Author's Notes: Missing Moments from the Kaiju War! This fic is in the same headcanon-verse as my other Pacific Rim fics, but they're not required reading. It's really a series of loosely-related ficlets. It draws heavily from Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero, the graphic novel, as well as the movie and novelization. A guide to the original character pilots is at the end of the chapter, but I've used canon characters wherever possible. Hope you like! Please do give me your feedback! (And if there are particular missing moments/shatterdome shenanigans you'd like to see from any point during the war, let me know!)

Generation K: Tales From The Front Lines

Chapter One: It Takes Trust… And Alcohol.

March 2015, Kodiak Island, Alaska…

Once the first line of Jaegers was greenlit by the newly-christened PPDC, the fledgling Jaeger Program had no shortage of volunteer pilots. That was a good problem to have, because even before the April attack on Vancouver, Caitlin Lightcap and Jasper Schoenfeld were burning through the test pilots they did have with almost no results. Hardly any of the candidate pairs could seem to connect through the pons.

"I don't understand," Stacker Pentecost said, baffled by their test reports. "You and Lieutenant D'onofrio linked up the first time you tried it."

"I know!" Caitlin said, frustrated. She glanced at Schoenfeld and quickly looked away, but not before Stacker noticed. "It didn't… feel that difficult," she murmured. "It's strange to experience, but I don't know why so few of the test pilots can even seem to form a connection."

Lieutenant D'onofrio, just observing the conversation up until then, ventured a suggestion: "Maybe it needs some kind of mental connection to start with. Most of the candidates you've tested who make it all the way through the physical and neural screening are strangers. I've seen a lot of them getting introduced the same day of testing. We, ah, we'd been working together for months by the time of the test."

Seeing the color that rose to both pilots' faces, Stacker had a feeling it had been more than just a simple familiarity. But still, it was a lead worth exploring. "A good friend of mine from the RAF is going through the screening as we speak," he mused. "Perhaps she and I should give it a try. I'll put the word out to the national liaisons. There must be some colleagues, relatives, even romantic couples who work together in the services and would be willing to try." He politely didn't change his tone on the reference to couples.

D'onofrio said quickly, "I knew a Blackhawk pilot who had a twin brother – they were both Army Rangers. I'll look him up."

April 2015…

Kodiak Island was nicknamed the Jaeger Academy as Lightcap and D'onofrio struggled to instruct the volunteers on how to navigate the strange mental bridge, which D'onofrio nicknamed the drift.

"It does feel like floating," agreed Trevin Gage, D'onofrio's former colleague from Iraq. He and his twin brother, Bruce, were finding it confusing and disorienting and still figuring out how to operate the test rig, but they at least could seem to stay connected.

Stacker and Tamsin were the next to link up, followed swiftly by the Kaidanovskys from Russia and the Jessops from Japan.

Then came Karloff, and Stacker both wanted to watch the Jaeger deploy against the monster and feared what would happen if the gambit failed.

"Caitlin Lightcap is so far the most successful test subject in this… drift," he warned the hastily-assembled delegates over the video conference. "Not to mention the designer of the pons. If we lose her, we may not be able to do duplicate her results."

But Lightcap herself was fiercely in favor of it, and once the Canadian military gave the go-ahead, Alexsandra Kaidanovsky shoved past the scrambling support crew with smartphone in hand, and ordered, "Speak all you know of the drift!"

So, even as they suited up, Caitlin and Sergio dictated. Stacker and Tamsin, the Gage twins, the Jessops, and the Kaidanovskys hovered nearby, drinking in every word of advice possible about the mental bond.

"Don't follow the memories," Sergio warned. "No matter how intense they are. They'll drag you off track if you let them."

"Stay in the drift, the drift is silence," Caitlin agreed. "Then you can see and feel what you're doing."

"Don't judge."

Despite the desperation they all felt, a few chuckles escaped the listeners. It was an apt point; several of the candidate teams showed some promise, only to storm out of the testing rooms and refuse to continue, apparently after seeing something that one or both didn't like.

"You have to trust each other," was Caitlin's last advice as Brawler Yukon powered up. "Be ready to see everything and know everything and trust that it's safe."

Was it possible? Stacker wondered. To be exposed on that level and still manage to focus enough to actually fight a kaiju? Test runs and simulations were one thing, but… would this actually work?

Forty-eight hours later, the crowded base erupted into chaos and people streamed through the halls and the grounds, screaming in joy and triumph, and scenes of celebration and victory flooded the media from all over the world. The Kaidanovskys broke out a bottle of vodka and passed it around to their fellow trainees.

"We will do this," they vowed. "Caitlin and Sergio have proven all we need to know: it can be done."

