บท 45: Fate?

At the bottom of the ocean, in complete darkness, Torterra was dragging two giants. On one side was a dead Kaiju, and on the other - a damaged Jaeger. Their heavy bodies left scars on the mud.

"I thought they would do better, but it was a complete defeat," thought Torterra displeased. He barely managed to save these pilots. The defeat was very quick. "These Jaegers lack vibranium hulls," he joked. The lack of durable material for robots was their main problem. It was necessary to deliver a heavy blow, and the metal tore like paper. When it comes to a force of thousands of tons, the robots did not look strong.

Alaska was cold this time of year. The ocean shore was covered with snow, and there were many icebergs floating in the ocean. It was snowing heavily, and nothing could be seen further than 10-20 meters (32 – 65 feet). The sound of metal and splashing water echoed through the air as Torterra emerged from the ocean, dragging his luggage behind him. The ground beneath his feet crunched and cracked as he reached the shore.

BBOOHHH

BOOOMM

The two giants Torterra threw on either side of him. He sat between them and began to eat the Kaiju. The cold air did not bother him. He was not favorable to high temperatures, and he was not afraid of a little cold either. Even if he froze, he could warm himself from the inside.

POV: Raleigh

Our Jaeger kept rocking as we sat in silence in the dark Jaeger room. Sometimes a red hazard light flashed. It didn't work well for some reason. We felt like we were locked in some kind of basket of a giant who carelessly carried us.

"Looks like he's finally pulled us ashore," I said as we felt a big jolt and everything calmed down. We separated from our seats and headed for the exit. Opening the door, we were greeted by a cold wind with snow.

"Where's Torterra?" I asked my brother, looking around. It was snowing and it was hard for me to see far.

"Over there," Yancy pointed in the direction where we saw a giant shadow and heard the sounds of flesh being chewed and torn apart.

"Let's go say hello to him!" I wanted to talk to our savior.

"Stop!" my brother shouted at me.

"What is wrong? Went! We need to thank him for his help."

"Thank him? Look at him! He's a 100 -meter-tall beast (328 feet) that's eating Kaiju right now!"

"So what? He can think like us, he can talk, so why can't I talk to him?"

"Is this some kind of game for you? Some kind of joke? Look around, it's snowing right now! He won't even see us when we approach him," my brother kept yelling at me. I didn't understand why he behaved like that. We talked with Torterra when we were in Jaeger.

"Hey, calm down, cool down a little. Everything will be fine. Even if he doesn't see me, he will hear us! And it's not snowing that hard now, you're exaggerating," I tried to calm him down.

"I say it again! Don't talk to him! This is not a game! You don't have to joke with him."

"What's wrong with you? If you don't want to, then I'll go to him myself."

Boom

As I turned my back on my brother and walked towards Torterra, something hit me in the back and knocked me to the ground. My brother pounced on me from above and pinned me to the snow.

"We almost died! Are you still joking? Why are you doing this? Why did you complain about Torterra killing the Kaiju without us? It's all because of you. If you hadn't opened your mouth, he would have just finished off the Kaiju without paying attention to us. But no! You had to say something! You had to kidding him," he yelled at me as he continued to pin me to the ground and wring my arms. I was not ready for this and could only listen to him.

"This is no joke, brother! People are dying! Do you understand this or not?" Yancy continued to shout. But I was silent. I struggled to get him off me.

"Do you understand this?!" he shouted again.

"So! Yes, I understand, now let me go, jerk!"

My brother released me, and I immediately rose to my feet and walked away from him. I didn't want to fight him and I still didn't understand what had come over him.

"If you approach him now, one careless movement will be enough for him to crush you!" Yancy said in a calmer voice. We were both breathing heavily, steam coming out of our mouths as we stood in the middle of the snow.

"Is that why you're so angry with me? Because you are afraid that I will die?"

"Not only because of this. I… I don't want to run Jaeger anymore," my brother dropped the bomb on me.

"What do you mean, you don't want to? And what about me? I won't be able to manage Yeger without you either! You know how hard it is to find a compatible drifting partner!" now it was my turn to yell at him. He wanted to just leave me.

