Mako Mori and Sasha Kaidanovsky bond over being some of the only women in the Hong Kong Shatterdome. A short piece exploring that friendship.

Dirk Strider was one of the most promising candidates for the Pan Pacific Defense Corps that anyone had ever seen. He had the drive, the skills, and that self-destruct instinct that everyone knew was looked for in a Jaeger, but which no one talked about. There was just one problem with him. Of the hundreds tested, not one single person was drift compatible with him. Not one person could match him, could mesh with him. No one measured up to his excruciating standards. So he built one.

Dragging a ten ton vault around on a giant tether was one thing; fighting alien hell beasts from another dimension was something he still didn’t think they were completely qualified for.