Kaiju Wars

by Eric S. Brown

  Repair personnel swarmed over Sand Stomper like human ants. Major Leiber oversaw their work, barking orders at them and flying into random rages when they attempted to adjust something on the mech that she didn’t feel needed monkeyed with. Pilots often developed a very personal and deep connection to their mechs and Major Leiber, despite her rank, it seemed was no exception. From the look of things, the repair personnel were going to be able to get Sand Stomper close to fully operational. The damage to the mech’s right leg had been extensive. There was no means of fixing up all the damage in the field but she was going to be mobile at least. Of course, given that Sand Stomper’s main weapon system was based in its legs, its combat effectiveness was going to be greatly reduced. Campbell couldn’t help but wonder that if it had been any of the other mechs that were damaged in such a severe fashion if they would have been sent back to Steel Heart for proper repairs. Sand Stomper was Major Leiber’s though, and as thus, it would be continuing on with the rest of Taskforce Beta for the Greenery’s capital.

  Peter leaned against the ammo truck next to where Campbell was sitting, puffing on a cigar. “Those Greenery freaks put up a better fight than I thought they would.”

  Campbell sighed. “Still didn’t mean we had to kill them all.”

  “You sound like Geddy,” Peter grunted. “We’re soldiers, buddy. It’s our job to kill folks.”

  Campbell knew better than to try to reason with someone with like Peter so he changed the subject. “If you think they put up a good fight here, imagine what taking their capital is going to like.”

  “It’ll be epic,” Peter laughed.

  Sliding off the hood of the ammo truck, Campbell jumped to the ground next to Peter. “That’s one way to put it, I guess.”

  Peter exhaled a cloud of smoke. “I know you don’t like me, Campbell. Heck, I will admit I think you can be a bit of a pansy sometimes, but the long and short of it is that we’re on the same side. We don’t need to like each other. We just need to work together enough to get the job that needs doing done.”

  Campbell shot Peter a look at the pansy comment but opted to let it slide. Peter was right. All that mattered was ending the war and as soon as possible.

  “Reckon we’ll be rolling out as soon as the repairs to Leiber’s mech are done,” Peter said around the butt of the cigar stuck between his lips. “Best get back to our rides, eh?”

  Campbell nodded and started walking towards Ragnarok Valkyrie as Peter tossed what was left of his cigar onto the sand, heading for Hulking Diablo.

  Taskforce Beta was on the move again in less than an hour. A screen of forward-hover tanks skirted over the sand as the four mechs trudged along behind them. The infantry and support vehicles remained at the ruins of Canton. Major Leiber wanted them held back and out of direct contact with the enemy. They were assets that didn’t need to be risked in order to achieve the goal that lay ahead of them.

  “Hey, Campbell,” Geddy called over the comm. “You picking up anything weird out there?”

  Campbell checked Ragnarok Valkyrie’s sensors. “There’s some sort of distortion field about ten miles out. Wait, no. It’s nine miles out.”

  “That’s what I mean, man. What that thing is, it’s coming for us and fast,” Geddy said.

  “All mech units, full alert,” Major Leiber interrupted them. “We’ve got incoming.”

  Campbell honed in a visual image of the distortion. “Frag!” he cursed.

  “You see them too then?” Geddy asked.

  “Of course I see them!” Campbell shouted.

  “Good, because I thought I might be losing it,” Geddy said in a way that made Campbell think the man was only half-joking. Geddy had always been an odd one. How he ever ended up a mech pilot was beyond Campbell’s understanding. The man struck him as being much better suited to a career as an artist of some kind. Geddy was quick-witted, creative, and more than a little crazy sometimes.

  The swarm of winged kaiju soared through the otherwise empty sky on a direct course for the Taskforce. The creatures of the swarm came in all shapes and sizes. Some of them looked like giant bats. Others reminded Campbell of the dragons out of the myths of the Old World. All of them though were clearly intent on tearing the quartet of mechs apart. Their screeches and inhuman cries could be heard even through the armor of his mech as Campbell brought up Ragnarok Valkyrie’s wrist cannons towards them. He was already firing as Major Leiber yelled, “All mech units, fire at will!”

