Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

Agreed. :JetJaguar:
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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

So, will we be seeing Gabara? Hes a...unusual Kaiju, varying from ridiculous to not bad. They claim he's turtle based, but he never looked it. More feline or Oni based, depending on the source material.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

Oh yeah, Gabara is definitely going to be somewhere in the mix. Just not sure how or when yet. I thought I heard he was supposed to be an ogre or something, but that might just be me misremembering.

Incidentally, I am getting close to wrapping up chapter 22. I got the first draft finished and am nearly finished with the second draft. I should get that done by tomorrow. If I am very lucky, I might be able to get through editing by Sunday evening. Will depend on focus, energy, and distractions, which may or may not come up. :)

It’s sitting at about 32 pages presently, so it’s a pretty long one. If fact, I had to push off a big event I had planned for the end of chapter 22 until chapter 23 because this one kind of expanded organically as I was writing it. That tends to happen a lot to me.

I have specific goals in mind when I write my outlines, but once I get going writing I start to think about how I’m logically going to get there. I want the story to unfold in a natural way. Nothing is worse than when a writer gets lazy and just has things happen faster than they should just for the sake of efficiency. Anyone who has watched the last season or two of Game of Thrones knows what happens when you stop caring about the story and just start rushing to the end.

I’m planning to do photos for this chapter too, so that may set me back another day or so. I didn’t do photos in the last chapter because I was lacking the proper Russian air units. Namely the Migs and the heavy strategic bomber. This was, and will continue to be, a problem do to a kicker starter project I supported being 3 years overdue for release. :?

The game is basically a WW3 what if scenario with pieces similar to Axis and Allies and will scale up with them. The creator claims that he is still going to get it finished, but he is slower than molasses in winter in making progress. -_-

I originally figured by the time I got to this part of the story I would have the game and Cold War era military vehicle pieces in my hands already. Not so much… :freak:

Anyways, for the time being I can work a round that issue. I am hoping to get it all the details for chapter 22 wrapped up and posted before next weekend.
Last edited by Ashram52 on Fri Oct 29, 2021 8:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Chapter 22: Birds of Prey.

In the south-central Bering Sea, a Japanese fishing boat was sailing northward. Her name was the Blessed Crab, and she was being captained by an ambitious sailor named Tadashi Orani. Captain Tadashi, along with his crew of about twenty-five, were brazenly violating the ban set by the Japanese government by entering the restricted waters nearby the Kamchatka peninsula. In their eyes, it was a high risk, high reward venture.

They weren’t likely to run into any Imperial Japanese Navy ships though. Most merchant and military vessels knew well enough to stay far outside of the Rodan controlled sea zone. However, captain Tadashi knew many schools fish, along with other various forms of sea life, had congregated there since no other fishing vessels were willing to trespass into the waters. In particular, their ship’s own namesake had flourished beyond their wildest dreams. The whole area had become a hot bed for profit for the Blessed Crab and her crew. They had been making a killing at market with a full cargo hold time and again over course of the last year while their competition struggled.

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Captain Tadashi was bold, but not outright stupid. He took precautions to avoid detection by the Rodans. For starters, he kept his vessel well clear of the Russian coast. At present, their position was about one-hundred and fifty miles east of the Kamchatka peninsula. The monsters didn’t generally venture out that far unless provoked. The Rodans could usually find what they were looking for much closer to home.

Additionally, Captain Tadashi ensured that the Blessed Crab carried no radio equipment whatsoever. Warnings about using an open radio channel anywhere near the Rodans territory had long since trickled down from sources inside the Japanese military to the civilian population. Tadashi didn’t want to take the risk of someone forgetting, getting drunk, or a radio simply getting knocked over and turning on accidently. In his eyes, it was just simpler just to eliminate those possibilities altogether.

Of course, that meant voyages for the Blessed Crab and her crew were extra dangerous in other ways. Chiefly, they had no way to call for help if they ran into trouble at any point along the way, even if it wasn’t Rodan related. If the ship had engine trouble for instance, the crew would be on their own to fix it with what they had on hand. The men of the Blessed Crab couldn’t exactly tell anyone where they were going without risking the authorities coming down on them, so no one would even know where to start looking if they went missing.

Such as it was, Captain Tadashi went out of his way to recruit the best chief engineer he could find, and moreover, trained the rest of his crew to be able to patch up the ship at a moment’s notice. Tadashi was an ex-IJN officer and had nearly trained up his men to the navy standard of damage control techniques. The only thing holding them back from parity was a lack of top tier equipment and tools.

At the end of another successful day of fishing, Captain Tadashi looked out over the horizon from the bow of the Blessed Crab. The sun was setting, which gave the sky a lovely blend of orange and pink hues. With the days catch, the hold was nearly full-up again. Tadashi smiled to himself feeling satisfied. Things were going well. In fact, they would probably be able to sail for home the following afternoon. One more modest catch would put them over the top, then they could cash in once again.

Captain Tadashi stared off into the distance while the sun slipped under the horizon little by little until it disappeared altogether. Now in the dark, Tadashi poured himself some sake and sipped at it. He looked up to the bridge to ensure his newly christened second officer was doing alright commanding on his own. He saw Jirou, who looked comfortable enough.

Captain Tadashi returned to his evening drink and relaxed. His old partner Rin had retired after their last trip out and he missed talking to him at the end of the day. Between the extra money and risk, Rin didn’t want to push his luck any more than he already had. Rin had done well for himself and wanted to live out the rest of his days in relative comfort and peace. Tadashi had tried to convince him to come out one last time as a ‘send-off’ voyage, but Rin declined, insisting he had a bad feeling about going out on this trip. Rin had always been very superstitious old sailor, so Tadashi just shrugged it off as one of his eccentricities.

Captain Tadashi turned away from the rail and readjusted, leaning his back on it. Things just wouldn’t be the same without Rin, but then again, without his old partner to split profits with, he was going to be making even more money than before. Tadashi finished off his first glass of sake then picked up the bottle for a second round. As he went to pour more, a bright flash of light erupted behind him. For a second, the night lite up and became day again. Sky and the sea burst into plain view and Captain Tadashi could feel heat on the back of his neck, as if the sun was beating down on him at mid-day.

The flood of illumination and heat caught Tadashi completely off guard and he dropped his glass, which shattered on the deck. Tadashi slide down to the deck too, not understanding what was happening. Sailors who had been looking off in the direction of the flash were covering their eyes, many of which had crumpled over. Some of them were screaming that they couldn’t see and were fumbling around blindly.

Bewildered by the situation, Captain Tadashi got back to his feet and looked over the rail to see what had happened. All he could see was a blazing ball of orange light off in the far distance. The sky around it was flaming sunset colors. Tadashi was dazed and at a total at a loss as to what he was looking at.

“Captain, what is happening?!” One of the sailors shouted to Tadashi, understandably panicked.

“Something terrible.” Captain Tadashi replied. “We’re not staying to find out what. Tell Jirou to fire up the engines, we’re getting out of here.”



One hundred and fifty miles away on Kamchatka, Dimitri and his team were also watching the ball of light off in the distance, only it was to the south of them. As Dimitri stared, he knew the fireball meant two things: First, that the airstrike was a complete failure. Second, that they were safe, if only for a little while longer.

Dimitri and his team were outside of the fallout zone from the bomb, but the Rodans would no doubt be returning to their nest. It was very unlikely that the team would be able to get out of the area before the monsters arrived. They did have one advantage though. The sun was starting to set. If they could hold out for just a while little longer, they might escape undetected in the darkness.

Dimitri looked down at his watch, there was less than twenty minutes before full sunset. He brought his hand up to his mouth and whistled loudly to get the attention of the rest of his team who were all still enthralled with the explosion to the south. Most of them men turned to look at their commander immediately. Niko on the other hand looked like he was in a trance, so Dimitri was forced to walk over to him.

“Come on Niko!” Dimitri had to shake his shoulder to break him away of his fixation on the horizon. “We’ve got to move. There’s not much time.” Niko finally looked over to Dimitri and nodded. Little did the two men suspect that they were already out of time.

One of the Rodans was already flying back into the area from the north. It was only a mile away from their position. Dimitri could hear the whistling supersonic descent of the monster’s approach long before actually seeing it. His heart sank. They were in big trouble, and he knew it. Dimitri ushered the team into a nearby tree line. As long as they stayed out of sight, they might still be alright.

The monster began to scour the landscape, looking for any signs of intruders. It seemed content to glide high above the trees like a hawk, watching out for any movement below to pounce on. Niko looked up and spotted the dark silhouette of Rodan through the trees hanging far above them in the sky. He started to sweat, and his heart was pounding. The monster was actively looking for them. He could only imagine what nasty fate awaited them if they were discovered. He had seen a lot of terrible things on the way there.

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Dimitri touched Niko’s shoulder, pulling him away from his dark fantasies and urged him to keep moving. Dimitri’s strength and leadership gave Niko the resolve to keep going. The team began to creep through the forest towards safely. They were making progress, albeit slowly as to not draw attention to themselves.

Several tense minutes went by. Rodan passed above the team a number of times but still had not noticed them. Sticking close to the trees was paying off. For a moment, Niko started to feel hopeful again. It was beginning to look as though they might actually survive the encounter, but then everything changed.

The second Rodan came thundering in from the south. It called to its mate before aggressively strafing close down to the tree line. The monster laid waste to everything in its path. Trees were uprooted, loose boulders were sent tumbling across the landscape, and animals were forced to flee or get sent flying. Many of them could not get out of the way fast enough and had to endure the consequences.

The first Rodan followed suit and together the two monsters began to tear up the entire countryside one section of woods at a time. Wherever they passed, every single leaf was stripped off the trees, tearing away any potential cover the Russian ground team could use to hide or escape through. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered and killed.

Dimitri signaled for his men to halt by bringing up his arm. The Rodans were flying a couple hundred yards ahead of them and had already cut a swath of destruction between them and their escape route. If they tried to cross the barren area ahead of them now, they would undoubtably be spotted. If they were to have any chance to survive, Dimitri would have to think of something quick to level the playing field.

Niko and the rest of the team were starting to lose their nerve though. They realized the situation was bad and only going to get worse for them. Each passing moment saw more and more forest devastated. The odds of their survival were shrinking along with the woods. The Rodans were presently working their way west away from their position.

Dimitri looked back the way they had come, wondering if the team would be able to make it to the coast in the east and then work their way south and around. If the Rodans wore themselves out continuing to tear up the forest to the west, they might just be able to escape that way. However, going south would take them towards the fallout of the nuclear strike. That would mean a slower, nastier death if they went too far south and got themselves exposed and they wouldn’t likely make it out of the area before the Rodans came back around to them in any case. There had to be a better alternative option.

It was while Dimitri was considering these thoughts that he saw the Rodan’s cave again. If the team could find a secure spot up in the rocks to ride out the wrath of the Rodan’s, then they could try to escape again later when things had settled down. It was about the only option the team had left. They were rapidly running out of time and cover.

Dimitri was about turn to his men to explain his plan when he saw the flash of a shadow move past him. Slow to react, he realized it was Peter running out towards no-man’s land. Peter had panicked and was attempting to cross by himself. Perhaps he figured one man had a better chance of not getting spotted on his own?

Dimitri wanted to call out to him to stop, but that would only cause the whole squad more trouble in the end. As it was, Dimitri saw no other alternative but to consider Peter a lost cause. He had to focus on saving the rest of his team instead. Dimitri quickly acted, leading his men in the opposite direction towards the rocks.

Niko was the last to turn his back on Peter as he broke out into the open. He watched as Peter leapt over a fallen tree and continued sprinting towards the other side. Peter would have to cover the length of three football fields before he’d make it back into cover. The odds of him getting there unnoticed were maybe fifty-fifty at best. For an instant, Niko had the urge to follow Peter, but then thought better of it. He finally turned to follow Dimitri instead.

A few moments later, Niko could hear one of the Rodans call out to the other in a high shrill tone. One of the monsters had no doubt spotted Peter. Niko didn’t dare to look back. He could hear the scene playing out behind him and felt a gust of wind as one of the Rodan was landing. The rush of air at his back gave Niko all the incentive he needed to pick up the pace and catch up with the rest of the squad. It was pretty clear what was happening to Peter judging by the various noises he could hear, and Niko wanted no part of it. Niko was struggling to put distance between himself and the terror behind him, hoping like hell he would go unnoticed. Peter gave one last shriek, and it was all over.

Dimitri could hear everything that was going on too and considered that Peter’s death might have served a purpose as a diversion to buy the rest of them more time, but that simply wasn’t the case. In fact, Peter had done the rest of the squad no favors whatsoever by revealing himself. It only proved to the Rodans that there were still indeed foot soldiers in the area, which motivated them to step up their efforts in locating them.

The windstorm that was the Rodan’s search intensified. Even in areas where the Rodans weren’t directly passing over, the trees were swaying as if were being hit by a raging hurricane. As the team got closer to the relative safety of the rocks, one of the Rodans flew dangerously close to their position. Dimitri saw the monster coming and shouted to the rest of his team to prepare for its arrival.

“Find cover!!!” He shouted. “Get down and get low!”

Fortunately, the monster could not hear Dimitri over the sound of its own sonic boom, but unfortunately, neither could most of his men. The wiser and more experienced soldiers knew to duck behind any rocks or larger trees they could find to hang on to, but Niko had not yet developed the instincts to react quickly. He spotted the incoming Rodan and froze for a few seconds, scared out of his wits. Dimitri yelled again to Niko, which snapped him back to reality. Niko didn’t have enough time to get into cover, but he was near enough to a thin tree that he could at least get his arms around to try to ride out the storm.

Directly in front of the squad, and just off to the side of the Rodan’s flightpath, was an old dead tree. As the monster passed over it, the hurricane force winds that followed hit the tree and shattered it into pieces, sending a deadly hale of splinters showering through the area.

Niko’s feet were blown out from under him as the overwhelming wind current began to surge all around him. He was lifted off the ground as he desperately clung onto the small tree with all the strength in his arms. However, one of the dead tree’s splinters came whistling in and struck Niko in the torso like an arrow. The sudden impact made him loose his grip on the tree just as the winds were starting to die down. Niko went tumbling to the ground.

A second member of the squad wasn’t fast enough getting into cover and was caught completely out in the open when Rodan passed. The sudden rush of air sent him flying forcefully backwards. The man dashed his head on a tree trunk as he flew through the air, breaking his neck and nearly decapitating him. A third member of the team was cut down by the wooden shrapnel, as the cover he had chosen to shield himself with proved insufficient to protect him.

As the Rodan passed out of the immediate area and things started to settle down, Dimitri got back to his feet. The sleeve of his heavy jacket had a sliver of wood stuck in it. Luckily for him, it had not hit any flesh below and was only hanging in the fabric. Dimitri pulled the splinter out and took stock of the situation.

Despite the close call, the Rodans still did not know where the team was. The attack had simply been a blind shot that had gotten dangerously close. The squad was now partially exposed due to much of the cover around them being stripped away, but they could easily escape back into full cover before either of the Rodans could come back around as long as they were fast enough in doing so.

Unfortunately, the rest of the team had not fared so well as Dimitri during the attack. One soldier had a large wooden splinter hanging out the side of his neck. Judging by the copious amount of blood pooled around him on the ground, Dimitri figured it must have completely severed his jugular artery. There was nothing to be down for him, the man was already dead.

Dimitri could also see the poor bastard who had been sent flying laying under the tree that he had struck. The tree was marked by the red splatter where he had hit. The soldier was even more obviously dead than the first man. His corpse was only just managing to stay in one piece. The head was hanging on by a thread.

Then there was Niko. He too had been impaled by a sizeable hunk of wood from the dead tree. He was still alive, but the shard was deeply imbedded into his abdomen. Dimitri assessed the damage as the rest of the team converged on them. There wasn’t a lot of time to make a decision. They were not very far away from the rocks now, but Niko wasn’t going to be able to walk in his condition and would slow the rest of team down if they tried to bring him along. Every second they were out the open exposed increased the chance that the remainder of the squad would be discovered.

Niko lay there looking up at Dimitri. He didn’t fully understand what was going on. He couldn’t move, despite his best efforts, and felt pain in his stomach. He was able to bring his head up enough to see his wound and what happened became clear to him. Niko put his head back down and started to tear up, not sure what else to do. Dimitri made his decision and elected to bring Niko with them. He and four other survivors took Niko by the arms and legs and picked him up. What remained of the team made their way up towards the rocks under the cover of nearby trees.

The squad finally had a bit of good fortune come their way when they spotted an opening in the rocks. It was a small cave that had been hidden in the rockface. It presented them with a golden opportunity to escape the watchful eyes of the Rodans. The cavern would also be an ideal shelter from any more flying debris.

Their luck wasn’t all roses, however. Just as they made their way up to the opening of the cave, one of the Rodans finally spotted the group of men coming out of the trees. The monster changed direction in a flash and started to descend down upon them. Dimitri and the other men had just made it to the mouth of the cave when they saw the monster’s foot plunging down at them.

“Hurry!!!” Dimitri shouted as the seconds seemed to slow down.

The squad scurried inside the cavern and ran in as far as they could before Rodan’s gigantic claws crashed into the entrance, smashing the rocks, and collapsing the opening. Dust and debris trailed the squad as they ran further in to escape.

Rodan pulled its foot up and out of the cave, leaving only a sliver of light pouring through the hole where one of its talons had been. The soldiers all stopped and looked back in complete terror, waiting for the monster to smash its way through the rocks and finish them off.

For over a minute, no one had the nerve to move or make a sound to give themselves away. They didn’t dare to hope that it was over. Finally, there was a sound. It was Niko moaning. In the confusion and terror of their escape, Dimitri and everyone else had nearly forgotten about him. One of the soldiers covered Niko’s mouth to ensure that their presence would remain undetected. After that, the team watched the entrance and waited to see if Niko had given them away. A moment passed and nothing. They appeared to be in the clear. The monster was already gone, having assumed that it had crushed them in the initial attack. No follow up strike was coming.

With their safety temporarily assured, Dimitri got to work assessing Niko’s condition. He could tell right away it was bad and getting worse. Niko was cold to the touch, felt clammy, and was beginning to slip out of consciousness. Dimitri checked his pulse. It was slow and irregular, a bad sign. Meanwhile Niko’s skin was starting to turn white and his lips a blueish color. His pupils were getting larger in diameter and his breathing was getting rapid and shallow. Dimitri realized Niko was going into shock. If he was going to save him, there wasn’t much time.

Dimitri took off his outer jacket and put it on Niko to keep him warm. Then he grabbed his hunting knife and started to cut away Niko’s clothing around the wound to get a better look at the damage below. Dimitri could see that Niko had not bled too much out of the wound, but that turned out to actually a bad sign. Given his condition, it could only mean that Niko was bleeding internally.

It was at that moment Dimitri realized Niko was going to die and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. Dimitri didn’t have the tools or the knowledge to save Niko inside a dusty cave and they couldn’t call for help. Dimitri had patched up flesh wounds in the past, but he wouldn’t know what to do with a punctured vital organ. Without surgical instruments and a specialist, Niko was just done, plain and simple, and they weren’t going anywhere.

