Aurora Borealis
is a fanfic written by Jocelyn on FanFiction.Net.
The story serves as a prequel to Pacific Rim, drawing from many trustful sources the author could find. It tells the tale of Raleigh and Yancy Becket as they enter the Academy, become the pilots of Gipsy Danger and the life of rangers and their crew during the Golden Age of the Jaeger program. A sequel called "Aurora Australis" is on the way, this time focused on the Australian team of Herc and Chuck Hansen. There is also a side story, "Tales From The Front Lines" which is a series of one-shots expending on the background and lives of several characters. And is also quite funny to read ...
A sequel, Aurora Australis is currently in progress.
This fic contains the following Tropes:
- Action Girl: Every female Ranger qualifies.
- Badass Bookworm: To pass the first cut of the Jaeger Academy, you have to be in better physical shape than most athletes, which means that those who fail the second and third cut and go in J-Tech or Engineering R&D can easily own a full-grown man.
- Genius Bruiser: In the same way, the first cut also teaches science and the likes, and a written test is part of the final exam. Those who pass and make it through the second and third cut are also well-read ... and pilot Jaegers.
- Berserk Button: Don't separate two Rangers suffering from Drift shock. Just don't. Even people as stoic as Pentecost will flip out if they're separated from their partner.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Who played the marriage scene from "The Princess Bride" during the wedding of Eden Assassin's Rangers to prank President Putin? The Kaidanovskys.
- Big Brother Instinct: Yancy was already very caring toward his little brother before they became Rangers. After getting Gipsy Danger, he becomes much worse.
- Big Brother Mentor: The Gage twins often end up playing this role to the Beckets.
- Bilingual Bonus: Everywhere.
- Call-Forward: Everywhere.
- "When you are in combat, you have to make decisions. And you have to live with the consequences." The sixth chapter, which deals with the funerals of Raleigh and Yancy's mother, is called "The choices you live with".
- "It's not just about trust." Stephanie Lanphier to Yancy. "It's about respect." Mako says the exact same thing to Raleigh in the movie.
- Meeting with their new PR representative, Raleigh mutters to his brother "She is not what I was expecting..." in French, only for the woman to answer in the same language "Better or worse?" Fast forward to the movie and Mako makes the exact same comment in Japanese... to Raleigh, who answers in kind.
- The Casanova: Scott Hansen, Herc Hansen's younger brother and co-pilot of Lucky Seven. The guy will hit on just about anything with two X-chromosomes, even though his social skills leave much to be desired. In Aurora Australis, this proves to be his Fatal Flaw: He ends up going for a girl way too young for him, and when Herc sees the memory mid-Drift and mid-Kaiju battle... the results aren't pretty.
- Cuddle Bug: As a side-effect of the Drift, Rangers feel closer to one another and spend more time cuddling or seeking physical proximity with each other. Also, any Ranger under Drift shock.
- Determinator: Raleigh. Simply put, the kid never gives up. It is best exemplified during the Final Spar where he lasts longer than anyone else and Pentecost later admits that, in the end, he forced them to yield and stop the fight, because he himself would never surrender.
- Dissonant Serenity: After the fight with Yamarachi, Raleigh gets some Kaiju Blue in his lungs yet remains surprisingly calm through the whole ordeal, which freaks Yancy out.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Strawberry" for Yancy and "Sunshine" for Raleigh because of a teen magazine. Raleigh does not like it.
- Downer Beginning: Aurora Australis starts with Scissure's attack and the bombing of Sydney.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Class 2016-B held Raleigh and Yancy, Tendo, Kennedy LaRue and Stephanie Lanphier and the pilots of Vulcan Specter, Devi and Susanti Hassan.
- Foregone Conclusion: Aurora Borealis chronicles the rise and Golden Age of the Jaeger program, when as many as 30 Jaegers were in service. Given by the time of the movie, there are only four...
- Likes Older Women: apparently, the Beckets ...
- The Mentor: Any Ranger team older than the main cast, but mainly Caitlin Lightcap and the Gage twins.
- Multinational Team: Excepting the Rangers who are normally from similar backgrounds (and even then, there are cases ...), the support crews can have varied backgrounds and don't always come from the same countries.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Did Marshall Pentecost just weight in the Battle Of The Sexes?
- Parental Abandonment: Raleigh and Yancy suffer this at the beginning of the story, first with their mother's death, then with their father's abandonment ... and later death.
- Pet the Dog: "Esperanza". During the previous chapter, the Rangers of Matador Fury, who were imprisoned for non-violent fighting against the Mexican regime, rescue a stranded ship full of civilians while Hydra Corinthian and Gipsy Danger fight off the Kaiju. In the next, they are publicly awarded a citation for bravery ... and thanked by every passengers of the ship who came to the award ceremony. D'awww ...
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: little Lea Franklin, one of Raleigh and Yancy's classmates who went into the Engineering Department. One of the youngest of her class, barely above five feet, and yet able to bring down guys bigger than she is.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Apparently the people at Fox News are prejudiced assholes. No hypocrisy there.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: given the number of pop culture jokes that run around the Shatterdomes, not only the Rangers but everyone in the Shatterdomes is well-known in modern culture and either kicks Kaiju ass or helps the ass-kickers at it.
- Shipper on Deck: Suze really wants Herc and her sister Devi to get together. As of Chapter 37 of Aurora Australis, she's been disappointed.
- Slave to PR: not only do Rangers have to fight Kaijus, they are also celebrities in their own rights and every team has a PR representative in charge of making sure their actions remain acceptable to the public and keeping the paparazzi at bay. One chapter even discusses how a Ranger's appearance is important.
- A few of the Rangers get the short end of the stick on this front. Yankee Star's pilots Tanisha Davis and Caleb Mitchell get flak for not only being a mixed-raced partnership, but also for Tanisha's less than svelte figure and Caleb's homosexuality and freckles. Ilisapie Flint, one of the pilots of Chrome Brutus, gets similar flak to Tanisha for her "heavier" physique.
- Devi and Susanti Hassan, pilots of Vulcan Specter, are the first two-woman pilot team, and identify as Muslim. Predictably, this makes them targets for the more narrow-minded officials.
- Shaolin Rogue's female pilot, Fei-Yen Wang, has the opposite problem: she's so attractive that PR has pushed her wiry, gangly Drift partner, Huan Che, to the side to showcase her as their media darling. The fact that they're supposedly dating doesn't help matters at all.
- Team Dad: Antwan Ferrier, Gipsy's personnel coordinator.
- Team Mom: Carolina Olivares, Gipsy's PR representative. The crew kindly nicknames her "Abuela" (Grandma in Spanish).
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Raleigh and Yancy did not get along with Yankee Star's pilots, Tanisha Davis and Caleb Mitchell. At first. First tag-team in the simulator ended in one big Epic Fail.
- This Means War!: Used word for word in "Tales from the Front Lines" after Raleigh and Yancy fall to a prank of Bruce and Trevin. It escalates in the form of a prank war that lasts a third of the chapter.
- The Trickster: Tendo, ever since the Academy. Arranging a chain of deals? Playing pranks on the other team members? Taking bets and holding the pools? Playing The Social Expert? He's your man.
- Trickster Twins: The Gage twins, Bruce and Trevin. One Marshall compares them to the Weasley twins and a prank war with the Beckets in Los Angeles ends with both groups earning eleven demerits ... in five days.
