Bonecrusher: A Kaiju Thriller (The Armageddon Tetralogy Book 1) Read online

  “So, how are things going with ARTEMIS?” he asked, burying his hands in his pockets and joining her in a perusal of the sky. Clouds were gathering, lending the breeze a slight chill. Perhaps rain was on its way. No matter how long he stared or listened, he never saw any birds flying above.

  “Last I heard,” she replied, “Emil isn't quite finished. That was an hour or so ago, so I expect he's made good progress. Maybe in another hour or two. It's hard work, reassembling the thing. Emil's the very best, and he's working as fast as he can, but it's still very trying when you're working with parts this big and circuitry this delicate.”

  Silvio nodded. “Well, keep me updated. Anywhere I can take a nap around here?” he asked. “I could use a sleep to help me forget that meal, and I'm tired of wandering around collecting dirty looks.”

  She grinned. “Oh, sure. There are some barracks made up down there,” she said, pointing beyond the building. “ Dunno that they'll be very comfortable and it's a bit of a walk, but I could show you the way if you like.”

  Silvio was about to agree when a shrill sound exploded into the air from all around them. He tensed, looking at once to the doctor, who blanched. “The hell is that?” He couldn't even hear his own voice. It was some sort of klaxon, blaring at ear-shattering volume.

  All around them, idling soldiers began to dash away. Some made a beeline for the parked tanks, others still hopped into helicopters and MRAPs. The scene erupted into sheer chaos. Everyone was falling into some role, getting ready for something, but they'd conveniently forgotten to tell him what he was supposed to do. Shouting to the doctor, he asked again. “What's that noise? What are we supposed to do?”

  The ground beneath his feet shook softly. Profoundly unsettled, he glanced around, wondering if it wasn't an earthquake. Then his heart galloped into his throat. You know what that is. It's no damn earthquake.

  Someone rushed up to Silvio and grabbed him by the shoulder roughly. It was Conway, and his eyes were wide, savage in the twilight. “Come on,” he screamed, dragging both him and Dr. Deal towards a nearby MRAP. McCoy was already waiting for them atop the hulking vehicle, standing on the outside beside the main hatch.

  “Climb! Climb!” ordered McCoy, looking around hurriedly from his perch. Though he still appeared enraged, something else had entered into his expression, something Silvio had never expected to find there. He saw it in the way his eyes bulged, in the added layer of sweat that plagued his red face. It was fear.

  Conway barked into Silvio's ear. “Get inside, at once. The creature. It's coming!”

  Silvio stiffened as he climbed the rungs and hopped atop the MRAP. The vehicle bobbed slightly on its suspension as the ground began to shake. It was shaking harder now, more frequently. Something was indeed drawing near.

  Something big.

  17

  The MRAP's six seats were rapidly filled. At the controls sat two spooked-looking soldiers who were itching to get going. The driver and co-driver fidgeted, ready to gun it at any moment. Dr. Deal and Dr. Conway slipped into the next two seats, hurriedly fastening themselves in with rugged-looking straps. This left only Silvio and McCoy in the remaining two spots. Silvio didn't even have time to express dismay at having to sit beside the raging commandant, because the moment he was strapped in McCoy gave the order to drive and the MRAP shot off like a bat out of hell. The engine roared to life and the drivers sped away from the oncoming threat as precipitously as possible.

  Staring at the dim surroundings blankly, Silvio wondered what the hell was going on. Were they just running away from it? Heading to some other base of operations? Going to where ARTEMIS was kept?

  McCoy busied himself at the radio. “Where is the fucker?” he demanded, spitting on the console as he spoke. Silvio didn't hear what came in reply, but that McCoy didn't like it was clear. The commandant struck the console with a closed fist and cursed. If the near-constant shaking of the ground was any indicator, the thing was getting damned close.

  Conway filled in the gaps while McCoy busied himself at the radio. “We're headed to a more secure location,” said the doctor, fidgeting in his seat and planting his heels against the metal floor. “The commandant must remain secure so that he can give orders, and the three of us must stay safe as well, to ensure ARTEMIS' deployment when the time comes.”

