General Highwind stared at the feed from Tacit Ronin's Cameras, trying to guess the new... Can it even be called a Kaiju? Screw it, work on a cool name for it later, need to pay attention to the damn thing and guess what aces it has up its sleeves.
No that they were exceptionally hard to guess, the Steel and Sinew monstrosity's main armaments were obviously the spires on its back. Now, were they just big guns, acid throwers, spikes for when it charged enemies or something really exotic?
"Oh goddammit," He hears General Aledeth curse from his seat. "It's Kaiote Tanju."
Worried whispers spread throught the room as those present take a second look at the creature and finally recognize it's original form. The silhouette of a Jaeger is distinctive enough to be recognized at a glance.
General Highwind takes another look at the defiled Jaeger's spires and bites back a curse of his own. So it's a really big gun with probably exotic ammunition. Lovely.
"What now?" He asks. "Nothing much has changed, it's a big, ugly menace to our city and we need to get rid of it. Any ideas?"
Admiral Jawa rises from his chair and clears his throat to call for attention. "Sorry Cid, but this situation is unusual enough that we can't even be sure if that thing is a threat or just threatening."
General Highwind frowned, but nodded. "Very well, but what should we do then? Attempt to communicate?"
Admiral Jawa smiled. "Precisely."
General Aledeth raised one eyebrow and spoke. "Alright, but order the tanks to fire if the thing tries anything funny."
At the other Commanders' murmur of approval, Highwind leaned back on his chair. "Groovy. Full Diplomacy Ahead. Do the honors, Jawa."
The Admiral nodded and pressed the button to open Comms with Tacit. "Rangers, do not engage yet. Try to communicate with the thing-"
"Waltz."
All present looked at the member of the Seattle City Council who had interrupted. He paled at the attention and started to fidget nervously.
"Well it's Coyote Tango, but not quite, yeah?" He tried to explain. When no one told him to shut up he continued. "So Waltz, because he's not quite Tango you see?"
The silence stretched for a moment and the Councilor began to sweat. Jawa sighed, scribbled on a paper in front of him and continued.
"Right, as I was saying... Alec, Noah, try to communicate with the creature, now officially designated "Waltz".
The Rangers quickly replied the affirmative and then Aledeth went on to order the tanks to stay on Overwatch.
A couple minutes later, High Command was staring incredulous at the screen. Air Force General Devlin was the first to break the stunned silence.
"It's pointing a finger gun at us." He said. "A goddamned finger gun."
Admiral Jawa mimicked the same movement. "Bang."
"What's next, it's going to break dance at us?" Highwind exclaimed in bewilderment.
"If it were a finger gun the thumb wouldn't be curled." General Aledeth said. "It's pointing at Tacit. Calling him out. I don't know if it's calling us out to a fight or something else, but right now it is just three hundred meters away from a face full of Thermite."
"Well, at least it hasn't shot us yet." Jawa said. "Let's keep trying diplomacy for now and if it doesn't play nice we lure it in and fill it full of lead."
After receiving a few more positive nods, he opens Comms with the Rangers again.
"Rangers, let's try communication again. Mimic his motion then give it a thumbs up and... say hello in morse or something. Ask it if it is an ally."
The Rangers' affirmative is far more hesitant this time.
The message is delivered as ordered, with Tacit using his floodlights to deliver the message in morse.
In response, Waltz looked at them curiously and seemed to fire its cannon at the sea behind it.
Devlin was the first to react. "...Did it fire it's cannon or load it with seawater?"
"It seems to have fired its cannon at the sea." One of the scientists said. "The sea behind it, that is."
General Devlin looked at the scientist then at the screen and finally leaned back on his chair. "...Okaaaay."
"The fuck is up with thay thing?" Said General Highwind. "Why the fuck did it fire its goddammed cannon at the goddamned sea? Was it trying to intimidate us? Say Tacit isn't its target?" He threw his hands in the air and spun around in his chair. "What the fuck?"
One of the High Councillors, named Jaiveer, spoke up. "Maybe it missed its shot?"
"Missing so badly it shot backwards??" Another scientist said. "Unless it had a seizure of some sort, I don't think so."
Highwind hid his face behind his palm and gave a long, deep sigh. "Let's try this again, shall we?"
When no one protested, he called the Alec and Noah once more.
"Rangers, try again. This time, use your speakers, maybe Waltz will understand if we try to speak english."
