Hey everyone! Welcome to the next chapter in the Foot Falls Series. If this is the first Foot Falls story you've started you might want to click on my profile and start with the first Foot Falls Story Foot Falls: The Legend Continues. If you've been following along thanks for reading this far and I hope you stick around!
The Kaiju threat was gone, we won that war but nature abhors a vacuum. The Kaiju had been fighting off a secondary threat while they struggled to take our world as their own. A year after our last battle with the Kaiju the first wave attacked. We dubbed these creatures Raiju. More numerous, more beastial and as deadly as the Kaiju were they came through our volcanos, they attacked in numbers and spread like locusts. We lost that war, humanity consolidated everything we had left and began building space ships that would be connected into space stations orbiting what was left of the planet. We're almost done, there aren't many of us left; maybe a billion souls from every country, every walk of life. A handful of Jaegers were scraped together and piloted by anyone with even a little aptitude. We have one month before the last ship launches. We just need a little more time to save the human race. - From the Log of Marshal Hercules Hansen
Chapter One
"You have done well; but your task it not yet done." The Voice that was All Voices intoned, the cacophony filled their ears and seemed to reverberate in their skulls while they hurtled through the antiseptic white room. Artemis tried to get a look at the room then yelped as they snapped to a halt.
She winced as they hung suspended in the room and the Voice spoke again. "More is required this time. You need more information."
Artemis and Tracey felt as if their skulls were splitting as information poured into their minds. Lives they had never lived, people they had never known and places they had never seen all filled their minds until it felt as though they would be subsumed by the torrent. Suddenly the white room melted away and they woke surrounded by screaming alarms and showers of sparks scattering from computer consoles. "Tabitha! Lyssa! Please respond! Come on you two!"
Tabitha blinked through the cracks in the helmet her head pounding while Lyssa groaned. "Tendo for fuck sake calm down!"
"Jesus Lyssa… we thought you two were dead, we lost all bio's. Looks like a sensor malfunction. Bring Lady Bird back home, the Raiju is down." Tendos voice came through the headsets.
"We're on our way Tendo." Lyssa replied and shut off the comm before she paused.
"Tabitha, you ok?" She asked looking at her drift partner and best friend.
The name didn't sound right to Tabitha, as if it were hers but not really. Heart pounding and eyes wide with wild panic, Tabitha's head was spinning and the throbbing headache wasn't helping the situation by any means. She was confused, which contributed to her panic. One moment she was asleep in Legolas's arms in Middle Earth and the next second she was whisked away to the white room, given new instructions, and then dispatched into another hostile environment without even being able to say goodbye to him. The strobe lights flashed brightly and the alarms were causing her adrenaline to pulse through her veins.
She wasn't quiet coping well with this new situation and after hearing that the Raiju they had just killed wasn't getting up again, her breathing became erratic and uneven. Tabitha felt like she was on autopilot as she helped her neural-linked partner turned their Jaeger and walked back toward their base. Over the comm-link she had recognize Tendo's voice from one of their favorite movies 'Pacific Rim' and realized their situation just got a lot more dangerous and a lot more challenging.
"Okay?... Okay?!" She breathed, looking over at Lyssa. "Are you okay with this?! I feel like I'm going to be sick again! My head feels like it's a melon that's been ridden over by a stampede of horses and trying to keep ourselves alive in this world and we DO have to stay alive if we expect to find a way back to our men."
She looked down at the massive machine that housed them and down at the metal suit that she and Lyssa wore while piloting the Jaeger. Slowly she got her breathing under control and her heart beat returned to normal and pushed a few buttons to turn off the alarms, but unfortunately she wasn't able to turn off the flashing red and yellow lights, that didn't bother her as much as the alarms. With the new information floating around in her head, Tabitha shook her head, completely baffled at how she knew to hit which buttons and how to read the monitors that showed them the functions of the Jaeger and all it's crucial elements of it.
"This is so strange." She started, making sure their comm-links were silent before continuing, they could hear the command center, but they couldn't hear them in return. "Artemis these aren't our lives we're living here in this world. Usually we are ourselves, we don't jump into someone else's lives, so I want to know what happened to the real Lyssa and Tabitha... Are you alright? Because I need something for my head, I don't think I'm ever going to get used to jumping between worlds without vomiting every time, how do you hold it all in?"
Artemis flipped a few switches and made sure no one could overhear them. "I think Lyssa and Tabitha died. You heard Tendo right? All the bio's went flat, I think the Voice dumped us in their bodies with everything they know so we CAN survive here. Once we get out of the Jaeger we can compare notes on the history and figure out why we're even here."
