Chapter Text
Epilogue
Four months after Operation Pitfall, ten weeks after the United Nations ratified the PPDC report that the Breach was confirmed to be closed, PPDC Marshall and Ranger Stacker Pentecost passed away in Honolulu, Hawaii. At his side were his adopted daughter, Ranger Mako Mori, and fellow Rangers Hercules Hansen and Raleigh Becket, as well as his co-pilot from Operation Pitfall, Ranger Chuck Hansen.
Pentecost was buried with his close friend and original co-pilot, Tamsin Sevier, in Honolulu. He was reported to have said that although he had once hoped to die in a Jaeger, he had no regrets about having lived to see the end of the Kaiju War, and knowing that humanity had won.
Crimson Typhoon was moored in the Hong Kong Shatterdome as the first exhibit in the International Kaiju War Museum. The Wei triplets, despite suffering massive injuries in the battle against Otachi, were released from the hospital together to begin a long road towards recovery.
The bodies of Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky were recovered from the wreckage of Cherno Alpha, and returned to Russia for burial in a state funeral, attended by all five Rangers from Operation Pitfall and representatives from throughout the world. Cherno Alpha’s wreckage was laid in the Oblivion Bay site, which was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, although it will be centuries before humans can approach without radiation protection.
Some members of the public protested this, insisting the “interment” of the Jaegers should be more ceremonial. Numerous PPDC personnel insisted this was “what Cherno wanted.”
Most official reports treated this as a metaphor from Jaeger culture. However, rumors persist that those who worked closest with the Jaegers viewed it as the literal truth.
Operation Pitfall – One year since mission accomplished…
Typhoon’s boys visit the Shatterdome nearly every day. As equipment is moved out, it gets easier for them to navigate in their wheelchairs. There are hopes that all three will one day walk again, but it will take time – by human standards, anyway. Now they have time.
Typhoon is almost fully powered down, except for a few emergency lights that stay on for safety reasons. At least that’s the official story. Deep inside his relays and circuitry, he is still active and aware. It’s a quiet life for the only post-war Jaeger, but Typhoon doesn’t mind. His Rangers can still hear him, he can still hear them, and that’s more than any of them dared to hope for.
It takes some getting used to, this world without simulators, endless training and maintenance, Breach alerts, and casualty reports. Many of the humans will struggle with that. Some will turn on each other. Crimson Typhoon has had many hours, months, and years to ruminate on human nature with his pilots even when they were at war against the kaiju.
They and the Hansens, Raleigh Becket, and Mako Mori are putting their memories and knowledge towards filling the walls of the former Shatterdome with the histories of these past twelve years. It’s very important to the humans, that their future generations not forget this. So many of them gave so much to bring about this end.
Typhoon says goodbye to Cherno before she powers down completely with the assistance of the J-techs. He is keenly aware of being the last living Jaeger now, but this is how she wants it, and with her Kaidanovskys going to home to be buried, no one should deny her the resting place she’s chosen.
But in the nearly-silent circuitry of his intact systems, Crimson Typhoon carries out the last great Jaeger conspiracy. It would have been the first, but Gipsy and Striker got a little ahead of the others in the act of saving their pilots. In programming subtler and more powerful than any electronic language created or understood by humans, Typhoon finalizes his message and releases it into the wilds of wires, radio waves, wireless signals, and every piece of powered equipment of Earth’s vast technology.
This message will never fade, never disappear or degrade, and it will duplicate itself with every new program and every new signal that humanity and their technology create. This way, if they ever build another Jaeger, that Jaeger will know. Any future human who thinks to wield Jaeger tech against his fellow man will find it bafflingly hard, and anyone fool enough to try probably won’t have the wits to understand why it doesn’t work.
It’s the Jaegers’ memories, their farewell, and to any who may come after their generation, a warning:
We were created with one purpose: the defense of humanity. We died for that purpose. We were intended to defend, programmed to serve, built to see for them and fight for them. We came to life when we learned how to love them. Remember us, and never forget: we loved these people. Never betray that love, never be used against your own people – all humans are your people. Remember that. Remember us.
~The End~