“The Steel Heart folks have rarely ever been this deep into your people’s territory before, kid. That’s the largest group of them I have ever seen,” Worm said, frowning. “Right now, we need to shuffle back down this dune as slowly and carefully as we can and pray hard they don’t notice we’re here. Some of those mechs have sensors like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Halt where you are!” a booming voice rang out over the howling of the wind from behind them. Joster and Worm rolled over to see a smaller, Wolf-class mech standing over them. The pilot’s voice had been amplified by the system of the mech. The barrel of the heavy, belt-fed weapon it carried was aimed directly at them.
Worm let his spear drop from his grasp and slowly raised both hands above his head. Joster followed his example, tossing aside his UZI.
****
Grand Duala Minerva was pleased. The kaiju eggs had hatched. Of the close to four dozen eggs, thirty-eight new true kaiju had been born and were growing into adulthood at a staggering rate. Never in the history of the Greenery’s hatchery had so many been spawned in a single hatching. These weren’t merely flyers or the lesser kaiju that were used as infantry and cannon fodder. No, they were each a great beast that would become a primary weapon of the Greenery’s forces. Thanks to the growth acceleration process overseen by Mother Gretch and the rest of the Kaiju Mothers, by tomorrow, these true kaiju would be ready to let loose upon the invading Steel Heart army that even now continued its push towards the capital.
Duala Mate Denkirch approached her where she sat upon the floor of her chambers, crossed-legged, palms resting on her knees. She could sense the elation flowing through him.
“Grand Duala.” He smiled at her, taking a seat on the floor in front of her. “I have just linked with the survivors of one of our flyer swarms that engaged one of the main groups of Tech forces in route to us.”
There was no need for the two of them to use words. Both of them were powerful psychics, but after the stern warnings she had given Denkirch about forgetting his place, he kept his thoughts, beyond those he spoke aloud, to himself. She didn’t blame him for doing so. In his place, she would have done the same.
“And?” Grand Duala Minerva pressed him.
“Our flyers confirm that there are only eight mechs among the forces bearing down on us and one of those was destroyed when that just returned engaged half their number to the northwest.” Denkirch grinned.
Grand Duala Minerva’s laughter boomed out of her and echoed off the stone walls of her chambers. “Seven,” she cackled. “A mere seven mechs!”
“Indeed.” Denkirch nodded. “Steel Heart rolled the dice that they could stop us before our latest batch of true kaiju were ready and lost. Their invasion force will be slaughtered upon reaching us and then …”
“Then it will be our turn to bring horror to their doorstep,” Grand Duala Minerva finished for him.
“All the evidence points to the invasion forces being the bulk of what they have, Grand Duala. They can’t have more than a handful of mechs held in reserve,” Duala Mate Denkirch said.
“We’ve seen very few of their smaller mechs,” Grand Duala Minerva pointed out.
“True but that doesn’t matter,” Duala Mate Denkirch told her. “Those things aren’t much better than their hover tanks against true kaiju. Even if they held back five dozen of those ‘Wolves,’ as I believe the Techs call them, it won’t be enough. Our kaiju will tear through their ranks easily. We have sprung the perfect trap and Steel Heart will fall to us at last.”
“Overconfidence suits you well, Denkirch,” Grand Duala Minerva stared at him.
Duala Mate Denkirch blinked. “Overconfidence? How can you say that? With the numbers we’ll have at our disposal by the time the Techs arrive, there can be no question of the outcome ahead of us.”
“How old are you, Denkirch?” Grand Duala Minerva asked him frankly though she already knew the answer.
“I was born of the Vats …” he began but she cut him off.
“Not long enough ago it seems,” she repeated the words. “You are so very young, Denkirch. You’ve no lack of power or intellect but wisdom is still beyond your grasp.”
Denkirch’s eyes flashed with anger but he held his tongue.
“I have lived long enough to see the evil that infests the people of Steel Heart endure and prevail against us many times before even when our final victory appeared to be at hand and no hope was left to those fools. Do not underestimate them, Denkirch. For all their ignorance and pride, they are a formidable people,” Grand Duala Minerva frowned. “Let’s not celebrate our final victory until it has been achieved. To do so at this point would be nothing more than folly on our part.”
