****
Sand Stomper lay on the ground, one of its legs gone and its chest pecked and clawed into a mass of ravaged metal. It was clear that the mech wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. Campbell, piloting Ragnarok Valkyrie, kept guard over it. Sand Stomper’s comms were offline so Major Leiber couldn’t order him not to do so. Major Leiber might have to make hard calls and leave people at the mercy of the enemy but Campbell wasn’t in command. He had no such restraints upon his actions in terms of deciding who lived and who died. The hover tanks appeared to be out of harm’s way and the other two mechs were operational and able to handle themselves; even if Hulking Diablo looked on the verge of falling, it was still in the fight. If anyone could take on a swarm of kaiju flyers by himself, Peter was the pilot to do it. Campbell had faith in the man’s love of bloodshed to get him through. As to Geddy, well, where in the devil he had ran off to was anyone’s guess, but he and Entropic Rush weren’t in danger. Major Leiber and Sand Stomper though were completely defenseless without him.
A trio of kaiju flyers came flying at Ragnarok Valkyrie and Sand Stomper. It was clear they wanted at Sand Stomper more than wanted to head to head with Campbell’s fully functional Ragnarok Valkyrie. They angled their flight in an attempt to get around him but Campbell was ready for them. He fired a burst of rounds that clipped one of the kaiju’s wings and sent it spiraling headfirst into the sand with the crunching sound of breaking skull bone and punctured the guts of another. The gutted kaiju tried to pull up and come about to make a run for it with its intestines leaking from what was once its stomach but the strands of its intestines wrapped around one of the creature’s wings, entangling it. The kaiju flipped in the air and fell from the sky to go bouncing across the sand out of Campbell’s line of sight. The third and oddest looking of the three kaiju made it past him, however. It landed with a thud on Sand Stomper’s ravaged chest. The thing’s head was more insectoid than bird or reptile in nature and its speed was incredible. Even as Campbell twisted around the upper half Ragnarok Valkyrie’s body to get a shot at it, a long, tongue shot from its snout-like mouth with the speed of a striking serpent. The end of the tongue was hardened, much like a spear tip. It pierced Sand Stomper’s head and pilot compartment, apparently hitting something vital there because the mech’s head exploded in a shower of spewing flames and erupting metal fragments.
“No!” Campbell wailed but it was too late. The damage was done. Major Leiber was dead. Ragnarok Valkyrie stumbled a step as Campbell’s mind reeled in disbelief at what had just happened.
Campbell’s attention was torn away from the horrific sight of the fires burning and raging inside of what remained of Sand Stomper’s head by Peter’s voice over the comm.
“Can I get a little help here, guys?” Peter shouted.
On his tactical view screen, Campbell saw that nearly a dozen of the smaller kaiju flyers had attached themselves to Hulking Diablo’s armored body. They clung to it, tearing away at it with their claws and teeth even as the giant mech continued to swing its axes at the larger members of the swarm.
Campbell disengaged Ragnarok Valkyrie’s wrist cannons. He hated to it but he needed a close-in weapon more at the moment. Small charges activated, exploding, to pop the mounted cannons free of Ragnarok Valkyrie’s wrists. Beneath where they had rested, the armor separated, sliding open as Campbell flung the mech’s arms forward. Two, long chains were flung from the openings. As the chains extended, their tips condensed, wrapping over themselves to form mace-like heads. As they did so, a feral grin parted Campbell’s lips. It was time for the battle to truly get up close and personal.
“The major’s dead!” Campbell shouted over the comm. as Ragnarok Valkyrie’s legs pumped beneath it and the mech charged forward to come to Hulking Diablo’s aid. Campbell heard Peter give an unemotional grunt of acknowledgement to what he had said. He couldn’t tell if Peter really didn’t give a crap or was just too busy with the kaiju to say anything more.
Ragnarok Valkyrie swung one of its maces into the swarm of the kaiju, knocking several of them from the sky as the weapon shattered their bones. Campbell then swung the mech’s other chain upwards to ensnare one the last of the larger bat-like kaiju. The chain crushed bone where it wrapped around the monster before, and with a jerk, Ragnarok Valkyrie yanked the monster from the sky, slamming it into the sand of the Waste.
