IN A TIME OF MONSTERS

RANGERS

HUANG & TAKESHIRO

Yamarashi Team Leaders, Scorcho Gridlock Jaeger Pilots Michelle Yeoh & Ken Watanabe

Legends in their own right, HUANG (MY) and TAKESHIRO (KW) were part of the first mission, consisting of five Jaegers, to close a breach. Around this time, the multi-neural handshake had not yet been implemented and the kaiju pack guarding the breach were able to best them. Though the mission failed, HUANG (MY) and TAKESHIRO (KW) were able to bring themselves and another Jaeger back to the base. Twelve years after, both are ready to retire. HUANG (MY) has a position in the United Governments waiting for her, not to mention a daughter who has long been campaigning for her retirement. While TAKESHIRO (KW) has been planning to settle down with the wife and children somewhere far from the kaiju. But their plans were put to a halt when the Eastern Shatterdome fell. Now they are faced with the decision. To spend the last days of the apocalypse in a Jaeger or with the ones they loved?

RIOS & OSHIRO

Jackal Boomer Jaeger Pilots Pedro Pascal & Rinko Kikuchi

Former Western Shatterdome Alpha Ranger, RIOS (PP) and his wife (and co-pilot) transferred to the Eastern 'dome a year ago to lead a team of their own, Slattern. But when she died during the New Year's Day attacks, RIOS (PP) was forced to relinquish his responsibilities as a leader. He was transferred to Yamarashi to fit the psych profile of his new co-pilot OSHIRO (RK), a Ranger fresh from the Academy. Their first mission together was against Varsha and Shaolin. RIOS (PP) feels the sting of survivor's guilt as the former leader of Team Slattern. Meanwhile, OSHIRO (RK) just wants to prove to her mentor and co-pilot that she is suited for the job. Never mind, that RIOS is still grieving for his dead wife.

YOUNG & YOUNG

Leatherback Team Leaders, Hokkaido Blaze Jaeger Pilots Shu Qi & Josh Holloway

It’s uncommon for rangers to have children and still be on active duty. Most couples retire after their first, but YOUNG (SQ) and YOUNG (JH) have had three since coming into active duty—and given that these two were drafted when the PPDC was first re-sanctioned, that’s been a long time indeed. The way they look at it, you can’t stop living your life just because you’re in active service. When you do, then you have no reason to serve. You get in a jaeger because you have hope, because you believe that there’s a future after the kaiju. Maybe that’s why they fight so hard, the Youngs have three futures to protect, nevermind their own.

LUTHER & LUTHER

Django Heartbreaker Jaeger Pilots Alice Eve & Chris Evans

The Luthers were drafted into the Jaeger Program along with their parents, all in the German military, at the beginning of the war. A couple of seasoned fighter pilots themselves, LUTHER (AE) & LUTHER (CE) were the youngest Rangers to ever grace a conn-pod, skipping the four year Academy course with the rest of the veterans. Twelve years later, and long after they buried their mother and father, they're still just Rangers. Despite their seniority and skills, they have been repeatedly passed over as team leaders. It isn't because of their youth because they've more than made up for that with experience. It's the fact that they expect other people to be as selfless, as ruthless, and as pragmatic as they are.

JEONG & JEONG

Reckoner Team Leaders, Wicked Horizon Jaeger Pilots Yunjin Kim & Daniel Dae Kim

Three years ago, JEONG (DDK) was content with being a Flyboy. Then his wife JEONG (YK) lost her brother and co-pilot, so he readily accepted when Command put him in the conn-pod with her. For JEONG (DDK) it was no-brainer. For JEONG (YK), the same couldn't be said. Losing someone she deeply cared for the way she did - in the middle of a battle - was not an experience she wanted to repeat. She would rather let a complete stranger in her head rather than risk going through that again, and this time with her husband. They were recently promoted as leaders of Reckoner when the last ones died from injuries sustained in battle.