“But, Grand Duala …” Denkirch began to argue with her.
“Enough, Denkirch,” she cautioned him. “Go now and ready our new kaiju for the coming dawn. Our enemies will soon be here and you must be fully prepared to face them. The new kaiju will still be young and it will be up to you to control them. I must my save my strength for what will come after should you succeed.”
“I will not fail, Grand Duala,” Denkirch said so forcefully that he reminded her of a male ape pounding upon its chest. “Of that, I assure you.”
Grand Duala Minerva watched him rise and leave her chambers. When he was gone, she found her center once more, closing her eyes, and reached out with her mind to commune with the secrets of the future. Her mother had been a pre-cog of the highest order. Grand Duala Minerva’s psi-talents lay along another path, but from time to time, like this evening, she still tried to emulate her mother’s talent. Though victory seemed assured when one looked at things in a logical manner, something troubled her about what lay ahead, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was nothing more than a feeling really but it clawed at her, warning that not all the cards upon the table had been revealed as yet, and she longed to know what those unrevealed cards might be.
****
The Wolf-class mech stood fifteen feet tall. Its sand-colored armor gleamed in the harsh rays of the sun. The mech was human shaped and carried a nasty-looking, heavy, belt-fed weapon. Joster had seen such mechs many times before but never had he been so close to one. It felt as if he were staring up at a giant. The mech was small in comparison to the kaiju-killer mechs of the Tech forces, but this close, it seemed far more massive than it truly was to Joster.
Both he and Worm had discarded their weapons. Joster wanted to fight but he knew that if the old nomad had opted to toss aside his weapons instead of making a go at taking out the lone mech facing them and making a run for it that he would have been dead if he had tried.
“Both of you, on your knees,” the mech pilot ordered them. “Hands behind your heads.”
Worm did as he was told, leaving Joster no choice but to do the same.
“We mean you no harm,” Worm told the pilot in the mech. “I’m nothing more than a nomad trying to survive out here.”
“Sure thing, old man,” the mech pilot growled in a disgusted tone. “And your friend is wearing a Greenery military uniform because he found it here in the Waste, right?”
“As a matter of fact.” Worm smirked.
“Don’t get smart with me, old man,” the mech pilot warned. Apparently, he had called in their position to the main body of the Tech force nearby because a group of five Tech infantry troops appeared over the top of the dune and made their way down to where they were. Two of the infantry troopers set about collecting their discarded weapons while two others approached them, guns at the ready, and begin to do one-handed frisks of their bodies.
“Hey now!” Worm shouted. “I’m a free man. I have rights!”
The infantry troops snickered as the pilot in the mech said, “You’re not a citizen of Steel Heart, old man. You’re living deep in Greenery territory with one of the freaks’ soldiers as your traveling companion. Whatever rights you think you had, you forfeited them the second you allowed him to join up with you.”
&
nbsp; “Sir! They’re carrying a grenade,” one of the infantry troopers shouted, taking the weapon, and lifting it for the mech pilot to see.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill the two of you here and now and be done with it,” the mech pilot said.
Joster saw Worm glance at him with a sorrowful expression.
“You’re right. That one there is a Greenery soldier. I found him wandering the Waste after a battle that destroyed the unit he was assigned to,” Worm confessed. “Don’t you think it might be useful to see what kind of information you can get out of him?”
“Name and rank, soldier,” the mech pilot ordered Joster.
“My name is Joster,” he answered. “We don’t really have the same sort of rank structure that you do, but I’m a warrior if that means anything to you.”
The pilot inside the mech and the infantry troopers all burst into laughter.
“And a mighty one at that,” one of them taunted him.
“Lost in the Waste and saved by an old man,” another snorted. “That’s a feat to be sung about for the ages right there that is.”
“Well, Warrior Joster,” the mech pilot laughed, his tone a mocking one, “today is your lucky day. My C.O. actually wants you alive.”