The best Dimitri could do on his own was pull out the sliver and sew Niko up, but in the end, that would only cause him more needless pain. Dimitri did the only other thing he could think to do at that point. He pulled out a syringe of morphine from his field pack and stuck it into Niko’s arm to ease his pain. After that, he held Niko’s hand and attempted to comfort him. Soon enough, the life behind Niko’s eyes began to dim. A minute later, he was dead from a combination of shock, blood loss, and trauma.

Dimitri sat there for a moment before letting go of Niko. There was blood on his hands. He teared up as he felt the loss hit him. Another one of his rookies hadn’t made it out of their first mission. Dimitri always did his best to train them and help them survive, but no matter how hard he tried, it always seemed to happen. It didn’t stop him from feeling guilty though. Niko was a young man with his whole life ahead of him. He could have been so many things to so many people, but instead, he just died there in the cave.



“Lieutenant, are you ready for takeoff?” The radio operator in the Essex’s tower asked Marcus.

“Roger.” Marcus replied. “All checks complete.”

“Your assignment is to search the grids in the northwestern sector.” The tower operator noted. “Map references twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven and twenty-eight. Remember, you are not to engage. Only call in a positive sighting and then stay on station until jets can arrive.”

“Roger.” Marcus replied. “Why the hell would I try to engage anyway…?” He muttered sarcastically, while cupping his hand over the microphone.

“Good luck and happy hunting.” The operator said. “Tower out.”

“Thanks control.” Marcus replied, lifting off the flight deck and joining a growing number of search helicopters leaving the fleet.

Admiral Malek’s Archimedes task force had joined up with the main Japanese fleet. Together they had positioned themselves just south of the waters off of Odo Island. They had wisely elected to send in aircraft to investigate the area instead of moving in the main fleet.

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“To trespass upon these waters is to invite death.” Marcus noted ominously as he flew over the Archimedes section of the fleet and began to fly over the IJN ships.

“Look at those fat twins down there.” Brock observed, sitting next to Marcus. He had come along as a spotter. Brock was referring to the battleships Yamato and Musashi. The sisterships remained two of the biggest and most powerful battleships afloat. Marcus steered them on a course to get a better look at them.

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“Beula and Bertha?” Marcus smirked. “Remind you of some ladies you knew back home Brock?” Brock just ignored him, still eyeing the ships below.

“Man, look how wide those battle wagons are, those ladies are thick.” Brock went on as they passed directly over them. “Makes you appreciate the sleek design of the Montana.” He added.

“In a different timeline, we’d be fighting against them.” Marcus noted. “Being so wide makes them excellent firing platforms. I’d wager they have good, accurate gunnery. You’ll be glad they are on our side if we get into a fight today.”

“I’m a little more worried about tomorrow.” Brock countered. “Monsters or no monsters, I don’t like getting all chummy with the Japs.” He frowned.

“You don’t got to like it Brock.” Marcus replied. “But you’re going to have to put up with it for now. I for one am happy that we’re not out here on our own for this. The Archimedes fleet is good for investigating and a little fighting, but it’s not large enough on its own for heavy combat. Just the same though, even with the help of the Japanese, I hope we don’t find what we are looking for today.”

“Well I do.” Brock responded. “The sooner we find this thing and kill it, the sooner we can go home.” Marcus glanced over at Brock skeptically. The words had rolled off his lips as if it would be so easy. All of Marcus’ instincts told him it would be anything but. He didn’t want to argue the point though. Brock was a stubborn man.

Marcus and Brock flew away from the fleet and into the search area. The other helicopters around them began to break off into their own assigned areas while they continued to press onward further north. Brock was watching out the side window and observed some of the helicopters dropping off bundles into the water.

“What are they doing Marcus?” Brock asked. “Are those bombs, mines?”

“No, they are deploying sensor buoys.” Marcus replied. “We are treating this like a standard anti-submarine hunt. Those bundles contain sonar equipment. The sensors within send information back to the fleet to process. If those buoys detect anything unusual, they’ll send up a red flag. By the time we’re done, the whole area is going to be littered with them. The range is only about 1500 yards each, so we are going to have to deploy a lot of them to cover the whole area.”

“So those things just listen for anything strange?” Brock asked.

“No, these are active sonar buoys, which means they do more than just listen.” Marcus explained. “They send out a ping and wait for something to bounce back to them like a radar. Speaking of which, we’re approaching our own search area. Head back and tell the crew to go ahead and get one of those sonar buoys ready. I’ll keep an eye out up here by myself.”

“Yes sir.” Brock saluted half-sarcastically before leaving the cockpit.

Marcus sat by himself scanning the surface waves for any anomalies. Nothing of note to be found. Brock soon came back and reported that they were ready. Marcus checked his instruments and ensured that that were in the proper position. After confirming it, he gave the go ahead. The crew dropped the first buoy and waited for it splash down below them. With that accomplished they moved on to their next objective.

After nearly an hour of flying from spot to spot, Marcus and his crew had hit all their designated target areas. Marcus got on the com and reported that they were wrapping up. He also inquired if any of the buoys had picked up anything yet. The tower on the Essex told them they hadn’t gotten any significant readings thus far. Marcus felt a mixture of relief and frustration. If they didn’t end up finding anything whatsoever, then they would have put in a lot of effort for nothing.

Marcus’ helicopter was positioned at the extreme north end of the search zone. It seemed like they were done for the day. He sighed, turning the stick, bringing the chopper about to return to the Essex. As he came around, Marcus noticed a disturbance on the water. It was a large ripple on the sea, like the wake from a large ship. Marcus reached down and grabbed his com.

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“Essex, this is search chopper three.” Marcus began. “Have any of the surface ships entered the search area?” His eyes stayed fixated on the suspicious rogue wake.

“That’s a negative search chopper three.” The operator replied. “No ships have broken formation. Every one of them is accounted for here.”

“Ok… well I think we’ve got a problem then.” Marcus reported as a cold chill shot up his back. “I’ve sighted a large wake at grid coordinates twenty-eight.”

“Is it possible that a civilian vessel blundered into the area?” The operator inquired.

“Is it Possible? Yes, but I don’t see any ships in sight whatsoever, just a wake.” Marcus replied. There was a silence on the other end of the line for a moment. Marcus took the opportunity to pull back on the stick and gain some altitude while he waited.

“What is the bearing of the wake?” The operator asked. Marcus exampled his instruments.

“Looks to be going due north.” He replied.

“Fighters are being dispatched search chopper three.” The operator informed Marcus. “Remain on station to help direct them.”

“Affirmative.” Marcus acknowledged.



Dimitri and his remaining men were still stuck in the cave an hour after they had arrived, but he hadn’t been sitting there idle dwelling on Niko’s death. Instead, he had turned his attention to the men he could help. There were several walking-wounded men that he had patched up.

Once they had been taken care of, Dimitri crept up to the opening of the cave and climbed up on a rock to look out the hole to see if the Rodans were still actively looking for them. Unfortunately, they were, and the landscape outside had been nearly flattened in the process. Each Rodan had now landed and was examining the ground on foot trying to flush out anyone who was hiding. One of the monsters was making its way towards the cave.

Dimitri was alarmed by this and slide down off the rocks to alert the rest of the men. He quietly instructed them to gather their gear and move. They could retreat further inside the cavern and that was exactly what he aimed to do. Everything was happening so fast that Dimitri already had the squad on the move before he had time to consider grabbing Niko’s body. He looked back and saw loose pebbles falling near what remained of the entrance.

The Rodan was getting closer. Its footfalls could be felt reverberating in the rocks beneath their feet. The monster got so close to the opening that its foot clipped the rockface and collapsed the entrance, effectively trapping the team inside. Everything went pitch black as the only source of light was cut off. The whole team just stood there not being able to do anything. It was so dark that they couldn’t even see their own hands in front of their faces.

After a moment, there was a rustling sound inside the cave and then a light flickered on. One of the soldiers named Zev had pulled a flashlight on of his bag. He pointed his light towards the entrance saw the pile of rocks that had closed them in. There were several boulders that would be far too heavy for them to move. Worse, even if they tried to dig themselves out, they could cause another cave in which could bury them all. It was clear that they were not going to get out that way.

Niko’s body was gone. It had been buried under the falling rocks right along with their escape route. The only thing that the team could do now was explore the rest of the cavern and hope there was another way out. Dimitri took the flashlight and lead the way. One of the other men also had a flashlight and turned it on, but Dimitri quickly instructed him to turn it off to save the battery. There was no telling how long they would be down there wandering in the dark and he didn’t want to still be down there when the batteries ran dry.

The remaining team members soon discovered that the cavern was vast. It gave them hope that they would be able to find a way out. As the continued to wander, Dimitri came to a fork in the cave. One path led downwards and the other upwards. It only took Dimitri about a second to decide that the path up was the wiser choice.

As Dimitri lead the way climbing through the rising passage, his foot slipped on a wet patch of stone. He managed to catch himself and regain his footing before falling. He cursed to himself and then used his flashlight to look up and spot a drip of water coming from the ceiling.

For a moment he thought about using the dripping water to fill his canteen back up, but then he realized that was probably a bad idea. The water was likely full of salt and minerals which would only dehydrate him more. Dimitri wasn’t sure how long his team would be trapped inside the cave, but he was concerned about eventually running out of food or water. He advised his men conserve what they had on hand and to ration it out little by little.

The group pressed on. The ongoing upward climb was very taxing on the men with all their heavy gear. They were already worn down from the escape earlier in the day. Once the team had made it to the top of the passage, Dimitri allowed everyone to rest for a while. He had them all gather around close together. When everyone was settled, he turned off the flashlight to conserve its power.

The short rest turned into a full nap for the exhausted team. The complete darkness combined with the coolness of the cavern proved difficult to resist. One by one the whole group fell asleep. Dimitri woke a short time later to the sound of one of his men snoring. He turned on the flashlight and looked at his watch. They had been asleep for three hours. There was no more time to lose. Dimitri got them up and moving again.

The path Dimitri found took them upwards again and for two more hours they were climbing through a tough incline. As they ascended, Dimitri noticed that the light of his flashlight was starting to flicker. It was running low on power. He cursed to himself again. He had hoped that it would have taken them a little further before dying. They still had the backup, but there was no way of knowing how much longer they’d still be underground.

The flashlight finally gave out five minutes later and the pathway went dark again. Only it wasn’t pitch black like before. Dimitri could see his hand in front of him. There was a faint source of light somewhere up ahead of the group. It was still too dark to move forward without the other flashlight to help guide their footing, but they were obviously close to another opening which might provide them the opportunity to escape. Dimitri took the backup flashlight and led on.

As they pressed forward, the light ahead of them grew stronger and stronger. The spirit of the men lifted as the darkness faded. However, just as soon as it looked like their luck had changed, their hopes were dashed again. Dimitri and the group heard a noise up ahead of them. The sound was distorted by the echoing of the cave, but it had a distinct quality that they all still recognized. Dimitri turned off the flashlight immediately and sat there thinking for a moment. He knew what lay ahead of them and didn’t want to face up to it, though it seemed like they didn’t have much other choice. They certainly couldn’t turn back the way they came.

Dimitri looked back in the faces of his men and saw that they all understood the predicament they were in. He nodded confidently to them and then started forward again. The team followed Dimitri quietly, creeping up the tunnel until they had reached a wider chamber at the top. Once there, they could see morning sunlight creeping in from a large opening. Only trouble was it confirmed what Dimitri had suspected all along. The tunnel they had climbed through had brought them up into the side of the volcano where the Rodans were nesting. The team had just entered the main chamber were the monsters resided.

Dimitri poked his head above a bolder and could see the two monsters sitting between them and the opening to the outside. Apparently the Rodans also needed a rest after the events of the previous evening. The monsters were nestled together like two birds. So long as the Rodans were sitting between the team and the exit, they were trapped.

It was at that point that Dimitri noticed how hot it was inside of the cavern. The passageway they had come from was cool, but the change in the air was almost instantaneous when they entered the Rodan’s nesting area. Looking around, it appeared that the Rodans had dug out and expanded the existing cavern opening considerably for their own comfort.

‘No wonder teams have been looking for this place for years.’ Dimitri thought to himself. ‘Their nest wasn’t on top of some mountain, it was under one. The monsters seemed to have learned their lesson about building a nest out in the open. Warm and well protected, I can see why they like it here.’

Dimitri spotted a pathway that might just shield the team from the Rodan’s notice. If they were careful, they might just be able to slip outside unnoticed. The squad clung to the rocks as to not be seen. They were getting far too close for comfort. Dimitri could only hope that their tree-scented perfume would hold up at close range because they were literally going to have to escape right under the monster’s noses.

Their discretion was not unwarranted. One of the Rodans stirred and started to move just as they came within fifty yards of it. The monster’s movement woke up its mate. The team froze in fear, hearing the commotion and thinking it was their doom. The first Rodan began to move towards the opening in the cave and spread its wings. The second Rodan chirped to the first and the first responded with a series of chirps back. Whatever their conversation was about, it was brief. The first Rodan exited the cave and took to the sky. The second remained behind. It looked as though it wasn’t their time to die just yet after all.

As Dimitri watched the monster fly away, he noted that it did not alter its course. It flew straight out and continued that way afterwards. He looked down at his compass and confirmed that it was indeed flying due west. Dimitri frowned.

“Where is it going?” Zev whispered to Dimitri.

“Off to punish us for getting so close yesterday I suspect.” Dimitri answered. “And we can’t warn anyone about it.”



Fighters had arrived just minutes after Marcus’s warning to the fleet, but there had been no signs of Godzilla in the hours since. If the monster was still in the area, he wasn’t making his presence known. Japanese destroyers came in and depth-charged the whole area in an attempt to draw him out. If he was down there in the depths, he let the attacks pass without any sort of retaliation.

The search helicopters meanwhile had returned to the fleet to resupply more sonar buoys. They began to drop them all over the northwest sector along the projected course of where the wake was heading, but still no trace of Godzilla.

“Where did he go?” Brock asked irritated. “He doesn’t seem like the type to shrink away from a fight.”

“You’re assuming he was here to begin with.” Marcus observed. “There could be other explanations for what I saw.”

“Command seems to think you were on to something.” Brock replied. “If they thought what you saw was a fluke, they wouldn’t have committed this much effort.”

“Well, it was my something versus everybody else’s nothing.” Marcus smirked. “Given the options, I’d say they made the right choice.”

“Search chopper three, this is the Essex tower.” The operator’s voice rang over the radio. “Command has issued a recall order. We’re heading back into port.”

“Roger control, we’re headed back.” Marcus replied.

“I guess they figure we’ve been out here long enough already.” Brock remarked.

Marcus, Brock, and the rest of the aircrew landed safely back on the Essex a short while later and learned that they were actually headed to port in Tokyo rather than the American base to the south. Fleet command decided they wanted to keep all their strength together for the time being. They were concerned that Godzilla might be headed back to the Japanese mainland and wanted their ships nearby if that indeed was the case. With all the aircraft collected, the fleet turned to port and set a course for Tokyo Bay.



Dimitri and his men had been waiting at the entrance of the Rodan’s volcano lair for hours waiting to make their escape, but the second Rodan had not moved an inch since the first left and it hadn’t fallen back asleep either. Such as it was, Dimitri didn’t want to risk making a move while it was sitting next to the exit. The monster’s sharp eyes would pick up on any moment. For the time being, they were simply stuck where they were. If they could make it back to base, they’d be able to pinpoint the exact location of the nest for future operations.

Suddenly, the second Rodan rose to its feet. Its head darted quickly from side to side, as if it was alerted to some sort of threat to the nest. The monster let out a roar and lifted its wings in an aggressive posture. The wing tips hit the ceiling inside of the cavern which rained down rocks, some of which came crashing down near the Dimitri’s team.

"Why is it so agitated?” Zev asked. “Does it know that we are here? We didn't do anything to draw attention to ourselves. Is it smelling us despite the fact that we took steps to conceal our scent?"

“No, I don’t think so.” Dimitri replied. “If that were it, the monster would have found us a long time ago. Something else is going on here.”

“Do you think they sent a second airstrike?” Zev suggested.

“I hope not.” Dimitri answered, watching the second Rodan continue to become more aggressive. “Otherwise, our tickets are punched.” The monster finally turned towards the entrance and took to the sky, veering off left as it took flight.

“Now is our chance, let’s get out of here.” Zev proposed.

“Yeah, I’d say that’s sound advice.” Dimitri agreed.

“Hey, what’s that?” Zev asked, pointing down towards the nest. Dimitri looked down and saw the second Rodan had left behind a clutch of three round objects that could only be eggs.

“Well… I’ll be damned.” Dimitri remarked. “Would you look at that. I'm guessing this is why command never just lured the Rodans to a remote site with a radio signal to vaporize them. There was no guarantee both adults would come at the same time if there were eggs in their nest. The higher ups wanted to locate the nest and hit them all at once before they hatched."

“You think they knew about the eggs?” Zev asked.

“I guarantee they knew something, or at least suspected.” Dimitri replied. “I think I know a way to get an air transport to fly us out of here pronto. We need to wait a little while though, let both adult Rodans get out of range, so they don’t hear our radio transmission. In the meantime, get out your map. Let’s determine exactly which volcano we are sitting in. They’ll need to know where to find us when the time comes.”



About an hour later, the Blessed Crab was steaming full speed southward after witnessing the nuclear explosion on Kamchatka. If they weren’t careful, they’d be caught up in the fallout as the wind blew it eastward. They needed to get as much distance between themselves and it as possible.

Fortunately, they had already been sailing south towards home in Hokkaido throughout the night and were likely already in the clear from the fallout. The Blessed Crab wasn’t as fast as a warship, but she could do a respectable 26 knots. No bad for a merchant vessel. Good enough to keep her crew safe at that point anyway. The Crab was living up to her name.

Captain Tadashi breathed a sigh of relief. While he was a man who was used to pushing his luck, even he knew that they had gotten off lightly. There were not many people walking around who could claim to have been so close to a nuclear explosion and came out unscathed. Of course, that wasn’t totally the case. One of his men’s eyesight had not returned yet, but he was hopeful that it still would in time.

Tadashi had Jirou take the wheel so that he could open one of the windows on the bridge. He figured a little fresh air would do all of the officers a lot of good after such a tense night. Tadashi took off his hat and then leaned his head out window so that the wind could whip through his hair. For a moment, he forgot about their troubles and remembered what it felt like to be safe and free.

As Tadashi enjoyed his time in the breeze, his ears picked up on a whistling sound. At first, he thought that the sound might just be coming from the wind squeezing between the thick hair of his sideburns. It quickly became apparent to him that wasn’t the case. Tadashi looked around the ship to find the source of the noise but failed locate anything that could be producing the sound.

Finally, something compelled him to look up. As he did, Tadashi spotted a vapor trail in the sky above the ship. He grabbed his binoculars to get a better look. When he brought them to his eyes, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. One of the Rodans was passing high above over the Blessed Crab.

