Work Text:
Bandit Eureka
A Metro 2033 x Pacific rim Fanfiction
Bourbon jerked awake as sirens began to sound throughout the ShatterDome. Another Kaiju had just come through the breach. Hopping down from his bed Bourbon dashed across the room to the bed of his co-pilot Artyom slapping him in the face a few times to wake him up.
“Wha... what's going on” muttered Artyom as he re-entered the concious world. “ Category 3 Kaiju, biggest one we've seen kid. Codename Knifehead.” answered Bourbon as he began to pull on his puffy bomber jacket.
These two were not ordinary men despite how they looked. They were in fact the pilots of a Russian Jaeger known as Bandit Eureka. The two men were tasked with protecting the Russian people from the Kaiju onslaught. The monsters that seemed to have risen from the depths of the pacific ocean to destroy humanity. These two men fought monsters that had the strength to destroy entire cities and won, they were not ordinary men. To the people of Russia they were considered heroes.
The two men walked along the dark hallway sparsely illuminated by the orange tint of emergency lighting. As they walked along the hallway a door at the end began to open revealing their preparation room. Upon entering they removed their jackets and began to pull on the skin tight drive suits. Technicians began attaching pieces of armour to the men beginning with the chest and back pieces before attaching the armour for the arms and legs. The final piece to be attached was the spinal piece that allowed the pilots drive suit to sync up with the Jaeger to allow realistic movements as well as serving as a form of spine protection.
Artyom and Bourbon picked up their helmets and began the trek to their Jaegers conn pod. They walked through many corridors lined with steel framework and orange lighting that made all the corridors seemingly meld into a single path with each piece bearing no difference from another. “Aren't you at least a little bit scared?” asked Artyom as they entered to cockpit. “Scared? Why should I be scared. Those bitches can never harm the mighty uncle Bourbon” chuckled Bourbon in reply as the two men began to hook into the controls of Bandit Eureka. The inside of the conn pod was like a small metal bunker, the rear wall was covered in large pipes that lead up to the top of the Jaegers head as well as down towards where the body would attach. In the centre stood two sets of foot clamps as well as harnesses that hung from the roof. Bourbon took the right hand side of the Jaeger also known as the dominant side while Artyom was his co-pilot and took the left side of the Jaeger.
Bourbon slammed his feet down into the clamps and began the start up cycle as his harness lowered and connected to his armoured drivesuit. “Hey kid are you ready for this?” said Bourbon as he proceeded with the final preparations for Jaeger startup. “do you even need to ask? In a few moments you'll know my answer” replied the co-pilot as he finished hooking into the Jaeger.
With preparations complete Marshall Miller began to speak over the intercomm. “Morning men, I hope you are ready for the drop. Today you will be hunting down the cat 3 known as Knifehead, Keep it away from the miracle mile. You have a city six hundred thousand to protect, Miller out.” Their leader liked to keep conversation as brief as possible and straight to the point.
Upon hearing the rather short briefing Bourbon pressed the controls and the conn pod began to plummet down a shaft towards the body of Bandit Eureka. The drop shook the harnesses slightly until the conn pod finally slowed down to connect to the rest of the Jaeger. The display flickered to life as the pipes and wiring of the pod connected with the body. From here the two pilots could see the armour plating moving into place to protect the neck joint, if the neck were to sustain damage then the conn pod would lose its connection with Bandit Eureka and lose its ability to control the Jaeger.
While the Jaeger was technically operational the two men still had to mentally connect with each other and the Jaeger to be able to actually pilot the machine. This method is known as drifting in which to minds merge in a sense to become one entity for the duration of piloting. Bourbon and Artyom had drifted multiple times before and so they greeted each others minds with open arms when the Marshal began the drift sequence from his command room.
Bourbon could feel the warmth of Artyom's being touch his mind, being co-pilots meant the two men had a much closer understanding of each other compared to the average person. A strong bond that bound the two together and made them inseparable from one another. Taking Artyom into his conciousness Bourbon created the neural bridge and successfully drifted with his co-pilot. With the two pilots holding a strong connection they began to synchronize the jaeger to their movements and prepared to be deployed.
