Kaiju Apocalypse by Eric S. Brown, Jason Cordova

too large and unwieldy to enter the Earth's atmosphere proper. There was always the threat they she'd break apart if she tried. That did not mean that people and supplies wouldn't start being shipped down as soon as possible. 
     
    The Captain of the Argo sat in the Argo's main control chair as she and the other two crew members accompanying her stepped off the lift and onto the bridge. Several others were already at their stations, waiting on the Captain's orders. Kitty hurried to her own and began to run the standard, post-voyage diagnostics on the sensor arrays as she had been trained to do. She glanced at the readings and blinked at the numbers. Something was not right here.
     
    Commander Tiffanie Gray, the ship’s communications officer, shot her a nervous glance.  It was enough to let Kitty know that something was definitely up and whatever it was, it wasn't good. For the first time since she had been chosen for her job, she wished she hadn’t been tasked to the bridge.
     
    “Sensors online and operational, Captain,” Kitty reported. She knew that the ship's AI would have had the sensors up and running long before she reached her post, but it was her job to verify that they were in working order. Even Medea could mess up, Kitty knew from training. After a few minutes of silence on the otherwise bustling bridge, Captain Whitmire stood. He tugged at his blouse and straightened out the wrinkles.
     
    “Open a ship-wide channel,” he ordered Commander Gray. Kitty felt her heart skip a beat. The ship's AI could have done it for the Captain, but Medea’s primary job was to guide the ship during the long journey across the stars when everyone was in cryo-sleep. Besides, Kitty knew from the last time she had been on the bridge, as advanced as Medea’s programming was, the Captain always preferred a human being more. “This is Captain Nathan Alexander Whitmire speaking. At approximately, 0513 Zulu time, we achieved a stable orbit around Earth. Ladies and gentlemen, we are home.”
     
    Whitmire's words seemed to echo through out the corridors and various sections of the giant ship as Kitty listened to them, first hand, her station only a few yards from where he stood. She watched the Captain pause as Governor Jocker Trion came onto the bridge. Kitty’s earlier sense of unease tripled on seeing the governor. She had only seen the woman one other time before, and that had been at the commissioning ceremony of the Argo . The governor exchanged a tense look with Captain Whitmire before he continued.  “At this time, we have been unable to establish communications with the city of Alantica, or any of the other great city-states for that matter. It is with profound sadness that I must inform you that it has been confirmed that Alantica has fallen to the Kaiju, as have Pacifica and Lemura.”
     
    The following silence that spread across the bridge was deafening.  The utter shock of the captain's words was nearly too much for Kitty to take in. Alantica... gone? It was like something out of a nightmare. She had grown up there, protected by the tall, massive walls and the loyal soldiers who patrolled the shores around it. She remembered the small candy shop around the corner from her parent’s apartment and felt a small tear form in the corner of her eye as another positive memory of her childhood was ripped away from her. She sniffed slightly and rubbed her face. She had to put on a brave face for the rest of the crew. That was how everyone knew her to be – the perky, happy, cheerful civilian sensor technician. It was a role, everyone knew on the intellectual level, but Kitty knew that the facade helped.
     
    “Unfortunately, the news I have to share with you gets no better,” Whitmire went on. “During the time we were away, it appears the Kaiju won the war. Not a single city-state has answered our hails, small or large. Those Medea has been able to get detailed scans of thus far appear to have suffered the same