Tadashi didn’t understand, they were well outside of the restricted area now. What was it doing there? The crew on deck started to figure out what was going on and began to panic. It seemed like their luck had finally run out. The sailors prepared to abandon ship and readied their lifeboats, though if the monster dove on them it would hardily matter. Anything even remotely close to the ship would get pulverized right along with it from the impact.

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Rodan however didn’t seem to take any notice of them. It was heading south at tremendous speed, leaving the fishing boat safely behind it. Tadashi watched as the monster got further and further away. It appeared to be heading straight towards Japan. Tadashi wished he could warn someone on the mainland, but of course he could do nothing. The Blessed Crab had no radio equipment aboard.



After the Archimedes task force arrived back in Tokyo Bay along with the IJN fleet, they got a formal request from the Japanese government to assist in the relief effort in Tokyo. Many of the city’s streets were still entirely impassable due to the debris from demolished buildings. The majority of Tokyo was in ruins. Some of it because of fires and some of it as a direct result of Godzilla knocking over buildings himself.

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Supplies could be brought in through the harbor on ships or via trucks through the countryside but getting those supplies into the heart of the city was another matter altogether due to the roads being such a mess. On top of everything else, several key bridges had been destroyed and probably would not be repaired for months. As a result of both issues, entire sections of Tokyo had been cut off from the rest of the city. For that reason, helicopters were an invaluable commodity to bring emergency supplies to the isolated areas of the city where people were practically trapped.

Landing zones had to cleared away, but with so much of the town flattened anyway, it wasn’t much of an issue. Between the army and the addition of naval helicopters, the city was buzzing with aircraft. Marcus and Brock were soon given an assignment to carry out. There was food, water, and medical supplies in harbor area that needed to be brought to a location near the city center along with a doctor who had traveled from Osaka to help treat the wounded.

A Japanese guide who spoke some English was also assigned to them to help figure out where to go. Unfortunately, even with him along, they got confused because of the staggering amount of damage to the city. Tokyo was nearly unrecognizable from the sky. Only by counting blocks and certain geographical landmarks could they navigate the city. Tokyo had received a baptism of fire and was a burnt-out husk compared to its former self. Seeing the devastation in person was a lot different than seeing it on television. The four men said very little during the helicopter ride, even Brock was uncharacteristically quiet.

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Eventually, they found their way to the correct landing zone and bought the chopper down safely. Marcus shut down the engine which slowed the blades from turning. As they decelerated, the four men opened the doors and began to unload their cargo. Japanese civilians came out to greet them at that point. They were overjoyed to see the helicopter bringing them some much needed supplies and were not afraid to show it.

Three men ran up to Brock who didn’t have a clue what to do with himself. The men spoke only in Japanese, which Brock would be lucky to understand even a quarter of on his best day. They shook his hands and slapped him on the back enthusiastically. One of them even embraced him. Brock seemed to be on his best behavior and was trying to be polite, but it was clear that he was very uncomfortable. Marcus smirked; he knew Brock must be hating every second of it. The whole thing felt comedic to him. Brock was so much taller than the Japanese civilians that it looked like a father getting home from a long day at work and having his three sons jumping all over him.

Brock looked over at Marcus and caught his grin. The unease on Brock’s started to melt away and turn into contempt. Marcus looked away. He knew what Brock was like when he was angry and having a Japanese guide with them in the helicopter on ride home would not save him from the ass chewing that was brewing.

With the supplies unloaded, the Japanese civilians presented Marcus and Brock with a new task. There were several wounded people who couldn’t get out of the area to a hospital. They were too badly hurt for the meager first aid the Osaka doctor could give them on site to be of much help. They needed a real medical facility for adequate treatment, and some of them needed to get there fast.

At first, Brock was a little resistant to the idea, as it hadn’t been part of their orders, but then he saw a little girl amongst the wounded. Her leg had been broken and the civilians had put her in a makeshift splint. It was the best they could manage on their own. Upon seeing her Brock’s steely soldier exterior melted away. Marcus could swear he even saw a little moisture in the corner of his eyes. Without another word, Brock carefully picked the girl up and started to carry her to the helicopter himself.

“Don’t you say a word to any of the guys.” Glared over to Marcus.

Marcus just nodded, then allowed a wounded man to lean his weight on him as they continued to walk towards the helicopter. A pretty fair number of the wounded were able to fit into the chopper. In fact, they were able to get all the worse cases inside with them. The Osaka doctor could handle those who remained on his own. Once everyone was secure, Marcus lifted off. The Japanese guide was able to direct them to the hospital in the safe part of town. After they had delivered the wounded civilians inside the facility, they started to walk back to the helicopter.

“How much weight can this bird carry?” Brock asked.

“I don’t know.” Marcus answered, caught off guard by the question. “Maybe nineteen or twenty tons, why?”

“While we were in the landing zone before, I noticed that we could get a tow line under one of the larger slabs of concrete blocking the road.” Brock noted. “If we were to lift that thing out of there, vehicles would be able to get in and out of the area freely. Those people wouldn’t be trapped anymore.”

“It’s an idea, I’ll give you that.” Marcus scratched at his chin considering it. “Oh hell, let’s give it a shot.”

Once Brock and Marcus had returned to the landing zone in the center of the city, they set about getting to work. Brock secured the tow line to the large mass of concrete. They didn’t know how much the piece weighed, so there was no telling if their plan was going to work or not. Even if Marcus could get it off the ground, it might crack in half and fall back to the ground. As such, they decided it would be a good precaution to have the remaining civilians stay far clear of the operational area.

With no further preparations needed, Marcus got into the chopper and started the engine back up. He told Brock and the Japanese guide to join the civilians. Marcus didn’t want anyone else in the helicopter if something went wrong and he figured it couldn’t hurt to have a couple hundred less pounds in the cockpit to give himself the best chance to succeed. Even a couple of extra pounds could tip the balance one way or the other.

Marcus lifted off and very slowly started to raise the helicopter up. If he went too fast and the load was too heavy, the force of the line suddenly tightening could send the chopper spinning out of control. Marcus looked down and watched Brock, who was signaling to him from a distance to let him know when he was getting close to the end of his slack. Finally, Marcus could feel resistance on the tow line and Brock indicated he was at the sweet spot. It was time to see if his machine was up to the challenge they had set in front of it.

Marcus pulled up on the stick and could feel the added weight of the slab under him. He heard the engine struggling to keep up with the added weight. He wasn’t sure just how hard he could push the engine before it would quit on him, but he decided to press on. Marcus felt a shift in the cockpit as the weight from the slab started to move under him. He had done it; the concrete was off the ground. With that accomplished he just needed to find a safe place to put it.

Marcus spotted an empty area that was out of the way. He carefully corrected his controls to start towards it. He looked down to Brock for some guidance. Marcus wasn’t quite sure how far below him the load was hanging, and he would have to clear it over the ruins of some buildings that were cropped out in from of him. Brock signaled for Marcus to gain more altitude to get over them. Marcus tried to oblige but could hear the engine struggling to meet the task. The helicopter’s momentum kept the craft creeping forward through and the concrete slab slammed into the bricks of the ruins sending debris and dust raining down below.

The abrupt impact alarmed Marcus, who tightened his grip on the controls. The force from the collision also made the load start to sway back and forth, which in turn made it difficult for Marcus to maintain a steady course. His palms were starting to sweat. He knew he was pushing his luck and that he needed wrap up the job before something else went wrong. Marcus quickly and carefully started to lower the helicopter back towards the ground.

On top of everything else, the collision against the rubble had put a crack in the cement, which was starting to expand into a major problem. Though Marcus couldn’t see it, the fracture was expanding little by little until it came to the critical point of breaking. A sizable section of the cement slab gave way and fell from the tow line plummeting to the ground a crumbling into a heap on impact. The sudden loss of weight disrupted the helicopters flight path and Marcus had to compensate to avoid losing control.

Marcus managed to right the chopper after a moment of instability and then got what remained of the slab safely to the ground. The ordeal was over, and the mission was accomplished. Marcus let out a big sigh of relief and then thought about having a few choice words with Brock for suggesting the idea of moving the roadblock in the first place. As it turned out, there wasn’t time for that.

“Marcus, report back the Essex immediately.” The tower operator crackled over the radio. “We have a situation.”



“What is its present trajectory?” General Nakamura asked.

“It just entered Japanese airspace.” His communications office replied. “Flying south towards Hokkaido. Jets have been scrammed to intercept before it reaches the mainland. Wait a moment.” He paused, listening in on a fresh report coming from up north. “I’ve just gotten word that the monster has altered its course and increased speed.” He paused again, listening for more information coming through the open channel. “The interceptors are not going to be able to catch it. New heading is southwest. Projected path has it running along the border of Japanese territorial waters going south.”

“Is it coming for Tokyo?” Nakamura asked sternly.

“I can’t be sure sir.” The communication officer answered. “If it maintains its present approach vector, no. It’s moving very fast though. In just a little while, the monster will be within easy striking distance of Tokyo if it were to decide to suddenly veer westward. There’s nothing along its present projected course but open water.”

“Where the hell is it going?” General Nakamura asked himself.

“Orders sir?” The communication officer inquired.

“Well, we can’t just let the monster have free reign in our airspace unchallenged.” General Nakamura answered. “We need to repel it or redirect it somewhere else. Get more planes in the air along its flightpath. Put every airbase on alert. Scramble everything we’ve got. Issue an evacuation order to everything along the eastern coastline since we don’t know where it is headed yet.”



Meanwhile in the north, Rodan was quickly advancing through Japanese airspace. In less than an hour, it had flown over five-hundred miles and was quickly approaching the waters off of Tokyo Bay. Three additional large scale air intercepts were unsuccessful in catching the monster along the way. Rodan was simply advancing faster than they could get their fighters in position out in front of it.

One squadron commander got the bright idea to use his radio to try to get Rodan’s attention. His aim was to lure the monster back to his unit once it was clear they were not going to be able to catch it. Rodan however simply ignored them. Wherever the monster was going, it wasn’t allowing itself to be distracted so easily.

Finally, a concentrated effort was made to ensure Rodan could not penetrate any further into Japanese airspace unopposed. Enough planes were able to get out in front of the monster to guarantee it couldn’t evade them all. A defensive line was drawn in the sky thirty miles northeast of Tokyo to challenge the monster’s might. If it wanted to go any further, it would have to go through them first.

The fleet in Tokyo was being dispatched to take part in the battle as well, but it would take the surface ships awhile to steam far enough north to be of much help. The Japanese carrier fighters on the other hand were already being launched to join the aerial blockade. The Essex’s fighter squadrons were being held in reserve though. It would be impossible for the American pilots to effectively coordinate with the Japanese squadrons while in combat due to the language barrier. Such as it was, they would only join the battle if deemed absolutely necessary. Just the same, they were fueled, armed, and ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

At the center of the defensive effort was Akira’s squadron. They were running point ahead of the other air groups and were eager for a fight. It was their job to make initial contact and engage the monster. Once they slowed it down, the rest of the air wings could close in and attack. None of the pilots under Akira’s command had been involved in the first two encounters with Rodan, but they had heard plenty of stories. They had some idea of what to expect.

Akira himself had long been looking forward to another rematch. The last time he had met the Rodans in combat he was flying a slow, propellered zero fighter. Now he was in a top of the line American-made Sabre jet. An aircraft superior to zero in almost every way. It was twice as fast, had more range, and most importantly, had far heavier firepower. With jet fighters at their disposal, Akira felt like his squadron at least had a fighting chance this time.

Akira’s men were still a little green but had been improving. Their recent experience facing off against Godzilla during the tale of his raid on Tokyo did a great deal to swell their confidence. Some of them felt like they had single handedly driven him off. Akira knew that wasn’t the case, but none the less was happy that this wouldn’t be their first encounter with a Kaiju.

Seeing one for the first time tended to make men freeze up and put the fear of God into them. Naturally, it was quite upsetting to realize that there were things in the world that dwarfed the power of mankind. However, the feeling within the squadron was one of excitement and cockiness. They were ready to go twelve rounds with the monster.

"It's just one of them captain?" Haruki asked Akira. “Both Rodans should have come if they want to fight us. We’re going to show it what aerial combat is all about.”

“I heard the monster doesn’t even want to engage our new jet fighters.” Shota chimed in. “It keeps running away from them as soon as it hears our engines approaching.”

“One is more than enough for you gentlemen.” Akira assured them. “Trust me, when this thing decides to fight, you’ll get all the aerial combat you want and more. I want you all to stay sharp and alert. We can beat this thing, but only if you don’t underestimate it. Remember, this creature lives in the sky, we only visit from time to time.”

“Tower to Hachi flight.” The airbase communication officer’s voicing rang over the radio. “Get ready, Rodan is nearly on top of you. You should be picking it up on your radar anytime now.”

“Roger.” Akira replied. “Alright everybody, arm your weapons and get loose. This is it.” The whole squadron felt tingles in their stomach from the feeling of excitement and nervous energy. The fight was about to begin.

“I’ve got a radar contact sir!” Shota announced. “It’s coming in fast, about two o’clock.”

“Confirmed, I’m picking it up too.” Akira replied. “Range is about fifty miles out and closing.”

“Sir, it looks like it’s altering course again.” Shota warned. “It must know we are here. Heading has changed ten degrees southeast. Looks like it is trying to bypass us.”

“East huh?” Akira noted. “It’s not trying to go to Tokyo then. That doesn’t matter though, we’re not letting it by us. All wings alter course to intercept, we’re engaging. Full speed, this time the monster is not going to avoid a fight.”



It wasn’t long before Akira could see Rodan’s vapor trail moving southward towards them. He could only guess at how quickly it was moving. He felt goosebumps forming on his skin as they continued to get closer. Before long, Akira could make out the dark form of the monster’s body at the front of the vapor trail. Each second got them closer to meeting once again.

Akira’s squadron was still out ahead of Rodan. They had chosen the proper angle to cut the monster off. The fighters were moments away from being able to hit the monster in the flank. Akira could see the outline of the monster’s horned crest as they pushed in even closer still. Akira thumbed open the tab covering the button for his rockets.

“Everybody stay on me.” Akira instructed his flyers. “Try to target the right wing.”

The squadron pressed in even closer, narrowing the gap. Akira could see the white of Rodan’s eyes now. The monster’s focus was off in the distance out ahead of them. The fighters had the proper angle to sweep in for the attack. Rodan seemed intent on ignoring them in pursuit of whatever its goal was, a fact that pissed Akira off. Were they not worthy the monster’s attention? Did it not even register them as a credible threat?

“Open fire!” Akira growled into his com, while depressing his trigger.

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Akira’s rockets released from under the wings of his fighter and whizzed towards the monster. Akira pulled up slightly to give the planes following him a clearer shot at their target, however he watched carefully to see the result of his attack. Orange plumes ignited all over Rodan’s body where the rockets detonated, many of them striking against the wing.

The first wave of the attack had the desired effect. Rodan’s flight was disrupted, and the monster was forced to slow down. Akira took advantage, wheeling his fighter around towards the monster again, bringing his guns to bear from behind it. Once properly aimed, he let loose with his six cannons, peppering Rodan with twelve-millimeter Browning M3 rounds. Other fighters joined in, adding firepower to Akira’s.

Rodan roared, obviously displeased with being shot up by the Sabres. The monster suddenly dove down, banking sharply around like a corkscrew at an angle that the Sabre fighters had no chance of matching. It was an amazing maneuver that none of the pilots saw coming. The squadron turned around to pursue, but by the time they had, Rodan had plunged into a large bank of clouds and out of sight.

“Be careful boys, this thing likes to attack from above and out of the sun.” Akira warned. “There it goes!” He saw Rodan climbing up in the sky, seeming to do exactly what he was expecting. “Spread out a little, it should be coming back down to us any moment. Akira’s prediction was right on the noise. Rodan soon came dropping down at one of the fighters, but there was time to warn them. “Shota, he’s coming for you. Get out of there!”

“Oh shit!” Shota called out, seeing the monster closing in on him. He banked hard to the right and was just able to avoid the attack. “Thanks boss.” He radioed. “That was close.”

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“Haruki, you are in position to punish him, make him pay for that miss.” Akira instructed.

“Roger.” Haruki replied, diving and firing rockets into Rodan’s back. “Got him!”

“I can see that, good work.” Akira acknowledged. “Try to regroup now. You don’t want to be isolated when it comes back. Everybody reform on me.”

“Sir, here it comes again!” One of the other pilots reported.

Sure enough, Rodan had recovered and was already approaching the formation. It seemed to be targeting Akira’s plane in particular. That was curious. Akira knew the monster could detect radio signals. He wondered if it was smart enough to work out that Akira was in charge and coordinating the rest of the planes. Either by luck or design, the monster was pursuing the correct course of action. If Akira were in Rodan’s place, he would also try to take out the leader of the opposition to disrupt their cohesion.

“Give me a little space boys.” Akira instructed.

Rodan was coming at him from dead ahead, seeming intent to ram him. Akira tried to focus on the task at hand. The monster was playing a game of chicken with him. If he wasn’t careful, this would be the end for him. The monster had much better control over its flight, and it could survive a mid-air collision, he could not. The monster could also easily match any maneuver he tried. So, if he attempted to alter course or escape, it would simply swat him from the sky. There was only one way Akira could think of to survive the situation, but his timing and aim had to be perfect for him to pull it off.

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Once Akira had closed range to about five hundred yards of Rodan he made his move. He pulled up on the stick to bring his fighter face to face with Rodan before letting loose with the remainder of his rockets. They rushed forward, impacting against Rodan’s face. The flashes from the explosions obscured the monster’s vision just long enough for Akira to dive back down under its belly and escape unharmed. It was very close though. Akira’s plane only avoided the armored plating of the monster’s underbelly by a split second. That fraction of a second was the difference between life and death for Akira, and he knew it.

Once he was clear, Akira breathed rapidly in his mask. He had been holding his breath while aiming his rockets. He wasn’t really sure he was going to pull it off. There was no time to celebrate though. He was still far from being safe.

“Holy shit, that was a heck of a show boss!” Haruki congratulated Akira over the radio. “Are you alight?”

“I may need to change my pants once we get back to base, but my plane is intact.” Akira replied. “Where is it?”

“It’s coming back around towards you.” Haruki replied. “I think you pissed it off.”

Akira didn’t reply. He glanced down at his radar screen and saw that Rodan indeed was rapidly changing course to target him again. Akira throttled up to as fast as he could. He needed to run. He could feel the monster closing in on him as the he glanced down on the dot on the radar. The pressure was mounting as he continued to accelerate. Rodan was more than matching him, getting closer second by second. He could even feel vibrations in his cockpit as the monster roared behind him.

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Finally, out of desperation, Akira put the sun visor on his helmet down and pulled up hard on the stick. He pointed the nose of his jet straight at the sun. Rodan was still right behind him. For a few seconds Akira held his course, forcing the monster to either stare into the sun or look away from his fighter.

After a moment, Akira violently jerked the controls sideways, breaking the climb. The gambit had worked. Rodan wasn’t able to keep sight of him, loosing him while staring into the sun. The monster blindly snapped its jaws at where he thought Akira was going to be but only caught a whisp of cloud. It had been close again, another fraction of a second between life and death.