LEIGH & LEIGH

Puma Gladiator Jaeger Pilots Jessica Biel & Evangeline Lilly

Hailing from New Zealand, the LEIGH siblings enlisted in the PPDC not because they wanted revenge. They just wanted to get by. With their brother, they were all placed in the long list of Ranger Reserves. Their brother and his co-pilot got on a Jaeger two years ago, while LEIGH (JB) & LEIGH (EL) have became part of their LOCCENT crew, as their Communications and Controls Systems officers, respectively. Within the confines of the Shatterdome and safe from the kaiju, LEIGH & LEIGH have both, in their own way, dealt with the anxiety of sending out their only family to the field. But it was LEIGH (EL) who always had a feeling that one day, their brother wouldn't come back. That day finally came when their brother's team, Knifehead, stayed behind when the Shatterdome self-destruct. Once they transferred into the Western Shatterdome, they were activated from Ranger Reserves and given a Jaeger of their own. LEIGH (EL) is eager to see action, wanting to make their brother proud by following in his footsteps. LEIGH (JB), however, has reservations about the whole thing, not wanting to follow their brother too early to the grave. But she knows that she can protect her sister, and the last of her family, better from inside a conn-pod than in LOCCENT.

FLYBOYS

JUAREZ

Combat Support Squadron Captain Morena Baccarin

JUAREZ is one, if not the best combat support pilot in the base. She’s so good, in fact, that anyone who’s only known her by reputation would be wracking their heads, trying to figure out why she hadn’t been made Squad Captain sooner. Answer: she doesn’t exactly play nice with others. Truth is she can’t lead a team, and what’s more, doesn’t even want to. She’s not popular with the men, harsh with them even if they do well and even harsher when they mess up. But when the Fifth Protocol was initiated, their last Combat Support Captain died along with the other unlucky bastards who were drafted to keep the kaiju busy and she was the most senior flyboy left. Now, people expect her to step up to the plate of leading her team but they better be ready for the consequences.

HAYASHI

Combat Support Pilot Tao Okamoto

The daughter and only child of the late Marshal Takahiro Hayashi, HAYASHI (TO) has always wanted to follow in her father's foosteps. She enlisted in the Academy as soon as she was twenty-one. But once there, she couldn't find a drift-compatible partner that met her very high standards. So instead of settling with a subpar co-pilot, she shifted to the Air Support Track. Though more than capable of being a Combat Support pilot, HAYASHI (TO) opted for the Rescue & Recovery Squadron because of her father's wishes. Just before Marshal Hayashi gave the order to inititiate the Fifth Protocol (for the self-destruction of the Eastern Shatterdome), he gave her his blessing. Now in the Western Shatterdome, she has joined the Combat Support Squadron and made the list for Ranger Reserves. With her father in mind, she is more than ready to face kaiju regardless if it's in a plane or in a Jaeger.

MWANGI

Combat Support Pilot Naomi Harris

When the world’s in deep enough shit, word travels fast and people flock to make a difference. When news reached that the PPDC Flyboys were in short supply and great demand, even people like MWANGI (NH), living in the safety of Africa—away from the horrors of the Pacific—couldn’t ignore the call for long. She had a flying license and it wasn’t as if she had any family who would try to stop her from joining up. Figured what the hell, maybe she could try becoming part of something for once. You drift around long enough that you start to forget that there’s more to life than just looking after yourself and saving your own skin. Well, couple of years later, she sees that she’s been proven wrong. Doesn’t matter what side of the line you’re on. Life is still about watching your own back, saving your own skin, and making sure you live another day. She’s only lucky that her wingman (DH) isn’t one of those pepper-upper type of people that try to get her to change their mind. If he was, then maybe she’d stop breaking her personal rules and stop watching his back in the air.

SHIN

Combat Support Pilot Daniel Henney

Unlike his wingman MWANGI (NH), SHIN (DH) did not come to the PPDC in hopes to becoming part of something bigger—and because he didn’t come into it so innocently, he was never disillusioned when the horrors of fighting a war they simply had no hopes of winning turned out to be just that… horrible. Only reason he signed up was to make sure that his two little brothers didn’t die trying to be heroes, but ever since the Eastern Shatterdome fell and they both died with the rest of the poor assholes who were left to make sure that the kaiju stayed there long enough to blow up with the damned thing, well there’s not much of a point in trying. Sure, he’s still in the PPDC and sure he still flies and fights, but when it comes down to it, he’s not exactly trying that hard to survive. Good thing for him, MWANGI won’t let him get too stupid.