Summer 2015…

The now-official Jaeger Academy was flooded with volunteers after Karloff, but the success rate at drifting wasn't much higher than it had been before. Stacker and Tamsin gradually got the hang of it, and were among the top candidate teams in that first "class," as the Gages jokingly christened them.

It still wasn't easy. Bruce and Trevin, despite being seasoned Army Rangers, experienced in combat and battle stress, nearly derailed their own tests not with the horrors of battlefields, but with the memory of a car accident that had almost killed Bruce when they were teenagers.

Stacker pulled the test unit off his head and slid to the floor, shaking and sweat-drenched and hiding his face behind his arm the first time he lived K-Day from Tamsin's perspective and saw his sister's plane explode.

The prospective pilots got into the habit of gathering on Saturday nights in the makeshift mess hall for "recovery drinks" as the Jessops put it. Where the Kaidanovskys kept getting their hands on top-shelf liquor, much of which was only available in continental Asia, Stacker would dearly have loved to know, but they refused to share their secret.

Two months into testing, Stacker and Tamsin thought they were finally starting to learn how to control the drift and stop falling into past nightmares.

The first line of Jaegers had been labeled the Mark-1's. There would be seven of them, and Brawler Yukon, the prototype, would make eight.

"Eight," Tamsin breathed as the test pilots crowded around the windows of the huge assembly warehouse, gazing at the massive constructions under way. "We took down a kaiju with one in a single day, and we'll have eight."

"Eight to start with," Herc Hansen pointed out with a feral grin, eyes on the Jaegers. "Another five or six next year, Schoenfeld says, if they can match the pilots."

God, I wish Luna were here to see this. After two months of trying to link their minds, Stacker thought there were times when he wasn't sure when a thought that drifted through his head was his or hers. And in the end, they both decided it didn't matter.

That wasn't to say it got "easier." Far from it.

Over a hundred teams had now attempted testing in the pons and the drift, and nine remained. Five of the pairs were blood relatives: the Gage twins, the Chen twins, the Lis and the Hansens were siblings, and Yan-Jie Lim and Fang Lao were first cousins. Two more pairs, the Jessops and the Kaidanovskys, were married couples.

The last pair, Miguel Blanco and Maria Lopez of Argentina, had only met after K-Day, but they seemed to have bonded over their shared heritage and culture so far from home. Tamsin liked watching them dance, and Stacker sometimes let her chivvy him into being her partner when the Argentinians or the Panamanians were game to giving lessons (especially when Scott Hansen came sniffing around.)

On one such occasion, Tamsin was partnered with Carlos Chen while Jordana gave her advice and the Argentinians served as demonstrators, and Stacker was just content to watch and nurse his drink when Trevin Gage came half-staggering into the mess hall.

Shell-shocked test pilots were an all-too-common sight, but the Gage twins had seemed mostly past that stage. "You all right, mate?" Duc Jessop asked in alarm.

"Gimme a drink. Gimme ALL the drinks!" Trevin croaked. The Kaidanovskys just raised their eyebrows in unison and passed him an entire bottle of Russian vodka, which he chugged like a pro.

A very red-faced Bruce came slinking in a few minutes later, trailed by the flat-out giggling Kaori Jessop and Caitlin Lightcap. "Sorry," he kept muttering at his twin.

"Mm, someone saw something he didn't want to see," Sergio D'onofrio concluded, and now Stacker was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Jordana Chen and Jing Li were now on either side of the traumatized Gages, patting them sympathetically and shooting each other dismayed looks.

Sasha joined Stacker and Tamsin, Maria and Miguel, and the Jessops, and raised her glass with a sly grin. "Let us drink to not drifting with a relative!"

Tamsin laughed, and Herc adjourned to the "therapy table" to console Bruce and Trevin. Stacker let himself smile and joined the toast, murmuring, "Thank God for small mercies."

A week later, he ate those words. It was Tamsin who realized first what was coming: Stacker might not be drifting with a relative, but in a way, he had it even worse… he was drifting with a relative's former lover.

As their drift stabilized and memories began to flow more freely, she awkwardly tried to forewarn him. It gave him some consternation, certainly, but Stacker Pentecost was a man of the world, and had raised Luna through her teens. Of course, he hadn't expected her to be celibate, and had known and approved of her relationship with Tamsin – after all, if he hadn't approved, surely they couldn't have drifted together.

But, he discovered… it was a very different thing to see it in the drift from Tamsin's perspective.

They came stumbling out of the drift into daylight as the days grew shorter again. Stacker kept his composure… just.

Tamsin's pale redhead's complexion worked against her when it came to embarrassment – she was blushing through her hairline. Once the technicians had the caps off and the instruments powered down, he let go… and slowly turned to her with his face screwed up in an appalled wrinkle of big-brotherly horror.

