Outside Context Solution: War and Renaissance part 2
---
CHARON RELAY, Sol System, January 30, 2524 CSD
The Mass Relay spun quietly in the dark of space, locked gravitationally with the dwarf planet nearby and keeping station through the enigmatic means that it had used for untold eons.
Only recently freed from being encased in enough ice to qualify as a dwarf planet itself, this particular Relay looked especially "clean" compared to most. It hadn't yet had the chance to acquire the thin layer of dust and chaff on it's surface that other Mass Relays acquired over time.
The rings of the Relay then began spinning faster as it connected to a more distant Relay, forming a mass-corridor of near-instantaneous travel that spat out two ships, a sleek and graceful Asari Diplomatic Cruiser escorted by a massive kilometer-long Volus Dreadnought.
As the two ship vectored away from the Mass Relay toward the inner system, they were joined by dozens of ships, Transports bearing disaster-relief supplies of every kind, expert crews for clearing out toxic Kaiju sites, engineers, medical professionals, and every tool and supply that they would need as well. The Transport ships were closely herded by their own escort craft, none as formidable as the dreadnought in the lead.
Within the Asari Diplomatic Cruiser
Hand of Peace, two individuals were going over the plans for this First Contact.
"With the way the planet is divided into nation states, the only way we're going to manage any progress in a reasonable amount of time is to meet with representatives at their "United Nations"." Benezia said to her spouse while looking over her notes in their quarters.
"Heh, I've read the packet too, y'know. It's kind of amazing that you are able to make the air quotes just with your tone of voice," Aethyta replied with a snort while pouring herself a drink. "Me, the General, Olar and the rest have the easy job. Those nations aren't all that united."
Benezia put down the datapad and leaned back in her chair, massaging her temples.
"True enough, getting them to at least agree to put forward a united body to represent their world and species to the galaxy at large will be the hard part." she said. "It always is when making contact with worlds in this stage of development, but this isn't my first mission of this sort, I'm sure we can work it out."
Aethyta moved behind Benezia's chair and began rubbing her shoulders.
"If you're so confident, why are you so tense?" she asked teasingly.
"Because despite the fact that I'm sure we will work it out, it's always a pain to get to that point." Benezia sighed. "I am not looking forward to it."
Aethyta stopped rubbing Benezia's shoulders and pulled her from her chair into a kiss.
"We're not there yet." she told her, breaking the kiss momentarily. "Let me take your mind off of it."
--------------------------------------
HONG KONG SHATTERDOME, February 10, 2025 CE (First Contact Day +4)
Hercules Hansen had never seen himself as a leader. He felt he made a good second in command, he definitely did well in an advisory role, but even when piloting a Jaeger he had usually let Scott or Chuck take the lead and acted as support.
When Stacker had put him in charge before leaving on that last run with Chuck, he had honestly been shocked, expecting that he would have given the lead role to someone else, like Tendo maybe, who had actually been with him constantly since the beginning.
–
Stacker placed his hand on Herc's shoulder and looked at him solemnly.
"
You are the rock on which this entire operation was built my friend." he told him in that unwaveringly confident voice "Without you, without your determination, we would have never gotten this far. Your support, knowledge and courage will carry the day when this is done."
Pentecost took a breath.
"
You are the one to see our people through this." he continued. " You have what it takes to lead, and what it takes to keep the "suits and smiles" from ruining this once we've closed the Breach."
Stacker Pentecost looked Hansen in the eyes with the utter, unshakable conviction the man would be famous for in the years to come.
"
You will not only be able to do this Herc, you are going to do it well."
–
Herc finished putting on his uniform and glanced at the television.
It was the same news on every channel, about the aliens, at the moment showing the graceful ship floating serenely in the air near United Nations Headquarters before cutting to yet another take on the welcoming ceremony now a few days past where the main alien diplomat and her entourage were welcomed.
Blue women... One is coming to this meeting too. Chuck would be giving me hell about turning into Captain Bloody Kirk, or threatening to do so himself...
Herc stopped that train of thought and the pain it still carried and looked at himself in the mirror. Fully clean shaven, hair neat, uniform pressed and squared away.
He looked better than he had the last time he had appeared on a talk show.
There was a knock at the door, and Herc opened it to reveal Raleigh Beckett.
Beckett smiled his half-smile and looked the Marshall over.
"Damn, sir, you look respectable." he grinned at the older man.
"Can it Beckett. Is everyone else ready? What about the meeting room?"Hansen asked, shrugging off his tension with the long practice of an experienced Ranger. He'd had faced worse, and probably stranger things than this before.
"Yeah, Mako and the Kaidonovskys are ready, so are Gottlieb and Geiszler for K-Science and Lightcap, D'Onofrio, and Schoenfield from Jaeger-Tech arrived an hour ago." Beckett informed him "Hell, we've even got the route we'll take to the meeting room set to take us past where the work on Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha is being done."
"Yeah. Don't know if it'll impress 'em or not," Herc mused. "But it's worth a shot, gotta look our best for the new backers."
