LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA The Pan Pacific Defense Corps’ newest recruits reportedly arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning. Among them is South Korean native, Park Kang-dae, a 21 year old gamer who has amassed around 27 million followers on platforms like Youtube and Twitch. They join the ranks under the PPDC’s newest initiative, Project: New Hope - which aims to shore up jaegers as they continue to battle the spike in Kaiju numbers across the Pacific.

“The time in between the opening of the Breach gets shorter and shorter, and we simply do not have the manpower to face the Kaiju with what we have now. It is our duty and obligation to provide our pilots the additional support, otherwise we're fighting a losing battle.” says Ethan Sharpe, principal director of the PPDC.

The introduction of Project: New Hope comes in light of the attack of Onibaba on Japanese shores in October 2021. Since then, there have been an alarming string of Kaiju attacks and ten jaegers have been destroyed. A statement provided by the PPDC's J-Tech Research and Development Division confirmed that their newest project is in its final stages of production: solo-operated "mechs" that will be piloted by the new recruits.

“While they might be considerably smaller, they will be much more faster and agile than their older counterparts. They have the potential to do greater damage in numbers while still retaining the full capabilities of the original jaeger. These new developments will allow us to increase our response rate on Kaiju attacks and the number of pilots deployed along the Pacific Rim.” Ethan Sharpe added.

These new recruits are scheduled for a string of interviews and press conferences before officially beginning their training at the Los Angeles shatterdome.