Akira allowed his plane fall from the sky, gaining momentum along the way. He steered the nose of his fighter into the dive, gaining control over it. Now back in command of his fate, Akira aimed his jet towards a large bank of clouds to escape Rodan’s sight. He correctly judged that the monster hadn’t given up on him yet. It was just a question of if the monster would be able to catch him before he reached safety or not.

“Bastard!!!” Akira heard Shota shout over the radio. He had positioned himself to attack the monster who was arching towards Akira again.

Shota opened fire with his cannons, missing the monster, but gaining its attention. Rodan diverted course, arching up towards Shota instead. The monster’s talons reached out a plucked Shota’s fighter from the sky like a hawk clasping a bird mid-flight. Shota’s radio was still broadcasting. Akira could hear him yelling. The sound of crumbling metal and an explosion finally cutting him off.

‘Damnit.’ Akira thought as he escaped into the clouds. Shota sacrifice had saved him.

Having lost sight of Akira’s plane, Rodan turned his attention to the rest of the squadron. Akira had a tough choice at that moment. If he radioed to his men with instructions, it would paint a red target on his plane, and he would once again become the hunted. But if he did nothing, the monster would no doubt pick off his men one by one.

"Oh shit, my flaps are jammed." Haruki announced. “I need help!”

That was enough for Akira. He turned his plane around and came back into the fight. He avoided using his radio to announce his presence. Once he had come back out of the clouds, he could see the other Sabres of his squadron doing their best to use hit and run tactics on the monster, to some success. As long as it couldn’t focus on a single target, they could be effective. The fighters were using swarm tactics to keep Rodan off balance.

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Only trouble was, the fighters were eventually going to run out of ammo and when that happened, they’d be at the mercy of the monster. The firepower the Sabres were hurdling at Rodan simply wasn’t enough to do any lasting damage and the monster was already starting to adapt to their shift in tactics. It picked off another plane while Akira was getting back into position.

“Look out!” A pilot named Gendo shouted to one of the other pilots.

Akira could see that Rodan was passing closely over one of the fighters. The monster dipped down and clipped it, sheering the top portion of the fuselage clean off. Now without a pilot, the plane dipped down and fell out of the sky. Akira was trying to get back into the fight, but the momentum of the battle was moving away from him.

Just then, a group of reinforcement Sabres were approaching from the southwest. One of Akira’s backup squadrons had finally arrived to help out. Akira nearly cheered in his cockpit. They had arrived just when the battle was starting to look untenable. Their arrival had not gone unnoticed by Rodan however. He saw the newly arrived planes all clumped together in formation and that made them a very tempting target for the monster. Rodan swung up and around into a wall of clouds and disappeared.

The reinforcement squadron was coming around from the far side of the clouds and had not seen Rodan vanish inside them. Akira reached for his radio, desperately trying to warn them, but it was already too late. When Rodan reappeared, he came directly into the path of the approaching fighters and wiped out the whole squadron in one foul swoop. Firey debris and scrapes of metal fell from the sky as the monster collided with them.

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The situation was getting desperate for Akira and his remaining flyers. There wasn’t any more help nearby. They were low on ammo, fuel, and the fight had turned decisively against them. With their only reinforcements gone, Rodan was ready to turn his attention solely back to them. Things were looking bleak.

The course of the battle had brought them towards mainland Japan and Akira spotted something below which could turn the battle back in their favor. If nothing else, it could give Akira the diversion he needed to save what remained of his men. Akira had maneuvered himself into a position above Rodan. He grabbed for his radio and fired the rest of his cannon’s ammo into the side of Rodan’s head where his guessed its ears were to irritate the monster. Then he put his plane into a steep dive.

“Hachi squadron, this is your wing commander.” Akira announced. “Break off your attack and return to base.”

“Sir…?” Haruki began to protest.

“Just do it, that’s an order!” Akira cut him off, then switched off his receiver to avoid any more distractions.

Between the cannon fire and the radio chatter, Akira succeeded in drawing Rodan’s attention towards him. The monster dove down after Akira, chasing him on his way towards the ground. Meanwhile, the rest of the squadron regrouped and began to retreat out of the area. Akira could see that the monster was following him on the radar.

“Good, keep following me you son of a bitch.” Akira cursed with a smirk. “I’ve got something for you.”

At about one thousand feet, Akira finally may his move. He pulled on his ejection lever and the canopy of his fighter blasted away. An explosive cartridge set off underneath Akira’s seat and sent him rocketing away from the fuselage of his plane. The jet meanwhile was still on course for its intended target, an oil refinery. Rodan passed right under Akira, still chasing his fighter just as he had intended.

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Akira’s parachute deployed and all he could do from there was watch the situation unfold below him. He could only hope that the refinery’s workmen had complied with the mandatory evacuation order which had been issued all along the coastline in the anticipated battle area. The jet crashed directly into the large external fuel tanks of the facility and caused a tremendous explosion.

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Rodan started to pull up as he saw the fighter crash but was still caught up in the blast radius of the explosion as he passed over it. The resulting shockwave sent the monster flying off course and crashing into the nearby woods. Soil and trees were launched into the air from the force of the monster’s impact.

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Rodan was slow to get up. The rough landing had apparently knocked the wind out of it. Akira had been hopeful that the explosion would kill the monster, but unfortunately most of the concussive force of the detonation had hit the monster in its heavily armored underbelly since it had been pulling out of its dive at the time.

Rodan scanned the landscape looking for any would-be attackers. He looked very angry and ready to lash out. Akira meanwhile was floating downwards towards the monster, hoping like hell that it wouldn’t notice him. Regrettably, Akira wasn’t going to remain in the sky from very much longer and he had no control over where the wind was taking him. It so happened that it was bringing him both towards the monster and the burning refinery. Akira wasn’t sure what would be worse, burning to death in the fire or the monster getting a hold of him. Fumes and smoke were starting to float up to him from below.

As Akira was contemplating death, he heard a noise. It was almost like a whistling or screeching sound. It was getting louder. A few seconds later, it became clear what the noise was. An explosion landed a few hundred yards away from where Rodan was perched. Then another and another. It was naval artillery being fired at the monster. The fleet dispatched out of Tokyo was within firing range. Or at least the long rifles on board the battleships were. Their main guns could fire accurately from many, many, miles away.

Akira struggled to turn, fighting against the straps of his parachute. Once he twisted around, he could see another salvo coming in. About eighteen yellow glowing orbs were arching down into the area in total. It had to be the eighteen-inch guns from the Yamato and the Musashi. Each of them had nine main batteries. The second barrage was more accurate than the first, landing even closer to Rodan who was a sitting duck on the ground. The monster did not like the bombardment one bit.

Akira could hear another noise over the explosions from the heavy shells. It was the whining of jet engines. The other Japanese squadrons were closing in from their positions in the east and American fighters had been launched from the fleet in the south. The American squadrons arrived first, unloading a substantial amount of ordnance on Rodan, who was still standing on the ground.

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Rodan roared and took back to the sky. It seemed to recognize that it was being surrounded by adversaries. The monster circled the area in the sky one time, as if it were contemplating what it should do next. It had already expended much of its energy flying all the way from Kamchatka and fighting with Akira’s squadron, who had put up a good fight. With one last roar, Rodan appeared to have come to a decision, retreating back north towards home.

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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Wow, heck of an update! Sorry been busy, work/Christmas stuff. I'm very glad to see the update and so much Rodan (s). I've said it before but I believe despite being substantially weaker then Godzilla in most respects Rodan is probably a much greater threat to mankind, owing to his massive speed and flight as well as the indirect damage he leaves in his wake. The prospect of a mated pair potentially producing offspring is enough on its own to pose a threat to human supremacy on the planet. All that aside, I just like Rodan. I think he's much more identifiable then most Kaiju as a "natural" creature and being loyal to a fault I respect the Rodan's fierce loyalty to each other and the fact that they seem to mate for life. Maybe throw in a reference or two to the original Rodan film?





I also like how you continue to make reference to both actual history and the altered history of this timeline with scenes such as the lucky crab crew. Fleshes out the story, gives it a human touch without overpowering the greater narrative. Very Game of thrones esque.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

Thanks MP,

As always, I appreciate the feedback.

I totally get being busy because of the holidays. I’ve been swamped myself lately getting ready for Christmas. I have kind of a special role in my family around the holidays and it eats up a lot of my time. Unfortunately, that means I have not gotten very far into writing the next chapter. The outline is done and I’ve written maybe one or two scenes, but that is about it.

Ideally, I would like to get another chapter out before the holidays, kind of as a gift to the forum/readers, but that just isn’t going to happen. There’s simply too much to do between now and then.

On the bright side, the next chapter is going to be focused around a specific event and won’t be as hard to write as the last one. It should be a little shorter, so maybe I’ll have something ready before the end of January. Not ideal, but not so bad.

I’ve always like Rodan as a character. I do think I’ve put some references to the original movie in the story, but they were perhaps subtle. The Sabres vs. Rodan in this last chapter is just one example. I have one fun idea that is definitely a reference to the first Rodan movie. It won’t be the next chapter, but in the following one there will be a plot line that will be unmistakable to anyone who has seen the first Rodan movie.

The plot of the next chapter will heavily involve the Rodans as well. So any Rodan fanatics should get all they want and more. I can’t get too far into any of that without getting into spoilers though. I prefer to surprise folks, but I think you will be pleased with what I have in mind.

Anyhow, I’ve been asked what my favorite Godzilla monster is a number of times and I can’t really come up with a good answer. There’s a lot to enjoy about quite a lot of them. In general, I like that there’s a vast pantheon of monsters and that so many of them are so unique.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Keep an eye out for a new chapter before too awful long.
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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

...

Chapter 23: Godzilla vs. Rodan.

Akira floated down towards the ground in his parachute. The air current carried him over the burning oil refinery and into the open field beyond it which still had smoldering craters from the battleship’s artillery barrage. As Akira drifted down closer to the ground, he realized he was descending too quickly due to the strong air current that was pushing him. He could tell that it was going to be a rough landing and tried to brace himself for it.

Akira made contact with the ground feet first and then bowled over onto his side. It was hardly his first time hitting the ground after being forced to bail out, but it was certainly the most violent impact he had ever made. After he fell over, the powerful air current kept his chute moving along the ground, dragging him along with it. Akira quickly recognized that he needed to cut his chute loose. It had saved him in the air but might kill him on the ground. He fumbled with the clasp on his harness in an attempt to release the lock.

As Akira struggled, the chute pulled him right into the cluster of rocks, which smashed against his legs. There was a brief pause before Akira was tugged onwards and dragged across the rock’s jagged edges. The pain was sharp and immediate. Akira finally unhooked himself and the parachute gusted back up into the sky like a kite. It danced in the wind like a wild animal that had been set free. Akira looked down from it to his legs and saw that he was bleeding through his now ripped flight suit on the right side.

Akira groaned and took off the white flight scarf from around his neck and used a knife from his pocket to cut it in two. He turned onto his back and used the two sections of cloth bandage up his leg the best he could. Afterwards, he rolled onto his belly and used his arms to carefully get a knee under himself to see if it would support his weight. While it hurt, the leg was able to accomplish the task. Akira repeated the exercise with the other leg. He was a little beat up, but it seemed as though he hadn’t broken any bones in either of his legs. Akira guessed he had just badly bruised the left leg on top of the abrasions. Nothing that would keep him down.

Akira slowly got to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. He was totally alone. Rodan was long gone, as were the fighters who had pursued him out of the area. The warships of the fleet were nowhere to be found either. They likely would never get close enough to the shore to spot Akira in any case. He saw that there was a road nearby though. It led to and from the remnants of the demolished refinery. If any vehicles, civilian or military, came into the area to investigate, they would undoubtably have to come from that direction.

Akira started walking towards the road, periodically looking down to see if the extra pressure on his leg was causing any breakthrough bleeding from his makeshift bandages. The white scarf had a small red dot in the middle, but no blood was leaking through. It seemed as though his cuts were only superficial. He continued onto the road and followed it.

When Akira came to the end of the road leading away from the facility, he saw that it branched off left and right onto a highway. He had to decide if it was worth-while to wait for someone to come along or if he should press on in one of the directions. If people were respecting the evacuation order, it might be a very long time before any vehicles came anywhere near the coastal area. It was clear to Akira that the wiser choice was to keep moving, though what wasn’t clear to him was which way to go.

Akira thought back to the battle. He had seen a small town at some point when his squadron first flew into the area, but where was it from where he was standing now? In the chaos of the fight, he couldn’t keep track. He looked down at the road and noticed that the path to the right looked more wore down than the path to the left. That indicated to him that it had more consistent traffic on it.

‘It’s that way.’ Akira decided, turning to the right, and starting down the long road.

Akira’s deductive reasoning and instincts paid off. After about a half mile of walking, he found a sign which indicated a town called Kazuto was just two miles further up the road. Akira decided that was a reasonable enough distance for him to cover in his present condition. Once he was there, he could find a phone to call the base and let them know where he was.



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Nearby on board the USS Essex, fighters that had been scrambled to back up the Japanese were just starting to return to the carrier. Marcus was on the flight deck sitting inside of his helicopter waiting for them. He had missed the chance to join the other men of his squadron for the battle because they were already on deck and waiting to take off when he had returned from his relief mission in Tokyo.

Marcus had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, he was getting a little tired of being a glorified taxi driver in the sky over the last couple of weeks, but on the other hand, he was frightfully aware of what Rodan could do to a squadron of fighters in air-to-air combat. Marcus anxiously counted the number of returning aircraft as they came into sight. To his pleasant surprise, every one of them were accounted for. One by one the fighters came in for a landing. The first aircraft of the flight came to a stop across from Marcus’ helicopter and he ran over to hear what happened.

“It’s running!!!” The pilot shouted with delight as his cockpit opened up. “We turned back its attack, that bastard is heading back north!”

“That’s great!” Marcus shouted back with relief. He couldn’t help but notice that the fleet was still moving north too though.

“The monster didn’t want to have anything to do with those big Jap guns.” The pilot went on, coming down from his fighter.

“Can’t blame it on that account.” Marcus smiled. “With eighteen-inch guns that fire shells that weigh about 3218 pounds each, it’s basically firing nine firetrucks with each salvo. It takes a while for them to get there, but once they do they hit hard.”

“Yeah, they’re formidable guns, but they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, even if they were being fired from the inside the barn.” Brock pointed out sarcastically. “What good is that much firepower if you can’t hit the target?”

“Well in the case of today, I’d say intimidation if nothing else.” Marcus answered. “We may have bluffed our way out of a tougher fight.”

“I suppose that’s good enough for now.” Brock frowned, before his attention was diverted elsewhere. A helicopter was approaching the Essex. “What do we have here…?”

The markings on the helicopter identified it as being a U.S. Navy bird, though all of the Essex’s helicopters were already on board. Soon it became apparent that the chopper belonged to the USS St. Lo, which was last seen with the detachment of ships investigating Kamera’s corpse. The helicopter landed and out came Dr. Richards, the scientist that Admiral Malek had left in charge of the investigation.

“I think we’d better get in on whatever news he has brought.” Marcus nudged Brock. The two men watched as Dr. Richards entered the Essex and followed him inside.



Marcus and Brock entered the bridge of the Essex, assuming that Dr. Richards had made his way up there to report to Admiral Malek, but he was nowhere to be found. Instead, Admiral Malek and the bridge crew were still well-focused on tracking Rodan.

“Japanese radars stations report Rodan continuing to retreat North.” Lin reported, assisting the radio man by quickly translating Japanese radio chatter. “The Japanese fleet is intent on pursuing the monster until it is well outside of their waters.”

“Helm, match their course and speed.” Admiral Malek instructed. “We are going to stick with them for now. Ling, keep me updated on any other significant developments and contact the Japanese flagship, let them know that we are planning to tag along with them. I doubt they will object.”

“Yes Admiral.” Ling replied. “Actually, I’m getting something new now. Hold on a moment.” He listened closely to a transmission, pressing the receiver close to his ear. “The Japanese have launched more land-based fighter attacks, they thought they could catch Rodan as he retreated. The monster is flying back slower than when he arrived.”

“He’s either tired or hurt.” Admiral Malek reasoned. “Have they managed to engage?”

“Just a moment.” Ling listened again for a time. “No, Rodan has diverted east to avoid them. The monster is still able to outrun the fighters. They aren’t going to be able to catch him. In fact, if he keeps going the way he is, they are going to lose radar contact with him in less than ten minutes.”

“Damn.” Admiral Malek cursed frustrated.

“Ahmmm…. Admiral.” Dr. Orsini cleared his throat. “It might be a little premature to give up now. I’ve been thinking, Rodan must have expended a great deal of energy flying all the way down here, in addition to fighting our forces. The monster may need to recuperate some of its strength before making the journey home.”

“If it’s tired, why would it detour to the east?” Marcus asked. “Wouldn’t that just make its flight home take all the longer?”

“The area it’s disappearing into is known to be a migrating path for Fin whales.” Dr. Orsini began to explain. “Some years ago, I took part in an expedition that was tracking their movements. If Rodan needs to recover some energy, the best way to do that is to eat and rest. There are a number of islands out here the monster could land on. I’d say he will likely hunt in that area before proceeding back home.”

“Captain Hillard, see if you can procure some maps of the area from the chart room.” Admiral Malek requested. “Maybe we can narrow down the search area some. Marcus, prepare to your launch search chopper, I want you on point for this. I’m going to put the fighters back on standby. Ling, transmit a message to the Japanese fleet. Let them know what we are up to.”



About two hours later, Marcus and Brock were back in their search helicopter, hopping from island to island searching for any sign of Rodan.

“You know something Marcus, we always get stuck with the crap assignments.” Brock complained. “Here we are again, in an unarmed search helicopter, out looking for a monster who could squash us like bugs. We can’t defend ourselves, we can’t hide, and best of all, we’re too slow to run away from it. What are we supposed to do if we actually find it, make small talk, and hope it ignores us? Correct me if I’m wrong, but if we radio to report finding it, or try to call-in backup, it’ll most likely attack us, right? Isn’t that this creature’s m.o.?”

“I hate to say it Brock, but this time you have it exactly right.” Marcus agreed. “We’ll definitely be better off if we don’t run into it.”

“Marcus, this is Ling on the Essex.” Ling crackled over the radio. “The fleet is picking up a distress call from a Japanese whaling ship. You’re the closest craft to signal. The admiral wants you to check it out.” Marcus and Brock both looked at each other disgruntled.

“Affirmative Ling, can you give us its position?” Marcus asked.

“Certainly, about 40.345 degrees North Latitude, 148.432 degrees East Longitude. Perhaps seventeen miles north of your present position.” Ling reported.

“Alright, we’re on our way.” Marcus sighed.

“You know you don’t have to get us there at full speed, right?” Brock pointed out.



Just over ten minutes later, Brock and Marcus arrived on the scene. They found a Japanese merchant ship listing badly to port. There was a huge gash in the side of the ship, and it was going down fast. They could see survivors on the surface of the water, which was awash with blood. The white uniforms of the sailors stood out boldly against the red waves around them. There was way too much blood in the water to be from the crew of the ship.