“Not bad,” he heard Peter comment over the comm. “Not bad at all, Campbell.”
“Get clear of the kaiju!” Geddy called to them suddenly.
“Where the hell have you …?” Peter started but Geddy cut him off.
“Now!” Geddy screamed, the urgency of his tone was as sharp as Peter and Campbell’s surprise to hear from him.
Peter threw Hulking Diablo forward and flat onto the sand like a man trying to dodge a bullet as Ragnarok Valkyrie leaped sideways.
A screeching wall of sonic energy plowed through the kaiju swarm, decimating it in a single blast. The handful of kaiju that survived soared upwards and away from the three mechs as Entropic Rush bounded across the sand to stand where Hulking Diablo and Ragnarok Valkyrie had been.
“Holy mother of goodness!” Peter exclaimed. “What in the devil did you just do?”
Campbell was too shocked to say anything. He just stared at the image of Entropic Rush on his tactical viewer in awe.
“That’s a like move I like to call Sonic Blitz, gentlemen,” Geddy laughed. “It takes a while to power up though. Sorry about that.”
“Man, you wasted those bastards.” Peter was cackling inside Hulking Diablo as the heavy mech rose to its feet.
“Good thing too,” Geddy said. “That just took everything but Entropic Rush’s emergency backup power. I’m running on close to empty, guys.”
“I don’t think those kaiju will be coming back anytime soon,” Campbell commented. “What’s left of them, I mean.”
A moment of awkward silence ticked by before Geddy said, “Did I just hear you say that Major Leiber is dead?”
“Take a look for yourself,” Campbell gestured at the flaming ruins of Sand Stomper’s headless form where it lay in the sand with one of Ragnarok Valkyrie’s hands.
“Dang,” Geddy breathed slowly, stretching out the word. “So that leaves you in command, doesn’t it?”
“No,” Campbell answered. “Captain Merrick is the ranking officer now.”
“What?” Peter roared. “That’s whacked. I’m not taking orders from some tank commander.”
“He’s a captain actually,” Geddy chimed in.
“Doesn’t matter, Peter,” Campbell said flatly. “He’s in charge.”
“Surprised he hasn’t tapped into our comm. network yet,” Geddy said.
“I have Lieutenant Leigh,” Captain Merrick’s voice took them all by surprise. “Major Leiber may be dead but our mission isn’t over.”
“No it’s not,” Peter growled. There was a long pause before he added, “Sir.”
“Look, Lieutenant Keene, I know you mech boys aren’t used to be bossed around by someone who isn’t another pilot. I don’t like it either, but it’s how the cards have fallen. Don’t give me any crap and I won’t give you any either. Understood?” Captain Merrick said.
“Understood,” Peter answered grudgingly.
“So what’s the plan, sir?” Geddy asked.
“Right now, we’re gonna reach out to the support units we left at Canton and allow them time to catch up to us. Pressing on as we are would be madness.” Captain Merrick seemed to wait for Peter to challenge him, but to even Campbell’s surprise, Peter didn’t.
“Stay alert in the meantime,” Captain Merrick ordered and then ended his transmission.
****
“Major Leiber is confirmed dead, sir,” Major Steiner informed Colonel Jaeger.
Colonel Jaeger frowned as he sat in the command chair of the war room. There were several techs in the room aside from the two them. The techs each manned their own comm./satellite/drone stations, keepin
g an eye on the developing situation with the two taskforces in route to the Greenery’s capital. Taskforce Alpha was nearing its final stopping position before reaching the capital. Aside from a few almost guerilla-style attacks, it had encountered very little resistance. Instead, the Greenery forces that could have truly engaged it had merely continued to pull back out of its path. Taskforce Beta on the other hand had suffered severe losses. It had been assigned to dealing with the Greenery city of Canton, and while it had destroyed the city, that battle and the engagement with a swarm of kaiju that followed it had taken its toll on the unit. Colonel Jaeger wasn’t overly concerned with the losses in regards to the lesser units of the taskforce, but the loss of Sand Stomper and Major Leiber was a powerful blow to his plans by the enemy. Mechs weren’t cheap or easy to build. Each took months and a great deal of resources. They couldn’t be replaced as quickly as the Greenery’s kaiju could even before the new rumors that the Greenery had discovered a real means of mass-producing giant kaiju on a level that could likely mean the end of the long war and of Steel Heart itself.
