Kaiju Corps

by Matthew Dennion

  Garudasaurus screeched in pain as he grabbed the robot’s hand with the active sonic cannon on it and pointed it at the rocket. The sonic blast cut through the rocket and caused it to explode in midair. Both Garudasaurus and Blackbolt were sent tumbling away from the blast. Garudasaurus took small pleasure knowing that he had prevented the rocket from leaving the planet, but he also knew that he was mortally wounded. It was difficult to breathe and he could feel his lungs filling up with blood. Garudasaurus knew that he was going to die, but he was determined to inflict as much damage on Blackbolt as he could before that happened.

  Garudasaurus’s entire torso was in excoriating pain as he flapped his wings and flew toward the free-falling Blackbolt. The robot turned toward Garudasaurus, ignited its propulsion system to halt its freefall, and quickly delivered two strikes to the kaiju’s face. Garudasaurus shook off the blow and hit the robot twice in its chest, hoping to damage its CPU. With each blow that Garudasaurus delivered to the robot, the pain in his lungs increased and his vision grew dimmer. The leader of the Kaiju Corps took two more strikes to the face, and he was only able to respond by landing three weak punches to the robot’s midsection.

  Blackbolt delivered a crushing blow that splintered Garudasaurus’s already-broken ribs. Garudasaurus’s vision went dark, and he used the last of his strength to punch the robot in the chest with enough force to crack its outer hull. With the last of his energy spent, Garudasaurus, the leader of the Kaiju Corps, died.

  Nick, Miki, and Michelle were still in their human forms, and they watched helplessly as the lifeless body of the man/monster who was their brother, leader, and lover respectively crashed into the ground. The impact created a deep crater and sent a plume of dust flying up into the air. The dark form of Blackbolt briefly flew over Garudasaurus’s body then it returned to the launch site.

  The other three members of the Kaiju Corps continued to stare at the body of Garudasaurus for several long seconds before Nick finally whispered, “Jerome. No.”

  Chapter 24

  Australia

  Captain Williams landed his TR-3B in the middle of the Great Victoria Desert. He had succeeded in his latest goal of flying across the Pacific Ocean in record time. Once more, the team was quick to run off the craft, set up the warhead, and then review the instructions with the volunteer about when to deploy the warhead. The team was then quickly back on the craft and Williams set a flight plan for China.

  Finland

  Captain Okafor’s TR-3B landed next to a lake in northern Finland. By now, the team had the running out and deployment of the warheads, detonators, and balloons down to a science. The team members quickly set up the latest volunteer and then they were back in the TR-3B, heading toward Russia.

  Washington DC

  Captain Richards was circling the city, and he sighed in disappointment when he noticed that there were four giant robots roaming through the city as opposed to the three he had encountered during his previous battles. The robots were clearly constructed from car parts found at the GM plant in DC. Richards was easily able to name of the robots from the car parts that they were constructed from. The first of the humanoid capture and kill robots that he saw he gave the name of Yukon. The second robot was rooting through the remains of the capital building, and he gave that robot the code name Acadia. The third robot was standing on top of a mountain of destroyed treasures in the location where the Smithsonian was located, and Richards gave it the name Sierra.

  The fourth robot was a battle robot that was constructed from the parts of the SUV known as the Terrain, and it was standing directly over what had once been the White House. Due to the robot’s arachnid appearance, he referred to the mech as Terrainantula. Richards decided that he would best be suited to destroy Terrainantula before engaging the other robots.

  The veteran pilot was sure that when he attacked Terrainantula that the other mechs would try to attack his blindside, but he had no other option. Richards circled around the city then aimed his TR-3B directly at Terrainantula. As he rocketed his TR-3B toward the battle robot, he pictured himself as a fly charging at a giant spider. Richards locked one of his two remaining magnetic missiles on Terrainantula and then pulled the trigger. He watched in disbelief as Terrainantula lifted one of its long front legs and used it to block the missile from striking its body. The magnetic field given off by the missile crushed Terrainantula’s foremost right leg, but the damage that it caused to the giant mechanical spider was negligible. The mech stepped forward, showing that it still possessed all of its speed and maneuverability.

