At the echo, Chris gave a light huff. Whatever happened was going to determine whether Chris would get to pilot a Jaeger once he was more formally-trained. The whole process was backwards, but no one was in a position to deny that finding a drift-compatible partner at any point along the way made him a prime candidate even if he hadn't proven his battle-readiness yet. People who were drift-compatible were far too rare to let any slip away no matter their unique conditions.

"Prepping for neural handshake," Chris said, an agreement for them to move on. He was checking the interface just like Cole, reading the information fast as he could and tucking it away for later. This part was just slightly beyond his ken but he would do everything he could to play catch-up once this show was over with. Their handler for today came up over the speakers.

Neural handshake in 15... 14... 13...