  McCoy sneered at this, all but spitting at the three of them. “That's absolutely goddamn right, I got the three of you in here because you're precious cargo. Bunch of dead weight if you ask me, but them are the orders and I don't have the rank to say otherwise, so that's why you're in here while my guys are scrambling and doing the actual fighting.” He turned back to the radio, hitting a few different buttons. “The robot. Is it ready yet?” He paused in anticipation of an answer.

  The reply was grainy. A nervous-sounding man gave an answer in the negative. “No, sir. Mechanic says he'll need another hour or so to get it done. Looks like it still needs one of its arms attached.”

  McCoy raged. He threw down the receiver and stomped his foot on the floor. Tugging on his harness he shook his head and bored into doctor Conway with his eyes. “You hear that? Your damn robot ain't done yet. So now what? That mechanic of yours is a goddamned joke. He's had hours to work on the thing now and he still ain't done? That motherfucker out there, the one makin' the ground shake, is about to paint these woods red, you hear me? He's about to fuck us good and proper, and your little mechanic's still acting like he's got all day to fix 'er up? That ain't the way we do things, not around here.”

  Doctor Conway was unimpressed. “I'll have you know it's a difficult job,” he shouted back, hands gripping his harness tightly as the MRAP swerved to the right. “Emil is a genius, better than anyone on your payroll, I assure you. If he says he needs an hour, then he must have an hour. That's what you and your men are here for, to protect the unit and ensure its safe deployment. The unit had to be deconstructed and shipped here piecemeal. It's a time consuming task.”

  McCoy's eyes looked ready to pop out of his head. “I'll be damned if that's what we're here for. I oughta knock your head off your shoulders for that, you egg-headed fuck. We ain't your side-kick here. You're the contractors, the ones takin' orders from me, so don't you dare talk to me that way. You're on my turf now, got that? You're on my fuckin' turf, and if you get smart like that again I'll put one right behind your ear. We ain't just a bunch of meat shields for you to use, doc. I couldn't give any less of a shit about your robot anyhow, since it's just a bunch of parts sitting around. Doesn't do us a whole lotta good, now, does it?”

  Before Conway could fire back, Silvio stomped his foot. “That's enough! Everybody shut the hell up!”

  McCoy shook his head, wiping the spittle from his lips. “I like the way you think, son.” He pointed gravely at Conway before turning back to the radio. “Us big boys will take care of business while your precious mechanic fucks around with that giant toy.” Screaming into the radio, McCoy ordered an airstrike. “I want a squadron on top of that shitfucker before he makes it to Omega quadrant. Tanks, line it up at he edge of Zeta quadrant and unload when it comes into view. Choppers, too. I want them to load up the big sumbitches and to let him have it when the first round of airstrikes is done. Punish that son of a bitch, punish him good. I want you to spank his ass till it's red, and you send him back to that lake without dinner, you hear?” He slammed down the receiver and fumed silently for a time.

  Conway cracked a smile. On his grey, stern face, it looked hideously out of place, ominous. He said something quietly, something that was lost in the roar of the engine. Silvio caught it, though. “It's pointless,” the doctor had said, loosing a small laugh.

  And it was. Silvio had seen the footage. The military couldn't touch this thing. It was useless for them to even try. It might buy them a little time, but there was no way they could send in enough planes to distract the creature for a whole hour. A thousand of them wouldn't have been enough. He grit his teeth, imagining the carnage that would
play out in the skies momentarily. He's wasting lives. He's being too goddamn stubborn, and his guys are going to pay for it.

  From somewhere outside, the blades of choppers could be heard to cut through the air. And then, some minutes later, the now-familiar cry of jet engines came in clearly. The fight had begun. Within a few moments, the soldiers would close in on their target. All the while the ground continued to shake. Could anything in this world stop such a force? Could anything short of a literal mountain stand in its way? That any creature could cause the earth to quake in such a way filled him with equal parts terror and awe. It was unwholesome, simply beyond imagining.

  And if they didn't get their shit together, it'd be upon them soon.

