by Isaac Stone
“We have to save our dinosaur!” Hans cried out next to me, reminding everyone that in the heat of the firefight we had lost an entire dino mech, as apparently the giants had battled each other into a different area. “Let’s go get that other one!”
“One thing at a time,” Zhuang transmitted back. “We need to find out where Terry and that other mech are. Can’t do a thing to help him if we can’t find him. And somebody get a few helmet cam shots of those metal crates.”
The moment the words were spoken, the sun was blotted out by a shadow.
It was Terry. His form blocked out the sun as he staggered backward, the second kaiju’s wicked jaws locked around Terry’s neck as they fought across the street.
Zhuang looked up at the sight and this time barked out orders. “Concentrate fire on that kaiju, and watch out for stalkers, they will probably try to flank Terry!”
Eighty plasma rifles began to shoot their deadly packages at the huge form that fought with Terry.
The combined effects of the plasma rifles finally had some effect as the kaiju released Terry and his human rider. The monster began to twist in pain as the plasma burnt through the armor that protected it, not to mention the multitude of shots that slipped through the gaps in its armor as it moved. It was death by a thousand pinpricks as the plasma bolts struck the big beast. We continued to blast away at it and now that Terry was free of its jaws he turned his arc cannons against it. The earth rumbled as the beast went down across a small building and ripped apart the roof when it collapsed. Clouds of dirt and debris rained over us from the impact. The kaiju made one final tail twitch and was still.
“Cease fire!” the sergeant yelled to us and we released the triggers.
I raised my plasma rifle and looked across at the huge beast that lay there. The rubble continued to fall from the building it had landed on and a dust cloud rose up in the air. My helmet felt heavy on my head that day, but I was glad it was there to save my skull. Rocks continued to bounce down at us from the collapse of the kaiju for a few minutes. My neck protector itched, but I knew we’d manage to come through this with something resembling victory. Considering what we’d seen how badass the Invaders were against conventional human forces it was a miracle that we’d just smoked two kaiju and a pile of stalkers. Somehow I knew this wasn’t going to last, miracles never do.
TWELVE
The miracle came to a sudden even if inevitable end when one of my fellow Raptors went down with a projectile through his skull. One minute he was there with me as he other kaiju collapsed, then he was on the ground and dead.
“Sergeant,” Hamid yelled at him. “We got company! To the right!” Zhuang spun in the direction he indicated just in time to see the shock troops of the Invaders as they poured into the gaps of the street. Apparently the stalkers we fought earlier were the common grunts, and they’d gone to get help from their meaner, bigger, deadlier friends.
These were not the handlers and support troops of the kaiju. These guys were the elite fast attack units which fought with the advance guard of the Invader army. They wore green metal suits too, but these new troops carried high impact rifles and heavy quad-lasers. We’d seen glimpses of these guys in the footage, but seeing them with our own eyes was another matter entirely. I watched as three of them took a position and pointed their guns at us. We were sitting in the middle of the street, easy targets.
“Scatter!” Zhuang yelled. “Become a mob! Don’t give them anything to focus on!” It was a tactic we’d learned at the Basic asteroid. I lowered my weapon and ran for the cover of the nearest building with Hamid and Hans behind me.
I could hear the impacts around me and saw the deadly beams sear through the air. The lasers weren’t easy to see, but the Invaders had done something to them so they could see where they went for the target. I ran past a car as it was sliced in half by a laser beam, its insides catching fire the moment it fell apart.
Zhuang was barking orders, but honestly I wasn’t paying any attention, much more focused on saving my skin. I ran into a store that had its front door hanging from a hinge and tried to figure out what to do next while Hans continued to babble next to me.
“I didn’t get to kill the kaiju,” Hans whined to my left. “I really wanted to deliver the coup de grace. Why didn’t I get the chance?”
I wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up, but we had to stay alive and for now that meant paying close attention to how this fight was unfolding. There was no way in hell we would be able to face down those shock troops with our numbers, especially out of any kind of firing formation, which we had to do anyway to keep from getting mowed down en masse. Already the Invaders poured over the cars and vehicles that lined both sides of the streets. The evacuation of Albany wasn’t so thorough that they were able to get everything out from the way of the advancing invasion force. I took out my plasma rifle and sighted on one of the elite stalkers who climbed over the nearest car. I pulled the trigger three times and watched as he pitched from the burning rounds and fell over the car. One down and only God knew how many more to kill.
The earth began to tremble and I turned to see what the source of this rumble was. Of course, I thought, Terry is still out there. The big armored thunder lizard stepped out into the middle of the street and roared at the enemy troops. One of the weapon rack wings swung up and it tilted down in the direction of the green metal suits on the ground. Terry howled again and his rider unleashed the full contingent of missiles at the Invaders.
It was a risky move, considering that those missiles were built for taking out armored tanks, with slight modifications for fighting kaiju. They certainly weren’t meant to be used in such close quarters combat with infantry, that was technically our job. Apparently Captain Daphne, or maybe even Terry, had decided that if a few buildings fell down on top of some Raptor marines or some of us got taken out by friendly fire it was worth the risk to blast a bunch of bad guys. I mean, we are scum, I get that, but it rattles the morale ya know?
