Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters (13 page)

KRASER crashed into the hangar doors with a resounding
boom
. The doors gave way without resistance, both crumpling under the robot’s force and falling away.

“We’re free,” Gerry shouted while Will shook his head, adjusting his headphones.

KRASER built up speed as the team piloted it across the nearly empty tarmac. The few soldiers still around to witness the robot’s breakout stared with wide-eyed awe at its passing. Andrea grinned at them, though she knew they couldn’t see her. This was what KRASER was built for, and everyone would see it in action one last time.

~

Colonel Ausum cursed as he slammed into the asphalt. The beast had tricked him, and he’d fallen for it like a novice. His ears rang inside the helmet, stars dotting his eyes, but he wasn’t about to let Grimmgarl get the better of him. He drew on his power as the alligator rolled to its feet and rose up over him. It planned to rip Ausum apart, but the Colonel had other plans.

He grunted as Grimmgarl hurtled toward him, the Shin Bakutetsu welling up at his fingertips. Glimmer of light shone about his palms as the power burst loose. It caught Grimmgarl in the chest. Flashes of light rippled across the Kaiju’s flesh as it was flung backward from the blow as though it had collided with a bullet train the size of King Kong. The creature fell into the nearby cluster of buildings, taking a huge swath of them with her. Ausum hoped no one was still
inside, but he didn’t have time for concern. If he didn’t stop Grimmgarl now, a couple casualties wouldn’t matter—the entire city would follow.

His ki stores dry, Ausum had burnt out his most effective weapon. Given enough time he would recover and might be able to land another blast somewhere more effective, but until then, the fight would be hand against claw. The
Colonel sighed. That particular thought didn’t exactly fill him with joy.

Grimmgarl roared as she thrashed and got back to her feet. There was still plenty of fight left in her. She reared back, keeping her distance as if she knew Ausum was exhausted. When she opened her mouth, purple slivers of energy flew from that gaping chasm. Ausum went to sidestep but was too slow. Spears the color of plums pierced his chest, ripping through the armored spandex outfit and impaling him as if he’d fallen on a cactus. He reached to yank the points out only to have them explode, their tips shredding flesh and muscle from the inside. Ausum screamed as the agony overwhelmed him, his legs giving way and dropping him to his knees. Blood spilled down his chest and shrouded his purple in rivers of red. He looked up at Grimmgarl and imagined he saw the beast grin. They both knew today would not belong to him.

And then Grimmgarl disappeared, a trail of toppling ruins swallowing her up.

The
Colonel’s eyes snapped to the purple and gold shape that crept through the dust of battle on the heels of the beast. Emotion welled in his throat at the sight.

“Now a good time, Colonel?” Andrea’s voice spilled from the giant robot. He could hear her smile behind the words.

Still catching his breath, Ausum gave KRASER a thumbs up. “Don’t let her off the hook,” he said, his voice barely carrying across the space between them.

KRASER just nodded and yanked its tomahawks from the sheaths at its back, stomping off after the Kaiju.

~

Andrea triggered the tomahawks’ special properties as she chased after Grimmgarl. The right glowed with searing heat while the left shimmered with energy. She charged in with the robot, lunging at Grimmgarl. The creature’s head snapped their direction, eyes training on KRASER as it came through the dust.

The beast snapped at the robot and jumped away from the axes, but Andrea had caught her unprepared. Grimmgarl howled as KRASER sliced deeply into her backside with the heated axe, rotten flesh sizzling beneath the blow and cauterizing the wound as it cut.

“Sure am glad to be in here,” Gerry called across the comms as the external sensors warned of the rank air outside the robot.

Andrea chuckled under her breath, but she knew better than to lose focus. Grimmgarl wasn’t some bully picking on kids in the playground. She was a full blown Kaiju with the potential to wreak unlimited destruction. Her undead body had been raised and empowered by dark voodoo, born and raised again to be a killer of mankind. Andrea knew the alligator wasn’t going down with a single blow, so she stayed on the offensive. Gerry stayed in sync with her as the two brought the robot about to continue their assault.

