Bearadon was roaring at her defeated opponent when another set of metal arms that also appeared to be composed of construction vehicles wrapped around her waist and then threw her to the ground. Bearadon rolled with the momentum of the throw. She rolled over three complete times before she was able to regain her momentum and return to her four-legged stance. She roared at this robot and was just about to charge him when the hands of the decapitated robot behind her clamped onto her tail and pulled her backward.
Bearadon was shocked by the fact that the decapitated robot was still able to attack her. She thought to herself that the robot was not a living thing and that unlike an animal, the systems that operated it were not in its head but more likely in its well-protected chest. She was trying to break free of the headless robot’s hold when the other robot stepped closer to her and then kicked her in the jaw, snapping her teeth shut. The robot that was in front of Bearadon continued to deliver punches and kicks the kaiju’s face and chest with the precision and cold disregard of the machine that it was. The headless robot that had gripped Bearadon’s tail continued to hold the monster in place to prevent her from escaping.
With each blow, Bearadon could feel her head being rocked from side to side. Despite the pain and disorientation that she was experiencing, the kaiju knew that she would not live much longer if this assault continued. Bearadon blocked out the pain and focused on where and when the kicks and punches were coming from. After absorbing several more blows, she had timed the robot’s attacks. When the robot was about to deliver its next kick, Bearadon shifted her head back so that the mech’s leg missed her face. Through bloody eyes, Bearadon saw the robot’s leg moving passed her face. She then quickly reached out with her teeth and closed her jaws around the robot’s leg. The kaiju then shifted her body to the right and pulled on the robot’s leg. The move sent the robot crashing into the headless mech that was holding onto her tail. When the two robots collided, the headless mech was knocked off balance, and as a result, it lost its grip on Bearadon’s tail.
The badly beaten Bearadon stumbled forward. While her body was worn down, Bearadon’s iron will kept her from collapsing due to exhaustion. Bearadon turned around roared, spewing a mixture of blood and saliva into the air. The kaiju then lumbered back over toward the two robots, and when she reached them, she spun around and buried her spiked tail into the chest of the headless robot. It took her two tries to pull her spikes from out of the robot’s chest. She decided that the robot’s chest must be filled with something like rubber or foam. Whatever was shielding the robot’s central processing unit, Bearadon decided that she needed to find an easier way to attack its insides. When the robot reached down to grab her, she saw her opening. Bearadon leapt out of the reach of the headless robot and then she threw her body into the second mech, hitting the machine’s leg and causing it to fall over once again.
As Bearadon turned back toward the headless robot, it punched her in the jaw. As soon as the kaiju felt the blow, she instinctively took a step backward. When the headless robot attempted to punch her for a second time, Bearadon dodged the blow and then clamped her jaws down on its arm. She pulled the robot to the ground so that it was lying flat on its chest. Bearadon then turned around to face the second robot who had regained its feet. As Bearadon was facing the robot in front of her, she thrust her spiked tail into the empty hole where the decapitated robot’s head had once been. When she felt her spikes dig into the wires and circuit boards of the robot, she thrashed her tail around as violently as she could until the headless mech stopped moving.
With the robot behind her inactive, Bearadon shifted her attention to the robot standing in front of her. When the mech tried to strike her, the surprisingly lithe kaiju leapt to the side of the robot and then behind it. The robot was off balance from its attack and it was still pitched forward as Bearadon leapt onto its back. The kaiju’s weight sent the robot crashing face first into the ground. With the robot pinned helplessly beneath her, Bearadon began to tear into its back. The kaiju tore off a layer of steel to find the robot’s torso filled with tires. Bearadon thrust her claws into the robot’s torso and then she tore out the tires to reveal the circuitry beneath it. The monster thrust her bloody jaws into the wires and circuit boards in front of her. Sparks leapt out of the robot’s back and landed on the kaiju’s snout as she ripped the mech’s programming out.
The robot’s body jittered for a few seconds as the last of the power drained from its body. A bloody and exhausted Bearadon looked around to see two destroyed robots, and in the distance, she could see countless people pouring into subway stations. The woman inside of the monster was pleased that she had been able to save these people even though the Instructors had suggested leaving them to their deaths.
She was crawling off the defeated robot when there was a sudden explosion to her right. She swung her head around to see a third robot walking through buildings, destroying them as it strode toward her.
She heard a voice in her ear as one of the Instructors relayed a message to her. “Bearadon, there is a construction vehicle manufacturing plant six blocks to the west of your current position! It’s churning out a new robot every thirty-seven minutes. You need to either retreat now or defeat this robot and take out the plant before it can make another robot.” There was silence for a moment before the Instructor started speaking again, “I am looking at your vitals right now. I doubt that you can defeat this robot. I suggest retreat. The robot’s programming seems primarily focused on killing humans. I think that if you run, the robot may not pursue you. Retreating now is the best course of action!”