  A barrage of flechettes from Entropic Rush and cannon fire from Ragnarok Valkyrie hammered into the approaching swarm shredding kaiju flyers by the dozens. Most the kaiju that were hit burst apart in sprays of gore that fell like rain from the air over the sand. A few took indirect hits though that blew away parts of their bodies while leaving the rest of them intact. Those creatures fought madly to stay aloft. A good number of them ended up in spinning downwards to land on the sand where they picked themselves up with the limbs remaining to them and dragged their bodies onward towards the mechs. The Taskforce’s forward screen of hover tanks opened fire on those creatures, their main guns making short work of them.

  Despite Campbell and Geddy’s efforts, however, there were just too many of the things to stop completely. The swarm came diving into towards the giant four mechs. Hulking Diablo cut one of the flyers in half with a swing of its right-handed axe while it blocked the attack of another with the axe in its left hand, knocking the flyer into a sideways spin that carried it away from the mech. Major Leiber in Sand Stomper deployed its shoulder mounted missile launchers. Six missiles streaked from each of them into the kaiju flyers. Not all the missiles detonated on impact. Some of them simply ripped through the flesh of the kaiju they struck and continued onward through the air, leaving those kaiju with their guts hanging out and their shrieks of violence changed to death cries of unimaginable pain. The missiles that did detonate blew the kaiju they made contact with into bits of pulped meat. Those missiles were Sand Stomper’s only real means of air defense, and with them gone, the battle became a lot more personal for Major Leiber. One of Sand Stomper’s massive hands snatched a kaiju from the air and crushed it to a yellow stain within the mech’s clenched fist. By then, the kaiju were hitting back.

  Campbell cursed as he tried to dodge an attack from one of the creatures, jerking the top half of Ragnarok Valkyrie’s body to the right. The kaiju’s claws still managed to glance against the mech’s armor as it passed by. Sparks flew as the claws parted the metal of the mech’s shoulder in series of long grooves. The damage was mostly superficial. The claws weren’t long enough to penetrate deep enough to do any real damage. Campbell was still sweating though as he opened on another one of the larger bat-like kaiju with Ragnarok Valkyrie’s cannons. The blast caught the bat thing at point-blank range as it swept in towards the mech’s head with its clawed feet extended. Its guts and innards exploded from its mangled form as the cannons’ rounds ripped its body into pieces.

  “There are too many of them!” Geddy yelled over the comm as Entropic Rush started running out of the concentrated center of the kaiju swarm that swirled around the four mechs. The mech built speed as it went, batting kaiju that swooped in as it ran.

  “Lieutenant Leigh! What the hell are you doing?” Major Leiber roared over the comm.

  Geddy didn’t answer her. Before Major Leiber could yell anything else, a trio of the kaiju flyers slammed into Sand Stomper. Their claws and teeth dug into the mech’s armor as they clung to the hull of its upper body. The earlier damage to Sand Stomper’s right knee betrayed Major Leiber as she took a swing at them. Between the sudden movement and the weight of the kaiju flyers clinging to Sand Stomper, the knee blew out in an explosion of sparks and flame. Major Leiber screamed as Sand Stomper careened, totally unbalanced, to the left and then toppled onto the sand. One of the kaiju flyers on it was crushed beneath the mech’s flailing arms. The other two managed to keep their claws in Sand Stomper. They tore frantically at the mech, trying to dig their way i
n to reach the human they knew was housed in its pilot compartment there.

  “Major Leiber is down!” Campbell shouted over the comm. “Sand Stomper just dropped out of the comm. link!”