  A short while later the MRAP squealed to a stop. When McCoy could be sure that the quadrant was secure, he undid his harness and climbed up to the top hatch, shoving it open. From one of the grunts at the controls he demanded a pair of binoculars. When he had them in hand he exited the vehicle and walked out onto its hood, standing there and appraising the far distance.

  Conway peered at Silvio and nodded to the open hatch. “You should go, too. Have a look at the abomination you'll be squaring off against.”

  Silvio couldn't swallow the bolus of dread in his throat. It felt ready to break free, straining his esophagus. Nothing but fresh air would vanquish it. Slowly, he unfastened his harness and stood up. The soldiers at the controls didn't so much as look at him. They seemed suspended in amber, sitting completely still in anticipation of the commandant's announcement, their faces painted in utter fear. Silvio reached up and climbed out of the vehicle carefully, trying to maintain good footing even as the whole thing rocked side to side. Poking his head out into the open air, he expected some wisecrack from McCoy, but found him standing bolt upright upon the hood, binoculars slung over his arm.

  One didn't require binoculars to see what was going on.

  They were parked atop a tall hill. The trees upon it had been cut away, which made the spot a decent lookout. A few other MRAPs had been parked nearby, and a small complex not unlike the one they'd just fled from, flanked by two hastily, cheaply-built warehouses, could be seen to their rear about two hundred yards away.

  Silvio stood beside the hatch, steadying himself at the next bout of rumbling, and looked past McCoy into the distance. A cloud of jets, at least a dozen, swarmed towards a common target like a mass of angry hornets.

  And then he saw it, shifting its immense column of a body about the dimming clouds. It was a pillar of black scales, a mountain dressed in spikes, with two arms outstretched to the heavens and whipping through the air at the oncoming attackers.

  It was the Colossus.

  Silvio felt himself quiver, and it was not for the shaking of the ground as the thing lurched forward. He'd seen it on video earlier. That'd been one thing. To see this beast in the flesh was quite another, a bad dream he couldn't wake from.

  And now he was front and center, watching the thing in action.

  He sucked in a deep breath and held it.

  This is it. This is for real. This is what you'll be up against.

  18

  From atop the lookout Silvio watched the Colossus rear back and wipe the first few jet fighters from the sky. The knots of metal erupted against its dense claws, showering the ground and, subsequently, the beast, in fire.

  It did not much seem to mind, preparing another strike for the second wave as it descended upon it. Missiles struck its carapace, bursting with tremendous impacts that made the air shake. These were completely ineffectual however. When the dust and fire cleared, there were only less planes in the air. The Colossus itself remained unmoved, unfazed by the strikes. The rat-a-tat-tat of smaller arms filled the twilight.

  The creature could not have been but a mile or so away, but the way it rose up into the sky, dwarfing everything else in view, gave it a surreal sort of quality and lent the impression that it might arrive at their very position in a series of hops if it so wished. No matter how much fire it took from the jets, it didn't so much as flinch, didn't stagger or give up ground. Instead, it pressed further, batting its way through cloud after cloud of fighters. Silvio cringed as he watched. He couldn't pretend like this was a trailer for an action film, like it was a video game. Not from this proximity. While the video he'd been shown earlier was intense, it hadn't affected him this way. Now he was absolutely shaken, faced with indiscriminate execution after execution. And it turned his stomach. The repellant creature swung its enormous arms, cutting through everything in its path before advancing slowly. Where it went or why it killed with such abandon he couldn't say. Perhaps the main directive of its loathsome species was to murder. What was clear was that it was perfectly suited to killing, and on an operatic scale. Nature had built it with only one purpose: To drive men to extinction.

  And to that end, it was without equal.

  Volley after deafening volley smacked into its midnight-colored carapace. Nothing happened. Silvio could feel the frustration and terror of the pilots climbing up on the MRE he'd choked down earlier. He balled his fists and turned away, his face dotted in fresh sweat and his heart racing. McCoy was just shaking his head, loosing a string of long and incomprehensible curses. He threw down the binoculars and crossed his beefy arms.

  A massive black column surged up from the ground behind the wretched beast. A tail. The end of the appendage, terminating in a point like a needle, lunged into the air and caught the belly of an oncoming chopper, tearing it into shreds before it could even send off its payload.