As if the loss of Sand Stomper wasn’t bad enough, the loss of Major Leiber, Taskforce Beta’s commanding officer, was an even harsher blow. He had handpicked her to lead the assault on the Greenery’s capital. With her gone, that left a young tank captain named Merrick in command of her half of the overall assault force and Major Rowley in command of the overall force. Rowley was even younger and more inexperienced than Captain Merrick was in a sense. Rowley had joined up straight out of Steel Heart’s academy and worked his way up the ranks inside the safety of the capital itself. Before being assigned to accompany Major Leiber as her support, the young major had led only a few defense skirmishes along the now-shattered front lines. There was no way in hell that Colonel Jaeger was going to leave the major in charge of the overall assault on the Greenery. There was too much at stake. Handing over full command to Captain Merrick was an equally bad idea. Mech pilots looked down, no pun intended, on tankers and truthfully a lot of tankers were troopers who didn’t have what it took to pilot a mech. Having given Captain Merrick’s file a quick read through in the last half hour, Colonel Jaeger knew the man was a competent and seasoned officer but that didn’t mean the man had what it took to lead an assault of the scale as the attack on the Greenery’s capital. Even if he did, would the mech pilots in the field listen to a mere tanker? What kind of effect would Captain Merrick being placed in overall command have on their morale? Colonel Jaeger needed someone that he could be sure the other mech pilots would get behind and obey. Captain Merrick just wasn’t that.
Colonel Jaeger had ordered a team of field techs to find a way inside the wreckage of Sand Stomper in the vain hope that somehow Major Leiber had survived. With her death now confirmed, he was going to have to make a very hard choice. He could call off the assault on the capital, that was true, but doing so if the rumors of the new method of Greenery kaiju production were more than rumors was too dangerous a gamble to take as he saw things. That meant his only real option was to get someone out there who could lead the assault that he trusted to be able to handle the job.
He noticed Major Steiner watching him closely.
“What is it, Steiner?” he asked.
“A word in private, sir?” Major Steiner asked.
Colonel Jaeger nodded getting up from his command seat. “Captain Reed.” He nodded at the chair he had just vacated. “If you would until I return.”
“Yes, sir!” Captain Reed barked and took over.
With Major Steiner on his heels, the two of them stepped out of the war room and into the empty hallway beyond it.
“Now what is it, Major?” Colonel Jaeger demanded.
“I was thinking we need to send a new C.O. to head up the assault on the Greenery, sir,” Major Steiner told him.
“And how exactly do we do that, Major?” Colonel Jaeger growled. “We have very few aircraft at our disposal and that’s what it would take to get someone new there in time. Besides, that swarm of kaiju flyers that hammered Taskforce Beta may not be the only one of its kind out there.”
Major Steiner looked nervous as he answered, “Samurai One, sir. She’s your answer.”
Colonel Jaeger flinched at the mention of the mech’s name. He had to hold himself back from springing forward and slapping a hand over the young major’s mouth.
“Not another word, Major,” Colonel Jaeger warned. “Not here anyway.”
“I understand that we haven’t had a chance to tell the Council of Engineers about her yet sir but …” Major Steiner stammered.
“Enough!” Colonel Jaeger snapped. Major Steiner took a step back, his face turning pale.
Colonel Jaeger forced himself to calm down. “As it so happens, Major, I agree with you, but you need to keep your mouth shut. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.” Major Steiner nodded.
Taking an archaic notepad from the pocket of his uniform, he scrawled his orders on it, tearing them off, and handed them to the young major.
