Pacific Rim: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Prologue

Quiet rested on the Alaskan plains as a gentle snow fell all around. The small house on the hill overlooked the gulf, peaceful and serene with the white sky overhead. About a mile away on the beach, there could still be seen the impressions in the sand of where a Jaeger – one of the massive machines built to fight the Kaijus – had once fallen. At one time, it would have been a sad memorial, but now it was a proud monument of the success of the final days of the Jaeger Program. The Breach was sealed, and there was no threat to be concerned with anymore.

The quiet scene was disturbed by the appearance of an MH-53 helicopter bearing the marks of the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps coming from over the water. The chopper flew over the house and descended to the ground within a hundred meters of the front door. The side hatch opened and several soldiers stepped out, looking around briefly before nodding to the remaining passenger. He stepped out of the chopper, down the ramp, and on to the snowy ground, his BDU boots crunching in the virgin snow. Hercules Hanson, marshal of the PPDC and former Jaeger pilot, looked around as the chopper's rotors spun down slowly. He looked at the house in front of him and took a deep breath. He'd hoped this day would never come. Frankly, he wasn't expecting it to have come himself, but it had. Now he was here. He waved his bodyguards to stay with the chopper as he started toward the house, his dog Max in hot pursuit of his owner. Herc didn't want to do this, but he had to. There was no other way. He kicked his boots free of snow as he ascended the steps of the porch and stood before the front door. He raised his hand to knock, hesitating a moment, but going through with it as he knocked gently three times. He waited for only a short moment before a familiar face answered the door. Mako Mori, former Jaeger pilot, opened the door and smiled at recognizing her former superior. She'd let her hair grow out quite a bit in the intervening years, but kept the blue locks bracketing her face.

Herc nodded to her, "Ms. Mori. Good to see you again."

She smiled in return, "It is good to see you, as well, marshal." Mako's impeccable sense of propriety and respect dictated that she always use rank when referring to someone, no matter how well she knew them.

The marshal motioned into the house, "Could I step in, please? It's bloody cold out here."

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry." Mako stepped aside and widened the door, allowing Herc to step in. Max followed his owner in and shook himself to get the snow off.

Herc looked around at the warmly and quaintly furnished house and nodded, "It's a nice place you two have here, Mako."

She nodded as she looked around, "Raleigh always wanted to settle in Alaska. He likes the cool air."

"Mako? Who was at the door?" The voice came from deeper in the house.

She smiled as she looked in the direction the voice came from, "Why don't you come and see, Raleigh." A moment later, Raleigh Beckett, one of the best Jaeger pilots who ever jockeyed, came down a hallway into the room toweling his hair like he'd just showered. He'd allowed himself a thick mustache and goatee over the years since they'd seen each other last, making him look older.

Raleigh smiled as he tossed the towel onto a chair, "Marshal Hanson. It's good to see you." The two old comrades shook hands, "How's the arm?"

Herc huffed, "I only broke it three years ago, mate. You talk like I sawed it off."

The former Ranger chuckled, "So what brings you our way?"

Hanson's gaze fell, "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that. I need a word with you." He motioned to the couch behind him, "Would you mind?"

Raleigh shrugged, "No. Not at all. Have a seat." He looked at Mako, "Sweetie, could you go make us some coffee real quick?"

"Actually, I need to talk with you both." Herc sat down on the end of the couch. Raleigh sat down on an adjoining love seat while Mako sat next to him, leaning rather heavily on his chest.

Raleigh rested his arm around Mako, "What seems to be the trouble, marshal?"

Herc's gaze fell again and he took a deep breath before speaking, "We have a problem, Raleigh; a big problem. The Kaiju are coming back."

Raleigh's head jerked back in a surprised motion and Mako gasped, "What? How? We sealed the Breach. What do you mean they're coming back?"

Herc took a small tablet from his thigh pocket that he turned on before handing it to them, "This is data that we've been collecting over the last year or so. No one knows how it happened. Even Dr. Gotlieb and Dr. Giezler are stumped. But somehow one or two Kaijus slipped through the Breach before it closed. They've begun breeding, and at a rather alarming rate. Gotlieb thinks there could be anywhere from six to a few dozen out there by now. Newt thinks that closing the Breach activated some kind of fail-safe in their anatomy, something that allows them to breed faster and asexually to rebuild their numbers. And what's worse, there population growth has him convinced there's some kind of nesting ground out there somewhere in the deep reaches of the Pacific where the Kaiju are breeding and raising their young. If something isn't done now, we could be looking at an explosive population of Kaijus, worse than even when the Breach was open. And what's worse, without the Breach to let us know when the buggers are coming, we can't track them very well anymore."