Bearadon once more roared in defiance of the suggestion. There were still millions of people who needed to reach safety. She was going to continue to cover their escape even if she died in the process. The kaiju lowered her tired head and charged the new robot. When she was within a few steps of the mech, she leapt in the air. She hoped that by bringing her weight down onto the mech that she could pin it to the ground and then tear it apart as she had done with the other robots. She had almost reached the robot when it shifted its back leg behind itself.
The mech caught Bearadon in mid-air and a small measure of concern crept into the kaiju’s mind as she realized that the robots were learning with each battle they fought. For each robot that she destroyed, the next one would be cautious of not perishing in the same manner. Bearadon had no sooner finished this thought than the robot lifted her over its head and slammed her into the street. With the kaiju lying on the ground in front of it, the robot kicked Bearadon in her ribs. The kaiju groaned and then rolled away from the robot before it could kick her a second time. She looked up and saw the river only a few blocks ahead of her. She was injured and near the point of exhaustion. She knew that she needed to end the battle quickly and then destroy the manufacturing plant.
The robot was walking up toward Bearadon when she swung her tail around and embedded her spikes in the mech’s left leg. The kaiju then pulled her tail back as hard as she could, causing the robot’s leg to extend beyond its reach. The robot’s arms flailed wildly as it tried to regain its balance. The mech fell onto its back, and when it hit the ground, Bearadon enacted her plan. The kaiju began to walk forward, dragging the robot behind her. Even in her kaiju form, the weight of the mech was immense and the fact that she was sure her ribs were cracked didn’t help her efforts. Despite the pain that was ripping through her body, Bearadon slowly dragged the robot toward the river. The robot kept trying to pull her spiked tail from its leg, but Bearadon was dauntless in her efforts to pull the robot into the river.
Step by agonizing step, Bearadon drew the robot closer to the river until she finally felt her body slip into its cool embrace. She dragged the robot in behind her and then she pulled her tail out of its leg. As she suspected it might, the robot stood up in the river, unfazed by the water. She figured that the Signal who created the robots on a planet that is seventy-five percent water would make sure the thing had a waterproof outer casi
ng. As the mech was rising out of the water, it lifted its hands over its head and then brought them crashing down on Bearadon’s shoulders. The blow drove the kaiju underwater.
As her face hit the riverbed, the kaiju growled and thought to herself, “If its outer casing is waterproof, I will just have to tear it off until the river reaches something electronic.”
Bearadon gathered the last of her energy and then she exploded out of the water. There was a blur of steel hands and white claws, horns, and teeth as the robot and the kaiju viciously attacked each other. Bearadon was taking a lot of blows from the robot but with each scratch and bite, she saw more steel and tires come off the robot’s body. The frenzied exchange lasted for three minutes before Bearadon finally inflicted enough damage on the robot to let the river reach its insides. Sparks and smoke flew into the air as the water short-circuited the giant mech.
With this third robot defeated, Bearadon once more swam over to the river’s edge. She laid down on the side of the river and she was drifting off into unconsciousness when she heard the Instructors’ voice in her ear, “Bearadon, you only have five minutes to reach the plant and destroy it before another robot is constructed!”
Bearadon forced her battered body off the ground then slowly walked over toward the construction vehicle plant. When she looked in through the shattered roof of the plant, she saw the form of another nearly completed robot looking up at her. The mech was not yet operational, but it was obvious that it soon would be. Rather than attacking the sturdy form of the robot, the kaiju destroyed the computers and machines that were building it. Once all of the machinery around the inactive mech stopped moving, the battered kaiju finally collapsed. Before she lost consciousness, Bearadon looked out through a smashed wall at the city of New York to see thousands of people still pouring into the subway tunnels and running toward the bridge. She thought to herself, “I saved those people too.” The mighty Bearadon then finally fell asleep.
The Instructor who had been aiding Bearadon tried several times to rouse the sleeping kaiju, but he soon realized that his efforts were in vain. He decided that Bearadon would be safe until they were able to send out a TR-3B for her. He then relayed the results of her battle to the rest of the Kaiju Corps who were on their way to Detroit.
Chapter 7
Detroit, Michigan
Brian Linke was hiding in a subway tunnel as he continued to type everything that he saw into his computer. The situation in Detroit had gone from scary to absolutely terrifying! While there had originally been one robot attacking the city, the number of giant robots had grown to six. The last one that had been constructed also looked and was behaving differently than the others. The first five robots all had the same general appearance. They were constructed from different types of cars and car parts, but for the most part, they had a mainly human appearance. They had a head, arms, legs, feet, and a torso. The first five robots were all doing the same thing. They were destroying the city and grabbing a few survivors which they were storing somewhere inside of their bodies.
The sixth robot was something different altogether. It was still created from car parts like the other robots, but its appearance was far from human. Brian stared at the sixth robot as he did the best that he could to type out a description of it for the mysterious Horsemen.