The stalkers tried to scatter before impact, but the missiles hurled down in their direction faster than even the alien elites could move. I ducked down with Hans behind the remains of a counter in the store and heard the combined explosions as the missiles detonated on impact. As the shock wave rocked the building we were inside and knocked plenty of debris loose, I could feel the heat blast from the explosions roll down the street.
Terry charged down the street in the direction of the elite troops, ignoring our combat discipline, as he wasn’t supposed to be in the thick of infantry formations, that’s what got the other kaiju killed. For a few sweet seconds, the stalkers seemed to be in a daze. I later decided the Invaders weren’t so much different from us as they suffered from the shock and awe of a dinosaur that fought against them. We were serving them up a taste of their own medicine. I watched as twelve of the Invaders in their green suits stood there, numb and paralyzed, as Terry barreled down the street at them with his arc cannons blazing. They died where they stood.
Just them my earpiece began to squawk. I’d made certain to return it to my left ear once the fun began, but nothing had come out of it once the missiles fired from Terry.
“We’re scattered to the left and right of the stalkers,” the voice of Zhuang came out of the speaker. “All of you, on the count of three run into them from the sides and start firing! We out flanked them without even realizing it, so let’s make the most of a happy accident!”
We climbed out into the front of the store and watched the Invaders. They were trying to find some way to organize in the face of the huge dinosaur, which moved its armored form in their direction. From where I stood, I could tell that they were starting to pull it together, and the sporadic gunfire directed at Terry was starting to build up momentum. The big guy could handle a few minor wounds, and his armor would stop most of it, but he’d already punched his ten rounds with two kaiju and it was clear he was nearly spent. If we didn’t do anything he’d get overwhelmed with small arms fire jus
t the way that kaiju had and it would be over for him and the captain.
I looked across at the other buildings and saw the other men from my unit. We gave each other nods and waited for the final world from Sergeant Zhuang. I could feel the pressure build up inside my skull and the adrenalin race through my body. Even my teeth began to chatter in anticipation.
“One-two-three!” I heard from my earpiece and leaped off the bench I’d used for an observation point, screaming as I ran. I could hear the battle cries of the other marines as we ran at the Invaders, some of us stopping to fire. The standard order was to charge and fire, and do not retreat until the order was given. I advanced as fast as I could while I fired the plasma rifle at the green metal suits in front of me.
The plasma bolts hit one suit and burnt right through it. This didn’t surprise me as plasma could penetrate just about anything. The suit was seared in half and the contents spilled out onto the ground. I didn’t bother to look at the steaming pile, as it would have reminded me of how fragile my own body happened to be.
I hit my next target right below the head and his helmet flew off, taking the head with it. The rest of the torso went down to the ground, but the helmet didn’t land until it was twenty feet away. I made a mental note to dial down the plasma generator as I continued to shoot away at the shock troops of the Invaders.
Soon the shock troops were hit from all sides by plasma fire. They began to fall, but not without taking plenty of us with them. These elite stalkers didn’t fold and run the way the others had, and they made us fight them to the last man. It was bloody business, but once again when we close distance with them and the shootout became a chaotic close quarters firefight our human instincts seemed to give us an edge. Maybe we are just more comfortable fighting dirty, getting in there and brawling it out up close, and it certainly seemed like the stalkers didn’t have the same kind of ferocity we did in those moments.
I watched Terry lean down and neatly grab one of the Invaders with his huge jaws and crush the suit. He didn’t even seem to use much effort as the suit collapsed around the Invader who wore it. The Invader next to him fired his weapon, a laser, at Terry, but the beam was deflected by the armor worn by the big dinosaur.
Terry growled and turned his attention to the other green suit and he grabbed it with his jaws too. This time he flung the Invader high into the air. We watched as the Invader made an arc at least fifty feet in the sky before falling from the heavens. It bounced off the ground. The Invader didn’t move after the second bounce.
The third Invader tried to make a run for it, but Terry caught him right under one of his big feet, smashing the green suit and its occupant down to the ground. Terry added some weight to his foot as the rider wanted to make sure the Invader was out of action.
The remainder of the shock troops went out the same way, by gun or jaw or a good old stomping. A few of them attempted a tactical retreat to the safety of the buildings near the back of the streets but got caught in a second pincer move by Zhuang and a few dozen marines. Even at the distance where I stood I could see their suits explode and the Invaders inside exit in the form of a red fountain.
The entire engagement, from our charge at them to Terry and his stomp, didn’t last more than ten minutes. We’d dealt the enemy some heavy blows, leaving two kaiju and scores of stalkers and elites dead on the ground. Still, in just that tiny amount of time we’d lost nearly forty marines, even if we’d smoked more than twice that many stalkers. It’s weird the way time can compress during a firefight. Can’t say it felt like victory, but it was a start.
THIRTEEN
We came together in the middle of the street, our rifles pointing out from the ring we formed.
“You see anything else?” Hamid asked me for some reason. “I think we took care of the lot of them, but there might be more hiding tin the buildings.
