September 25/Afhumryanj 21(Approaching Durin's Day and the Dwarven New Year)
"Raleigh, Mako. There's signs of life up here too. It looks like a small encampment of fourteen humanoid beings," one of the twins announces.
"We see them Piper," Raleigh responds, "Since we seem to be out of contact with Alaska, thoughts from everyone on contacting them?"
Mako's concerned thoughts enter his mind.
"Piper and I are up for it, if you two are," Chloe responds.
"We'll proceed with caution. There's only fourteen of them versus our 2 Jaegers," he authorizes.
"They're drawing weapons and approaching. One archer and the rest with swords and axes. Primitive but dangerous," Mako interposes.
"We don't want to make enemies right off the bat. Drop to one knee in a submissive posture." Raleigh commands then opens the channel for the external speakers as the robots kneel. Raleigh thinks to Mako, "What the hell do we say?"
She responds comfortingly in thought, "I'll handle this."
Her calm soft voice echoes outside the Jaegers to the people here, "Inhabitants of this planet. We come in peace. May the crews of the Gypsy II and Black Corona exit our Jaeger giants to parlay?"
One of the beings makes his way warily at a crouch, sword still drawn. He's obviously the leader as he answers with hard eyes, "I will accept yer surrender. Ye may exit the metal beasts."
"Sir with respect, we are not surrendering - but seeking information. We have no idea where we are. May we speak face to face? We're about your height. We'll be on more equal footing then."
"We will na put down our weapons, but ye will come out with none," the long haired bearded leader in blue and black demands with out raising his voice.
"How can our safety be guaranteed, sir?" Mako asks in earnest.
"And ours? Ye do na trust the word of a dwarrow king? That does na lead to trust on our end," the leader retorts stepping forward with bravado.
"My apologies, Sire. We did not know. We've not met dwarrow before. May I suggest that we open the hatch on our machines and you can see that we offer no threat. Your fourteen versus our four crew - one man and three women," Mako offers.
"Just four?" the leader questions skeptically.
"Yes, sire," Mako reassures.
The leader nods ascent.
"There will be a hissing noise as the hatch opens, that is normal. We'll appear in our black armor, but our helmets off. I'm turning off the outside sound now as we disembark," she reassures as the hatch begins to open at top of the heads of the Jaegers.
The sound startles the jumpy group, but the leader motions for them to remain where they are.
...
Thorin readies his stance, expecting this to be a trap. The other's sense his tension and do likewise.
Two unexpectedly small beings in black form fitting suits, carrying helmets in one hand appear from each opening. The tallest is a muscular brown haired man with short cropped hair and no beard. He's paired with the woman with medium length black hair and blue ends and exotic features. The other two are twin short haired silver blond women even shorter than the dark haired woman - one with a red streak in her short hair, one with purple. All make their way down from the monsters. They approach slowly but confidently. Not seeing weapons, Thorin sheathes his sword and the others do likewise
The dark haired almond eyed woman speaks first, "Sire, I present the two crews of the Gypsy II and the Black Corona," she motions to each person, "Raleigh Becket my copilot and Captain in the Gypsy, Chloe and Piper Kjellson, and myself Mako Mori." She gives a deep formal bow in respect and the others follow suit.
"Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror, " he's still skeptical so he doesn't offer the niceties. But he introduces each of the company and all remaining dwarves give the customary, "At yer service." Bilbo the Hobbit awkwardly says, "How do you do?" offering a handshake. Raleigh accepts for Mako and gives a hearty return shake.
"What business do ye have here?" Thorin asks, still with suspicion in his voice.
Mako looks to Raleigh to explain. He stands not quite to attention with his helmet in front of him in both hands and showing no fear, "Well, we were investigating a gateway into our world. For the last decade our world has been attacked by enormous destructive beings we call the Kaiju. The Kaiju were almost the end of our world. Mako and I are 2 of 3 of the sole survivors of the original Jaeger program - our metal giants. This new opening to our world posed a potential threat to our people. Mako and I brought our junior cadets with us for training and surveillance. A violent earthquake knocked our Jaegers into the gateway and we fell to your world."
A whispered, "They really were thrown down by the gods..." is heard.
Raleigh embarrassedly runs his gloved hand through his hair as he tries to explain to a people that likely have no concept of the heat of reentry into an atmosphere, "I'm sure it looked like that. Falling so fast that it causes you to be on fire is rather terrifying..."
Balin steps up from behind Thorin, "Jaeger, that is from one of the human languages. It means hunter..."
Chloe answers him, "Yes. We had to make monsters to fight the monsters invading our home."
"What planet are we on?" Raleigh asks.
The dwarven company look to each other as if this is the oddest question ever asked. Balin gives a cautious, "Midgard**, according to the legends of our people."
"How can it be? The legends that Father and Uncle used to tell us as kids said the same thing?" The Piper interjects, "But those legends are from eons ago..."
Dwalin pipes in, "Well, we're about ta have breakfast. Care ta join us?"
The Jaeger crews look to Thorin and he nods, turning toward the campfire.
...
After a hearty meal and swapping adventure tales and explaining what the Kaiju are, Dwalin has Fili and Kili take care of the dishes. Raleigh points at the twins then points his thumb toward Fili and Kili who are getting up from contentedly smoking their pipes. The girls nod affirmation and don't even give a complaint as they join the brothers for KP.
Dishes start flying in their direction. Fili and Kili catch them with ease, with out putting down their pipes, and toss and juggle them to the girls to carry before starting stacks of their own. The girls struggle to keep everything in balance as it's thrown at them, but seem to enjoy the challenge. Fili looks over to Bilbo, "Excuse me. Is this yer mother's West Farthing Pot, that's over a hundred years old?"
Bilbo covers his eyes bemoaning, "Just sing the song and get it over with..." Gloin gives him a good natured slap on the back and explains to the new comers what happened the night they met Bilbo and the whole crew starts into 'Blunt the Knives and Bend the Forks'.
The whole company is roaring with laughter including Bilbo now.
Author's notes:
*dwarrow - Tolkiens plural for dwarves
** Yeah it is really middle earth, but I was reading up on where Tolkien got the name - a mash up of midgard and earth basically. And it sounded weird to me that they would call it Middle Earth. So I figured I could get away with it. :)