  Campbell could see the giant bat-like creature tearing at Sand Stomper’s already heavily damaged leg with its claws. The other kaiju flyer, a strange reptilian thing with a beak, pecked at the mech’s chest, ripping away pieces of the armor there with each strike. There was little he could do about it from Ragnarok Valkyrie’s current position. If he brought the mech’s wrist cannons to bear on the kaiju flyers, he’d hit Major Leiber’s mech in the process. Geddy in his mech Entropic Rush had ran out of the heart of the battle. Whatever Geddy was up to he hoped it was more than just making a mad dash for safety. That left Peter in Hulking Diablo to come to the major’s aid. Unfortunately, Peter had his hands full at the moment. The bulk of the kaiju flyers were concentrating on Hulking Diablo. Hulking Diablo was swinging its axes like a berserker, hacking the kaiju circling it around it. Its right axe caught a kaiju flyer resembling a dragon on its back, the axe biting into the creature’s spine and severing it despite not cutting all the way through its body. The blow knocked the kaiju down to land at the mech’s feet. One of Hulking Diablo’s massive feet fell upon the kaiju’s thrashing body and crushed it into the sand. Hulking Diablo’s other axe swept outward in a wide arc, slicing away parts of three other kaiju flyer’s body as it went. One of them dropped from the air, its head gone from its neck, as the other two beat their wings frantically to escape another strike from the axe. The kaiju flyers were getting in their own blows against the mech, however. Entire patches of Hulking Diablo’s chest and shoulders were torn and jagged from where they claws had rent it. A good third of Hulking Diablo’s head was gone. Sparks flew from the exposed and damaged circuits there. For all its fury, Hulking Diablo was slowly being overwhelmed. Nearly a dozen kaiju flyer corpses lay scattered upon the sand taken out by its axes and the mech had wounded even more of the creatures, but it wasn’t enough.

  Kicking Ragnarok Valkyrie into motion, Campbell poured on the speed as the mech charged toward where Sand Stomper was fighting for its life. Sand Stomper’s hands had closed on the kaiju attacking its chest. They held the monster away so that its beak could no longer make contact with its barely intact chest. Campbell tried again to make contact with Major Leiber inside the mech but all that answered him over the comm link was static.

  As he got closer, the kaiju at work on Sand Stomper’s damaged leg finally pulled it completely loose from the mech’s body at the knee. Campbell angled Ragnarok Valkyrie just right to get a shot at the monster. Ragnarok Valkyrie’s wrist cannons blazed, hosing the beast with a stream of continuous fire that caused it to dance about wildly as they blasted through its body. The kaiju’s mangled and blood-drenched body flopped to lie still on top of the leg it had just yanked off of Sand Stomper.

  The eyes of the kaiju flyer that Sand Stomper was holding away from its chest went wide as it noticed Ragnarok Valkyrie’s presence and knew its life was over. It shrieked as Campbell maneuvered Ragnarok Valkyrie so that one of its wrist cannon was almost touching the side of the kaiju flyer’s head and opened fire. The monster’s brains sprayed out of the exit wound the bullets that struck it left in their wake. With the beast dead, Sand Stomper flung the thing’s corpse away and then thudded fully onto its back again like an exhausted warrior who had no fight left in her.

  ****

  Captain Merrick, at Major Leiber’s command, had kept the hover tanks of his unit moving forward despite the kaiju attack. The beasts were focused on the mechs, and at any rate, the main guns of the hover tanks could only be elevated so far. Hover tanks were poor combatants when it came to engaging airborne foes. He had led the tanks outside the battle zone where the kaiju flyers and mechs were engaged before bringing them to a halt. Now though, he ordered them to come about. They were at a range which allowed them to better use their main guns against the beasts. Major Leiber hadn’t specifically banned his hover tanks from entering the battle, and from the look of things, her mechs needed all the help they could get.

  “All units, pick your targets and prepare to engage on my mark,” Captain Merrick over the com-link. He knew he was taking a risk and not just in ticking off his C.O. If the kaiju flyers broke off from the mechs and came after them, his tanks would be little more than sitting ducks for the creatures. Hover tanks moved like lightning compared to their Old World counterparts, but against creatures like the kaiju flyers, they had no chance of outrunning or outmaneuvering them. If Major Leiber and her mechs failed to stop the monsters though, Captain Merrick and his tanks would be just as dead whether they attempted to turn the tide of the battle or not.

  There were seventeen tanks under Captain Merrick’s command, each with a crew of two to three aboard it. They all opened up at once as he shouted, “Fire at will!”

  Three tanks, including his command tank, concentrated their fire on one of the larger bat-like kaiju flyers. The first explosion dug a gaping hole in the creature’s side. The second marked the side of its face, blazing away at the hair and flesh there. The third missed the monster entirely as it flailed about from the pain inflicted by the first two. It swooped about in the air, diving onto a course that would bring it directly into the center of the tanks’ ranks.