DEZYHNOV

Combat Support Pilot Guy Pearce

Not six months passed after being released from prison, DEYZHNOV (GP) got caught for the same crime that landed him in prison in the first place: smuggling. But the Angel of Mercy descended upon him and gave him a choice. Either he enlists in the PPDC and put that experience in the Air Force to good use or go back to the slammer and reunite with a host of dangerous convicts who wanted him dead. The choice was easy. He was going to take his chances with the kaiju, thank you very much. Only thing is, he's still smuggling for the mech black market but this time as an inside man.

GROUND CREW

SETTON 

Chili Chuck Head Battle Programmer Nathan Fillion

Once upon a time, SETTON (NF), was an engineer for ROEMER's (SC) old Jaeger back in the Eastern 'dome. Since then the Australian engineer has climbed the ranks and became the Head Engineer for the very same Jaeger. But with his old Jaeger - from Team Knifehead - blown up with the rest of the Eastern Shatterdome, he's back in his old friend's engineering crew as it's Head Battle Programmer. Sure, he's not that great in taking orders and will have to get used to not being the King of the Engineering Deck but at least he's got something to busy himself with.

MISHRA

Kaiju Activity Monitor Dev Patel

MISHRA (DP) was one of the PPDC's best and brightest in the field of kaiju physiology. But after a little mental breakdown caused by a dead end in his research, he was transferred to LOCCENT where he can safely apply his expertise without stressing himself too much. Though he's found that he quite likes his work in LOCCENT, he misses making significant contributions to the field of science. Now in the Western Shatterdome, he's working to get back in the Research & Development department but there's no telling if he's ready to handle the anxiety that it brings out of him.

RICKFORT

Kaiju Bio Harvesters, Recovery Crew Nathalie Emmanuel

Doing bloody work was never for the faint hearted and RICKFORT was never one of those girls who squealed at the sight of blood. In fact, along with all the boys who played with insects and poked ant hills, she found it exciting—she found the rush exhilarating. No surprise, she ends up walking inside kaiju carcasses and harvesting their vital organs for a living. All in the name of science, I guess. But it won’t get much for her to admit that she enjoys the hell out of it too.

BENITEZ

Head Engineer for Puma Gladiator Santiago Cabrera

Most of the people who know BENITEZ often wonder how he can still smile and joke around after everything that’s happened to him. First and foremost, his wife, the former pilot of the Jaeger he currently is the head engineer for, died on duty during the Eastern ‘dome’s own Double Event. That event also took out a lot of his family, who was visiting the Shatterdome for Remembrance Day, leaving him with just a little sister—who was lucky to escape with her life, though confined to the hospital under critical condition. And now, during the exodus from the Eastern ‘dome, his sister died on transport. You know how it goes, things happen. Machines die while you’re in the air. People die too when you least expect it. Still, he’s all laughs and jokes. Never see him down. Hard to think of it as genuine and only an idiot would believe that it is.

AHMADI

Air Support Engineer Hafsia Herzi

She was a student of Aviation Engineering when she joined up with the PPDC, not because she wanted to be of use or wanted to take the opportunity of the PPDC paying off her student loans (both of which they did, by the way). She joined up because she wanted to be around the best planes in the air. Quiet, sleek, and beautiful, the hawks of the PPDC were the stuff of bedtime stories for her. Her grandfather had gone on and on about them, stories about the pilots during the first kaiju war and call it a kid’s dream, but she’d always wanted to see one up close. Guess what? It’s harder than what it seems, being in the Jaeger Program. The price of seeing the planes up close was getting to know it’s pilots, waiting in the hangars and knowing at the end of the day that more than half of them won’t be coming back. Her grandfather never told her that—but that’s not the kind of things you tell a kid. Well, she’s not a kid anymore.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

LEYSER

Kaiju Biologist and Toxicologist Iddo Goldberg

When the evacuation of the Eastern Shatterdome was ordered, one group from research and development was given priority above all others. Dr. LEYSER (IG), being the head of that research group was given tantamount importance. Why? Because a couple of months back, after tireless days and nights hulled up in lab, he found the cure for kaiju blue. The secret, you see, was in the blood. Reversing the toxicity kaiju blood has on humans, he was able to find a way of making it deadly to kaiju cells themselves, effectively killing them almost as fast as they could kill us. Now, the research is at a delicate state. The formulas still unstable, which is why the discovery was not made public ’til very recently. But as soon as the fifth protocol was initiated and a forced evacuation was ordered, he made a bee-line to the Marshall and told him just what he’d done. Was he waiting for an advantageous time to make his discovery known? Yes. Did he do it to get himself the best seat in the first shuttle out of there? Yes. Is he sorry about it? No. After all, when you’re a scientist in a time of war, you have very few ways of ensuring your survival. Being smart about things never hurt. After all, without his research, the PPDC wouldn’t be able to weaponize the formula and use it to level the playing field.

