Chapter Text
It was probably one of my weirder requests. I'd done publicity for lots of Korean idols in the past. . . boy bands. Girl bands. Singers, both pop and indie. I started off my career as a personal assistant for the PR managers of bands like B2st and 2AM. But this was my first time being asked to do publicity for a pair of Jaeger pilots.
The thing that you have to understand about that period of time was that we thought that the Kaiju threat was under controlled. True, there were deaths. True, there were casualties. But the big disasters, the ones like San Francisco and Manila, they were years in the past. For us, Kaiju attacks became like the threat of earthquakes or volcanos used to be. . . or the threat of tornados or hurricanes. They were natural disasters, but they were disasters that could be combated, prepared for, and defeated.
More than that, however, they were incredible chances to become rich. I am not talking about the black market that sprang up around the purchase and sale of Kaiju body parts. I am talking about the entertainment value of the Jaeger battles themselves. That incredible footage of Romeo Blue defeating Hardship in the evacuated city of Seattle recieved more hits on the internet than any viral video before then. And then there was the Nike Corporation's public relations coup in recieving permission from the Pan Pacific Defense Corps to market "Romeo Blue vs. Hardship" sneakers.
We who were in the Kaiju business assuaged any guilt we might have felt in profiting off of the courage and sacrifices of these remarkable pilots by donating a portion of the proceeds that we recieved to the PPDC's "Fallen Ranger" charity for the family of those Rangers who died in combat. And certainly, we did much good: enough so that the Pan Pacific Defense Corps could take out million-dollar life insurance policies on every single one of their Rangers. Not to mention the money made by the Rangers themselves with personal endorsement deals. . .
But I apologize. I am getting off topic. We were discussing the Nova Hyperion pair.
It's perfectly all right. Please proceed on your own time.
Mmmm. In publicity terms, they were about as good as one could hope for. They were both young and female, athletic and attractive. They had already made a name for themselves in the field of Olympic fencing, after all. They were both saber fencers. I hope you understand the importance of that fact.
Not particularly, no. Please explain?
Mmmmm. Well, you see, there are three weapons that are used in Olympic fencing competition. The most well known is foil: points are scored only with the point of the weapon, against the opponent's torso. The small target area and precise nature of the weapon means that matches are most often won through skill and deception. In order to score a touch, the fencer must outsmart and outthink their opponent.
The next weapon is the epee. Epee fencing is similar to foil, except that the target area is now the entire body. Because of this, points can be scored against the toe, helmet, or glove. Epee fencing is often very athletic: because the fencer must defend their entire body against attack, and because the weapon requires a touch from the point to score, fighters tend to do a lot of jumping and skipping about to avoid incoming attacks.
Saber, however, is the only weapon that allows the edge of the blade to score touches as well as the point. Because of that, the attacker has many more options than the defender. In addition, the entire upper body is considered a target area. Saber matches, therefore, are characterized by aggression and speed. In many cases, a round will last no longer than it takes for both combatants to advance within weapon range and make a couple of attacks. Saber fencing requires speed, aggression, and both a quick eye and a quick hand. It is, in fact, such a fast fencing style that it is the only one of the three weapons that forbids the fencer from crossing their back foot in front of their front foot on the advance, in order to slow down the rate at which the two combatants can fight.
So-Yi and Yuna. . .
Apologies, Mister Kim. Could you please clarify, for the record, who you mean by those two names?
Ah. Yes. Pang So-Yi and Ahn Yuna. The pilots of Nova Hyperion, South Korea's first and only Jaeger.
Thank you. Please continue.
As I was saying, So-Yi and Yuna had actually gained some infamy the year before the attack on Busan, at the high school-level National competition, after a particularly lengthy Saber fencing match in which both combatants made over fifty passes without scoring a touch on each other. Neither one was able to touch the other without themselves being hit in return. That was the incident that brought them to the attention of the PPDC. That level of understanding, that ability to predict the other's attacks and counters, was a strong indication of possible Drift Compatibility.