  The other hover tanks had aimed for smaller targets. Their fire brought down four of the kaiju flyers with three confirmed kills. It was impossible to tell if the fourth flyer was merely wounded or dead as it came down on the other side of a distant hill from the tanks’ position.

  The barrage from the tanks didn’t bring the fury of the kaiju flyers upon his unit as Captain Merrick feared it might. The beasts, except for the one large bat-like creature, all remained focused on tearing apart Major Leiber’s mech units. Still, the lone, giant creature was more than enough of a threat as it landed amid the row of tanks and lashed out at them with its wings and the clawed hands at their ends. One tank was rolled over onto its side and then flung sideways into another from the powerful thrust of its fans as it tried vainly to right itself. It crashed into the other tank and both of them went up in flames, blossoming into an expanding cloud of fire and debris. The bat-like kaiju flopped downward, grabbing up a tank that had opened up on it with its top-mounted machine gun. The gunner died instantly, upper body crushed and smeared onto the tank’s armor as the beast’s hand closed around it. The bat-like kaiju flung the tank away like a toy. It went spiraling through the air to smash into the ground nearly a mile away, exploding on impact there.

  “All units, break formation and concentrate your fire on this bastard! We’ve got to take her out before she takes us out!” Captain Merrick ordered.

  The firing line of tanks broke up, each pushing its engines to the max in an effort to get clear of the giant bat-like kaiju that had landed among them. Tanks went howling away from the monster in all directions, most of them hammering the beast with their machine guns as they fled. Bullets ripped and tore at the bat-like kaiju’s body, spotting its body with jagged holes as yellow blood leaked from the monster’s wounds. For all the visible gore, the machine gun fire did little more than anger the creature more than it already was. One of its clawed hands slashed downwards at one of the fleeing hover tanks. The claws parted the tank’s armor like a razor cutting through paper. The tank’s topside gunner and machine gun were shredded even as the blow sent the tank half-rolling, half-bouncing across the sand. Captain Merrick watched another icon representing one of the tanks under his command wink out on his tactical display as it did so. His command tank currently had its rear towards the monster and his driver had the pedal to the metal.

  “Bring us around!” Captain Merrick ordered his driver. “And take us straight down that monster’s throat!”

  “Sir?” the driver cried even as she moved to follow his order.

  “Gunner, aim for that demon thing’s head and take it clean off its shoulder!” Captain Merrick yelled.


  The bat-like kaiju turned to snarl at Captain Merrick’s command tank as it came flying towards it. It raised one of its clawed hands to deliver a blow that surely would have ended the command tank had not Captain Merrick shouted, “Fire!”

  The command tank’s main gun flashed at the kaiju lowering head as it moved in to strike, the shot smacking into its skull at near point-blank range. The beast’s brain splattered out of the back side of its head as the heavy round punctured bone then brain matter then bone again. The bat-like kaiju’s body snapped upwards, a hole clean through its forehead, and stood at full height for a fraction of a second as if the beast’s system needed that time to realize it was dead.

  “Evasive maneuvers!” Captain Merrick screamed as the thing’s massive corpse toppled falling straight over the command tank’s position. The command tank’s driver jerked the heavy vehicle hard to the left as the tank’s engine whined, pressed to its limits. The tank cleared the area where the bat-like kaiju’s body flopped onto the sand by a hair’s breath. The shockwave from the impact of the creature’s weight striking the sand behind could be held inside the hover tank even though it wasn’t touching the ground. The air disturbance was enough to shake it and leave the driver cursing as the command tank was shoved hard to the right. Captain Merrick was terrified the driver was going to lose control but she didn’t. The tank zigged and zagged wildly but she fought it onto a straight course that leveled out its fans. Captain Merrick let out a sigh of relief as the tank stabilized.

  The rest of his scattered unit had gotten clear of the bat-like kaiju and came to stop awaiting further orders. The loss of three tanks so quickly kept him from ordering them to engage the kaiju again. Instead, he ordered them to hold position and waited to see if Major Leiber and her mechs could pull off a miracle against the number of kaiju the mechs were facing.