NAZIH

Kaiju Biologist and Assistant Researcher to Dr. Leyser Aiysha Hart

If anyone knows what kind of man Dr. LEYSER (IG) is, that’s NAZIH (AH). She’s worked with him longer than any assistant he’s had and she knows his moods better than any one else in the base. She knows what he’s like and she has no illusions. Just because he’s a brilliant man doesn’t mean he’s a good one. Like with this latest discovery of his—had he released it earlier, they would have more hands on the team, more people to help, a better chance to save more lives. But he cares about the credit, he involves as little people as possible so when the time is right, people know who did it and who they should give the rewards (whatever they may be) to. She knows all of this and the thing she’s most afraid of is that she’s growing to respect him—not just as a scientist but as a man. She sees the point and she’s starting to understand that in this game, you have to look out for yourself as much as the rest of the world. The last thing she wants to do is become as skeptical as Dr. LEYSER, but she knows as well as he does that he’s right about most things, this being one of them.

SENGUPTA

Jaeger Technology (Weapons Specialist) Archie Panjabi

One of the very few people LEYSER (IG) brought into his research was weapons specialist SENGUPTA (AP). After all, if you find something deadly to the kaiju, you’d be a fool not to involve a weapons specialist. She’d want to say that she’s flattered that he trusts her, but they both know that that’s not likely. After all, she was once in a serious relationship with the man and she didn’t break it off because she denied what kind of person he was. She knows that he trusts her as well as he trusts everyone else—which is not at all—and that the only reason why he’s coming to her with it is because she’d fight tooth and nail just like him to keep the discovery theirs and no one else’s. As ambitious as he is even when lives of millions are in his hands, so is she. And if he’s going to be at the forefront of the most important discovery of the modern world, then she’s going to be right alongside him.

CASTILLO

Kaiju Blue Specialist Oscar Isaac

CASTILLO is one of those people you’d call a genuinely good person. Rare, yes, but he’s proof that they exist. He entered the PPDC because they were at the forefront of kaiju blue and he wanted to help in the effort to find a cure. Had LEYSER (IG) not discovered just that, he would never have begun working with the man in the first place. It’s a sickness of good men, the lack of tolerance for anyone who isn’t. He doesn’t like LEYSER, can’t stand the man. He doesn’t believe in LEYSER’s way of thinking and had been hounding the man, since the first conclusive tests had resulted in positive, to bring their discovery to the head of the department. But you can’t cross someone like LEYSER, no matter how good you are. Some evils, you just have to endure.

MEDICAL

MEHRA

Trauma Nurse Amara Karan

MEHRA was on duty when the kaiju attacked last remembrance day. She was on the deck when they brought in flyboys, jaeger pilots, countless of innocents, all in store for losing senses, limbs, and lives. But she kept her calm, she breathed evenly and didn’t flinch because she knew that this is what she signed up for. This was what she was trained to do. If she did her job, more of them might have a chance at recovery and even less of them had to die. But then the the latest attack happened and the Fifth Protocol was initiated. People she’d saved only a couple of months ago died anyway. At the end of the day, what’s the point? She’s still trying to find the answer for that—or maybe it would be better if she avoided the question all together. Working would help. As soon as they put her to work, she’d feel better.

GHASEMI

On-site Trauma Surgeon Nazanin Boniadi

Chopper duty, no bigger rush than to get in one of those helicopters after a big fight and fish out the dead out of the water—at least that’s how most of the people she worked with thought about it. In a way, that way of thinking was safer. Kept you distant, kept you excited, kept your adrenaline up and your blood pumping. But she’s scared. She’s scared every time she gets in one of those and even more scared when they find an injured person on the brink of life and death. To her, that’s a good thing—being scared. Tells you you’re still thinking straight. Tells you you still care. Tells you you’re still human. After all, what is war except a test in how far you can stretch your humanity despite adversity. She’s not planning on becoming an in denial adrenaline junkie any time soon—not like her chopper-mate GALEAZZI who’s already too far gone to waste her energy on… doesn’t stop her from trying, though. 