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Marcus could tell exactly what happened just from surveying the scene. The Japanese vessel must have had a whale within its clutches when Rodan happened upon them. Judging by the damage, the monster must have swooped in as they had their prize right up next to the ship and stole their catch right out from under them. The ship was badly damaged in the process and Rodan flew off somewhere to consume its meal. Easy pickings for the monster.

“Looks like Rodan took their lunch.” Brock noted, coming to the same conclusion as Marcus.

“Yeah, but where did he go?” Marcus scanned the sky around them.

“One of them might be able to tell us.” Brock remarked.

They both looked down at the survivors, who were in trouble. The whaler had gone down so fast that it had taken most of the lifeboats with it. To make matters worse, most of the surviving crew did not have enough time to put on life jackets either. And even worse still, all of the blood in the water was attracting a lot of unwanted attention from sharks. With no whale meat to be found, the sharks had to settle for the helpless men who were kicking and panicking on the surface. The sailors were waving and yelling up to the helicopter for help.

“Never thought I’d feel sorry for whalers…” Marcus said glumly. Just then, he actually saw one of the men get picked off. He was pulled under the water and torn to pieces by the frenzied sharks. Marcus reached for the radio.

“If we radio for the fleet, it will give our position away Marcus.” Brock warned.

“I know… but I can’t just sit here and watch this happen.” Marcus replied. “We’re just going to have to take the risk. Hopefully Rodan is too distracted with his meal to care about us. We have an inflatable lifeboat in the back, right?”

“We do.” Brock answered. “I know what you are thinking Marcus, and it’s admirable, but if end up needing it ourselves later, we’re really going to regret it.”

“How many do you think we can take aboard?” Marcus asked, ignoring Brock.

“We can handle the weight, no problem.” Brock answered. “It’s really just a matter of how many will fit.” He took a quick look back at the space. “Maybe… ten or so. But this isn’t a float craft. You can’t land us on the water.”

“Inflate the lifeboat and drop it down.” Marcus’ tone denoted an order, not a request.

“If you had a real thought go through your head, it would be the quickest trip in North America.” Brock grumbled to himself heading to the back. He opened the side door, pulled the string on the inflatable, and tossed it out of the helicopter. “Ok done, now what?”

“Thank you, Brock.” Marcus smiled back to him. “Get the hoist ready.”

“You get us killed and I’m going to haunt you for the rest of eternity.” Brock shouted to Marcus over the noise of the chopper blades and the wind from the open door. “And I don’t know how to use the hoist. I’m a Marine damn it!”

“It’s easy.” Marcus shouted back with a smirk. “Just follow the instructions.” He turned back to the radio. “Search chopper three to Essex, we have found the wreck of a Japanese whaler, beginning rescue operations. There are too many men in the water for us to handle alone. We’re going to need a little help out here. See if the Japs are willing to lend a hand.”

“There’s already one on route.” Ling replied. “The Admiral wants you to resume your search asap.”

“I’m working on that as we speak.” Marcus noted. “I’m putting us at risk by transmitting any further, Marcus out.”

By the time that Marcus put down the receiver, Brock had managed to start lowering the hoist. Marcus took the helicopter lower to get in close to the water. He could see that some of the survivors had made it to the life craft and others were making their way towards it. The harness at the bottom of the hoist was big enough for two men to be brought up at a time. Two sailors wasted no time looping themselves into it and Brock slowly brought them up.

Once they were aboard, the two Japanese men were overjoyed to be safe. Though they were nearly exhausted from being on the water for so long, they patted Brock on the shoulders and spoke to him enthusiastically in words he could not understand. Brock attempted to ask them about where Rodan went, but it was clear right away they didn’t speak a word of English.

“Ok, ok, just go sit down.” Brock pointed them towards the seats in the back before sending down the hoist again for the next group.

“Maybe we’ll have better luck with the next two?” Marcus suggested. Brock just glared at him disgruntled. It was clear he wasn’t happy with the situation.

A second pair of Japanese sailors was hoisted up and once they were aboard, they proved to be about as helpful as the first two. Brock quickly lost patience and had them join the first pair of passengers. Brock’s frustration was growing, but Marcus wasn’t getting discouraged.

“Try to find an officer down there Brock.” Marcus suggested. “We’ll have a better chance with one of them.”

As luck would have it, the third pair they brought up had a man who turned out to be the second officer of the whaler. Unfortunately, he also spoke no English. Perhaps it was expecting too much for common Japanese fishermen to speak English. Marcus considered contacting Ling over the radio for his translation services but decide not to. They had already taken a big risk by contacting the Essex once. Brock kept pulling survivors up and finally resorted to using hand signals to communicate with them.

“Which direction did the monster fly off to?” Brock motioned with his hands trying to animate his question. One of the Japanese sailors finally understood and pointed northeast past the reef. “Marcus, I think I finally got something useful out of them.”

At that point, a Japanese rescue helicopter had arrived on the scene. Marcus looked around and calculated that it should be able to pick up the remaining men on the water who hadn’t already found their way onto a lifeboat or in their chopper.

“Alright, lets get moving.” Marcus pulled his helicopter up and out of the way to make room for the Japanese to finish the job. “Is there an island in that direction Brock?”

“Do I got to do everything around here?” Brock groused, coming back into the cockpit, and fumbled around with the map. Marcus smirked and just let him be as he examined the chart. “As a matter of fact, yes, there is.”

“How far?” Marcus asked.

“I don’t know…” Brock frowned, looking to see if the map key had a mile reference marker. After finding one in the bottom left corner, he used his fingers to try to estimate the distance. “Somewhere in the ballpark of twenty miles.”



About fifteen minutes later they finally spotted the island. Marcus approached cautiously, trying to stay nearby cloud cover should they need to quickly get out of sight. Slowly but surely the island got bigger until they were nearly on top of it. Everyone, including the Japanese passengers, carefully looked for any signs of movement below.

“I don’t see anything.” Brock uncharacteristically whispered as the passed over the beach.

Aside from the hum of the chopper’s blades, the cockpit was dead quiet. Noone seemed to want to break the tension as they scanned over the landscape. The helicopter was past the beach and now flying over untamed jungle. The thickness of the vegetation made seeing anything on the ground difficult. Marcus guided the helicopter forward, approaching the peak of the mountain near the center of the island. As they climbed towards the tip of the rockface, a massive body flew up at the helicopter in a flash from the other side.

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“Jesus fucking Christ!!!” Marcus jerked the controls back instinctively, trying to avoid a mid-air collision.

Rodan passed within a hundred yards of the helicopter. It was way too close for comfort. The Japanese passengers came alive with terror, screaming and chattering incoherently while Marcus fought for control. The monster had not been moving at full speed, but fast enough to ensure that their helicopter was flung out of control by the resulting atmospheric disturbance.

“God damn it.” Brock shouted, keeping his head better than everyone else and bracing himself in his seat. He wished that he had buckled himself back in as the helicopter spun in the air.

Marcus finally regained command of the helicopter and steadied the craft. His heart was up in his throat. His eyes darted around looking for Rodan, certain the monster would be back upon them in mere moments. The Japanese men were still losing their minds in the passenger compartment. It was too much for Brock to tolerate any longer.

“Will you little Jap bastards shut the hell up?!” He snapped in a thunderous voice, which finally settled them down. He then looked over to Marcus who clearly was a little shaken up. “You alright?”

“Yeah… I’m good.” Marcus was trying to regain his composure. Beads of cold sweat were collecting around his mouth. He wiped them away. “I don’t see the monster, do you?”

“No, but now that we’ve cleared the summit, I can see the leftovers from his lunch.” Brock pointed down below. Marcus saw a nearly hollowed out whale carcass in the valley beneath them. He also smelled something, but it couldn’t be from the outside.

“Ah jeez…” Brock groaned. “One of the Japs shit in their pants…” There was a pause as Marcus processed what Brock said.

“Rodan literally scared the shit out of them?” Marcus half-smiled, then laughed, breaking the tension in the helicopter. “Don’t judge him too harshly, I was a half second away myself.” He joked. Brock laughed too. Even some of the Japanese men began to laugh. Everybody was just happy to still be alive.

“Why didn’t he take us out?” Brock asked, trying to get back to the task at hand.

“I don’t know, maybe he’s in a hurry to get somewhere else?” Marcus replied, cracking open the side window. “You know Brock, I’ve been thinking, what the hell did Rodan fly all the way down here for anyways?”



The Blessed Crab was getting closer to the northern tip of Japan. Captain Tadashi was looking forward to getting home. Usually at the end of a long voyage he would meet up with some of his fellow captain buddies at the local bar and they would swap stories about their most recent outings. Tadashi felt pretty confident that his story would be the most entertaining this time around.

Tadashi was also looking forward to seeing his sweetheart. He had an extra tight hug and kiss in mind for her. She had never liked the fact that he ventured into the restricted area, so she’d likely have an extra big ‘I told you so’ waiting for him once he told her what happened. It didn’t matter though, he was just happy that he and the rest of his crew hand made it through alive. In the scheme of things, he could handle a little bit of lecturing.

Tadashi figured he might as well tell her, there wasn’t the slightly chance that he would be able to keep the secret from her. The rest of the crew would definitely spill the beans about the explosion and seeing Rodan. It was by far the most exciting thing that had ever happened to any of them. Within twenty-four hours, it would be the talk of the town.

Tadashi also fully expected to be getting a knock on his door from the police, the military, or both. No matter how you cut it, he was going to be in trouble. Tadashi decided that he wouldn’t try to avoid it. He needed to tell the authorities what they saw and take the consequences. Maybe they’d just give him a fine. After all, he didn’t need to tell them about all of the times his ship had wandered up that way, just this one particular offense. He smirked to himself at the wheel of the ship, lost in his thoughts. Just then he felt a rogue wave hit the side of the Blessed Crab. It broke him out of his daydreaming.

‘That was weird.’ Tadashi thought to himself. All of the sudden, the entire ship was lifted up as the ocean under them began to rise up. ‘What the hell is going on?’ Tadashi almost lost his footing as the Blessed Crab shifted in the water. The ship abruptly found itself on the side of a mound of water moving through the ocean.

Soon, a row of jagged spikes began to protrude out from the top of the mound, sheering the water in half as it continued to move forward, carrying the Blessed Crab with it. The sailors panicked and shouted to each other, hanging on for dear life as the ship started to slide back down the side of the wall of water back into the ocean.

A larger mass rose out of the water and the single row of spikes multiplied into three. At that point, there was no doubt what was lingering underneath the water. It was Godzilla. The monster didn’t even slow down or take notice of the ship as it passed. The Blessed Crab and her crew could only watch, drifting away, as Godzilla steamed northward apparently intent on getting somewhere.

The Blessed Crab came to a stop on the water. The ocean calmed just as soon as Godzilla had left the area. Captain Tadashi stood at the wheel silently, processing what had happened. He decided right there and then that his ship would only ever to stick to the normal fishing spots from that point going forward.



Akira had arrived in the town of Kazuto after a very long walk. It hadn’t seemed that far away when he was in the air. It made Akira appreciate his decision to join the air corps and not the army. Long marches were definitely not his forte. He had already visited two homes in hope of finding a phone to use. He was zero for two so far, no one answered yet. The whole town seemed deserted. It was dead quiet. Akira couldn’t help but be annoyed. He had walked so far on a banged-up leg, and now that he had finally reached his goal, he couldn’t find anyone who was home. The town must have evacuated.

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As Akira came up to the third house, he promised himself that he would just break down the door if no one answered. It turned out he wouldn’t have to. A young woman opened the door almost as soon as he got to it, almost as if she had been expecting him. Akira decided she must have seen him coming up the street. There was something odd though. If she had seen him through a window, then she certainly wasn’t prepared to see the state of him. He was dirty, bloody, and bruised standing in front of her. She gasped as he came into full view.

In contrast, the young woman was quite the looker. She must have been in her early twenties and was wearing a fine white blouse and a stylish light grey shirt. She was neat, clean, and well put together. Akira felt embarrassed by her reaction to him. He must have looked worse than he imaged.

“Excuse me Miss, I am Captain Akira Saegusa of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. Might you have a phone I could use?” Akira bowed in respect and apology.

“It is I that you should be excusing.” The young lady bowed back, blushing. “My behavior was very poor indeed. My name is Kiki Shagari. I would be glad you help you. Please come in.” She opened to door wide, allowing him to enter. “Right this way.” She led him through the living room. On the far side of the room, there was a phone hanging on the wall. “There you are.” She turned and smiled warmly at him.

“Thank you very kindly.” Akira replied. He picked up the receiver and began to dial the number to the airbase, only he couldn’t remember the last two numbers. It had been a very trying day and he sat there for a moment trying to remember.

“Six and four.” Kiki spoke up.

“Excuse me…?” Akira stopped and turned to her.

“You are trying to remember the number to the air base.” She replied. “But you stopped on the last two numbers. Six and four are the correct ones.” She noted.

“You know… I think you might be right, but how did you know that?” Akira asked surprised.

“The base is nearby; it is common knowledge here in Kazuto.” Kiki answered quickly.

“Oh, I see.” Akira turned his attention back to the phone. By then, he had taken too long and had to hang up and start over. Just then, it occurred to Akira that from where she was standing, Kiki could not have seen the numbers that he had dialed because his body was in the way. He brushed it off and returned to the task at hand. Instead of dialing the entire number all over again, Akira just dialed zero for the operator.

“Operator, can you give me Yokota Air Base please?” Akira asked. There was a pause while the operator tried to connect the call. Finally, the operator came back on the line and told him most of the lines into the base were busy and only important business could be put through. “What…?” Akira said irritably. “Well tell them I’m a downed airman, that should get their attention. Tell them I’m Captain Akira Saegusa and I need someone sent out to pick me up. I’m in the village of Kazuto, at the Shagari house, if that helps any.” Akira paused and waited for their answer. “Oh? Good, that will be just fine. Thank you.” He hung up the phone. “They said that the base would be dispatching someone within the next two hours.”

“I’m glad it worked out for you.” Kiki smiled. “With that out of the way, how about we get you cleaned up and see to your wound?”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary.” Akira assured her. “I can just go sit on your steps out front until they arrive. I’ve troubled you enough already.”

“Nonsense.” Kiki replied. “It’s the least I can do for you fighting off the monster.”

“Oh, you must have heard about the battle on the radio then?” Akira asked. There was a brief pause from Kiki.

“Why yes, exactly.” She agreed. “Well, first things first, there is a tub in the next room. You are more than welcome to take a bath.”

“I guess I am rather filthy.” Akira chuckled sheepishly, looking down at himself.

Akira went into the bathroom, took off his clothes, and turned on the water. He slipped inside the tub, slowly lowering himself in. The warm water felt nice until it hit his leg wound, which stung sharply. Akira yelped slightly, but mostly held it in. He looked towards the door to see if Kiki had heard him. He had been embarrassed enough as it was already, last thing he needed was for her to hear him cry out. Akira settled back into the water and let it cleanse his wound. The pain died down and he started to relax. Akira looked over and realized that Kiki had silently entered the room to collect his soiled flight suit.

“Are you doing ok in here?” She asked. “I thought I heard a noise?”

“Yes, I am quite well now.” Akira froze in embarrassment. Only his hands moved, pulling more suds closer to his body.

“I’m going to wash this for you, though it might be a bit of a lost cause.” She examined the blood-stained holes. “I left you some clothes on the chair when you come out and I made you a new bandage as well.”

“Ok, thanks.” He started to shrink further and further down into the tub.

Kiki left the room and Akira resumed washing himself in peace. After he had finished, he stepped out and dried off. Akira wrapped the towel around himself and looked in the mirror to fix his hair. As he looked in the mirror, he noticed in the reflection that he had left a slight stain ring around the tub which was a mixture of dirt, blood, and various other contaminants. He could not let Kiki see it. He seized the sponge and turned the water back on as quietly as he could.

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Kiki called from outside of the room.

Akira was dumbfounded. How did she know? He ignored her and quickly scrubbed the ring off before applying the fresh bandage and putting his new clothes on. Once he was presentable again, he came outside to smell something cooking. He found his way to the kitchen where Kiki was pulling out a duck from the oven.

“Are you hungry?” She asked. He was in fact starving.

“How did you make that so fast?” Akira asked astonished. “I haven’t been here that long.”

“Oh, I had it cooking before you arrived.” Kiki answered. “Please, sit down.”

Akira did as she requested. Kiki put the bird on the table, and it looked very inviting. She had already put some potatoes and rice out ahead of time. Akira realized that it was a meal far too large for Kiki to have made just for herself. Of course, she must have been expecting someone else home soon. The clothes she had fetched for him had to belong to someone. She certainly wasn’t going to wear men’s clothing, and even if she planned to, they would be several sizes too big for her. Then it occurred to Akira, the clothes he was wearing were a perfect fit for him. That seemed like a rather odd coincidence.

“So, do you have a brother or a father due home soon?” Akira asked.

“No, it’s just me here.” Kiki answered, taking her oven mitts off. “I have no siblings and my parents both died.”

“Oh, I’m very sorry to hear that.” Akira apologized.

“The refinery was empty by the way.” Kiki shut off the oven and then sat down to join him.

“What?” Akira asked confused.

“You said you were worried about that earlier.” Kiki replied. “The radio said no one was there. So, you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

‘Did I mention that to her?’ Akira thought to himself. ‘I don’t remember.’ He was exhausted. Maybe he had and forgot.

“Better eat while it’s still hot.” Kiki leaned in and smiled at him.

“Yes, you’re quite right.” Akira took a bite of the duck. Maybe it was just because he was so hungry, but it was the most delicious duck he could ever remember tasting. The meat melted in his mouth and the flavor exploded on his tongue.

“Wow, this is really somethi…” Akira began to say.

“Thank you.” Kiki blushed. “I hoped you would like it.”

“Liking it doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Akira retorted. “This is outstanding.”

The pair finished the rest of the meal in relative silence. A testament to Kiki’s cooking. When it was over, Kiki brought Akira to sit down in the living room and relax. He wanted to talk to Kiki and find out more about her, but he couldn’t hardly keep his eyes open. He had eaten too much. He fell asleep right in his armchair. Akira woke up to the sound of his own snoring about an hour later.

“You’d better wake up, your friends have arrived.” Kiki warned Akira.

Akira rose from the chair and looked out the window.

“I don’t see them...” Akira began to say, but just then a military truck pulled up outside. “Oh, there they are.”

As the truck came to a stop, Haruki jumped out of the passenger side door. He was still wearing most of his flight gear. Akira went to the front door to meet him. Kiki turned on the radio, then followed behind Akira. Akira opened the door and warmly greeted his friend Haruki.

“You came looking for me yourself?” Akira asked surprised.

“We were concerned about you.” Haruki replied. “The way you went down… it was the bravest thing I think I’ve ever seen.” Akira noticed a whole squad of soldiers in the back of the truck.

“What’s with the troops Haruki?” Akira asked.

“Well, we thought we’d have to comb through the entire countryside to find you.” Haruki replied. “Didn’t imagine you’d make it all the way here. The boys and I were already out looking for you when they radioed us and said you were here.” At that point Haruki saw Kiki lurking behind Akira. “Say… you’re out of uniform.” He turned his attention back to Akira. “What have you been up to with this nice young civilian lady?”