I didn’t look forward to a run from lasers and projectiles from those upper windows. It struck me we needed to get back while we still had the opportunity. Even Terry walked around in a circle, apprehensive about something.
“You think we should get out of here, Sergeant?” I asked Zhuang. “I don’t see much of an upside to hanging out where the stalkers can pick us off whenever they feel like it.” I adjusted the strap on my plasma rifle and checked the charge again on it.
“We haven’t finished with them yet,” he responded. “We have an objective, I just got the waypoint. I don’t know what’s there but command seems to think it’s mighty important. What? Repeat last.” He began to talk rapidly into the microphone, which ran down from his earpiece.
“We’ve got some company on the other side,” he told us. “I know how much you boys love fighting so let’s go see what this is all about. Command wants that objective so let’s get this done.”
Terry began to make a hissing sound and turned in the direction Zhuang mentioned. His big eyes were visible inside the helmet that protected most of his head. There was a clang from the metal as the articulated jaws of the helm opened and closed. On a human helmet, these wouldn’t open, but Terry’s cavern sized mouth was his best weapon and he needed to bite down when in combat. I noted the jaws were protected by metal that had razor sharp blades built into it.
We climbed over the rubble left behind when the missiles detonated and made our way to the other side of the buildings. Hans continued to drive me nuts with his rambling, but I forced myself to put up with it. Right now wasn’t the time to lose my mind, not with the possibility of an Invader sniper or another assault. The satellite feed for this area didn’t work and we had to use the maps provided to us.
Terry didn’t have much trouble getting through the mess. All he really needed to do was step over the smaller bits and climb over the larger ones. When your hips are fourteen feet off the ground, there isn’t a whole lot you have to do to get around. I couldn’t see his driver inside the pod on his back, but Zhuang was in constant contact with her.
When we made it past the buildings at the end of the street, we found the remains of the Invader unit we’d first engaged, who had abandoned their crates after the firefight.
It turned out that our presence wasn’t required at the objective, as one of our dino mechs had flanked the Invader force and tore the shit out of it. They’d sent all their kaiju with the vanguard and didn’t know at the time that we were bringing our own battle monsters to the party. Shiva and his rider attacked them in the rear and decimated their ranks as the Raptor unit mopped up the survivors. The guys I talked with later told us how the dinosaur attacked them from the rear and destroyed all of their supplies with rockets before charging into them. Shiva spent the day chomping down on green suits and throwing them all over the place. The Raptors with him were able to do their job and pick off any of the Invaders who tried to flee or rally against Shiva. Seemed to me like our big boys had a problem with charging into the fray, but it made sense now why our job was so important. We swat the flies while the dino mechs to the heavy work.
One thing I will say about the Invaders, they never tried to surrender. You might have an Invader sniper holed up in a building, but he would detonate the self-destruct bomb they were all provided with rather than surrender. I only heard about two of them captured in the entire war, and it was because they were incapacitated before the soldiers could reach their destruct bombs.
In this case, the Raptor unit attached to Vulcan managed to stop the drop ship that was on the way to rescue the stalkers on the ground. They allowed it to land before hitting it with every plasma bolt that could be mustered. Even Vulcan got in on the action and used its shoulder-mounted turbo-lasers to keep it from fleeing.
With their main advance halted, we spent the rest of the day mopping up snipers and holdout units of stalkers. There was one kaiju still out there, but between Shiva and Terry the poor thing didn’t last long. We made it back to our landing zone by the end of the day. The moon was high in the sky when we returned to the camp that was set-up in our absence. Zhuang had u
s marched in two columns by the time we reached the location. It had been a grueling day and most of us were ready to drop where we stood.
However, Sergeant Zhuang wouldn’t allow it. He made us hold our spots and wait until the order to be dismissed was given. All I can remember from the return was the way my body armor itched and the dried sweat on my neck and its protector. I’d seen more death in one day than most people would in their entire life, even though most of them weren’t human.
“Fall out and get some chow,” he ordered us. I went to the tent I’d pitched the moment we arrived and dropped my gear in front of it, as I made certain the plasma rifle was set to “safety”. I know was back on earth, breathing air that wasn’t filtered through miles of ductwork, but somehow I still felt like I was in prison. Must have been the food.
FOURTEEN
I was sitting outside my tent polishing my boots when Zhuang came up to see me. I knew something was up by the look on his face. He had the most piercing eyes I’d ever seen on a person. I dropped the boot down and stood up at attention. No reason to give him an excuse to kick my ass.
“Claymore?” He yelled at me.
“Sir,” I said, “Yes, Sir!” Always good to keep up appearances, you never knew who would take you down.
“I want you to come with me to the officer’s tent,” he informed me. “The old man wants to talk to you.” He turned and strode away as I was expected to follow immediately.
I hurried behind him, boot polish still on my hands. It wasn’t easy to get it off, but I managed to rub enough off on the seat of my pants so that it wouldn’t be noticed. I was ready for anything after that dust-up with the Invaders. In fact, I secretly hoped they were pissed about something and ready to send me back to the prison. Once you’ve faced down kaiju and a horde of stalkers in one day, anything else is minor. The jail cell didn’t look so bad from my point of view. I needed a nap.