"Yeah." Raleigh nodded. "Plus side, these guys are way less sleazy than Chau, even if one of them is a banker."
Herc chuckled and shook his head at the reminder of the flamboyant black marketeer as Raleigh continued.
"Heh. You should have seen how excited Tendo was to be the first to ride in an alien spaceship so that he could escort them here." Raleigh laughed as he made way for the still-new Marshall.
–
Standing near Marshall Herc Hansen, Doctor Caitlyn Lightcap reflected on her life. She had played many roles; researcher, pioneer, mother, Jaeger pilot, and now an ambassador to an alien civilization that apparently needed the help of the poor, battered, human race.
Now she was standing among living legends waiting to greet the representatives of said alien civilization who wanted to speak to the PPDC quite apart from the ongoing talks with the United Nations.
I wonder if any of these aliens will quite so smoothly handle things as Ambassador Benezia is. It's very easy to believe that she has almost a thousand years of experience at diplomacy from the way she's handling things in New York.
"Look!" Mako Mori called out, pointing to the sky as a sharp, angular-looking craft began descending toward the Last Shatterdome.
From the number of sharp edges and points on the spacecraft, I'd bet that it was a Turian design, it would fit the profile for them as a people. Lightcap mused idly from where she was standing next to her husband, Sergio D'Onofrio, while adjusting her glasses and making sure that her blonde hair was still in place.
The Turian shuttle touched down on the Shatterdome's landing pad and the large hatch on the side opened up, first letting a pair of Turian ceremonial guards out, in full armor, to stand by at the shuttle. Then it disgorged a tall Turian in uniform, with markings of rank and adorned with medals, an Asari Matriarch in a fairly military-seeming outfit, a small, grim seeming Volus in an armored encounter suit, a Salarian with a similar distracted air to the other scientists in the audience and finally Tendo Choi, who was wearing a grin that threatened to cause his head to fall backwards off of the rest of his body.
Tendo preceded the delegation to where the representatives of the PPDC were waiting. Huge grin still on his face, he activated the holographic interface of his borrowed Omni-Tool to make sure the translator was running correctly and synched up with the others in the delegation. Frankly, the new toys were enough that he almost forgot why they were here.
As they came together he introduced them. "Marshall Hercules Hansen, this is General Garvus Arterius representing the Turian Hierarchy, Matriarch Aethyta from the Asari Republics, Guildmaster Din Olar of the Volus Unified Bank and Doctor Lorn Solus representing the Salarian Union." Tendo presented. "Gentlebeings, this is Marshall Hercules Hansen, our leader, along with our remaining Rangers Raleigh Beckett and Mako Mori, as well as Sasha and Alexis Kaidonovsky. From K-Science this is Doctors Hermann Gottlieb and Newton Geiszler, and from Jaeger-Tech Doctors Caitlyn Lightcap and Jasper Schoenfeld, and Major Sergio D'Onofrio."
General Arterius held out his clawed hand to Marshall Hansen. "A true pleasure to meet you at last Marshall." He greeted. "The accomplishments of yourself and your people here are quickly becoming the stuff of legends where we come from."
Herc snorted as he shook the hand of the alien with the resonant voice.
"Yeah, They call it legendary after the fact, while you're doing it , it mostly seems either crazy, terrifying, or both" he replied, with a tight smile "Let's get inside out of the wind and talk."
They walked through the main Jaeger bay where work was underway on both Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon, both Jaegers being largely torn down at this point to be rebuilt to better deal with what had taken them down originally.
Additionally, four new berths were being prepared for the Mark Fives that had been under construction when the PPDC was shut down. They were now en route to the Last Shatterdome as something of a peace offering from the leaders of the world to the people who had saved them all.
Looking over the Jaegers, which were both stripped down to the bare bones, armor plating gone, innards exposed and power cores removed, Doctor Solus paused in the midst of taking pictures."Excuse me," he asked "can you elaborate on what procedures are being undertaken? Most curious to know what is being done here."
"Well," Doctor Schoenfeld began "with Crimson Typhoon, we were lucky in a sense that the main damage was to the Conn Pod only, but with the capabilities the Kaiju displayed in the battle, plus the information you forwarded to us about power systems and newer alloys Doctor Solus, we've decided to take it back to the stripped down stage and do a rebuild using newer, hardened, equipment"
The alien delegation looked at the two enormous mechs currently being rebuilt, awestruck in the presence the Kaiju fighting machines.
"Additionally," Doctor Lightcap added, "with Crimson Typhoon we needed to restructure the PONS system after the loss of the triplets, as we don't have any other Ranger candidates that are Drift compatible in a trio like they were."
"Hmmm..." Doctor Solus responded, touching a finger to his bottom lip "Will require removal of additional arm as well? May be able to make other systems more formidable to compensate, have numerous schematics on hand from crew. Will share with you."