“She was kind enough to help me clean up my act.” Akira joked but stared daggers into Haruki.

“Oh... I see.” Haruki smirked, noticing how pretty Kiki was. “Think she could help me too?” Akira elbowed him in the gut. “Ooof. Then again, maybe we should be going boss?” Just then an urgent news bulletin buzzed in over the radio, drawing their attention.

“This is Taki Izo with JNN with a special update on Godzilla and Rodan. A detachment of the American fleet has made contact with Rodan in the north-western territorial waters of Japan. The monster was last seen flying north, presumed to be heading back towards Russia. Additionally, within the last hour, we have received a report from a returning fishing vessel of Godzilla being sighted fifty miles off of the northern coast of Hokkaido, also heading north, destination unknown at this time. The home fleet and American task force are both in pursuit of the monsters. The Government has announced an all clear to the western portion of Japan. The immediate threats have passed. Stayed tuned for further information.”

“I hope they wipe each other out.” Akira bristled at the mention of both Godzilla and Rodan. Each monster had inflicted great damage to his country, as well as hitting him on a more personal level. Kiki said nothing but seemed distracted.

“I hope we don’t see the likes of either again.” Haruki added.

“I guess we had better get back to base.” Akira decided, then turned to Kiki. “Thank you for your hospitality. Perhaps one day I can repay your kindness.” He turned to leave. But before he could take off with Haruki, Kiki suddenly clasped onto Akira’s hand, preventing him from leaving.

“Be careful out there.” She told him firmly. There was something in her eyes as she said it, like she meant something more urgent and imminent than another distance encounter with either Rodan or Godzilla. Akira didn’t know what to say. He didn’t understand why, but there was weight to her words. “And don’t forget this.” She handed him his tattered flight suit back.

“I’ll do my best.” Akira assured her, feeling a little awkward. He looked down, thinking about what to say next. “Say, when I get back to base, would it be ok if I…?” Before he finished, he noticed that there was a note on the top of his uniform with a number on it. It said: ‘Call me.’



“I finally got through, a helicopter is on its way.” Dimitri announced to his men. “They want one of the eggs for research purposes, just like I figured. We should be able to get out of here before the monsters get back.”

“What in the hell took them so long to get back to us?” Zev growled. “We’ve been sitting here for hours.”

“They said they couldn’t risk contacting us before now because Rodan is on a rampage. It has destroyed three towns already and is presently laying waste to the city of Temzarsk. Since it is distracted there, they decided it was safe enough to launch an operation now.”

“What happened to the other Rodan?” Zev asked.

“It went south.” Dimitri answered. “That’s all they know for now. Since we got a ticket out of here, let’s take care of some business before we go. We only need to bring back one egg. We’ll destroy the rest. We can’t have any more of these things flying around. Two is bad enough. Clear away some of the debris from the side of the nest, we’ll push them out. Once we get them going, those rocks below should do the rest.”

Dimitri’s men did as they were told and moved branches and small trees out of the way. Then, one by one, they pushed the Rodan eggs over the side. The first one rolled down the rock side gaining momentum until it came to a crashing halt against a cluster of pointy rocks and split in half. Yolk came splattering out of it.

“Guess they weren’t that far along.” Dimitri observed.

“Makes you feel a little less like an asshole, right?” Zev remarked. Dimitri only nodded. He was preoccupied thinking about what was going to happen when the parents came back and discovered what happened to their eggs. He watched his men dispose of the rest. “Won’t they notice that one of the eggs is missing if we take one?”

“Well, you take a look down there and tell me if you can count how many individual eggs we started with amongst all that mess?” Dimitri pointed out. Zev raised his eyebrows and just shrugged. “I doubt they will be able to either.”

“I guess not, but I’ll tell you this: I would want to be around when they discover this.” Zev remarked.

“Nor I…” Dimitri agreed.



Aboard the USS Essex, Marcus and Brock had landed following their mission and let their passengers depart by motorboat for one for the Japanese cruisers where they would be more comfortable among their own countrymen. The sailors bowed to Marcus and Brock in respect before taking their leave. Marcus bowed back, not sure what else to do, while Brock merely nodded. Afterwards, the pair made their way to the bridge to get updated on the latest news. Unsurprisingly, the fleet was still headed north pursuing both Rodan and Godzilla.

“Are you sure Godzilla is still heading north?” Brock asked. “There have been no further sightings since the fishermen. He could have easily changed direction since then.”

“I am certain… no.” Marcus replied. “But that’s what my gut tells me.

“What makes you think so?” Captain Hillard asked. “I’m not arguing that he isn’t, but what is his goal?”

“I think he’s after the nuclear fallout from the failed Russian attack on the Rodans.” Marcus replied. “To paraphrase Dr. Orsini from earlier, the monster must have expended a great deal of energy during his attack on Tokyo. Maybe he needs a recharge? As impressive as these creatures are, they’re still fundamentally animals. All living organisms need to subsist on something. Remember all of those nuclear test sites that we found strangely inert? Well, I think this monster uses nuclear energy as a source of power, he is somehow able to absorb the residual radiation like a sponge.”

“So, you think those fishermen really did see a nuke going off?” Brock asked.

“I think even common sailors know what a nuclear explosion looks like.” Marcus grinned.

“Intelligence has yet to confirm that, but the area in question is so remote that even Russian civilians would not have known about it if it happened.” Admiral Malek pointed out. “The area around the Rodan’s nest has been deserved for some time. Our contacts in Russia are looking into it, but it will likely be a while before we get a solid answer.”

“It’s funny, we have all of these resources at our disposal, and yet the only reason we even know about the attack is due to some Japanese civilians.” Captain Hillard remarked. “I can’t decide if those sailors have the best or worst luck.”

“I can’t believe the Russkies botched their attack so badly.” Brock sneered. “That was probably their best chance to rid themselves of the Rodans.”

“I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that a nuke goes off in Russia and Godzilla suddenly heads north.” Marcus brought the conversation back to where they started. “Not based on what we have seen thus far.”

“Well, you’ve got a very interesting theory Marcus.” Admiral Malek cut in. “Would you like a chance to prove it?” He smirked.



On a beach on the southern coast Kamchatka, there was a thud that could be heard and felt throughout the landscape. Birds flew up out of trees and all manner of creatures were suddenly stirred by the disturbance. Then there was a second thud. At that point, everything that was able, beat a hasty retreat out of the area to make way for the enormous dark form which suddenly appeared in the ocean. One thud followed after the other as the beast moved closer and closer to the beach until finally, he took his first step onto the shore. Godzilla had arrived in Russia.

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The monster was driven forward by one instinct and desire. What had drawn him there wasn’t so far away now and there was no opposition to be found. He moved forward, saltwater dripping from his snout and off of his back spins as he strode on. The monster surveyed the landscape, which seemed empty. The only signs of life were the trees that were snapping like matchsticks as he stepped onto them.

For a long time, it went on that way. Godzilla was seemingly alone, walking through a lonely cool landscape. However, he was not alone anymore. As his journey continued, the mutated reptile could hear a whistling sound approaching from behind him. It was growing louder and louder with each step he took. Godzilla ignored it. Whatever this visitor was, he did not care to let them distract him from his goal.

After a few more miles of walking, the unseen pursuer made it presence more obvious. It came down closer to Godzilla and roared, trying to catch his attention. Godzilla still ignored them, pressing onward further into the countryside on his march.

After another mile’s worth of stalking, the harasser grew even more bold. They swooped down close and passed very nearby Godzilla’s head. A torrent of wind hit the back of Godzilla’s body. It was not strong enough to put him off balance, but he definitely felt it. The spines on his back waved with the current. The other monster was low enough now that Godzilla could see them as they flew by him. The creature was a brown, winged reptile which was almost as big as he was, and it looked angry. It chirped and cackled what would turn out to be its final warning.

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On Rodan’s the next pass, which occurred only about a mile later, he clipped Godzilla in the back of the head. The blow knocked Godzilla forward. He stumbled to stay on his feet but managed to keep his balance. Godzilla roared in anger as he came to a stop and stood up straight. Rodan was above him circling, looking to see how he would react. Rodan was well out of Godzilla’s reach, so he started to trudge forward again undeterred.

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Rodan meanwhile was becoming more and more agitated. Godzilla was getting closer and closer to his nesting site with each passing minute and that was intolerable to him. Rodan roared, and then came down towards the peak of a rocky hill and snatched up a hunk of rock from it. With the stone, he soared back up into the sky over Godzilla.

Once Rodan had gained enough altitude, he released the rock which plummeted down towards Godzilla like a bomb. The boulder hit home, striking Godzilla in the upper back, and bouncing off of his hide. Godzilla roared in pain and stopped in his tracks. If Rodan wanted to get his attention, he had finally succeeded. Rodan had caused too much damage to simply be ignored anymore. Both monsters were determined to achieve their goals, and as such, were ready to stand and fight. Godzilla roared up to Rodan issuing the challenge. Rodan roared back accepting.

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Rodan made the first move, descending and banking hard until he came around and struck Godzilla in the side of the head with the hardened plates of his armored underbelly. This time Godzilla went down. He teetered slightly until he finally dropped over like a massive tree. Dust and debris flew up as he stuck the ground with a thunderous boom. Rodan took advantage by landing nearby and flapping his wings. Dirt flew into Godzilla’s eyes as he struggled to regain his footing. The hurricane force winds Rodan was producing sent Godzilla rolling back over again.

Godzilla continued to roll until the strength of Rodan’s wind gusts started to dissipate. Now that he had a little distance, Godzilla was able to get back to his feet and was pissed. Godzilla’s back spines lit up and out from his mouth poured a flood of blue nuclear fire. Rodan was completely caught off guard by the sudden bizarre attack. It hit him full force in the chest, which sent him flying backwards.

Fortunately for Rodan, he had taken the full impact of the fire stream on his armored plates, so the damage from the fire itself was minimal. However, the force of the blow had sent Rodan tumbling off of his perch and into the unforgiving rocks behind him. They scraped the hide of his unarmored back.

Godzilla used the time that Rodan was down to wipe the debris from his eyes and then charged forward, attempting to catch Rodan while he was still on the ground. However, Rodan had also managed to recover by that point and flapped his wings hard to regain flight and get out of the way. Rodan lifted straight up off of the ground. The wind from his flapping actually ended up slowing Godzilla down just enough to allow him to escape his clutches.

Rodan slowed his flapping and floated back down towards Godzilla determined to retaliate. Rodan pecked at Godzilla’s face, hitting him several times in rapid succession, though he missed both of his eyes as he had intended. Godzilla defended himself, swatting Rodan away with his strong right arm. Godzilla was rattled by the attack though. Rodan’s beak was harder than steel, and it had ricocheted against his skull several times.

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Godzilla turned towards Rodan and swung his tail full force at him. Rodan was in the process of taking back to the sky and Godzilla’s tail hit him in the back, which sent him skidding along the ground on his belly. Rodan tore up the soil for about three hundred yards until finally coming to a stop. Godzilla had meanwhile grabbed a nearby boulder and flung it at Rodan. Rodan was getting back to his feet and turned just in time to see the rock. There was not enough time for him to dodge it. Luck was on Rodan’s side though, the stone shattered against the horns of his crest and did little damage.

Rodan wasted no more time and took back to the sky. He banked and circled around Godzilla’s back until he was approach him from the other side. This maneuver confused Godzilla just long enough for Rodan to come around and kick him in the side of the head with both of his feet as he passed over him. Godzilla stayed on his feet, but the attack unbalanced him. That gave Rodan the opening he needed to get in behind Godzilla and dig his talons into both of Godzilla’s shoulders.

Rodan flapped as hard as he could and actually managed to lift Godzilla off of the ground in an impressive show of strength. Rodan brought Godzilla over to a mountain full of pointy rocks and then dropped him onto it near the top. Godzilla plummeted helplessly until he smashed into the ground and then and rolled all the way down the mountain.

When Godzilla got to the bottom, he was scraped, bruised, and mad. Rodan landed across the field from him, perched up on a slight incline. He appeared winded from the effort of lifting Godzilla up, but also somehow pleased with the results. Rodan chirped and roared in what almost seemed like a taunt and amusement. He felt like he had gained the advantage in the fight.

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Godzilla turned to him with a malevolent look in his eyes and the two titans faced off against each other once more. Rodan took off from his perch and came straight at Godzilla. His confidence was misplaced though. A frontal assault against Godzilla was a mistake. As Rodan closed in, Godzilla whipped his tail around and swept Rodan from the sky. Rodan was forced to the ground in a heap. Godzilla followed up by using his tail like a hammer and beat down against Rodan’s back three times.

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Godzilla turned his back on Rodan so that he could fully extend his tail high in the air to get maximum impact with his next strike, but in the time that it took him to maneuver, Rodan managed to scurry out of the way. Godzilla’s tail came down and hit only the ground. He didn’t notice the difference from the impact and went to strike another blow. Rodan had turned around and when Godzilla missed the second time and bit the tip of his tail.

The tip of Godzilla’s tail turned out to be an oddly sensitive part of his body. He reacted like he had been hit by a bolt of lightning. Godzilla thrashed his tail forward towards him, which flicked Rodan off and sent him gliding away on the air.

Godzilla turned towards Rodan, his spines starting to light up again. Rodan saw what was happening and knew what it meant. He had learned his lesson from the first time around. Rodan came in low and ducked his body behind a mountain to avoid Godzilla’s heat ray. It wasn’t a second too soon. Godzilla’s breath burst forth and the hill burst into flames. Much of the rockface was blasted away as Godzilla continued to let loose.

Rodan emerged from behind the hill and Godzilla tried to keep up with him with his steam of fire, but Rodan’s speed got him clear just as Godzilla’s attack ceased. Rodan came to another hill in front of him and flipped mid-air, using his feet to push off from the rocks while also clasping another boulder in the process. He came right back at Godzilla and smashed the rock right into his chest. Rodan wanted to plant it right into Godzilla’s face, but it was heavier than he had anticipated, and lost some elevation on the way over to him.

The move had caught Godzilla off guard. The weight of the boulder and Rodan’s body were enough to put Godzilla on the back foot and only by catching one of the nearby hills with his claws did he stay upright. Rodan was off balance too and his flightpath became a little erratic. It didn’t stop him from wheeling around and making a second attack on Godzilla.

Godzilla however was ready for him this time and shifted his feet which allowed him to catch Rodan midair. Using Rodan’s own momentum against him, Godzilla body slammed him onto the ground. The move seemed to knock some of the fight out of Rodan as he ended up flat on his back. Godzilla roared and then brought up one of his feet to step on Rodan. Rodan was able to roll out of the way and started to get back to his feet, but Godzilla was still right on top of him and swatted Rodan right across the face. Rodan reeled before coming back and swatting Godzilla in the face to return the favor.

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Godzilla looked stunned for a second and Rodan used the time to fly up backwards to gain a little distance. A close-up brawl with Godzilla would not be to his advantage. Godzilla was bigger and stronger. Rodan’s best strategy would be to stick and move with quick strikes as he had been doing. Rodan landed on a hill about a hundred meters further away from Godzilla and dug in his talons again. He once more flapped his wings hard to send cyclone strength winds to bracket against Godzilla’s body.

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Godzilla nearly went down again, but he grabbed a hunk of rock sticking out from the ground and threw it at Rodan. It hit Rodan in the face, which distracted him from flapping his wings. Godzilla followed up by using his tail to hit another outcropping of boulders, sending several small hunks of stone flying up at Rodan. Rodan used his wings to shield himself. Godzilla launched another barrage and Rodan finally had enough and took to the sky to avoid being pelted any more.



Meanwhile back at the volcano, a soviet mi-6 heavy transport chopper had arrived to collect Dimitri’s team along with the only remaining Rodan egg. Dimitri used one of his signal flares to help pinpoint their position for the pilot. Dimitri and his team had tried to clear the area the best they could after getting the egg out in the open undamaged, but the terrain was just too tough and uneven for the helicopter to land. Instead, the helicopter crew lowered a net in which to load up the egg. The pilot signaled for Dimitri to just load everyone and everything inside the net. He didn’t seem keen to stay in the area for very long.

“They can’t land.” Dimitri announced to his men. “Just get into the net with the egg.”

No one argued. The men carefully rolled the egg onto the net and Dimitri fired off a second flare to signal to helicopter crew that they were ready for takeoff. The poor preparation did not bode well for the mission. The helicopter lifted them up and everyone was forced into or unto the egg. They could only hope that the egg was strong enough to hold their weight.

Right from the start, the package swayed underneath the chopper as they were in a hurry to get up to speed. Dimitri and his men were not enjoying the ride. They hung onto anything they could to avoid falling out, though none of that would matter much if the helicopter crew dashed them against a tree trunk or the rockface. The helicopter finally got high enough to clear all the worst obstacles and hazards, but now the men were exposed to the worst of the wind. The higher they got, the colder it was going to get.

“Bundle up boys, this is going to be a long cold trip.” Dimitri warned.

Through the noise of the helicopter blades and blowing of the wind, Dimitri heard something that made his heart stop. It was a sound he knew all too well, a high-pitched whistle of wings cutting through the air at high altitudes. It could only be the sound of one of the Rodan’s approaching the area.



Godzilla and Rodan’s duel had gradually moved north, and they were now within the outer reaches of the blast radius of the nuclear strike. Rodan was starting to tire and wasn’t moving as quickly as he had been at the outset of the battle. Godzilla on the other hand had not only kept up a consistent level of strength the whole way through, but indeed seemed to be getting stronger now that he was starting to absorb perimeter radiation from the blast zone. Rodan simply could not match the amazing battle endurance Godzilla was demonstrating.

As Rodan came in for another attack, Godzilla caught him by the wing. Godzilla pulled Rodan in and got a clawed hand around his throat. Godzilla pulled Rodan in even closer, looking at him eye to eye. Rodan struggled against Godzilla, beating him with his wings, but he couldn’t break away from Godzilla’s grasp. Godzilla roared in victory. Rodan had been a worthy adversary, but he knew the battle was his.

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Just then, the female Rodan came down on Godzilla from above, landing one of her feet right between his neck and shoulder and knocking him over. She kept her foot in in place, digging her talons into his flesh drawing blood, and riding him all the way down to the ground. As Godzilla fell, he released the male Rodan who wasted no time in flying away.

Her mate safe, the female Rodan took off just as Godzilla settled in the dirt. But Godzilla was quick to whip his tail and hit her in the back for her trouble. She was briefly sent back to the ground, but she outstretched her legs and bounced right back up into the sky and out of harm’s way. She was a little more agile than the male Rodan.

Reunited in the sky, the two Rodan’s called to each other. They stayed well above Godzilla to avoid giving him any opportunity to attack them. Such as it was, the two just circled above him regrouping and formulating a plan. Godzilla roared up to him impatiently, eager to resume the fight. The Rodans only kept him waiting a moment longer before acting.