“And what about me?” Worm demanded. “I brought him to you, didn’t I?”
“Sorry, old man,” the mech pilot said, “your luck has just run out.”
In a very calm and fluid motion, one of the Tech infantry troopers snapped his rifle up at Worm. Before the old man could even try to argue more, the trooper squeezed the weapon’s trigger. A five-round burst of high-powered rounds ripped into Worm’s chest, splattering the sand with his blood and pieces of his shattered ribs. Worm’s body was flung backwards by the impact of the rounds and toppled onto the sand, rolling down the dune to rest at the mech’s feet.
“By all that’s holy!” Joster shouted. “You didn’t have to kill him! He was just an old nomad like he said he was.”
“Not your call to make, green boy,” the mech pilot snarled. “Now settle down or I’ll do the same to you.”
Joster stared at the head of the Wolf-class mech where the upper body of its pilot surely rested with hatred burning in his eyes but he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t resist as the Tech infantry troopers shoved him ahead of them, walking him towards the Techs’ main force on the other side of the dune.
Terrified and in awe of what he saw as they led him over the dune, Joster promised himself he would die with dignity. The Wolf-class mech stomped along behind him and the infantry troopers. He realized again just how small it was he looked up the four real giants that watched over the Techs’ forces.
A man dressed in the uniform of a Steel Heart major came forward to meet them. Two more Wolf-class mechs walked at his side as escorts. The major and the two mechs stopped several yards short of where the infantry troopers brought Joster to a stop at.
“I am Major Nathan Rowley in command of Taskforce Alpha,” the major told him. “I am told you are a warrior of the Greenery and the uniform you wear seems to confirm that fact.”
Joster said nothing. He didn’t know what to say. He fantasized about grabbing a rifle from the hands of one of the Tech infantry troopers behind him and gunning the major down where he stood. His rational mind kept him from doing so though. Even if he was able to yank a weapon from one of the Tech infantry, the mechs that stood protecting the major would blow him to pieces before he could use it.
“I have very little time,” Major Rowley told him. “If you wish to live, there are things I would like to know. Do you understand me?”
“You’re offering me my freedom if I tell you … what?” Joster asked, trying to keep his voice from showing just how terrified and angry he felt.
“I want to know everything that you do about your capital and what’s waiting for us there,” Major Rowley answered. “If you can provide use with something that I deem useful, then yes, I’ll let you go. You’re no threat to us out here and your capital will be in flames regardless before you could ever hope to reach it.”
****
Colonel Jaeger had relieved Captain Reed and taken command of the Steel Heart’s war room again some time ago. He sat in his chair, listening to the incoming reports from Taskforce Beta as it scrambled to join up with Taskforce Alpha for the final push of the invasion into the Greenery lands. Everything, other than having a C.O. on site that he trusted, appeared to be going as well as he could hope for.
“Colonel!” one the war room’s techs, he thought was named Berrong, shouted at him from her station. “I’ve got a power surge, sir!”
The other techs in the war room turned to look at her as if she had lost her mind.
“Which Taskforce?” her direct supervisor, a senior tech named Harold, snapped at her.
“No, sir,” Colonel Jaeger heard her answer. “It’s not coming from either Taskforce. It’s coming from inside this city.”
“That’s impossible!” Senior Tech Harold shouted and left his station, heading toward her.
“Stand down, Harold,” Colonel Jaeger ordered his voice calm and smooth.
Harold shot him an angry glare before realizing what he had done. The anger vanished from the senior tech’s eyes, replaced by fear. “Yes, sir,” Harold said and returned to his own station.
“Where is this power surge you’re detecting coming from exactly?” Colonel Jaeger asked the female tech.
“From Councilor Sheehan’s factory, sir,” she answered with a confused expression. “It’s a mech power signature, sir. I would stake my life on it. But it’s not like any I have ever seen.”
“Shelia!” Harold shouted at her. “Double check your readings!”