  From elsewhere a series of booms issued. The tanks. The noise continued in a steady rhythm for some time, until the creature pressed forward and silenced them with a single step. Explosions could be heard from far off, and Silvio could picture the tanks, the very same ones he'd seen parked outside the main building, being trampled underfoot by a tremendous set of feet. The beast walked upright; two arms and two legs. It didn't look much like a dinosaur; its arms were not stubby, but rather long and quite useful. It did not have any trouble walking upright, either. It was comfortable on two feet, but could just as easily have crawled on all-fours. He remembered a brief clip he'd seen of the hulking thing rushing through a line of tanks on hands and feet like some giant, savage dog.

  Inside the MRAP, Conway could be heard to laugh. Why he laughed under such circumstances was hard to say, but Silvio knew instinctively that he wasn't shaken. Nothing much served to unseat the callous doctor's mind. McCoy's threats and the unpleasant nature of the camp hadn't affected him in the least. No, Conway was laughing because he was genuinely amused about something, and under the circumstances, the sound of his laugh chilled Silvio's blood even more than usual. “You see?” bellowed Conway, pointing up through the open hatch. “I told you, ARTEMIS is the only thing on this Earth that stands a chance against that thing. Nothing else can stand in its way! Without ARTEMIS, it is completely unstoppable!”

  McCoy spat, marching to the opening and grimacing at Conway. He gave Silvio a shove, almost knocking him from the top of the vehicle. “All right then, smartass, send your wonder boy in already. Enough with all the suspense. Why don't you show us all what you've got. Show us all this secret weapon if it's so damn good.” He pointed to the warehouse at their rear. There, Silvio caught sight of something that took his breath away.

  It was ARTEMIS, its upper body catching the last of the retreating evening sun and sticking out above the roofs of the buildings. He'd missed it on his first pass. But there it was in all its glory, standing firm amidst the chaos and surrounded by towering cranes which supported the last of its limbs. One crane was occupied in bringing the second arm to the upper body, and several technicians in cherry pickers were attempting to guide it into its proper place, tools in hand. A few stray wires, looking like gossamer threads at this distance, could be seen to stick out of its plating. The unexpressive face of polished metal stared back at him with a kind of intensity. He trembled atop the MRAP and stared into that face.
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  Silvio felt as though ARTEMIS were reaching out to him, seeking to express something. It was impossible, of course. The machine wasn't even on, wasn't capable of thinking, much less speaking to him. But in its solid frame he found a promise of relief, a promise of that strength he'd tasted during his training. Apart from one another they were nothing, impotent. But together they became something powerful. Silvio worked a hand through his black hair, finding it sopping with sweat. His heart raced even faster, raced like it would give out on him. All the while ARTEMIS stared back from above the shoddy warehouse, as if extending to him an invitation. Alone he was worthless, but with ARTEMIS he could become a god.

  McCoy pulled him out of his thoughts, slugging him hard in the arm and pointing out into the distance. “Jesus Christ, it's coming this way.” The usually red-faced commandant blanched, gritting his teeth. “The son of a bitch has caught sight of yer little friend over there, it looks like.” Leaning down, he gripped one of the rungs. The ground began to shake something fierce, giving the vehicle a nice toss.

  Silvio turned quickly and saw that the Colossus was indeed heading towards them. It was facing their direction, taking one lumbering step after another despite the few remaining fighters that still circled its head. It would bat those away soon enough and be upon them quickly. There was no doubt in his mind.

  McCoy ordered the soldiers inside to radio Emil. “Ask them if it's done yet, goddammit! We're outta time out here. It's heading right this fucking way!”

  The commandant was none too happy with the response.

  Panicking, Silvio glanced around. The ground was rumbling with such consistency now that it was difficult to stay upright. McCoy retreated into the vehicle and urged Silvio in after him, however Silvio had another idea.

  Without thinking, he began to climb down from the vehicle, landing on the rumbling ground and falling to his knees. Then, with everything he had, he began to run towards the warehouse, to where he knew ARTEMIS was waiting for him. “Come on!” he barked at the MRAP as he ran. “Follow me!”