GALEAZZI

On-Site Trauma Nurse Luke Pasqualino

You know those adrenaline junkies who get a high off chopper duty? Well he’s one of them. To be quite honest, the whole severity of the war is completely lost on him. Part of him still acts like this is all a game, like you’re getting points somewhere in some invisible scoreboard. Ten points if you fish an injured guy, twenty if you bring him back to camp alive, one hundred if he doesn’t die in a week. People like his chopper-mate GHASEMI hate him because of it, but hey? Whatever gets you through the night, right? We all do what we got to do to get the job done and done well. If being a man-child with a problem taking things seriously means he can save more lives, then what harm is really done? After all, he gets to keep his sanity after this, can she say the same?

COMMAND

YOSHIDA

Deputy Marshall of the Eastern Hemisphere Shatterdome Hiroyuki Sanada

Being in command makes you make hard choices and do them with such a confidence that it inspires confidence in your men. When Marshall Hayashi told him that they were initiating the Fifth Protocol and he was supposed to lead the surviving men out to through the safe zone, he didn’t flinch. Despite Hayashi being more than just his commanding officer but his friend, despite them serving more than a decade on the PPDC together and even longer in the military. Despite YOSHIDA being five weeks short of retirement and knowing that to accept Hayashi’s orders was to throw that all away and take on an entirely new and more demanding post. When your commander gives you an order, you carry it out even if it hurts you to do it. YOSHIDA’s orders didn’t end after landing in the Western Shatterdome. He has to go on because his orders were to lead these men—the last of the brave men and women who’d protected the Eastern Pacific shores. There’s no retirement for him now. With the way things are turning out, he’ll likely die at his post. But that’s the burden of command, and when you take on that position, you give up any alternative.

GATES

Psyche Analyst Saffron Burrows

GATES (SB) never really minded being hated. She’s used to it. She’s always the bad guy, always the person who tells you that you can’t get in a Jaeger, that you can never pilot one again, that you can’t handle the neural bridge so you better find something else to waste your time on. She’s perfect for this role because she’d been on the receiving end of the speech once, when her predecessor told her that after a significant amount of personal trauma, she could never hold a neural bridge again. She’d done everything a person receiving news like that could do: rage, cry, throw things, threaten people, fall into a deep depression. Only difference between her and majority of the people who’d been through the exact same thing is that she got over it. She grew up. She found something else to do. She decided to become the punching bag. After all, if you’re going to hate someone, it better be someone who can take a hit. 

GATES

Jaeger Assault Specialist, Academy Instructor Ruta Gedmitas

When the old psyche analysts told her and her sister GATES (SB) that they would never be able to sustain a neural bridge again because of their shared trauma, she was the one who couldn’t lash out. She had to be strong for them both—quite old hat for the little sister who’d always had to be the grown up while her older sister played with fire. Cautious, careful, observant and shrewd, people never expect her to be the reckless one. They never expect her to be the one who can’t handle it. But she can’t. She hasn’t since the news. It just looks that way from all the pills she’s been taking—not that she’d tell anyone. After all, you can’t be in the PPDC if you can’t handle the shit that comes with it.

CIVILIAN

DIYA

Unemployed Ashley Madekwe

She was there for a charity event, one charity event, to stand with her family as they donated a significant amount of money to the broken down Eastern Shatterdome. She was only supposed to be there for a couple of hours. A few smiles here and there, maybe a little chat with the Marshall and she would be done, back on a chopper back home and that would be the end of that. But then the alarms sounded, people started running and before she knew it, something called the Fifth Protocol was activated. Their chopper was destroyed when the Kaiju started attacking the ‘dome, her parents died, failing to run out of the collapsing room, and she was escorted out, along with everyone else, with huge Jaegers walking right beside them. Now, she’s on foreign soil—North America, and she’s just like everyone else… a refugee. She can’t go back home because there is no home to go back to. Everything was destroyed. Nothing is left. How do people do that? Pick themselves after something like this when he kaiju left nothing to pick up?

SHAYLE

Smuggler and Refugee Suraj Sharma