She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. "Fuck I've got the mother of all migraines."
"I'll take an extra large Tylenol and surprisingly a tall bottle of water." Tabitha answered, laughed softly and shaking her head. "Not really comforting that they are dead and we're here, but hey with what we know we might just survive."
A smile came to her lips, despite the burning sensation she was feeling in all her limbs from operating the Jaeger.
"Did you hear what Tendo said? He said 'Lady Bird'. I think I can guess the emblem on our Jaeger's chest piece and I bet it looks bitchin'!"
Artemis gave a short laugh." I'm turning the comms back on. Let's get this bitch parked."
She flipped the comms back on and began the docking procedure, when they finally left the cockpit they caught sight of themselves in a reflective sheet of metal. Tabitha was tall, blond and looked a little like a valkyrie. Lyssa was tiny, maybe five foot three with short dark hair that curled wildly around her face with dark eyes. They looked like opposites but it was clear they worked well together even before Artemis and Tracey took over their bodies. Artemis's attention was diverted by a shout from across the massive room. "Lyssa. What the fuck was that?"
She saw Marshal Hercules Hansen striding across the bay face angry and she scowled as Lyssa's memories asserted themselves. "That was a fucking Raiju ambush Marshal. You think we planned that shit?"
He stopped in front of them and glared down at her, she glared up at him matching his attitude. Tracey realized that she as Tabitha was the peacemaker. Well now was a good a time as any to step into her new role and new life and Tracey did just that, placing her hand on Lyssa's shoulder and applied a little force. This was a little bit more difficult than she thought seeing as they were still wearing their inter-phasing suits so she had to add a little bit of a bodily push with her hips to dislodge her steadfast pose.
"With all due respect Marshal Hansen..." Tabitha started, tucking her helmet under her arm and drawing the Marshal's focus to her. "We eliminated the threat, came back in one piece, and Lady Bird doesn't seem to need much maintenance this time... We'll even work on the repairs ourselves."
Peacemaker, this was a role she had back in their world and she gained a lot of insight and gave good advice when a problem was brought to her attention. She liked helping people, it made her feel good inside. "There wasn't much else we could do at the time, Sir."
He sighed and rubbed his chin, Lyssa stepped back her eyes still angry but she'd subsided. "You two aren't doing any work on that machine, you two are getting a meal and getting an hour of zero G training."
Lyssa groaned. "Oh come on Marshal, I puke every time I'm in the damned box."
"Then maybe you should wait until after to eat." He replied shortly.
"Speaking of which..." She started before she started swaying on her feet.
Tabitha felt a lump start to form in her throat and she shook her head at Lyssa, moving her hand over her throat to cut her off before she said something else that could possibly get them in deeper trouble. She suddenly felt dizzy and the world started spinning outside of her control and she grabbed Lyssa's arm for support before she upturned her helmet and wretched violently into it. Tabitha coughed and gagged many times before wiping her mouth and taking several breaths.
"By your leave Marshal Hansen." She grumbled, giving him a salute. "This just isn't my day... Lyssa, shut your trap and move your ass. Let's just get our Tylenol and get this over with. Neither of us is well enough to put up with anymore of your crap tonight and I have to clean out my helmet before our next drop."
Lyssa made a face before slinging Tabitha's arm over her face. "Jesus Tabby that nasty." She gave Hansen a half assed salute and started walking towards the showers.
Marshal Hansen watched them go and swore under his breath, if they weren't the best he'd have sent them up in the very next shuttle.
When they got to the showers Lyssa set Tabitha down on a bench then took her helmet and dumped the contents into a toilet and flushed then walked to a shower stall and ran the water rinsing the interior. Tabitha groaned, her head in between her hands with her elbows resting on her knees. Her blonde hair fell around her hands in a shimmering curtain and she coughed again, trying to shut out the painful throb of her head. Pushing her hair out of her face and letting out a sigh, she got up and sauntered over to the sink to splash cold water on her face. The droplets of water chilled her skin and made her wake up, even lessening her headache but a little. She grabbed some paper towels and dried her face before taking back her helmet from Lyssa and drying it out as well.
"Sorry Lyssa. I'm never going to get use to this shifting crap, I know it." She said, spitting into the sink and rinsing it out with some more water. "You know Marshal Hansen said an hour in Zero Grav, but he didn't specify when we had to take our punishment."
This statement was accompanied with a smirk from her and a light giggle as well. Lyssa grinned then stopped and stared at herself in the mirror. "We need to remember who we really are Tracey. Call me Lyssa in public but in private we need to remember to call each other by our true names or we'll lose ourselves. The memories of Tabitha and Lyssa are as real as our own and it would be so easy to lose ourselves."