After trekking out into the ocean for half an hour Bandit Eureka finally reached the target zone and prepared to intercept Knifehead. While the radar showed that the kaiju was nearby the pilots couldn't get a visual on their target. The sheets of snow falling from the sky impeding their vision. Their eyes scanned the surrounding area as waves batted against the jaeger. If they didn't find the Kaiju soon then it would reach Vladivostok and that was something they just could not allow.
Suddenly water filled the sky in front of the Jaeger as Knifehead leapt out of the ocean and onto Bandit Eureka. Bandit suffered minor hull damage as Knifehead repeatedly smashed its arms into it. The two pilots managed to overpower it for a few moments with a elbow rocket to the beasts stomach. This allowed the pilots a brief moment of piece in which they prepared for the onslaught. Picking up two nearby icebergs Bandit charged forwards at Knifehead in an attempt to hit the creature before it could recover. The attack worked, the ice shattering as the two icebergs smashed into the sides of the Kaiju's head stunning it for a few moments.
In this instant Bourbon calls out to his co-pilot “hit it boy!” and the left arm of the Jaeger quickly changes to charge the plasmacaster. The charging sequence always felt like it went on for days to the two pilots but in reality it was only a few seconds but in a fight those seconds were precious.
Those few seconds were also wasted time as Knifehead recovered and resumed his attack lunging forward with his blade shaped horn. The blade plunged deep into the left shoulder joint tearing the arm and its plasmacaster off in one swift move causing Artyom to scream in pain and reach for his now limp left arm. Although he knew that it wasn't his actual arm that got torn off the neural connection to the Jaeger meant that his mind felt and reacted to it.
The pained dulled the senses of both pilots as Knifehead clambered onto Bandit and began stabbing and slashing at the torso and head leaving large gashes in the armour. Suddenly Knifehead plunged his blade through the conn pod revealing its contents to the world. The two pilots looked at each other and Artyom called out to his co-pilot “Bourbon!!!!” but it was too late. Knifehead pulled back from the Jaeger taking a large chunk of the conn pod with it as well as Bourbon who was still attached.
Artyom could feel the fear and desperation in his co-pilot as he was forcibly removed from Bandit Eurekas conn pod and then suddenly nothingness as Bourbons presence left his mind leaving a large empty void. The young man's fear was quickly replaced by anger and determination as he struggled to lift his left arm to pass the arm controller to his right hand. The movement looked as though the man was trying to lift a one hundred kilogram weight but he was determined and succeeded in taking control on Bandits right arm. He was all that was left to defend the city and Artyom would take down Knifehead no matter the cost.
Bandit movements were erratic as Artyom tried to wrestle with the controls. Jaegers were never meant to be piloted solo, the mental strain often proving to be too much for a single pilot to handle and so a two pilot system had been devised as a way to share the neural load of piloting such a machine. However Artyom's anger and determination made him a force to be reckoned with even in this state. Bandits remaining arm slammed into the side of Knifehead's skull, enhanced by the thrust of an elbow mounted rocket. With the Kaiju reeling from the attack Artyom let out a scream as he charged the right plasmacaster and unleashed three super heated bursts of energy into Knifehead's face killing it instantly.
The rest of the mission was an unknown to Artyom as he phased in and out of conciousness trying to pilot Bandit Eureka back to shore. Despite this he managed to get back to the mainland before his Jaeger finally collapsed onto the beach. He was unaware of his surroundings as he disconnected from his harness and clawed his way out of the Jaeger's broken viewscreen. Finally standing on the beach the damage he had sustained was fully visible. Most of the armour on his left arm was shredded revealing intricate burn marks from where the suit had burned against him from the heat of the damaged reactor. With a final breath he muttered “bourbon” before collapsing onto the sand. The sound of helicopters roaring in the distance and waves lapping at his feet.