They came into the public conciousness after the attack on Busan, of course. That photograph of Yuna carrying her arch-rival out of the ruins of the Busan Sports Complex, with their faces bloodied and their white uniforms stained with blood and dust. . . a perfect illustration of how Korea felt in the aftermath of our first Kaiju attack.
You must realize that no one in South Korea truly felt the threat of the Kaiju, not like the Japanese or Chinese. All Kaiju attacks in the past had to pass through Japan in order to reach us. We hadn't seen the devastation a Kaiju could inflict first-hand, not on a Korean city. To us, the Kaiju war meant jobs, especially in the technology industry, and news footage of terrible death and loss happening in other countries. Up until that Category Three made landfall in Busan, that is.
Of course, we had to have our own Jaeger. Of course, we needed our own heroes. Korea is a small nation, but it has maintained its independence, despite the efforts of the Japanese and Chinese, for centuries, and we have done this through determination and a strong national spirit. We needed heroes. And it became my job to turn those two young girls into the heroes that our nation needed.
How did that go?
Not easy at all. (Laughter). Americans like to think of Asian women as being shy and submissive. They have no idea. Of course they play at being cute and girlish. Of course, they giggle and talk in high voices. . . but they can be so incredibly willful.
So-Yi was the easy one. She had the girlish face and the looks of a Korean pop idol. She was willing to smile and giggle and laugh at the jokes of the hosts on the evening talk shows. Yuna, on the other hand, was a handful. I knew my job would be difficult the moment the PPDC announced that she and So-Yi had been chosen as the pilots for Nova Hyperion. There they were, walking onto the stage: So-Yi with her cute pageboy cut and her open, excited smile. . . and there was Yuna, with her head freshly shaved, like some nun! And wearing a white bandanna with a taeguk on it and the words "COURAGE" and "DETERMINATION" hand-written on either side in black ink! Aaah! Such frustration! And it was then that I got the phone call from their PPDC handlers, begging me to help. . .
Was it important that the two of them had a good public image?
Very. People often criticize the Jaeger pilots of this era for seeming more like movie stars than warriors. They forget that the Jaeger program was always underfunded. The PPDC was much more interested in walls and stationary gun emplacements rather than giant, expensive robots that required billions of dollars in resources to run. The Gage Twins might have acted like celebrities, but the money from their endorsements, from their personal charisma, allowed the Jaeger program to focus on fighting the war, rather than caring for the families of their employees.
It was especially important in South Korea, where celebrity culture is so intense. Our public enjoys reading about the minute details of the lives of their stars, and maintaining a good public persona 24-7 can be very important in the life of a young star. I could tell you stories about trying to salvage the careers of pop singers or movie stars after they got caught doing something that went against their image. . . and here we had a young girl who showed up at her press conference looking like a gangster! Of course they called in a PR expert to revamp their image!
And did you?
I didn't need to! (Laughter). The truth is, I had one meeting with the girls, and realized that anything I could do would just hurt, not help! They already had all the personal magnetism they needed to become stars in the eyes of our people. Seeing them together was like seeing childhood friends. So-Yi was the one who would mug for the camera. She would talk to the hosts on the evening talk shows. She would be the one that would smile and laugh and make the "v" sign and say cheerful things thanking everyone at home for supporting her. She was the darling of the nation.
But Yuna was something different. If So-Yi represented the female idol, Yuna was an embodiment of Korea's determination and fighting spirit. That shaved head that had made me cringe so much. . . she wore it proudly, like a true daughter of Taehan Minguk. She would appear on television with those dark, cool eyes, and she would stare down the camera as if she were daring it to try something. She became a sensation. Young men and women shaving their heads, emulating her look. Stenciled images of her face in black and white appearing in back alleys, with the words "BRING IT ON" spray painted underneath in red.