  Richards looked to his left to see an eighteen-wheel truck flying towards him that been hurled by Acadia. Richards pulled up hard on his controls in an attempt to dodge the projectile, but he knew that he would be unable to avoid the flying vehicle. To his surprise, the truck was torn to pieces in mid-air. In the spot where the flying truck had previously been, a TR-3B flew through the air.

  Richards cheered loudly when he saw the face of his friend and protégé Todd Granderson piloting the second TR-3B. Richards flew over the head of Terrainantula as the robot reached out with its foremost left leg at his craft. Richards was flying past the mechanical spider when it spun around and sprayed a mist of liquid nitrogen at his TR-3B out of its mouth. The outer hull of Richards’ craft became coated in frost, but he managed to fly out of the mist before the freezing chemical caused any significant damage to his TR-3B. He took a quick glance over at Granderson to see him flying in a tight circle around Acadia and Yukon, who had positioned themselves next to each other, indicating that he would handle the humanoid robots, leaving Terrainantula for Richards. Richards tipped his wings in response to his friend, indicating that he understood Granderson’s intentions.

  Once Granderson was sure that Richards understood what he wanted to do, he dove and flew toward Yukon. The robot picked up a large handful of debris and threw it at the right side of his TR-3B. Granderson swerved to his left then immediately dropped in altitude, allowing the chunk of concrete that he knew Acadia was going to hurl at him soar over his craft. He laughed. “We are getting used to you guys and your tricks.”

  Once Granderson had dodged the second projectile, he fired his last magnetic missile at Yukon. To his surprise, the robot picked up a delivery truck and threw it directly at the missile. The missile activated when it hit the truck, compressing it into a sphere the size of a basketball. Granderson looked down at Yukon. “I guess that you are learning our tricks as well.”

  Granderson circled back around and found himself faced with an onslaught of small baseball-sized pieces of concrete being hurled at him by both Acadia and Yukon. With all of the concrete in the air, it was impossible for him to successfully target the robots with his sonic cannon. The pilot’s frustration was further exasperated by the fact that the small pieces of concrete were starting to damage his TR-3B. Granderson set his sonic cannon to continuous fire then he used to it clear the debris that was flying toward him. While the sonic cannon was managing to clear him a path toward Yukon and Acadia, and the beam was still being fired in their general direction, the process of the sonic blast moving between solid and gaseous matter was greatly weakening its effectiveness by the time it reached the robots. Granderson tried to increase his altitude and switch the direction and angle of his attack, but the moment that he flew back toward the robots, they repeated the process of throwing a debris field in his way.

  Granderson pulled up again from his attack. He looked over at Richards to see him flying high above Terrainantula and firing his machine guns at the mech which it was easily avoiding. Sierra was looming near Terrainantula and most likely waiting for Richards to fly low enough for it to attack him. It was obvious that the robots had figured out how to effectively create a stalemate between themselves and the TR-3Bs. The robots had observed the TR-3B’s previous battles, and they had devised a plan that would require the pilots to put themselves into a vulnerable situation in order to attack them. The robots had surrounded themselve
s with debris that they could use to intercept any missile and would reduce the effectiveness of the sonic cannon unless the TR-3B was at near point-blank range.

  Granderson quickly looked over at Sierra and shouted, “Fine, then that’s how we will do it!” He armed one of his incendiary missiles and fired it at Sierra. He knew that the robot would throw something at the missile that would stop the projectile before it reached the mech, but Granderson hoped that his missile would give Richards an opportunity to attack Terrainantula.