“Ready the
big guns
,” Andrea shouted as she closed on the Kaiju. Gerry grunted an affirmative.

Axes cut through the air and whatever blackened flesh they could reach. Grimmgarl growled and snapped at the robot, red eyes gleaming with fury, but Andrea kept the beast at bay, raining down one cleaving blow after another. Blood smoked off the blades, wafts of it steaming across the viewport. Andrea glanced to the screens to gauge her next blow when a particularly thick drift obscured her sight.

That drift helped Grimmgarl manage to parry one of the axes. Its forepaw crashed into KRASER’s wrist and stopped the arm cold in mid-swing. Servos groaned as the arm fought the sudden stop, but the creature offered no respite. It swung its head about and slammed dead into the chest of the robot. Steel groaned as KRASER’s torso armor buckled. An earthquake shook the cabin before the stabilizers kicked in and steadied it. The robot staggered back.

“Status?” Andrea shouted as she clutched to her controls.

“Structural integrity took a hit,” Gerry called out. “But all weapons are still go.”

“I’m alright, just waiting for my heart to come back down my throat,” Will added.

Andrea ignored the tech and throttled the robot back to keep it standing as Gerry did the same on his end. Grimmgarl loosed a triumphant bellow as it closed on them once more.

At the behest of Andrea, KRASER sheathed its tomahawks, and then stretched its empty hands towards Grimmgarl. Both began to spin in place, blurs of gold. Grimmgarl slowed, gaze
locked on the whirling appendages. It eyes went wide then, almost recognizing what the team intended.

Gerry didn’t let her slip away. He slammed a flashing pair of buttons and screamed, “ROCKET! PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!”

KRASER’s forearms shot off at the elbow, spouting fire from the end. Like rockets, the fists spinning and gathering momentum, the arms careened toward Grimmgarl. The beats twisted away but there was no escape, the thrusters too quick to avoid.

The first slammed into her exposed side. There was a thunderous crack as bones gave way beneath the blow. Grimmgarl stumbled just as the second fist clipped its skull. The creature’s eyes rolled back and it fell. The building at her back gave way beneath her bulk and the force of the blows driving her backward, steel and glass welcoming her into the fold as both went down in a heap together.

Inside the cockpit, the crew watched as the beast disappeared beneath the shining wreckage, hundreds of tons of debris crashing down on top of it. The world around them was muted by the electronic filters, Grimmgarl’s fall sounding unsettlingly quiet. Her tail twitched, the only part of the Kaiju still visible, and then went still as the last of the building came down. A storm of dust blocked out their vision, but Andrea watched the sensors like a hawk. If Grimmgarl so much as gasped for air she would know, but the beast lay still as the rubble slowed and started to settle.

“And she’s done!” Gerry shouted. “Take that Jansen.”

Andrea heard Will breathe heavily in relief at her back, but knew their euphoria would be short lived. Sure they’d beaten Grimmgarl, but that wouldn’t stop General Jansen from screwing them to the fullest extent of his authority. They’d stolen a powerful weapon from the government, and Andrea couldn’t see Jansen letting them get away with it regardless of what they’d just done.

It wasn’t like they could rally the public to their cause, either. Outside of a handful of people, no one knew who piloted KRASER. That was for safety purposes, they’d been told, but she also knew it was because it would be easier to replace pilots if no one knew who the hell they were. To the people of the world, KRASER was just a robot. As long as it kept fighting, no one would care who was plugged inside.

“You all right,” asked Gerry. The weight of his stare bore down on her.

Andrea lied. “Yeah, I was just—” The shriek of the motion sensors stole her breath.

Grimmgarl’s tail disappeared into the wreckage, but the rest of her surged from the shambles of the collapsed building. Something golden gleamed in her jaws.

“What the fuck is that?” Gerry managed to ask before the answer became apparent.

