Kaiju Apocalypse by Eric S. Brown, Jason Cordova Page A
Authors: Eric S. Brown, Jason Cordova
Tags: Science-Fiction, Horror
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“We press forward. I’ll take point. West, stay near the middle of the group. Wheeler, take the rear. Let’s move!” She shouted, leading the way around the bend in the tunnel.
Smith came face to face with a small pack of Dog Kaiju that had been creeping its way towards the Alpha Squad. Their mouths opened as she slid to a stop and let the automated targeting system that was within the suit track all six of the Kaiju. She let them have it with her cannon on full auto. The rounds tore the monsters apart, spraying the rock walls with their entrails. As the creatures' bright orange blood smoked on the rock, eating away at it, she kept moving. West, ignoring her order to stay back with the rest of the squad, was right on her heels. The rest of Alpha charged after them.
More Kaiju came as they moved deeper, and more Kaiju died. Smith moved like the Grim Reaper, harvesting the dead Kaiju with each step. She was operating in an alpha state now, no longer directly conscious of her actions, merely a passenger as her training took hold. She was the Volksrächer , born of a land which no longer existed and a people whose ghosts cried out, and she was going to avenge the billions who had fallen at the hands of the invading Kaiju.
One way or the other.
*****
“Lemura Tower, this is Trident One,” Calloway called over the comm as the two Tridents streaked back to Lemura as fast as they could. Static greeted him. He toggled his comm and tried again, with the same results. He flipped frequencies. “Two, this is One. You getting anything from Lemura?”
“Negative, One,” came the response. “We’ve tried all the frequencies as well. Something’s jamming the signal.”
“Acknowledge, Two. One out,” Calloway looked over at Dr. Bach, who was leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed. “Doc. Hey, Doc!”
“Huh? Whuzzat?” the theoretical physicist blinked and yawned noisily. He stretched his legs out and smiled dreamily. “Are we back at the base yet?”
“No,” Calloway said. “I haven’t been able to raise the base. We’re getting some sort of static interference. I think the Kaiju are jamming our signal.”
“No, that’s just the result of the solar flare hitting the earth.” The doctor shifted his body to get as comfortable as he could in the cramped cockpit. “It makes long-range radio frequencies go haywire. Another hour or three and it should be clear.”
“What?” Thornton looked over at the physicist now. “What do you mean solar flare?”
Dr. Bach began to explain. “A solar flare is when our sun ejects a corneal mass from the surface, which in turn–”
“Not what I meant!” Thornton interrupted, his voice harsh. “You deliberately chose today to assault the Overmind, knowing we wouldn’t have communications once we got out over the ocean and lost our line-of-sight laser comms?”
“Oh, well, yes,” Dr. Bach nodded. “My theory suggested that the Overmind works very similar to that of a radio, and I guessed that control of the Dog Kaiju and the Mothers would be weaker today. It’s why I had to hurry and get the theory passed. The next solar flare wouldn’t have happened for another three weeks by our predictions, and I doubted that Lemura would stand another week at most.”
“Jesus...” Calloway muttered. “If you weren’t so smart, I’d toss your ass out the window.”
Thornton nodded. “Makes sense, I guess, but we had them earlier. Why not now?”
“Curvature of the earth, radiation spikes, the ionosphere playing merry hell with the radio band frequencies, take your pick,” Dr. Bach explained. “All these things can and do happen during a flare, especially when a corneal mass ejection occurs. Did you know that, one nearly hit the planet full on in July of 2012? It was a near miss. It would have been worse than the Carrington Event was. Imagine fighting against the
Smith came face to face with a small pack of Dog Kaiju that had been creeping its way towards the Alpha Squad. Their mouths opened as she slid to a stop and let the automated targeting system that was within the suit track all six of the Kaiju. She let them have it with her cannon on full auto. The rounds tore the monsters apart, spraying the rock walls with their entrails. As the creatures' bright orange blood smoked on the rock, eating away at it, she kept moving. West, ignoring her order to stay back with the rest of the squad, was right on her heels. The rest of Alpha charged after them.
More Kaiju came as they moved deeper, and more Kaiju died. Smith moved like the Grim Reaper, harvesting the dead Kaiju with each step. She was operating in an alpha state now, no longer directly conscious of her actions, merely a passenger as her training took hold. She was the Volksrächer , born of a land which no longer existed and a people whose ghosts cried out, and she was going to avenge the billions who had fallen at the hands of the invading Kaiju.
One way or the other.
*****
“Lemura Tower, this is Trident One,” Calloway called over the comm as the two Tridents streaked back to Lemura as fast as they could. Static greeted him. He toggled his comm and tried again, with the same results. He flipped frequencies. “Two, this is One. You getting anything from Lemura?”
“Negative, One,” came the response. “We’ve tried all the frequencies as well. Something’s jamming the signal.”
“Acknowledge, Two. One out,” Calloway looked over at Dr. Bach, who was leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed. “Doc. Hey, Doc!”
“Huh? Whuzzat?” the theoretical physicist blinked and yawned noisily. He stretched his legs out and smiled dreamily. “Are we back at the base yet?”
“No,” Calloway said. “I haven’t been able to raise the base. We’re getting some sort of static interference. I think the Kaiju are jamming our signal.”
“No, that’s just the result of the solar flare hitting the earth.” The doctor shifted his body to get as comfortable as he could in the cramped cockpit. “It makes long-range radio frequencies go haywire. Another hour or three and it should be clear.”
“What?” Thornton looked over at the physicist now. “What do you mean solar flare?”
Dr. Bach began to explain. “A solar flare is when our sun ejects a corneal mass from the surface, which in turn–”
“Not what I meant!” Thornton interrupted, his voice harsh. “You deliberately chose today to assault the Overmind, knowing we wouldn’t have communications once we got out over the ocean and lost our line-of-sight laser comms?”
“Oh, well, yes,” Dr. Bach nodded. “My theory suggested that the Overmind works very similar to that of a radio, and I guessed that control of the Dog Kaiju and the Mothers would be weaker today. It’s why I had to hurry and get the theory passed. The next solar flare wouldn’t have happened for another three weeks by our predictions, and I doubted that Lemura would stand another week at most.”
“Jesus...” Calloway muttered. “If you weren’t so smart, I’d toss your ass out the window.”
Thornton nodded. “Makes sense, I guess, but we had them earlier. Why not now?”
“Curvature of the earth, radiation spikes, the ionosphere playing merry hell with the radio band frequencies, take your pick,” Dr. Bach explained. “All these things can and do happen during a flare, especially when a corneal mass ejection occurs. Did you know that, one nearly hit the planet full on in July of 2012? It was a near miss. It would have been worse than the Carrington Event was. Imagine fighting against the
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