  After firing his missile at Sierra, Granderson once more set his sonic cannon to continuous fire then he dove straight at Yukon and Acadia. The moment that he started his dive, the robots began tossing a maelstrom of small debris at him. Granderson screamed as he used his sonic cannon to plow through the flying debris field and make his way toward the robots. He had to fly to point-blank range before his sonic cannon was able to punch its way through the makeshift shield and hit the robots. Granderson’s TR-3B was floating directly in front of Yukon as his sonic cannon tore into the robot’s chest. Yukon’s torso was falling to pieces, but before the robot was rendered inert, it reached out with its right hand and crushed Granderson’s sonic cannon. Yukon’s deactivated husk was still standing when Acadia smashed through it and grabbed Granderson’s TR-3B.

  Every time that Richards decreased in altitude to attack Terrainantula, he saw Sierra reach down and pick up something to throw at him. He also glanced over to see the other two robots throwing enough pieces of steel and concrete into the air to prevent Granderson from attacking them, let alone attacking Sierra. Richards was too far away to use his sonic cannon on Terrainantula, and he was reduced to using his machine guns to try and damage the robotic spider from a distance, but the agile mech was easily avoiding his bullets.

  Richards was sending another barrage of bullets toward Terrainantula when he saw Granderson fire a missile at Sierra. Richards knew that Granderson was opening a window for him to attack and the veteran pilot jumped on it. Richards waited for Sierra to counter the missile then he set his sonic cannon to continuous fire, and dove at the oversized mechanical spider.

  Richards’ sonic cannon dug into the ground in front of Terrainantula, causing the mech to turn away from it and scurry away. The mech was movingly quickly and in a sporadic pattern which made it difficult for Richards to score a direct hit on it. Richards gritted his teeth, decreased his altitude, and then flew directly over the battle robot. The second that Richards was hovering only a few feet above Terrainantula and hitting it with his sonic cannon, the mech spun around and sprayed Richards’ TR-3B with a cloud of liquid nitrogen. Richards’ sonic cannon destroyed Terrainantula, but the exterior of his TR-3B was frozen solid. Richards’ frozen craft fell out of the air and crashed on top of the remains of the battle robot. Richards still had power in his TR-3B, but he was totally grounded and immobile. With the exterior of his TR-3B covered in a thick sheet of ice, all that his exterior cameras were able to show him was a wall of white.

  The pilot tried to open the hatch to the TR-3B, but the frozen door simply groaned in response to his attempt to open it. Richards felt an impact tremor shake the ground beneath his feet. He immediately knew that the two-hundred-foot-tall Sierra was moving toward him and would reach him with only a few quick steps. Richards tried to manually position his remaining incendiary missiles in the direction that he had last seen the mech, but his efforts were met with the same groaning sound that he heard when he tried to open the hatch. Richards wrapped his hand around his weapons controls as he felt another footfall shake his frozen craft. Richards then started counting. He got to ten before he felt the next footfall. The pilot quickly calculated the distance between where he had last seen Sierra and the robot’s stride length. He sighed when he completed the math and realized that his only hope of surviving was that Granderson was able to destroy Sierra within the next thirty seconds.

  Granderson heard Acadia’s fingers crushing the back half of his TR-3B, causing the pilot to instinctively grab the trigger to his machine guns and squeeze them. Granderson’s guns were positioned at point-blank range on Acadia’s chest, and even as his craft was being crushed around him, the pilot continued to fire into the robot’s chest, hoping to penetrate its armor and the tires beneath it to reach its CPU. The back half of Granderson’s TR-3B snapped off and fell to the ground, leaving the pilot with nothing but open air behind him. He closed his eyes and continued to squeeze his trigger as he expected the robot’s huge hands to slide forward and crush him at any second. After a few seconds had passed, Granderson opened his eyes to find not only that he was still alive but that he was pulling a trigger for a machine gun that had spent all of its rounds. The pilot looked forward, but all that he saw was a wall of black. He smiled. “The cameras must have gone out when the back of the ship broke off, but I am guessing that the machine gun finally hit something vital within the robot.”