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The male Rodan began by dipping down and cutting right in front of Godzilla to draw his attention while the female dropped down behind him snatching up a rock. She changed direction and prepared to smash it against the back of Godzilla’s head while he was distracted. Godzilla however seemed to sense the attack coming and whirled around with his spines beginning to glow. He let loose with his atomic breath and the rock that the female Rodan carried shattered to pieces below her.

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Realizing she was now carrying nothing, the female Rodan broke off her attack and retreated back into the sky. Godzilla pursued them from the ground and the battle had led them all right to the mouth of the nuclear crater. Godzilla’s spikes began to glow and flash as he feed on the abundant raw nuclear energy found there. The Rodans hovered above, not sure what to make of the light show. Usually an attack followed such a display, but it went on without any sort of follow up from Godzilla.

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After a time, the Rodans, came in for another double strike from both directions. This time the female dropped down in front drawing Godzilla’s attention. She was moving much faster than the male ever had. Her speed caught Godzilla off guard, and she managed to get a clean kick off into his chest. The male followed up with a similar kick attack from behind.

The two-pronged attack put Godzilla off balance. The female Rodan decided to take advantage of this by going to a second kick, only this time to the face. It was a tactical error though. Godzilla swayed his head to avoid the blow and then chopped down on her foot with his teeth. She tired to fly up again, but Godzilla wouldn’t let go. She wasn’t strong enough to left him like the male was. She used her free leg to kick at Godzilla’s face, but he simply wasn’t budging.

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The male Rodan quickly recognized that his mate was in trouble and banked around, gaining momentum. He came in low and used one of his wings to undercut Godzilla’s right leg from behind, right where the bend was. Godzilla’s knee buckled from the force of the strike, and as a result, the female Rodan was released.

The male Rodan wheeled around for a second time but paid for trying to go to the well one too many times. Godzilla got a hand on him and caught him. Godzilla didn’t hold on to him though. Instead, he used Rodan’s momentum against him, forcing him to fly straight into the female Rodan who had landed outside of Godzilla’s reach to examine the damage he had done to her foot. The two collided and went down head over talons.

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Godzilla approached the pair with aggressive intentions. The male Rodan saw him coming and flew up into Godzilla’s face to protect his mate. He kicked, scratched, and pecked. The ferocity of the attack forced Godzilla to take a step back. Godzilla recovered and used his claws to slash back at Rodan. The attack caught the bottom portion of Rodan’s wing, ripping three small tears into them. The damage was mostly cosmetic, but it was enough to make Rodan back off.

Godzilla was incensed and fired at the male Rodan with his breath at close range. The male Rodan had the sense to get out of the way and only caught a portion of the stream. The damage to him was minimal. The forest behind Rodan wasn’t so lucky though. A good section of the already scorched forest was sprayed down, setting what was left of it on fire. The fire spread quickly, filling the whole battlefield with smoke. The countryside was turning into a fiery hellscape.

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Neither of the Rodans could avoid the smoke as it filled the sky up. The male Rodan was already reaching the point of exhaustion and would not be able to carry on the fight much longer. Poor air quality was not going to help his case. The female Rodan seemed disturbed by the flames in general.

The two Rodans chirped back and forth before finally turning and retreating out of the area, leaving Godzilla to claim the field. Godzilla meanwhile did not pursue them. He only watched as they flew away from him. From a helicopter several miles away, the end of the battle had been witnessed by several human spectators.

"He's letting them go?" Brock asked confused.

"He didn't come here for them." Marcus remarked.

“Radiation levels down there are dropping dramatically.” Admiral Malek announced, gazing at the readout of their Geiger counter, which had been installed into the nose of the helicopter. “Looks like you were right Marcus.”

“Maybe it’s a little late to bring it up, but aren’t we violating Russian airspace right now?” Brock asked.

“Well, it’s really not their airspace anymore, is it?” Admiral Malek noted.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Unexpectedly quick but nevertheless brilliant. The ever shifting political and military alliances based off actual history is interesting to see unfold; as is the continued adventures of our gargantuan friends. I was rather surprised with our new Japanese love interest; she knew way too much, was way too ready for a literal one in a million chance encounter. At first I thought she was a hallucination; that sort of thing has been known to happen after traumatic incidents. Or simple head injuries or exposure to who knows what chemicals. But the other men reacted to her too so she has to be real. Then I thought she might have been blind to read so much non visual information. Seems somehow mystical and not entirely human. Mothra handmaid or Avatar? Interesting in a chapter apparently devoted to what most Kaiju fans want most (stuff blowing up and Kaiju battles) to shift focus and open up an entirely different mystery. Its a nice layering you don't see much of in Kaiju circles. I wish Godzilla v Kong would have shown a fraction of that depth. It's a strange addition. I can safely say as a double veteran that even with a uniform it never goes nearly that smoothly with women. Unless it's a movie. Or some kind of trap. I'd be wary if I were the pilot! It's also nice how you've interwoven a few repeating human characters such as the fishing boat crew in with the overall narrative. I also like how this incarnation of Rodan seems alot more "natural" then most; no crazy breath weapons or lava shedding and a biology much more in keeping with a giant pteranadon or predatory bird then most Kaiju. You out did yourself this chapter. We'll done.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 8:53 pm Unexpectedly quick but nevertheless brilliant. The ever shifting political and military alliances based off actual history is interesting to see unfold; as is the continued adventures of our gargantuan friends. I was rather surprised with our new Japanese love interest; she knew way too much, was way too ready for a literal one in a million chance encounter. At first I thought she was a hallucination; that sort of thing has been known to happen after traumatic incidents. Or simple head injuries or exposure to who knows what chemicals. But the other men reacted to her too so she has to be real. Then I thought she might have been blind to read so much non visual information. Seems somehow mystical and not entirely human. Mothra handmaid or Avatar? Interesting in a chapter apparently devoted to what most Kaiju fans want most (stuff blowing up and Kaiju battles) to shift focus and open up an entirely different mystery. Its a nice layering you don't see much of in Kaiju circles. I wish Godzilla v Kong would have shown a fraction of that depth. It's a strange addition. I can safely say as a double veteran that even with a uniform it never goes nearly that smoothly with women. Unless it's a movie. Or some kind of trap. I'd be wary if I were the pilot! It's also nice how you've interwoven a few repeating human characters such as the fishing boat crew in with the overall narrative. I also like how this incarnation of Rodan seems alot more "natural" then most; no crazy breath weapons or lava shedding and a biology much more in keeping with a giant pteranadon or predatory bird then most Kaiju. You out did yourself this chapter. We'll done.
I ended up having a couple of extra days off work after Christmas, so I was able to focus a little bit. I like to try to keep my word when I set a deadline. :huge:

Oh Yeah, Kiki is real and there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye. There are some clues to who she is, or perhaps rather who she’ll turn out to be, but I don’t want to give too much away. Some folks might be able to deduce who she is, and what her role in the story is, even with the limited information I provided so far. There are a few lines that are a lot more important than they seem. Don’t stress trying to figure it out though. It should become more and more obvious in the next few chapters. But yeah, I wouldn’t have devoted so many pages to her if there wasn’t something special about her. ;)

I like mysteries. As much as I like action scenes, I like mysteries just about as much. There are several things I set up all the way back in chapter 1 that haven’t been paid off yet. (Though I assure everyone I still plan to). :lol: Set ups and pay offs are an important part of how I like to write. This is probably going to be a story where you will have to read it twice because a lot of things will make more sense in hindsight.

Oui… Godzilla vs Kong…. I’ll give them this: They did great with their action scenes. The battle on the water was great, but the writing at times…. Wow. The trouble with that movie is they lost all sense of grounding the story in some sort of reasonable reality.

Now in any Godzilla movie, you have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief, but there were several moments where they were just asking way… too much from the audience. Godzilla blasting a hole all the way to the core of the Earth is one of my favorite examples. Sorry folks… I can’t swallow that particular craziness in my giant monster movie. :dizzy:

I’ve always tried to write a fairly grounded traditional Godzilla story. I’m betting there are plenty of readers here who would wish I’d just get to the mindless action scenes, but to me, if you don’t take the time to properly set up the action, then it won’t carry the same weight. For me, you got to earn those moments.

Anyhow, for folks who do like monster battles, you won’t have to wait too long for more of those. I have several planned in the next couple of chapters. The next one however is mostly going to be devoted to one of my writing tangents. A bit of a side story. Though to say that it will be boring is certainly not the case. Going to have more of a horror theme to it. :mrgreen:

I wish I knew a little more about the military. I do my best, but anyone who has been in the military can probably see the gaps in my military knowledge. There are quite a lot of times where I’m staring at my screen and wondering to myself if I’m portraying the military side of my characters too casual. I’m never going to be able to nail down military etiquette perfectly. It would be too hard, I’d get too bogged down with constantly having people salute and whatnot, but I worry it’s coming off as too ‘M.A.S.H.y.’ Where all of the characters are talking and acting like civilians too much for active duty military personnel.

Thanks for the feedback MP. Always fun to talk a little shop. Made my day.
Last edited by Ashram52 on Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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I wouldn't dwell overly on your lack of military experience. The thing is each army is it's own entity, and each unit like its limb or an organ. An army infantry platoon is going to be radically different from a MASH unit like you referenced. Like a hand has little in common with your liver or spine. Add in the differences in national identity and things get even further apart. A US military police unit would be similar but still have very identifiable differences with a British one. Compare it to a Japanese MP unit or a Brazilian one and your going to see some wildly differing qualities. So to write such a globally ensemble cast perfectly is literally impossible. Now throw it in a completely different Era like WW2? The best a person could do would be a pretty good recreation. Look at alot of Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming's stories. The characters they write about have jobs and backgrounds similar to the authors own, which allows them to take their own experience, dress it up a bit, add in a few gunfights and explosions and all done. There's nothing wrong with that approach and indeed it turns out some great stories. But your not doing a story based on your own experience. Your in fact doing quite the opposite. Your covering Kaiju, something no one has ever really experienced. And your doing so from not just one perspective, but from many, all over the world. So you can do your research, give it some thought and attempt to nail each characters age, gender, nationality, political leaning etc. But that's the extent you can go. You can't actually be a World War 2 pilot or army nurse. Look at Game of thrones (the books, not the tv series). Yes there's a cast of thousands, but really how many viewpoint characters are their? A dozen or so. And that number shrinks with every book. The number of characters who's thoughts and feelings the reader hears is small compared to the amount of characters you see. Even the pros have to keep it small, think it through. And of course in the end you have the ultimate writers get out of jail free card. Something I wrote isn't correct? That didn't happen, or that did happen? Guess what. The appearance of 100 foot Kaiju changed everything. Godzilla ate that guys great great great grandma way back in....BC ish, so he was never born. Or Anguiros triggered an Earthquake which devastated...Turkey or whatever so, um, coffee was never invented and/or popularized. That's why they drink peppermint tea in Istanbul. You can totally explain anything. Rodans radioactive poop was discovered by Benjamin Franklin thus America first discovered radiation. Caesars galley hit Gezora and he got eaten thus England was never really discovered by the Roman Empire and now donuts are the national food and the English now speak Klingon. OK that might be taking it too far but you get the idea. Aim for great characters, and if you sometimes have to settle for good, that's ok.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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I appreciate that. 8-)

I lack first hand knowledge, but I do know a lot about naval history. It’s been an interest of mine for a while now. I was watching this great show called Enterprise 360 a number of years ago and fell in love with the story. It was a series devoted exclusively to the USS Enterprise and her exploits during world war 2. It was a heck of a story. To follow the carrier’s service record was to live through almost every major engagement of the Pacific War. She was there from beginning to nearly the end. 22 Battle Stars and the most decorated ship in U.S. naval history.

So anyway, shorty after watching that show, I go into a locate game shop and found all of these miniature ships I recognize from the program. Famous ships like The Enterprise, the Yamato, Lexington as well as other famous ships of the era like the HMS Hood and Bismarck. It was just the strangest coincidence.

Long story short, I bought all of them and they turned out to be the first step towards the foundation of this story. They were part of a table top Game Axis and Allies war at sea. Collecting ships is oddly addictive. Before I knew it, I had entire fleets of miniatures.

After I had collected all the ships, I decided to make a custom ‘in water’ version of Godzilla just for shits and giggles to go along with the warships. It was fun to combine two of my favorite hobbies, and it ended up being a big hit with the guys on the Axis and Allies forum too. One of them requested I do a Rodan, and before you know it, I was collecting other Godzilla characters. It took a little while, but eventually I found a small scale figure for just about every Godzilla character.

Then I started to make buildings for dioramas, then army vehicles, then and Air Force, and eventually I decided to do a story since I had all these resources at my finger tips. 23 chapters later, here we are. :lol:

I still have a lot of material to work with, both in terms of miniatures and storylines. The best in both departments is yet to come. I’m writing this like a Tv show, and in those terms, we’re only at the beginning of season 2. I figure there will be 5-6 seasons before the story has really reached it’s conclusion.

Anyways, you made me think of a great line from an admiral during world war 2. I think it was Nimitz. -“Focus on your character, and your reputation will see to itself.” Now he clearly didn’t mean fictional characters, but I think the principle can still apply. :huge:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Yes that sounds like a Nimitz quote. And a very good motto too, especially in these dark and confusing times. Though not quite what I meant the quote does fit. Enjoy your writing, grow from it, learn from it. You have a golden opportunity to literally learn about every culture and sub culture in the world, and quite the license to modify them or create new ones. Your world would differ radically from our own so you can explore whatever concepts interest you.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Well, just a little update.

I’ve gotten the first draft complete for the next chapter. I may be able to finish the whole thing within another week or two. Just depends on time and motivation.

I know you’ll like it MP since you’ve made some of your preferences known. Don’t know about anyone else though. Others folks are shy or something.

At some point a long time ago someone was taking about doing a Matango chapter, and I have in fact written up a pretty fun plot outline involving that. Unfortunately, I have to wait until it will fit logically within the context of the overarching story. That time will likely be several chapters down the road yet. Still, I’m looking forward to doing a chapter or two on that subject matter. Gives me an opportunity to do something very different from what I have been doing and just have fun with it.

Anyways, I wasn’t setting out just to cater to you for this next chapter MP, but it is sure going to feel like it. I will say ahead of time, I was planning to do a chapter like this anyways. I’ve actually had story notes written down for months. Still, at the risk of sounding cocky, I’m pretty confident you’ll like the plot. ;)

Originally I was planning to have more variety in the chapter like most of them, but I got way carried away and having fun with the main plot, so this next one will mostly focus on one particular plot line. Should be a little different from previous installments, hopefully refreshing for variety’s sake. :huge:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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...

Chapter 24: A Miner Issue.


Marcus, Admiral Malek, and Brock continued to watch from their helicopter. They hovered above Godzilla, who was lingering in the nuclear crater. The monster was nearly finished absorbing the last of the residual radiation from around the blast zone. Godzilla didn’t seem to notice them, too engrossed with what he was doing. Marcus had never seen the monster so still before. The only sign of moment was coming from Godzilla’s spines, which were flickering regularly and randomly with brilliant blue light, seemingly independent of the monster’s direct control.

“Wow, look at the light show down there.” Admiral Malek observed.

“Do you think he is absorbing the radiation through his back plates?” Marcus asked, continuing to watch the flashes of light emanating from below.

“No idea, but the levels of radiation down there are nearly gone.” Admiral Malek answered. “I’d say he’s about done down there.”

“Maybe we should get out of here before that happens?” Brock pointed out.

“The sergeant makes a good point.” Admiral Malek acknowledged. “Marcus, put some distance between us and Godzilla, but stay within sight. I want to see which direction he goes when he leaves.”

“It sure was nice of Godzilla to clean up the mess for the Russians.” Brock noted, referring to the radiative contamination.

“Everything comes at a cost Brock...” Marus warned ominously.

...

Meanwhile in Japan, Akira and Haruki were on the move themselves. They were riding up front while being driven back to the airbase. For a military truck, the seats weren’t too uncomfortable. Akira was looking out the window at the countryside. Haruki had been talking nearly nonstop since the trip began, but Akira’s mind was elsewhere. His thoughts were still lingering on the Kiki. She had been above and beyond the perfect host for the wayward pilot in his hour of need. But maybe she was a little too good. Akira couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something very odd about the girl.

As suspicious as Akira found her though, in near equal measure, he was smitten with her. There was just something very alluring about Kiki. He had never met a girl like her before. On the surface, she appeared to be nothing more than a regular unassuming Japan woman. Nothing remarkable. And yet, there was a mysterious aura about her, and it was pulling him in. She was very attractive, and it was undeniable that he felt a physical attraction to her, but she had more going for her than just superficial sex appeal. It pulled at the edges of Akira’s senses, tensing him. Suffice to say, she had left quite the impression on him.

“Hey Akira, are you listening?” Haruki asked.

“What?” Akira turned his head towards his friend.

“I said, I’m kind of hungry.” Haruki frowned at Akira. “The smell of that girl’s kitchen put a spell on me too. The only way to lift it is to put some food in my stomach.” Haruki smiled wide.

“I think we should just get back to base.” Akira remarked, he was still well-full from his earlier meal.

“Hey, that’s not fair, you got to eat.” Haruki countered. “Me and the boys have been out all day looking for you. I know this place at the next town that has great food. I know you got your fill already, but you could get some desert while the rest of us get some late-lunch.” He opened the window behind them to talk to the troops riding in the back. “Hey guys, who votes were stop for something to eat?”

“Yeahhhh…!!!” The soldiers yelled, raising their fists up in the air as a unit.

Akira didn’t turn, but he could see their reaction in the mirror. It appeared that the vote was unanimous. He turned to Haruki, giving him the evil eye for starting a mutiny among the troops. Akira could see behind Haruki that even the driver was smiling at him in a sympathetic, ‘yearning-for-beef’, sort of way.

“We’re not really expected back for a while yet anyways and there are no monsters left in the area to worry about.” Haruki reasoned.

“Alright, if it will keep you happy, we can stop.” Akira surrendered. “At least it’s not so far from the base…” Akira remarked, seeing a sign marking the distance to the town of Kitamatsu and the base on it. “It is Kitamatsu, right?”

“Sure is.” Haruki confirmed.

The next crossing brought them to the turn towards Kitamatsu. The town was only about five miles up the road, but the road was full of twists and turns and the terrain got more and more rocky as they went. The road brought them into a mountain pass with the town settled into the surrounding valley. It quickly became apparent that Kitamatsu was a mining community that had sprung up around a large coal deposit. Industrial buildings were everywhere.

“There it is.” Haruki pointed out the restaurant to the driver. The building in question looked pretty rustic and didn’t give the impression of a place that would serve food. Akira gave Haruki an unimpressed glare. “Trust me, just give it a chance.” He assured Akira.

Once they had stopped, the troops piled out of the back and eagerly followed Haruki inside. Akira took his time, bringing up the rear. Once he had entered, he saw Haruki embracing a well-grown middle-aged woman who was the owner of the establishment. She had Haruki in what could only be described as a bearhug. She had him clear up off his feet.

“You’ve brought me more business my boy!” The woman set him down.

As it turned out, Haruki was originally from Kitamatsu, and the woman was his aunt. Haruki smiled like a weasel when Akira caught his eye. Once Haruki had said his hellos to everyone in the kitchen, he joined Akira and the rest of the men at a large table they had pushed together.