We heard the sound of a plane approaching. A minute later, the plane was already near us. He turned his engines to a vertical position and began to descend slowly. As he landed, a hatch at the back of the plane opened and an angry Marshal stepped out.

"Can one of you explain to me how you lost Jaeger? How the hell, with only orders to support Torterra if need be, you got yourself into a direct fight with the Kaiju! And you lost your Jaeger! Do you have any idea how much these things cost?" Marshal did not give us time to answer. "You know that this was the best Jaeger in this region! And now we have lost him! Who will fight next?"

"Sir! I want to resign!" Yancy said at once.

"You can't decide like that on your own!" I protested to my brother.

"Shut up!" Marshal shouted at me. I had no choice but to obey the order.

"You!" Marshal pointed a finger at his brother. "You will work at the academy. You should find a good co-pilot for your brother."

"And you!" now he pointed his finger at me. "Shut up!" I could only lower my head and obey. It was clear to me that this order applied to my behavior in general, not to this particular situation. After these words, the Marshal returned to the plane to give some more orders. When the snow stopped, the Marshal walked in the direction of Torterra.

"Sir! Can I go with you?" I asked Marshall to go with him. I really wanted to meet Torterra. The fact that he was taught to speak using sign language was incredible, but it was rumored that he displayed the intelligence of a chimpanzee when he spoke. I wanted to check it out and just get to know each other.

My brother did not go with us. He ignored us and went to the plane (actually Yancy was paying attention to his brother and was very worried about him, but didn't show it).

POV: Torterra

This extraordinary event is over and I will have to wait several months again to fight the next Kaiju. At this level of power, Kaiju Category 3 was no threat to me, but I wasn't going to relax. Even if I can handle with attacks from the portal, I might have to go through the portal, so i shouldn't stop growing.

"How did it happen that I lost a good Jaeger when you were there?" I heard someone talking to me. I lowered my head and saw Marshall with the guy I remembered from the movie. He was the main character of the first part of the Pacific Rim.

"I thought Jaeger wanted this fight." I answered him, putting the hand of the Kaiju what I was eating to the side to talk to him. My mouth was covered in blue blood, but there was nothing I could do about it. It was a bit of a bad time to talk.

Marshal and I looked at the boy, and he simply turned his head to the side so as not to look into our eyes.

"Meet me, this is Raleigh, he was one of the pilots of this Jaeger," Marshal introduced me to the guy next to him. So his name is Raleigh. I will have to remember his name.

"Hello. Nice to meet you," Raleigh said through sign language.

"Where's the other pilot?" I was wondering why there was only one brother. I hoped the other brother hadn't died. Thoughts about fate immediately appeared in my head. Although I did not believe in fate as some supernatural force. I believe that even knowledge of the future is not what makes us do things - it is simply information that tells us how we will forge our own future. If it was already known that we will meet someone in the future, this does not mean that we are destined to meet this person.

It is enough for someone to know the future, and he can immediately change it, just by drinking an extra cup of water or setting the alarm clock 30 minutes earlier. But what if you're not the only one who knows the future? And this someone will do everything in his power to make this future happen as it should happen if no one knew about it. Then this person could be called the embodiment of fate.

"He no longer wants to manage Yeger. It turns out that today I lost not only Jaeger, but also a whole team of pilots. The best pilots I've ever had," Marshall told me, snapping me out of my thoughts about the strange power what people called by fate and how the thing worked.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would turn out like this. Kaiju are getting stronger. You can no longer field one Jaeger at a time to fight them. It will be safer to send two or even 3 Jaegers into battle," I answered him. I looked at Raleigh and he was somehow shocked. What did he think I could only talk about simple things like meat and sleep?

"You are right, but the government is starting to reduce our funding. They are unhappy with the amount of damage the Kaiju are doing to the cities," said Marshal.

"Looks like you have a lot of work to do as usual," I joked. I just need to eat and sleep to get stronger, but Marshall needs to deal with leadership, politics, finance and many other problems that arise in the world.

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