  Granderson climbed out the back of his shattered TR-3B and he peeked around it to see Acadia with a massive smoking hole in its chest still holding the remains of his craft in its hands. Granderson looked down to see over one hundred and fifty feet between himself and the ground. The pilot was sure that either the robot or the remains of the TR-3B would collapse at any second, so he quickly jumped out of the craft and pulled his parachute. As he was drifting to the ground, Granderson looked over at Sierra to see the robot moving toward the frozen white form of Richards’ TR-3B laying helplessly on the ground.

  Richards’ entire TR-3B shook, and frozen pieces of it rained down on his head. The pilot knew that the next footfall would be the one that crushed him. Richards counted to eight, then, knowing that his missiles would explode exactly where they were, he fired every last one that he had.

  Granderson touched down then he felt a blast of heat and saw a massive explosion beneath Sierra’s foot. The explosion destroyed the entire left side of the robot’s body, and as he fell to the ground, Granderson saluted his fallen mentor who he knew had given his life to defeat the robot. Granderson said a small prayer for Richards and all of the brave TR-3B pilots who had died fighting the robots. Then, with nothing but his own voice to convey the message, Granderson began walking around the remains of Washington DC and calling for any survivors to come out from hiding to join him.

  Chapter 25

  Nick followed up his whisper with a shout, “Jerome!” The lifeless body of Garudasaurus did not move inside of the huge crater that it was positioned in.

  Tears were streaming down Miki’s face. “He is not going to change back into his human form, is he? We are going to have to bury him like that, aren’t we?”

  Michelle stared at the space center were Blackbolt stood guard while a flurry of activity was taking place behind it. She growled, “Right now, I am more concerned about making sure that there is nothing left of that robot to bury when I am done with it.”

  Nick and Jerome had been more than best friends growing up. They had been brothers both in blood and in arms. Nick had listened to Jerome on many a night talk about the team’s strengths and weaknesses. He could still hear Jerome talking to him about his anger and how while it powered Leviathan, that it also cost him from seeing how to best attack an opponent. How Miki’s feelings towards others helped to drive her and support others but how it could inhibit her from unleashing her inner beast when she needed to. How Michelle’s brashness and willingness to work on her own was a credit to her bravery but how it also took away from her ability to maximize her skills within the context of a team.

  Jerome had once said to Nick, “Pay attention, Nick. There may come a day when there is a mission that I am not around for, and I will need to know that I can count on you to act as team leader in my place.”

  Nick wiped the tears away from his eyes and he said to himself, “I won’t let you down, Jerome.” He then looked at Michelle and Miki. “We need to pull ourselves together. There will be time to mourn Jerome later. He would want us to put our feelings aside and focus on compl
eting the mission.”

  Miki wiped her eyes and she stopped crying as she stood. “You are right; he would want us to act like the soldiers that we are. Completing this mission, his mission, is the best thing that we can do to honor him.”

  Michelle nodded. “Enough talk! Let’s wreck that robot and everything else on that base!”

  Nick reached out and grabbed her. “Wait! Jerome wouldn’t want us to just rush in there. You saw how easily Blackbolt killed Garudasaurus. We need a plan to attack that thing or it will cut us to pieces.” Nick thought back about the encounter between Garudasaurus and Blackbolt. As he was reviewing the battle in his mind, his eyes went wide. “The robot’s main advantages over us are its ability to fly, its speed, and its sonic cannon. If we can ground Blackbolt and destroy its sonic cannon, we can fight it on equal terms. Then we can destroy the launch site and significantly impede the Signal’s ability to send resources back to its home planet.”

  Miki shook her head. “How do we get close enough to attack Blackbolt without having it take to the air and slicing us apart with the sonic cannon?”

  Michelle shrugged. “I think that the sonic cannon was only able to kill Jerome because it hit at him point-blank range. Like any soundwave, it will lose potency as it travels through the air. I think that a blast from a farther distance will hurt us, but I don’t believe that a single blast from a distance will be lethal.”

  Nick was still staring at the launch site as the women were talking. Miki walked over next to him. “It’s not a city, it’s a space center. Blackbolt is the only robot there. There are no collect-and-kill robots walking around killing people.”