Grimmgarl clenched one of KRASER’s arms in its mouth. It leapt from the wreckage and whipped its head to the side, the massive steel fist slamming into KRASER’s metallic cheek. Feedback squealed through the headphones at the impact, sparks flying through the cockpit as sensors exploded. The acrid stink of burning rubber filled the room.

“We’re going down!” Andrea shouted as the robot did exactly that, handless arms flailing as it the robot fell to its back with a resounding
crunch
.

“We are so fucked
.” Will clasped to his harness with one hand while the other flew across the controls trying to rein in the damage.

“I remember this being your idea,” Gerry told Andrea as the pair struggled against gravity to get the robot up before Grimmgarl followed up. “Got any more good ones?”

Andrea just growled in response as the Kaiju alligator filled the viewport, giant teeth slathered in ichor and rot, the maw closing in on them. Her stomach knotted as she manhandled the controls, noting the sluggish response. She wouldn’t be in time.

Grimmgarl slammed into KRASER with the force of a nuclear blast. The viewport went black as Andrea whiplashed into her seat. Her vision followed.

~

Colonel Ausum saw the robot go down. Still a block away, he cursed his weakness but ran on. He hadn’t fully recovered from his Shin Bakutetsu, but he was all out of time. The pilots had given him a breather, and it was time to return the favor. He reached out and ripped an I-beam from a half-demolished building, the steel snapping from a solid tug with his arm. Without bothering to aim, he turned the beam in his hand and threw it at Grimmgarl as though it were a spear. It hurtled clumsily through the air, but that was good enough.

The beast had clamped its teeth down on KRASER’s torso when the beam thudded off its skull. Grimmgarl’s head was snapped sideways, its maw ripped loose from the robot, shards of metal glistening between its teeth. Its legs slid off its opponent as she tried to catch her balance.

Ausum wouldn’t have any of that. He closed the distance between them and jumped over the prone robot, wrapping his around Grimmgarl’s neck. He knew there was no chance to choke the air from her undead lungs, but if he could keep her head immobilized long enough, KRASER
might get to its feet and finish the fight. Ausum tightened his grip, feeling his arms warm from the effort. He’d already reached his limits, but sheer force of will kept him going.

The two rolled as Grimmgarl struggled, sharpened wreckage stabbing and tearing at Ausum as he held tight. He concentrated on holding on. There was no doubt he’d tire before the Kaiju did, but he had to give the mech’s crew time to recover. That was his last hope.

~

Andrea groaned as she started coming to. Smoke filled her lungs, and she choked, fighting its invasive touch. Gerry hacked up a lung beside her, and Will quietly coughed into his sleeve. Lights flickered across the controls, warning of failures across the board.

“Everyone okay?”

“Define okay,” Will asked.

Andrea glanced over her shoulder at him to see a trickle of blood running from his forehead down his cheek. Other than that, he looked fine. She glanced over at her co-pilot. Gerry looked like he was growing another shiner, but he looked alright too.

“How’s the mech?”

Will’s eyes scoured the panels and punched a couple buttons. The hum of KRASER’s engines coming online was sweet music.

“No hands, half the sensors shot, lots of structural damage, left leg servos burnt out, and about fifteen minutes left of filtered air before we’re forced to crack a window so we can breathe,” he answered, “but other than that, KRASER’s peachy.”

Andrea snorted as she and Gerry rolled the robot onto its side and used the stumps of its arms to climb back to its feet. “Peachy will have to do.”

Gerry shrugged as the robot trundled forward. “I’m not complaining.” One leg dragged as the mech chased after the Kaiju and the
Colonel.

As the pair appeared on the cracked screens, Andrea cursed, fingers flitting across the controls. “You forgot to mention we don’t have any weapons left, Will. Jewel Cannon’s offline.”

“Minor details,” he said, following the same pattern along the controls as she had. “Well, that’s not
entirely
true.” He pointed to the panel.

She glanced over at him and slumped into her harness when she saw where his finger led.

“You’re kidding.” Gerry breathed, looking back and forth between the pair.

“You got a better idea?”

Gerry grunted. “Fuck it.” This was the last hurrah anyway, right?