The sixth robot is vastly different from the other five. It is quadrupedal in design. Its body is low to the ground with what looks like long, thick, and metallic jaws that stretch out from its face. It has a long tail that ends in what I can only describe as a double-headed battle-axe. The only thing that I can compare the sixth robot to is something like a giant alligator or crocodile. While the other robots are destroying Detroit and capturing or killing people, the alligator is just sitting in the middle of the city. It almost looks like the alligator is waiting for something.
Captain Todd Granderson was piloting the TR-3B that was flying Jerome, Nick, and Miki to Detroit. He had been in the employment of the Horsemen for over ten years. He had done things during his time as a pilot that resulted in the deaths of people, sometimes even innocent people. The TR-3Bs had the ability to drop fire bombs on buildings that could make it appear as if a hotel had caught on fire from a mundane cause such as a gas leak. Captain Granderson knew of at least three times when he had burned an entire building simply to kill a group of four to five terrorists who were staying there. He owned the deaths of the innocent people who had died as a result of his missions. Captain Granderson prayed for the souls of the people that the Horsemen had designated as collateral damage. While the deaths of those innocent people stayed with him, he never once regretted any of his missions. The leader of the TR-3B squadron, Captain Larry Richards, had taught Granderson that if one of his missions required him to kill innocent people in order to eliminate mass murders that his actions were justified with the reasoning that the dozens of innocent people who died were only a tiny fraction compared to the number of lives that would be saved as a result of his actions.
Today, however, that logic was hard for Granderson to rationalize. In addition to delivering Garudasaurus, Leviathan, and Chagon to Detroit to fight the robots there, he was also going to drop an EMP on the city. He knew the repercussions of what his actions meant this time. Dropping the EMP would effectively sign the death warrants of over half the population in the city. Those who were in hospitals, the elderly, the very young, pretty much anyone who needed an easily accessible source of power would die. Then as food and medical supplies dwindled, more people would die. He kept telling himself that taking out the power, and stopping the creation of new robots, would give the Kaiju Corps, and therefore the human race, a fighting chance. Still, the sheer number of deaths that would be on his head was difficult for him to accept. In the long run, he was a soldier and he would follow his orders. He would also spend the rest of his life praying for the people whose lives he was about to end. The TR-3B was roughly three minutes from reaching Detroit when he received a message from the computer programmer who was on the ground in the city and providing information.
Granderson turned back toward Jerome. “Sir, we have an incoming transmission from our man in the city. I am patching it through to you now. We are two minutes to target.”
Jerome thanked the pilot then he looked at the information from the battle site and relayed it to Nick and Miki. “It looks like we have six robots in total in the city. Five of them are operating as the robots in New York did that were destroyed by Bearadon. The sixth one has an alligator-like appearance and it is simply standing in the middle of the city.”
Nick shrugged. “Why would the Signal make an alligator robot that is just standing in the middle of the city?”
Jerome shook his head. “My best guess is that the robots are in contact with each other. That would mean the robots in Detroit are aware that Bearadon stopped their attack in New York.” Jerome shrugged. “That would explain the alligator. Crocodilians are some of the most successful, dangerous, and powerful creatures in the history of the Earth. If the robots checked Earth’s history for types of creatures that would be successful in a close-quarters battle, alligators and crocodiles would be at the top of the list. The reason that the alligator is not attacking the city is because it is waiting to fight off any resistance that may appear. In this case, it’s waiting for us.”
Jerome knew that given this new revelation that they would need to change their attack plan. He first tried to contact the Horsemen through his earpiece, but all that he could hear was static. He turned to Nick. “My earpiece is not working what about yours?”
Nick put his finger to his ear. “Horsemen, come in, this Nick.” The young man listened, but all that he heard in return was static. He looked at Jerome. “Same as you; static.”
Jerome shrugged. “The Signal is still trying to break through the Horsemen’s firewalls. It’s possible that some of the firewalls have already failed. Our earpieces may not be a viable communication method anymore.” He yelled to Granderson, “Ca
ptain, I want you to circle once before we attack. We need know to exactly where the robots are in the city. Once we know where they are positioned, we can determine how best to attack them.”
Captain Granderson nodded in reply as the city came into view. He yelled back to Jerome, “Passing over the city now, sir. I can relay the external camera information to the craft’s screens now.”
The very walls of the TR-3B seemed to disappear. In reality, the walls were simply relaying the camera feed from the hull so that from the perspective of the Kaiju Corps they were seeing everything below them as if they themselves were flying above it. The team members looked down at the robots and the death and devastation that they had caused. Nearly half of the city had been reduced to rubble. Smoke, ash, and dust were hovering around street level. The areas of the streets that the team could see were caked red with blood, bones, and internal organs. The sight was beyond horrific.
Kaiju Corps Page 5