"I WARNED you!" Tamsin practically shrieked, mortified and defensive.

They went staggering into the mess hall in search of the Russians, but the Kaidanovskys hadn't arrived yet. "Whoa! The Brits are blitzed!" exclaimed one of the Gages.

"Not yet, but give us time," Tamsin grunted, digging around in the crates behind the "bar" in search of the strongest alcohol available. She shoved the first bottle she found at Stacker without looking at him, having thoroughly assumed "the hunch of shame" as Maria Lopez called it.

"What's this? Tamya? You managed to shock the man of steel?" Sasha Kaidanovsky demanded as she and Aleksis came in.

Of course, the whole population of trainees was gathering for their end-of-the-week pow-wow, and Stacker didn't have the energy to flee. He consoled himself that no one else ever seemed to either – or maybe that was just because it wouldn't look well for the Jaeger pilots to be running around base carrying bottles of alcohol, so they stayed in the mess hall.

So he hunched his own shoulders and waited for the blowback. Caitlin arrived a few minutes later, weary from her dual role as senior drift trainer and fellow pilot, but although the candidates immediately turned to her for explanations, she sportingly refused to talk. (However, she had a terrible poker face, and Stacker could only bear a quick glance over his shoulder before her grin made him focus his attention on his bottle of liquor with determined fascination.)

"Well, I always thought Sevier had a wild side," Scott Hansen was saying, not bothering to lower his voice. Herc was just in Stacker's line of vision, trying (with limited success) to act politely disinterested. "Poor stuffy ol' Stacker just couldn't take it."

Tamsin snorted in unison with several of the women; for a man who fancied himself a player, Scott didn't seem to know the first thing about how to evoke anything other than disdain from fellow candidates or Corps personnel. (He also didn't know that even men who observed decent military protocol were perfectly capable of cutting loose.) Stacker knew Herc Hansen had, and before K-Day, he'd found it easier to cut loose. The slightly-younger trainees still followed the "work hard, play harder" philosophy.

"So, what'd'ja see, mate?" Scott slapped Stacker on the back. "It true what they say about those Scots women?"

Tamsin banged her beer bottle on the table. "You're about to find out it's true we unwind by ripping the balls off mouthy men who won't take the hint to leave off! You want to go snicker like a juvenile, do it somewhere else and leave us in peace – and remember, your turn is coming."

Scott finally was distracted from harassing Tamsin as Herc strolled over to slap his back and give him a warning look as he hauled Scott to another table. "Oh, this one already got his. Front row seat to big brother's courtship!"

That surprised Stacker enough to knock him out of his ohmybloodyfuckinggodIsawmysisterSTOP! shock, and he glanced back at them. Now Scott was rocking back and forth, mostly playful, but mock-groaning at the mortification that resulted from memories in the drift that a sibling partner really didn't want to see.

Scott was already well into the Saturday night imbibements, and his loud speculations were grating on Stacker's nerves. Herc managed to prod him to go get himself a base pass for some of the off-base bars that were close by. There were enough local women lusting after the pilots of these strange new mechs that even a bloke of social skills as abysmal as Scott Hansen's could at least hope to get some stress relief.

"Sorry about that," Herc muttered after Scott was gone. "You two all right? Need something stronger?"

"Is there any?" He and Tamsin had simply grabbed the first bottles they could get their hands on.

Jing Li and Maria Lopez were taking inventory of the Kaidanovskys' stash and shaking their heads. "We save most of the good stuff for the siblings and their trauma. We did not expect you to have that trouble," said Sasha. "Unless…"

Rumor had it that she had been in the Russian Diplomatic Corps, some kind of Natasha Romanoff–meets-James Bond. For a woman who claimed no more special skills than mixed martial arts, middle rank Russian military, and a few languages from her travels, Sasha Kaidanovsky was… disturbingly good at getting to the bottom of things.

She looked from Tamsin to Stacker and back again, then her eyebrows shot up, and her composure almost broke. She and her husband exchanged a few sly grins, then Aleksis gravely got up and brought Stacker another bottle. No wonder their drift tests had them so far ahead of the rest of the pilots.

"Okay, this isn't fair, you two aren't even related!" Bruce Gage protested. "What could possibly be worse than drifting with a sibling?!"

He and Tamsin winced in unison and now she was wrinkling her nose back at him (but trying not to laugh.) "Aww, now they've gone non-verbal on us!" Duc complained. "Spill, Stacks, we're all Jaeger pilots here!"

Despite the wheedling from the nosy ones, Caitlin steadfastly refused to talk. And, of all the sibling drifters, it was Herc who finally worked it out: "Oh, hell!" He went from red to white to red again. "You poor bastard!"