As the group moved along, Doctor Schoenfeld gestured at the skeletal framework of Cherno Alpha, the longest serving of the Jaegers. It was now reduced to a massive frame and seemed much smaller without the armored tower that had formerly acted as the "head" of the Jaeger.
"We call Cherno Alpha the last of the Mark Ones, but that is somewhat sentimental on our part, " he stated "during it's long operational lifetime, Cherno has been updated and upgraded multiple times, it was no more a Mark One Jaeger when it arrived in Hong Kong than Gipsy Danger was a Mark Three when it deployed against Leatherback and Otachi"
He paused, and the group paused with him, the newcomers paying very close attention to his words.
"With what has been forwarded to us about the array of technologies available for the program through your sponsorship, we are going to be able to make the largest update to Cherno Alpha yet." Schoenfeld continued, holding p a hand when it looked like General Arterius may have a concern "Cherno Alpha has a certain legendary mystique among the PPDC, no matter how hard it's been hit over the years, it has always come back swinging hard. With the upgrades we have planned, Cherno Alpha and it's formidable pilots haven't seen their last battle yet!"
Sasha and Alexis Kaidonovsky shouted their approval from the assembled group, followed quickly by applause and cheers from the surrounding work crews.
Morale like this, even with all that they've been through and being asked for so much more. Garvus Arterius mused,
Give me an army with this level of dedication and I could have won the Krogan Rebellions without Salarian bioweapons.
The cheers of the works crews dying down behind them as they went, the group finally made their way down the corridor into the meeting room.
Doctor Solus engaged Lightcap, Schoenfeld, and D'Onofrio in animated technical discussion as they made their way to the meeting room, all of them settling down as they came to their placed at the holographic display table.
While everyone was settling down Herc Hansen remembered his duties as host of the gathering, "Anyone need any refreshments before we get started here?" he asked the visiting dignitaries.
Most demurred but Aethyta spoke up at this point, her smoky voice a bit amused.
"I'll take one of those cigars you've got in that inside pocket if it's alright, Marshall?" she asked with a half grin.
"Yeah, what the hell," he replied passing one to her which she lit using her Omni-Tool.
"Now," Herc started, looking out at everyone assembled at the table, "Let's get down to it."
---
A few hours later, tie loosened and jacket open, Herc Hansen stood on a catwalk looking down at the Jaeger construction going on down below. He had never in his wildest dreams imagined himself in such a surreal position.
According to the banker, funding for the new organization was not going to be an issue, ever. Mako and Raleigh wold personally never have to worry about money again for the rest of their lives, or their great-grandchildren's lives as the bounty on closing a breach was apparently stupidly huge.
Things had gotten a bit chaotic for awhile with the various representatives asking their questions all at once and that banker proving to be the most bloodthirsty bastard Hansen had ever met. But he had managed to get things under control and get them back on course.
He himself had started to sound a bit like Stacker there at the end!
--
"All the tech, ships and weapons in the universe won't mean a damn without the one damn thing that really won the war for us: unity." he told the assembled delegates, looking over the holographic map of the galaxy with worlds that had breaches glowing red like wounds. "All of the people of Citadel Space are going to have to come together. All of us here at the Shatterdome are in it for the long haul, everyone that was going to quit already did, but it can't be a human thing, or an Asari, Turian, Salarian or a Volus thing. Unity is what beat them here, and it's what will beat them everywhere else too."
He paused and took a breath.
"If we're going to turn the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps into the Pan-Galactic Defense Corps, then we will need to reach across political and species lines and do it together." He looked at the galactic map. "To win a war like this takes more than money, more than soldiers, it takes commitment. It takes everyone involved standing together, from the techs doing maintenance all the way up to the men and women giving the orders. By ourselves we might be heroes or just ordinary people. Together, we're unstoppable!"
---
His contemplation was interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Looking back, he saw Aethyta walking towards him on the catwalk, holding a pair of glasses and a bottle.
"Hell of a speech there Marshall," she greeted him "Want a drink?"
He held a hand out for a glass.
"Damn right I do." he told her as she poured one for each of them. He took a slug of the unfamiliar concoction, strange tasting, but it went down smooth. "So what's on your mind?"
Aethyta let out a sigh as she tossed back a bit of the drink herself.
"Really grabbed me by the quad with that speech Marshall," Aethyta began.
"Call me Herc," he interrupted with weary grin and a toast "You already bought me a drink."
"Alright Herc," Aethyta continued, grinning back at the old soldier, "You've sold me on the Pan Galactic Defense Corps, consider me the first non-human volunteer, I'm signing up. When we went in there, the General had barely any idea what we needed to do, and you showed us that you were just as ready to lead the defense of multiple worlds as you were this one." she told him "I know a few others with serious experience that will be willing too once I talk to them, and a few places we can look for likely recruits."
Herc considered her words for barely a second before responding "Alright, you strike me as a decent sort, I got an instinct for these things," Herc replied, tapping his temple "You want in? You're in."
------------------------------------------------
Much thanks to the amazing
@bobnik for giving this the beta-read it needed!