Tabitha's bright blue eyes looked at her own reflection and she nodded in agreement, poking her own cheek and watching her reflection do the same.
"I couldn't agree with you Artemis." She said quietly. "I've done that once and we can't afford to let it happen again. There's just too many important memories and information to make room for now, but we'll organize it to the best of our abilities and hopefully figure out why we're here."
Tucking her helmet under her arm again, Tabitha took a deep breath and scratched the back of her head before smiling at Artemis.
"Let's get out of here. We need out of these suits and some grub, if we can avoid pissing of the Marshal again for a while, I think we'll be fine." She said with a smile. "Perhaps taking out some of your attitude in the gym will help you relax a little... we'll do the Zero G later. But Tylenol and grub now."
Artemis grinned and headed towards the locker room. "Let's get out of the suits. I have tylenol in my locker."
When they got to the locker room they passed a handful of other pilots who jeered and teased. Lyssa responded in kind and opened her locker letting out a relieved breath seeing the satchels hanging on a hook. "Looks like we get to keep our toys." She said quietly and dug around in her bag until she found the painkillers and shook a few out for Tabitha grabbing a bottle of water from the shelf.
"For your dining pleasure we have a vintage 2022 tylenol gelcap with the finest tap water Nestle can provide." She swallowed a few pills herself and unzipped her suit.
"Much obliged my sweet." Tabitha said with a slight bow of her head as she accepted the Tylenol and water. "Bottoms up."
Cracking her seal on her bottle of water, she brought it to her lips and downed half of it in one go. She let out a relieved sigh and waved away the other pilots' remarks and fake gags, a jab at her antics on the dispatch floor before she and Lyssa hit the lockers. Tabitha mocked them in return with a sarcastic laugh and rolled her eyes at them, dialing the knob on her locker with the correct combination before pulling down on the latch and opening the door. With a nod of her head the metallic suit came off, leaving her in their under armor which she was grateful for having. She took a spare set of clothes from her duffel bag and grabbed her towel, wash cloth, and shampoo and conditioner bottles before closing the locker door closed and locking it again.
"Hot shower, plus food, means happy belly... Zero Grav in the morning I think, coming Lyssa?" She asked, throwing her towel over her shoulder.
Lyssa shook her head. "I'm gonna grab some food and see what we've been dumped into."
"Okay, I'll be quick and grab some food before meeting up with you in our room then. Fill me in when I get there." She said, turning on her heel and headed for the showers.
There were split showers for all the pilots, a side for the men and a side for the women. This made sure that there wasn't any funny business happening in the showers between the pilots and it kept everything easy. Gray tiles lined the walls from the ceiling to the floors. There were air vents to allow the steam from the showers to escape and drains in the floor that would take the used water and filter it through the piped to a station that would clean it up so it could be used again. Several stalls lined the walls, giving the pilots some privacy to take care of their business and she chose one in the middle, hanging her towel on the hook on the outside of the stall door.
"I need this so bad." She mused, stripping down to her skivvies and hanging her under armor on the second hook outside the door.
Turning on the hot water, it streamed over her body and relieved the soreness from her muscles. She stood a moment more before lathering up her hair and body with soap and washing her body thoroughly. Rinsing off quickly she turned off the water and grabbed her towel, drying off quickly and wrapping the towel around her body. Tabitha stopped and looked down at her side, noticing some strange markings on her pale skin. Tracing her fingers over the skin, she raised an eyebrow at the scars and had to wonder how she got them. She pulled on fresh undergarments and socks before pulling a pair of hip-hugger jeans and a loose shirt with flowy sleeves and a corded belt for her belt loops. Lastly she pulled on her black zip up boots and draped her towel over her head before going back to the locker room and depositing all her gear into her locker. Tabitha hung up her towel and ran a brush through her blonde hair and letting it fall free.
Consulting Tabitha's memories helped her to find the mess hall and from there she grabbed some meatloaf, some mixed greens, a side of potatoes and a yogurt parfait. A few of the other pilots hailed her with waves and laughter and Tabitha returned their greetings with a smile and a nod of her head before leaving and going to her room, which she shared with Lyssa. Their quarters seemed like a big metal box in a long hallway of metal boxes that housed them and the other pilots. Inside there was a set of bunk beds, a simple wooden writing desk with a table lamp, a laptop computer for the occupant to use. This is where Tabitha found Lyssa and she shut the door behind her so they couldn't be overheard.
"So what's the scoop on our new lives Artemis?"
