brought my own." Jamie offers a nondescript black thumb drive.

Cameryn snatches it, plugs it into her computer. "It'll just take a few minutes to download everything: specs, combat and patrol dossiers, some pilot info on the old team, partial blueprints, et cetera, et cetera."

"You're as thorough as ever."

"Hafta to be to stay at the top of the field." Another sip.

A companionable pause.

"You ever think of working for the Corps?"

"/**Never.** Don't deal with that sort of, uh, /**structure** well. Too much of an anarchist, you know?"

Jamie snorts. "Never woulda guessed."

The computer makes a noise like a foghorn.

Jamie raises an eyebrow.

"/*Cherno Alpha'*s warning signal," she explains. "Great, isn't it?"

She pulls the drive with a grin, hands it over with a flourish. "Good luck with your story."

"Thanks. I might actually need a little this time." He stands, pockets the drive. "Am I welcome to come back if I need more?"

"Of /**course**! You're my favorite snoop, after all!"

Jamie pecks her on the cheek. "Thanks, doll. I may be back soon. Anything you want me to look for while I'm out?"

"Weeeell, if you can get some info on the new VS pilots, it'll be good trading material. /**No** one knows /**anything** about them yet. Not even names."

"You'll get everything that won't ruin my scoop."

"Aww ... Don't you trust me?"

"Not with inside information about Jaegers."

Cameryn laughs. "Smart man." She shoos him toward the door. "Get out there and find me some secrets, Walker!"

Jamie flicks a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am!" Snaps a turn on his heel and marches out, Cameryn's laughter following him to the door.