“I have, sir; triple checked them even. It’s real, sir.” She held her ground, no matter how crazy she sounded. Everyone in the war room knew that Steel Heart only had ten, now nine, functioning mechs registered and operational. Seven were in the field, assigned to the taskforces closing in on the Greenery’s capital and the other two were tucked away in their construction pits as a reserve should the Greenery somehow opt to make a move against the city in reprisal.
Colonel Jaeger rubbed at his cheeks with the tips of the fingers of his right hand. “I never said I doubted you, Specialist Berrong. Tell me more about why this signature is so different.”
“It’s two-point-five times that of a normal class-seven mech, sir,” she answered. “The energy output of the thing is unbelievable.”
“I see.” Colonel Jaeger feigned a frown. “It seems Councilor Sheehan has been hiding something from us all, eh?”
“With all due respect, that’s a pretty big accusation to make sir,” Senior Tech Harold challenged him. “Surely it’s just a glitch of some kind in Specialist Berrong’s station.”
Captain Reed, who had kept quiet until now, spoke up. “If it’s not though, Councilor Sheehan is guilty of outright treason,” he reminded them all.
“Agreed.” Colonel Jaeger nodded. “Ready my transport. I’m going to investigate this matter personally. Captain Merrick, you have command until I return.”
Captain Reed gave him a hard nod and moved to take over the command chair as Colonel Jaeger vacated it.
As Colonel Jaeger stepped out of the war room and an escort of four heavily armed guards met him, he allowed himself a slight smile. The four guardsmen were men he knew well. Major Steiner appeared to be following the orders Jaeger had given him to the letter.
The guardsmen accompanied him to the landing platform where the APC-like hover car he had requested was waiting. They followed him onto it, strapping into their seats as he headed up front to join the car’s pilot.
“Get us there as quickly as you can, soldier,” Colonel Jaeger said, easing into the empty copilot seat.
“Yes, sir,” the pilot barked. The hover car lifted off, streaking across the sky above Steel Heart in route to Councilor Sheehan’s factory.
Colonel Jaeger let out a sigh of re
lief as the hover car touched down outside of the factory and he saw both Major Steiner and the councilor waiting on him instead of a squad of Intel Police. As soon as he was out of the car, Major Steiner ran over to him.
“She’s prepped and ready, sir,” the younger man told him. “All she needs is you.”
The two of them clasped hands as if they were saying a final farewell and very likely they were.
“Good luck to you, Major,” Colonel Jaeger said. “I hope to see you alive and well when I return.”
“I hope so too.” Major Steiner nodded.
“This way, Colonel,” Councilor Sheehan urged him, leading him towards a section of the factory’s exterior wall next to its proper entrance. “I rigged this up just for you.” The councilor grinned. “It’ll take you straight to where you need to go.”
“Thank you … For everything,” Colonel Jaeger said sincerely. “Whether it knows it or not, Steel Heart is in your debt.”
“You just win this war, Colonel,” Councilor Sheehan said. “You do that and anything else that happens from here on in will be worth it.”
Councilor Sheehan waved a hand over the surface of the wall next to the door and a small section of it opened, a control panel sliding outward from it as a second doorway also opened next to the main entrance.
Colonel Jaeger stepped into it and closed behind him. There was a sudden lurch as the floor seemed to give way beneath him. He was inside a lift and it had just started moving. As the lift fell downwards, it reshaped itself about him. He gasped as he realized it was becoming the pilot compartment of a mech. The lift came to a halt, its impact against whatever it had landed on leaving his guts churning. As he sat in the pilot compartment that the lift had become, he could see system lights turning on all around him. A tactical display flickered into being in front where he sat. Samurai One was fully activated and ready for action. He wasted no time plugging into her through the cybernetic implants embedded in his body from his mech pilot days. Power like he had never known or even imagined could exist flowed through him. He had studied the schematics of the mech that the councilor had provide him with it but being tapped into Samurai One was something else altogether. He could feel every inch of her in his mind as he mentally reached out to run a pre-flight systems check. All systems were green. He hoped Major Steiner and the others had cleared out of the way above him because it was time to take Samurai One into the air where she belonged.
Kaiju Wars Page 8