With humiliation now inevitable (and rapid progress into their respective alcoholic consolation) Stacker and Tamsin just let it pass with a wry grins. Stacker had a bottle in each hand and alternated between pulls from one and the other as Tamsin buried her face in her arms.

"You're a brave man," Min Li told him, giving his older sister, Jing, a look of utter horror. "I think I would have to kill myself."

"You mean I would have to kill you," Jing retorted, reaching past him to pat Stacker's arm – and pass him another beer.

There were now about a dozen bottles between Stacker and Tamsin, and he thought he might just put a dent in all of them. That was probably why the whole situation was starting to go from horrific to funny.

"I blame you for this," he informed Sergio.

The man put a hand to his chest, all innocence. "Hey, now, Cait's the one who designed the mind-melding machine in the first place!"

"Traitor," Caitlin grumbled.

Stacker kept glaring at Sergio. "But you were the one who with the bright idea of siblings drifting!"

"Oooh, he's got you there! That's right, we owe you an ass-kicking too!" the Gages declared, and the Chens voiced their agreement, and soon they were joined by the other siblings as well as the cousins, all blaming their mental scars on Sergio.

Luna would be laughing her arse off. He assumed that was his thought, until he saw Tamsin grinning at him as she swiped one of his bottles. He wrinkled his nose at her again, just so she'd know he was still mad at her, and she giggled.

They were well into their drinks, and inhibitions came down that night even more than usual. "Scott'll be disappointed," Herc chortled as the ribbing got going. "He's hot for Tamsin."

"He's hot for everything female and breathing," Kaori Jessop replied, having slid most of the way into Duc's lap.

"You're hot," said Yan-Jie Lim abruptly, gesturing at Kaori.

"Oy!" Duc exclaimed.

"I was jus' saying!"

Herc guffawed and slapped Duc on the back. "Look but don't touch the married ones, Yan-Jie. Don't worry, Scott's the same," he added. For a moment, his humor faded, and he mused to Stacker and Tamsin, "He remembered her, you know. Your Luna. Good pilot."

"The best," Tamsin agreed, raising her bottle to him. For once, they'd both sopped up enough vodka (and whiskey… and sake… and whatever the hell that vile moonshine was that the Gages had brought to the party) that the nostalgia of thinking about life pre-K-Day came without a wave of crushing pain. "Wonder who she'd have drifted with. Stacker or me?"

"You. She thought I got in her business too much as it was," Stacker snorted, and Herc laughed again.

"Yeah, Scott and me wonder what the hell we were thinking."

"We all do," agreed Min Li. Jing was playing some kind of rapid-fire Chinese card game with Yan-Jie and Fang. "I had enough of her opinions before she got into my head!"

"I heard that!" Jing announced, and launched into a stream of Mandarin too fast for Stacker to follow (except for the profane parts.) The other Chinese pair and Sasha Kaidanovsky laughed and added their commentary to the tirade, and someone (possibly Herc) started throwing poker chips.

It all went downhill from there.

When the sun came up, Caitlin, Kaori, and Maria were passed out in a pile under a table, with Duc's feet sticking out from underneath them. Trevin Gage had last been seen making out with Jordana Chen (and Bruce had disappeared around the same time with Carlos.) The Kaidanovskys had run off to quarters giggling like a pair of high schoolers at the prom. Sergio and Miguel were singing soulful Latin pop ballads – neither even remotely on-key. Yan-Jie, Fang, and the Lis were playing full-contact dominoes, and Stacker, Tamsin, and Herc were arguing over whether the RAF or RAAF would be able to beat the aliens from Independence Day.

Stacker never could remember who actually won that debate.

~Fin~

The Jaeger Program, Class 2015-A Original Characters

The Mark-1's (along with Stacker and Tamsin, Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky, Duc and Kaori Jessop, Herc and Scott Hansen, and Bruce and Trevin Gage, we have...)

Miguel Blanco and Maria Lopez: Talon "Tango" Tasmania: Argentinian Navy pilots, they were friends before enlisting in the PPDC and got into the habit of dancing for fun - and were discovered to be drift compatible. They would go on to be assigned to Australia's first Jaeger.

Min and Jing Li: Horizon Brave: China's first Jaeger pilots, siblings and air force officers in their early 30s, they helped shape the program that would become the Jaeger Academy and recruited many talented people into the program, including a certain set of triplets.

The Mark-2's

Carlos and Jordana Chen: Puma Real: Fraternal twins from Panama (also of Chinese descent), in their late 20s, they were commercial pilots when the Panamanian government asked them to attempt drifting after the Gage twins' success became known.

Yan-Jie Lim and Fang Lao: Silver Lion: Chinese air force pilots in their late 20s, first cousins, they were recruited by the Lis and would go on to pilot China's second Jaeger.