Muffled groans and an annoyed sounding "Roger, sir" are the response.
At first, Waltz seems to understand just as much as he did the Morse code, his only reply being a hiss of escaped steam. Then he slowly stsrted to walk away.
The Command Room is silent once more as they watch the strange creature walk away from their Defensive Perimeter.
"... I got nothing." Said General Highwind. "Okay, it's walking away. Now what?"
Aledeth was the first to answer. "If the weird hybrid abomination doesn't want to fight us, fine by me. I say we..." He smirked. "Let it go."
"That reference was bad and you should feel bad for even considering making it." Highwind said. "But that sounds like the best idea."
"We could track it with our sensors," Admiral Jawa suggested. "And considering the lack of cover for Tacit a firefight isn't in our best interests."
"Let's let it- I mean, let's allow it to leave," Highwind said. "Track it until the atmospherical interference doesn't allow us to see it anymore and then keep medium alert throught the week."
"We'll need to analyze every bit of info we obtained here to identify what exactly that was and if there's a better way to fight or communicate with them" The Admiral said, and then smiled. "I imagine the Science team hasn't been idle these past few minutes. Any insights to share?"
The scientists in the room looked at each other, then huddled together, struggled amongst themsleves briefly and finally pushed the loser to stand before them.
"So, what do you eggheads have to say?" Highwind asked.
The impromptu representative of the science team cursed his fellow researchers under his breath and smoothed out the crinkles on his labcoat.
"Well, for starters the hybrid's behavior suggests a startling amount of intelligence and at least basic competence at communication." He explained. "Unfortunately, we know too little to understsnd what it wanted to say with its gestures."
"Not even a guess?" Aledeth asked.
"Sir, it could mean any number of things." He held up a hand and started counting. "It could be 'You're not my target', based on where it was shooting, 'watch out, I'm a dangerous guy, look at how powerful my guns are', hell he could have meant to say 'I'm hunting another Kaiju, stay out of this', since he fired at the ocean which is where most of them come from."
General Devlin gave him a flat stare. "So you have absolutely no idea. At all."
"It's been two minutes!" The scinetist snapped. "We can still see Waltz in the sensor network and all we can say for sure is that what ever it is, it's an abomination made using Coyote Tango as a base, it isn't immediately hostile and that the sensors still classify it as a Cat 1."
The scientist ran his hand through his hair and started pacing around the room.
"Actually, the density of the reactor shielding and the reactor itself are the only reason the damn thing isn't classified below Cat 1, but from its construction it's overall capabilities should be at least those of a Cat 2!"
The Science Division's representative was getting increasingly agitated and pacing faster.
"And those goddamned cannons make no sense! The original Coyote Tango couldn't aim them backwards like that, suggesting heavy modifications to the mechanism on the shoulders or worse, that it was entirely replaced with some sort of biological joint!"
"Doctor."
"And what of the gesture itself?" He rambled on. "It aimed right at the sea from the beggining! If it's capabilities are anything close to CT's then there's no way it was a miss!"
"Doctor, listen to me."
"Was it a show of strength? To show it was top dog and not Tacit? But its intellect was obviously greater than that of a common animal! Maybe it was a more complex message? Shooting at the place where Kaiju come from could indicate it isn't an ally of theirs, but then what of its origin?!"
"DOCTOR!"
The scientist froze on the spot. His left foot was still halfway to taking another step.
General Highwind narrowed his eyes as if daring the egghead to take that step.
Jawa sighed. Crazy, the lot of them. Then again, you kind of had to be crazy join the Jaeger program on any level.
"Doctor, I want you and your team to pour over all the data collected so far and give us a detailed report on Waltz." He said, then he noticed one of the junior scientists in the back whisper to another one beside him and then both tried to hold back giggles.
"The creature, not the dance." He added, causing the joking pair to choke.
"Now!" Said General Aledeth, catching the attention of the room. "With this matter temporarily dealt with, the strategy meetin is on hold until Waltz comes back or some other apocalyptic threat appears."
With that, the room started to empty, the scientists first, then the military advisors and regular councillors, leaving only the members of the High Council of Seattle.
"Now, gentlemen," General Highwind said, resting his elbows on the table. "We can start our real meeting."
Steepling his fingers in front of his face, he asked perhaps the most important question of the meeting.
"Who brought the booze?"