Kaiju Apocalypse by Eric S. Brown, Jason Cordova

dealing with more than most men could stand to bear.
     
    He had started smoking again from the stress, luxuriating in the cigarettes he had found hidden deep in the supply stocks of an old storage warehouse.  There was vacancy of power in the civil government with Lanstum's death, and no time to fill it properly.  The Lieutenant Governor hung herself upon the breach in the walls, though her part of the city had not even been touched, being safely protected by the east wall. After that, Yeltsin had no idea who was still alive.
     
    Over thirty-five percent of Lemura's population had been lost to the attack, and most of its armed forces were dead as well.   Entire sections of the city were in utter chaos, ruined beyond repair.  In those places, looting, rape, and the law of the gun reigned while Yeltsin struggled to assemble the manpower to restore order.  With the high casualty count amongst the military, he was forced to rely on a less-than-adequate police force.
     
    Worst of all, Lemura's primary power grid was completely offline.  Teams had worked around the clock to repair it, but the best estimates told him it would be at least a matter of days until any real progress could be seen.  In the meantime, the citizens of the city were forced to use oil heat, if one could find it, or risk starting a fire in their homes to keep the survivors fed and warmed. It was not a comforting thought, one Yeltsin knew was at the top of his list of things to accomplish before they could truly say that Lemura still stood, and would remain the bedrock of humanity.
     
    Yeltsin found himself not only Lemura's Minister of War, but acting Governor as well.  The collapse of the civil government left him no other choice, and this was one position he did not want to have. He would establish elections as soon as he was able, but since restoring the safety and security of the citizens of Lemura took precedence, he figured elections would occur in three months, at the soonest.
     
    He rubbed his aching eyes. He vaguely remembered what sleep was like as he popped his second stimulant of the day and set aside the report of Lanstum's death.  Lanstum’s death was unfortunate, for the man was, if anything, an effective administrator. The loss of his lieutenant was a lesser hit, but still one that he could have done without. There were so many tasks to be completed and no guarantee that the Kaiju wouldn't be returning to finish what they had started.  The singular piece of good news amongst the darkness was that Dr. Bach had survived.  The Trident that had carried the Doctor and the troops to the island returned to Lemura several hours after the Mother Kaiju had fallen, emerging from the waves and scaring the few soldiers guarding the beachhead against any surviving Kaiju.  The Trident had lost its wingman in exchange for the cowardly pilot Knight, and none of the Dogkillers who went to the island returned alive. Conflicting news, to be sure, but Yeltsin was pleased that at least one Trident had survived. A tentative plan had been formed to go see if there were any survivors, but deep down, he was almost certain that there weren’t any. In addition, he was reluctant to send the only surviving Trident and its pilots out into the unknown. Not until he had secured the walls of Lemura.
     
    Yeltsin hadn't gotten the chance to see Dr. Bach yet, but doing so was near the top of his list of priorities.  Dr. Bach had proven himself an invaluable asset to not only Lemura, but also the continued survival of the human race.  His spontaneous creation of a Kaiju “muting” device was being looked at as a defense to be placed in Lemura, amplified by the massive power grid – assuming, he mentally corrected as he slid the report across his desk, the power grid was ever restored.
     
    The light of the rising sun outside his office caught Yeltsin's eye.  He shoved aside the piles of work on his desk and moved to the window.  Despite the state of the