“Take these and follow them to the letter,” Colonel Jaeger told him sternly. “And if you utter another word about any of this before I tell you to, I’ll shoot you myself. You won’t have to for the court martial that will likely be waiting for us both when all this over with.”
He watched Major Steiner read over the orders, the young major’s expression lighting up as he did so. “Understood, sir.” Major Steiner beamed at him and then turned and ran down the corridor in the direction of the colonel’s office.
When Major Steiner had disappeared from sight, Colonel Jaeger sighed, heading back into the war room.
****
Worm woke up Joster at the crack of dawn. The two of them had downed a quick breakfast of kaiju meat and water then gotten moving southward. The heat of the sun baked them as they trudged over the sand. Worm hadn’t agreed to help him get home but they were heading south in the general direction of the Greenery capital, and for that, Joster was grateful. The old man really knew his way around the Waste. Worm used his spear like a walking stick as they worked their way up a small dune. Joster still carried the tech revolver he had looted from an abandoned jeep he had stumbled onto. There was only one bullet remaining in the weapon but Joster held on to it anyway, keeping the pistol tucked under the front of his belt. Sometimes a single bullet could be enough to save your life. In his hands, he carried a new weapon that Worm had given him from the pack he carried. It was a small, machine gun-like weapon that the old man said was called an UZI. Worm had warned him that the weapon didn’t have much stopping power against a wild kaiju but that its rate of fire was impressive. It might not stop a wild kaiju outright without some massive good luck, but it sure would mess one up if its magazine was emptied into one of the creatures.
The old man’s kindness was shocking to Joster. For a person who looked and acted rough enough that Joster had actually believed the old man might consider eating him, Worm was proving to be a better traveling companion than even another soldier from the Greenery would likely have been. He just couldn’t figure the old nomad out. Worm’s thoughts on his people and those of Steel Heart were detestable at best according to the ideology that Joster had been raised in. The old nomad viewed both sides as equal evils. He couldn’t see the beauty of the Greenery’s path or the sheer horror of Steel Heart’s. How Worm couldn’t understand that the techs of Steel Heart wanted to rape the world of its resources and pollute it even more than its current state was a mystery to him.
“Hold up, boy,” Worm whispered as they neared the top of the dune they were about to crest. “Listen.”
The wind had been howling the better part of the morning. Joster had been afraid that it would kick up a sandstorm from the level of its fury, but the old man had assured him it wasn’t to that point yet and they were fine for the time being. Joster stopped where he was and strained his ears in an attempt to hear what the old nomad was hearing. It took a moment but he finally did. Coming from somewhere distant
on the other side of the dune was the sound of something akin to heavy machinery at work.
“What the …?” Joster started but Worm leaped at him, covering his mouth as the old man took the two of them down onto the sand.
Worm gestured for Joster to keep his mouth shut and slowly crawled up to the top of the dune, taking a careful peek over it. Joster snaked his way up after the old man. It was all he could do not to scream as he poked his head up just enough to get a look over the top of the dune.
In the distance, he saw what looked to be an entire taskforce worth of Steel Heart hover tanks and mechs accompanied by support vehicles. Steel Heart infantry and repair personnel scurried about beneath the towering forms of four giant mechs. All of the techs were busy. It looked like they were making the final preparations to head into the battle of their lives.
“Your Greenery’s capital ain’t that far from here, boy,” Worm told him. “I reckon that’s where they’re heading.”
Joster was torn between whether telling the old nomad that the two of them needed to run for their lives or demanding that Worm help him find a way to stop the Tech forces before they got moving again. He knew the second bit was insane but his sense of duty tossed it into his mind anyway. The two of them wouldn’t last half a second against the Tech forces they were looking at.
In the end, he opted to let the old nomad plot their course of action, asking, “What should we do?”
“We keep our heads to the sand and wait for them to move out,” Worm said, staring at him as if he was insane. “What else can we do?”
Joster gave a half-hearted shrug, not willing to admit he had actually considered trying to go up against the techs even for a brief second. “I don’t know … something. I guess I just figured you might have some kind of a plan for dealing with stuff like this.”
Kaiju Wars Page 7