Artemis was scribbling in her leather bound journal but stopped when Tracey came in. "So it looks like about a year after they shut the portal letting the Kaiju in another species of creature that they dubbed the Raiju started literally erupting out of the volcanoes all over the world. Hawaii is literally a smoking crater now. They come a dozen at a time and just decimate. It looks like the best humanity can do is to jump ship and hope for the best so everyone is evacuating to space stations and one barely functional Lunar base in the Sea of Tranquility. We're the vanguard, in about 1 month the last refuges will be loaded onto the last shuttle and the Earth belongs to the Raiju."
She paused and tapped her pen. "Our Jaeger is an experimental model. They needed all the Nuclear fuel rods they could get to power the stations and the Lunar Base so they built Lady Bird with a reactor that runs on a really rare mineral that can only be found in large enough quantities in the bodies of Kaiju and Raiju and guess who is the only person who can get the mineral?"
"Oh, oh, oh! I know this one! Pick me, pick me!" Tracey replied, raising her hand and waving it in the air as it she was trying to get the teacher's attention so she could be called on. "It's Hell Boy! I mean Hannibal Chow!"
She had to giggle a little and plopped herself onto the edge of the bottom bunk, her food tray in her lap and munching on her dinner wolfishly. Artemis laughed softly and nodded. "Yeah. Hannibal Chow and he refuses to talk to anyone but us. Apparently what's left of the government tried to force him to give them everything he had 'for the cause' but he's a wily one and has turned it around and now he has a private pod on the Lunar Base and the only people richer than him and you and me." She pulled out a bank book and tossed it to Tracey where it fell open and showed an obscene number of zeros. "We, as in Tabitha and Lyssa, negotiated a really pretty paycheck to be part of an experimental Jaeger design and crew. They implanted chips in our spines to enhance the performance of the Jaeger but it came with some significant risk and a really significant paycheck."
Tracey nearly choked on her food as she picked up the book from the bed and thumbed through the pages. She was looking at all the deposits and how they were always a significant numbers, more than she thought she would make in her lifetime. It was almost a case of did she even want to go back to their world! They could retire here and now if they chose to, they would be living in the lap of luxury without a care in the world. But this wasn't their world and they had loved ones they were trying to get back to.
"That is a pretty penny to be sure." She replied, handing the notebook back to Artemis and continued eating. "What was the risk, other than us dying?"
"Total paralysis, insanity, permanent nerve damage, untreatable Nerve Pain Disorders. Palsy, the list goes on. It's totally cutting edge tech under really unfavorable circumstances with zero medical testing." Artemis leaned back in her seat and ran a hand through her dark curls. "And that's not all. We have a pod on the Lunar Base if we survive."
Tracey couldn't help but giggle a little after swallowing her food.
"Totally everything we can live without... I wish there were a few medications and side effects that make us feel more sexy." She said with a laugh while pushing away her empty plate and leaning back on the bed. "Never really saw myself living in space... kind of reminds me of Titan A.E. But hey, it could be fun, I wonder if that's what my nightmare meant by saving reality. Though it still has me thinking why reality needs to be fixed..."
She shrugged her shoulders and dropped onto her back on the mattress, drooping her arm over her eyes and letting out a tired sigh. Her other hand rested on her stomach and instantly she started thinking about Legolas, she couldn't help it and started to wonder what he was doing.
"If it's not obvious, I claim this bunk." She mumbled, a smile gracing her lips. "Tomorrow I'd like to see our Jaeger, tinker with it Lady Bird, hit the gym a little and see what this place looks like with my own eyes."
Artemis dropped a piece of paper on her face. "Sorry kiddo. Tomorrow we're out on maneuvers and we still have to go do our zero G training."
Tracey groaned, grabbed the paper from her face and looked at it, recognizing it to be their schedule. Running a hand over her face and then rubbing her eyes, she let out a breath and nodded.
"Then I suggest the Zero Grav in the morning so we don't hurl and there shouldn't be too many people, then eat breakfast so we can digest a little and after an hour or so do maneuvers. What do you think?"
"I think it's a good idea." Artemis replied with a grin and climbed up onto the top bunk then she laughed. "I feel like we got dropped in an anime. Giant mechs, world ending, mysterious tech. This is kinda awesome."
A soft laugh escaped from Tracey as she sat up and took her food tray to the desk and neatly stacked everything together so they could take them to the mess hall in the morning.
"I'd have to agree with you there my dear." She replied, losing her boots, pants and shirt and pulling on baggy pants and a tank top. "Sleep now and work in the morning."
Artemis turned off the light and curled up under her blanket. 'What have we gotten ourselves into?' She wondered as she drifted off.