Of course, it would be a mistake to think of So-Yi as the nice one and Yuna as the warrior, as that crazed stalker discovered, to his detriment, when he tried to burst into their locker room at that event. The images of him being carried away, with his face covered in blood, became iconic, but people often forget that it was So-Yi, not Yuna, who hit him in the face with that chair.
Korea loved them: their warrior daughters, the young women who would defend their country's honor. . . which is why, they tried so hard to have them replaced.
After the Gipsy Danger incident?
Not just that. Romeo Blue. Horizon Brave. Especially Shaolin Rogue. . . the footage of those pilots slowly dying inside their conn-pod, trapped inside while the fires got closer and no one was able to come save them. . . we all imagined the beautiful faces of So-Yi and Yuna in their places. . . and many of us couldn't bear the thought. There was a campaign to have them replaced with the Park twins: those Korean Air Force pilots that came in second place. It didn't go far. Not after the two of them appeared on camera and begged for the chance to fight to protect their nation. How could we say no, after those stirring words?
I still remember the first time they deployed in Nova Hyperion. The entire country was tuned in to watch the battle off the coast of Siberia. They were supposed to be the second line of defense: if all went well, they were not supposed to fight, but then Dokkebi bypassed Eden Assassin and Cherno Alpha, and they were the only ones in position to intercept. . .
I think I have the video of that fight here. . . I'll look for it later. It would be good to add to your archives. But the part that I love the best comes at twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds. I've memorized that timestamp: it's the moment when Nova Hyperion, with her missile and gun batteries spent, and facing that three thousand ton beast charging straight towards her, drops her auxiliary missile pods and deploys her blades.
[Laughter] I still laugh to think of that sight. . . this huge, fifty meter tall mechanical war machine marching into battle carrying swords! So-Yi and Yuna insisted on them. . . and they didn't want sting-blades or saws, no. They were saber fencers. They wanted proper swords, and they got them.
Of course, what everyone forgets is that the swords actually didn't do all that much. . . Dokkebi was already wounded badly, and its charge was a desperation attack, the last actions of a dying beast. But seeing its head come off under those two swords. . . it did something to everyone watching. It gave them hope. And it reignited the passion, the determination, that we children of the Land of the Morning Calm had lost when that thing came ashore in Busan. . .
. . . incidentally, the t-shirt with the image of Nova Hyperion standing over the fallen Kaiju with its swords stained blue, like some mighty warrior over a vanquished soul? Sold over ten million units that first month.
You seem proud of that fact.
I am. Very proud. Does that make me greedy? A mercenary? Perhaps. But the money that we raised through the sales of that t-shirt did a lot of good. It meant that Yuna and So-Yi could move their families to the American heartland, far from the Pacific Rim. It meant that they could fight on without worrying about what was happening to their loved ones in Korea.
I wish I could tell you that it all ended happily ever after. Unfortunately, I can't. Despite that victory, we were already on the losing half of the war. Nova Hyperion fought well, and although it did not personally score any more kills, it provided backup to Cherno Alpha and Eden Assassin on multiple occasions. Sadly, it was destroyed towards the end of the war. . . thankfully, Yuna and So-Yi survived, due to Cherno Alpha's quick intervention. They requested to be brought in as replacement pilots for the Mark Three Restoration project, but Marshal Pentecost had a different idea in mind.
Raleigh Beckett.
Yes. The American hero of the Kaiju War. It upset them so badly not to participate in the final push on the Breach.
(Smiles). On the other hand, they did participate in some small way. You see, part of the reason why they'd wanted so much to be part of the Mark Three project was the person leading it up: a young woman named Mako Mori, who had led the design team that built Nova Hyperion's Progressive Swords. . . and she'd perfected her design. They needed steel for Gipsy Danger's chain swords, and Nova Hyperion was being sold for scrap. . .
I suppose it's a bit silly, but part of me is still proud that it was good, Korean steel that helped cut those Kaiju in half on the last day of the Kaiju War. I know the girls are proud of that fact as well.