Mako's eyes widened as she read the data, "Two attacks? The Kaiju have made landfall?"

Herc hung his head, "Yes. Once at Manila and again at Vladivostok. Small ones; Category IIs, but they still did some damage. There also have been a number of sightings between the attacks. We've managed to keep it all hush-hush for now, but dropping nukes on the things to kill them is hard to cover up. It won't be long before we have to expose the truth to the public."

Raleigh frowned as he handed the tablet back to Herc, "I'm guessing that's why you came, then. You want us to come back."

The marshal nodded, "The Jaeger Program has been officially reactivated. I need a first-response team and some trainers for new Rangers. I can't think of any better than you two."

"How'd you convince the PPDC Council to restart funding? Last I heard they were dead-set against the Jaegers and still fixated on their little 'Wall of Life' placebo."

Herc shrugged, "I told them that they needed a viable solution if they were going to deal with the problem. Imagine what would happen if this information about new Kaijus was released to the public. They'd have mass rioting all around the Rim all over again, and we all know how fabulously they handled that last time."

It was Mako's turn to frown, "You blackmailed them."

"'Blackmail' is such a harsh word, Ms. Mori. I…persuaded them. They really didn't have a choice. It was either reactivate the Jaegers, or present this information to the public with no viable alternative and face down hordes of angry citizens." Herc made some selections on the tablet before handing it back to them, "They agreed to reactivate and fully fund the Jaeger Program, but it wasn't without conditions. The biggest of them was finding a way to build strong Jaegers faster and cheaper than we were before. That led to starting up a massive salvage and recycling operation for Jaeger parts and metals at Oblivion Bay, as well as the Mark VI project."

Raleigh raised an eyebrow, "Mark VI?"

Herc nodded proudly, "Mark VI Jaegers have capabilities matching and even exceeding a Mark V. One of these bad boys could even put Striker Eureka to shame. And the best part is with the new materials and construction methods we're using, they have the price tag of a Mark III and they can be assembled in just under eight months."

Mako's eyes widened, "That's under half the time of a normal Jaeger. That's remarkable."

"We're pretty much starting from the ground up, so we need short build times. Some Mark VIs have already been built and just need pilots." Hanson chuckled, "We even brought an old Mark III back from the grave and updated her."

Beckett furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"

Herc waved the comment off, "I'll tell you later. Right now, I need pilots for a first-response team and trainers that can show new Rangers the ropes. And that's you two, if you want to come back." He pulled a couple of pieces of folded paper from his thigh pocket and unfolded them to reveal them as a pair of reinstatement forms, "These just need your signatures to become official; full rank and standing and then some. I hate to beg, but we need you; now more than ever." He looked at Mako, "I'd hate to think that both my son and your father died just to see their work undone like this."

Raleigh looked at the quietly forms for a long moment, his left hand absently fiddling with the gold band on the third finger, before nodding, "Marshal Pentecost once asked me if the world was coming to an end where I'd rather die; here or in a Jaeger. My answer hasn't changed." He looked at Mako, "What do you think?"

She shrugged, "You need a copilot. There's no one else who knows you better than me."

He nodded firmly, "I think that's a 'yes' for both of us, marshal. We're in."

Hanson smiled as he clicked a pen that he handed to Raleigh, "Just sign on the lines at the bottom. Welcome back. Gather what you need. I'll be in the chopper outside." Raleigh and Mako signed the forms before getting up to pack. While they were both excited to be getting back into action, neither of them cared for the reason why. They thought the Kaiju threat had died with the Breach. To learn that all their hard work and risking their necks in Operation: Pitfall had just bought the world a few years was irksome to say the least. But they had a plan, and they were going through with it, which was a dang sight better than some flimsy wall. Both Raleigh and Mako smiled as they began packing. The best were back in the fight, and the Kaijus were gonna start dying.