“I know what you are thinking, but the food here is actually exceptional.” Haruki promised Akira. “Once the men taste the cuisine here, they will be coming back for the rest of their lives. It’s just that this place is off the beaten path if you are an outsider. You need a guide to help you find it.” He winked.

Despite Akira’s initial doubts, time proved Haruki to be as good as his word. The service was prompt, the food divine, and their waitress was cute, which never hurt a restaurant’s return business. Location aside, there was very little to complain about. Akira only tried a desert himself, but it turned out to be a marvelous concoction. It was a fried funnel cake with cheesecake filling at its core. If he wasn’t so full already, he would have ordered a second helping.

Haruki’s group was having a great time, but Akira looked around and noticed that the overall mood in the restaurant was quite somber. It felt like they were having a party in the middle of a funeral. Haruki must have gotten a sense of something being wrong too. He snuck away from the table and was sitting at the bar talking to his aunt quietly. As Akira came up to them, she hushed him. Haruki turned to see him and looked back to his aunt.

“It’s ok, you can trust Akira, he’s my very good friend.” Haruki assured her. “This is my aunt Miyoko.” Akira bowed politely. “Tell him what you were telling me.” Miyoko eyed Akira for a moment, seeming to take the measure of him, and bowed back.

“I was telling my nephew you guys should leave town as soon as you can.” Miyoko began. “There’s trouble brewing here.”

“Oh, what has been going on?” Akira asked.

“It started about three days ago.” Miyoko began. “One of the coal miners supposedly went crazy and murdered one of the other men while on shift.”

“Really…?!” Haruki asked stunned.

“Yes.” Miyoko answered. “What happened is the main shaft of the mine had unexpectedly flooded, so they had to evacuate it. Management did a head count afterwards to make sure everyone got out ok, but they came up short by two men. When they sent a search party in to find them, they only found one of their bodies floating in the water. The body had been badly mutilated by some sort of edged weapon. So, naturally they suspected foul play. The local doctor has yet to identify what the murder weapon is. The police were contacted and brought in to investigate. They discovered through various interviews that the two men, Yoshi and Goro, had gotten into a fight earlier in the day. They suspect that was the motive for the murder. The two men had an ongoing history of animosity, and it wouldn’t be the first-time things got physical. They think it just gotten out of hand this time.”

“That’s awful, did they ever find the suspect to question him?” Akira asked. “Which one was the suspected murder?”

“That would be Goro, and no, they haven’t found him yet.” Miyoko answered. “A police officer and two miners who were Goro’s friends went in to look for him, but all three of them were killed while investigating the mines. Their bodies were recovered, and the wounds were identical to Yoshi’s. Since then, they’ve posted guards at all of the mine’s exits to wait Goro out. It’s been two days and he hasn’t turned up yet. They think he is still held up in the mines somewhere, but no one knows for sure. I saw the bodies of the victims myself and the look of horror on their faces…” She paused remembering. “I will never forget it. It was like they had saw a demon. Coal production has been at a dead halt because people are afraid to go up to the mine. For some, it’s because they think Goro is a murderer, others think something else is going on up there.”

“What do you think is going on up there?” Haruki asked.

“I’m honestly not sure.” Miyoko replied. “None of this makes much sense to me. Goro was my friend and a regular patron here. I can’t see him doing what they say he did, but there just isn’t any other explanation to what has happened. I’ll tell you this though, the longer this goes on, the angrier people are getting. The life blood of this town is the coal mine, and the workers can’t get back into there until this is resolved. The town is dividing into two camps, those who are certain Goro is the killer, and those who aren’t certain. It mostly boils down to folks who are the friends and family of both men.”

“There’s been two more murders!!!” A man came bursting into the restaurant shouting. “The guards up at the mine exit have been slain!”

“Are you certain?” Miyoko asked.

“Yeah, word is spreading all over town.” The man replied. “Also, a little girl is missing! She was taken from the town. They think Goro took her! Her window was smashed open.”

Just then, a big man pushed inside past the other man, followed closely by two others.

“The time has come to pick a side Miyoko.” He said in a demanding tone. “No more sitting on the fence. It’s gone too far now. The police aren’t getting anything done. We’re going to have to hunt him down ourselves.”

“This is crazy Haruo.” Haruki stepped forward, trying to reason with him. “I’ve known you since we were in school together. You’re a reasonable guy. There’s no proof Goro had anything to do with any of this.”

“What do you know about it?” Haruo said, refusing to listen to him. “You weren’t here to see it for yourself.” He was getting more upset as he spoke. Haruki got closer and tried to reach out to touch his shoulder. Haruo exploded, punching Haruki right in the jaw.

Haruki went down, crashing into a section of empty chairs. The soldiers sitting back at the table saw what happened and immediately jumped up to defend Haruki. They tore across the room and overwhelmed Haruo, pushing him over to the ground. Haruo’s two friends did not join the brawl, recognizing they were outnumbered and outmatched. The soldiers surrounded Harou on the ground and started to stomp the hell out of him with their boots and cursed at him.

“You dare to attack one of the emperor’s soldiers?!” Sargent Kasai asked. “Who do you think you are peasant?” He kicked Haruo in the face, bloodying his nose and knocking him senseless.

Once Haruo had been subdued, they pulled him from the ground and forced him on to his knees. Haruo was so dazed that he barely knew what was happening anymore. Kasai drew his katana and rested it against the back of Haruo’s neck.

Kasai’s family had a samurai heritage and his sword had been passed the down for generations from father to son. The average Japanese officer was carrying a sword provided by the army that was mass produced in a factory, but Kasai’s was the real deal. As such, he was an officer who believed strongly in honor and tradition. He took his service to the emperor quite seriously.

Kasai took a step to the side and positioned himself to strike off Haruo’s head. The situation had gotten far out of control. Akira finally recognized that if he didn’t intervene the situation was going to escalate even further out of control.

“Wait, pull him up.” Akira ordered. The soldiers stopped, recognizing Akira’s rank, even without his uniform. They brought Haruo to his feet so that Akira could look him in the eyes. “That is a man you should be showing more respect to.” Akira stepped in closer to Haruo, pointing back to Haruki on the ground. “He’s fought monsters for you.” Akira brought his fist back and backhanded Haruo stiffly on the jaw. His head snapped back from the force. The impact hurt Akira’s knuckles, but he had to pretend it didn’t to maintain control of the situation. Akira didn’t like being so heavy handed with a civilian, but there was method to his madness. His own cruelty would satisfy his soldiers need for retribution and serve another purpose.

“Akira, take it easy on him.” Haruki piped up, getting up from the ground with some help from his aunt. “He’s just upset. Please, let it go.”

“Very well.” Akira stiffened his back and turned toward Haruki. “But it had better not happen again.” Akira warned. The soldiers pushed Haruo back to his friends, who caught him and assisted him out of the restaurant.

A moment after they had gone, a police officer wandered in from the outside. Akira spotted him and kicked himself for hitting Haruo so openly. The last thing he wanted was trouble with the local law enforcement. But to his surprise, the officer bowed to Akira before saying anything to him.

“Sir, we are in desperate need of help.” The officer began. “You can see the situation unfolding around us. This town was a powder keg waiting to go up before the girl went missing. Now that she’s gone, we are on the verge of anarchy. Two of my own men are dead already, the girl’s parents are beside themselves, and I can’t keep the peace on my own anymore. A show of force from the military would go a long way to keeping order.” Akira stood there surprised by the request. He thought for a moment, staring at the officer. Finally, after due consideration, he had made up his mind. Akira turned to Sargent Kasai.

“Go to the truck and break out the guns.” Akira ordered. “Haruki, call the base and tell them to send as many men as they can.” Akira then paused, getting an odd feeling. “Also Haruki, tell them to bring any heavy weapons they have at their disposal.”

...

Dimitri and his men were huddled together trying to stay warm in the net below the helicopter. Their lives were not in danger from the cold, but their comfort was a lost cause.

Zev was sitting in front of Dimitri and kept leaning and looking back behind them. Dimitri stared daggers at Zev each time he did, as if it were inviting trouble. They had already gotten lucky once. One of the Rodans had been so close to them when they first took off with the egg. Unbelievably, the monster had passed on through without even noticing them. Dimitri was afraid that eventually Zev was going to see one of the Rodans pursuing the helicopter and would bring to them the swift hand of revenge if he kept looking back long enough.

The helicopter was so close to the base now. Dimitri recognized landmarks on the ground as they passed over them. He was more than a little surprised that they had gotten this far unmolested. Perhaps command had arranged for another radio-transmitted distraction for the Rodans? Whatever the reason, Dimitri couldn’t believe their good fortune so far. He hoped it would hold for just a while longer.

Relief was at hand. The helicopter had reached the soviet base they’d departed from days earlier. The landing strip was alive with activity. An odd vehicle caught Dimitri’s eye as it rolled up into position. It was a semi-truck with a peculiar device built into the back end of it. It resembled a giant claw.

The helicopter was maneuvering them right towards it. The claws were made out of metal but were padded on the inside. It became clear to Dimitri that its function was to hold and carry the giant egg while being transported off the base. It made sense. Once the Rodan’s were back on the prowl, nothing in the sky in the vicinity of their nest would be safe. A vehicle on the ground had much less chance of being noticed.

The helicopter hovered above the truck and slowly started to lower its cargo down. Men on the ground were directing the pilot, but it was not an easy job regardless. One slip up and the egg might come crashing to the ground. Dimitri wouldn’t mind that so much, as long as he wasn’t along for the ride too. To him, the egg had served its purpose. It had been his ticket out of the woods. He didn’t much care for what happened to it now.

The egg settled into the grasp of the claws. The metal fingers began to close around the egg once it touched the sensor at the bottom of the truck. Dimitri and his men began to climb down the net. If they could just get to the ground without falling off, their ordeal would finally be over.



Akira put on a helmet and pinned his captain rank insignia to his collar to identify himself as a soldier in civilian clothing. After that, he marched down main street with his squad of soldiers to the town center, ensuring the residents got a good look at them along the way. The soldiers were mostly armed with standard issue rifles, but they did have one heavy machine gun at their disposal. Upon their arrival, Akira stood up on an elevated slab on concrete to address the crowd that was gathering there.

“I am captain Akira Saegusa of the Imperial Army Air Corp.” Akira began. “I am aware of your troubles, and I have come to help you. The first thing I want you to do is recognize that we are going to approach this problem together as a community. We must stand united if we are to succeed. The second thing we are going to do it get organized. I want every able-bodied man who doesn’t have a family to join us here in the next twenty minutes. Those of you who do have wives or children, go home, arm yourselves as best you can, and spread the word to your neighbors.”

“Our goals will be threefold.” Akira continued. “First, we will find the missing girl. Second, we will find and detain Goro for questioning. I want him alive. He is to be presumed innocent at this time. Lethal force will only be acceptable in cases of self-defense. I know there is a lot of confusion and disagreement in regard to his character at this point, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. We are going to get to the bottom of this. If he is guilty, he will be punished accordingly. That brings us to our third goal, if Goro is not behind the slayings, we are going to determine what is and stop it. Whoever or whatever is out there has been proven to be extremely dangerous. Five men are already dead. I don’t want to see any more, so we are going to approach this cautiously.”

“We will break into three groups and methodically sweep through town house by house.” Akira explained. “Each group will be accompanied by several soldiers. I have requested backup from the airbase nearby, more troops will hopefully arrive within the next hour and a half. If we don’t find what we are looking for here in town, then we will converge on the mine to investigate there with their additional firepower. That is all, arm yourselves and be back promptly.”



By the time all the men had arrived at the town square, it was already starting to get dark. Fortunately, flashlights and lanterns were plentiful as Kitamatsu was a mining town. Many of the residents even wore their helmets which had lights build directly into them. The darkness would only prove to be a minor impediment. The townsfolk didn’t have any firearms, but they did have plenty of pickaxes and shovels. The officers who made up what remained of the police force did carry some pistols. The lead officer, named Akio, even gave Akira his spare gun. Akira made sure to spread the police out evenly between the three groups to ensure their firepower and authority was best utilized.

Altogether, over forty miners had come to take part in the search. Nearly all of the young men who hadn’t settled down yet elected to join them. Even Haruo turned up with his friends. Akira wanted to keep an eye on them, so he ensured they ended up in his own group.

Akira had ten professional soldiers, plus Haruki and himself, to work with. Akira formed the main group around himself. He kept the heavy machine gunner with him. They were to search the center of town and would be able to move to support either of the other groups if it became necessary. The other two groups were assigned four soldiers each. If Goro was the killer, he would not be able to stand against four well-trained men with rifles all at once. Between the miners, soldiers, and police, each group had about twenty men in their party. All three groups were given a signal flare should they need to call in support from the others.

After getting organized, the men fanned out and started to comb the town block by block. Akira led his group to south end of town and commenced the hunt. The first ten minutes went by pretty uneventfully. There were no signs of trouble. Each house they came to was cleared one by one without incident. The first thing Akira found that was even remotely out of the ordinary was one family reporting that their dog was missing. It didn’t exactly set off any alarm bells.

"What would Goro want with a dog?" Akira asked.

“Maybe he just wanted some company up at the mine?” Haruki mused.

“Now is not the time to be funny.” Akira replied sourly. “I’m sure it just ran away or something. Dogs do that sometimes.”

The streets were so empty and quiet. Families who had stayed in their homes put out decorative lamps to help the search teams find their way in the darkness. Some of them were quite intricate in their design. It was an odd contrast of beauty given the unpleasant business they were about that night. Anyone coming in from the outside might think a town festival was going on.

As Akira and Haruki continued to patrol the streets from the front of their column, they spotted something that looked out of place up ahead of them. As they got closer, they found that a fence had been smashed over. It almost looked as though a car had run into it. Akira called up one of the townsfolk and pointed it out to them, inquiring if had been that way prior to their arrival. The man informed them that it wasn’t.

The rest of the group crowded around the scene, not sure what to make of it. It didn’t seem likely that Goro would make his trail quite so easy to follow if he wanted to avoid detection. Maybe he had stolen a car while everyone had been distracted? If Goro wasn’t used to driving a motor vehicle, he might have lost control in his haste to get away. The group looked around for tire marks to discover which direction he might have gone, but there weren’t any to be found. Akira and Haruki exchanged concerned glances.

After a few more minutes of looking around, Akira decided they needed to move on. As the group got back on the main road, there was a noise in the long grass to their right side. Flashlights gleamed over to identify where the sound had originated from. The sudden whoosh they all heard could easily have been from a man running past them. Something was moving in the darkness, just beyond the lights of their flashlights. A dark form darted into the nearby bush to avoid being overtaken by the beams of their lights. The soldiers rushed forward with rifles, taking aim while the miners formed a perimeter with their flashlights, closing in the bush from the flanks.

“Goro, if that is you in there, come out with your hands up.” Akira commanded in a calm, yet firm voice. “Drop any weapons you are carrying and surrender.” There was no response.

After a second, the leaves of the bush shifted slightly, and a head popped out from inside it. The face was small, furry, and had black patches around its beady eyes. It had a black nose and brown ears poking out of the top of its head. All around, there was a sense of disappointment.

“Is that a god-damned Raccoon?” Akira groaned with disgust. He could have sworn the small animal was smiling at him. The raccoon was actually kind of cute, but Akira would never say it in front of the other men. The soldiers put their rifles to rest, and the group turned away from the furry distraction.

The search continued building by building until they had made it to the far side of town. The last place that needed to be checked before reaching the outskirts of the mining complex was a bar which was aptly named: ‘We Serve Miners.’ Akira and Haruki went in ahead of the rest of the group to check it out.

After passing the threshold, the pair stopped dead in their tracks. They could not have anticipated the horrific scene they found waiting inside for them. They had walked into the aftermath of a massacre. There were no less than four bodies in the bar, though some of them were so badly dismembered, it was hard to tell what body parts belong to who. It could have been five victims.

“Holy shit…” Haruki whispered. His blood turned cold. His breathing became unsteady as the reality of what he was seeing began to hit him.

“What the hell happened in here?” Akira asked. He brought his pistol up, darting it around the room looking for a target. His hand was shaking as adrenaline started pumping through his system. The smell of the freshly spilled blood hung heavy in the room. It hit his senses like a rogue wave. Akira’s heart was pounding. He noticed that the back wall of the bar had been broken though, not unlike the fence from earlier. “I don’t like this… I don’t like this a lot.” Akira’s voice trembled, but he kept his composure.

“What could have done this?” Haruki asked, he dared not move. There was so much blood on the floor neither of them could step anywhere without walking in it. Haruki spotted an odd mark impressed into the blood. It was about the size of a foot but wasn’t a shoe print.

“I know that just one man couldn’t have killed all these people.” Akira said, not taking his eyes off the room. “Not like this...” He eyed the badly mutilated bodies.

One of the miners walked in behind them to see what was taking so long and saw the grisly scene. The man fell to his knees, unprepared for the raw carnage. He likely knew some of the men, though identifying them in the state they were in would be hard at that moment. Akira finally lowered his pistol, satisfied that whatever had caused such devastation was no longer there.

“Stay with him, I’m going to go around the back and see what I can find.” Akira instructed Haruki. He was still too stunned to move anyways.

As Akira came outside the cool night air was a welcome refresher. He signaled for the other men in the group to follow him. They could see the serious look on his face and knew something was wrong. Akira carefully made his way around the side of the bar with the other men in toe. He kept a sharp eye out for anything that shouldn’t been there, his weapon still drawn.

Upon reaching the back, Akira found debris from the bar outside on the grass, along with a trail of blood which was leading in the direction of the mine. Akira examined the edges of the hole and found deep, sharp cuts left in the wooden boards where something big had forced its way through the wall. What could do such a thing, he had no idea.

Akira saw the same bloody impressions Hariki had seen earlier and struggled to identify what they were. They had to be from an animal of some sort. The markings almost resembled something a stag might leave behind. The bloody marks were hooflike, though unlike anything Akira had ever seen before. One thing was for sure, it wasn’t any deer that crashed through the wall and killed four men. He turned to his soldiers.

“Check the rest of the perimeter and be very careful.” Akira instructed them. “Nobody go anywhere alone. I don’t know what we are dealing with, but it’s more dangerous than we thought. Send two villagers to go find the other two groups. Tell them they need to regroup with us here. I want to wait for our military reinforcements to arrive before we take this any further.”

“You scared, sir?” One of the soldiers asked.

“You’re damn right I am.” Akira admitted. “We’d be stupid not to be.” He saw that the miners were gathering around the gaping hole in the back of the bar and getting a good look at what was inside. “There’s some sort of tracks in there and they’re not human.”

“What are we going to do?” Haruki came back around from the front of the bar with the villager. Both of them were still pretty shaken up.

“We’re going to get this situation under control.” Akira answered.

“Do you feel in control?” Haruki asked, his tone bordering on insubordination. “Look at that mess in there and tell me this is something we can control.” He was obviously even more scared than Akira was. “Admit it, this is beyond what we can handle.”

“There’s nobody else right now.” Akira replied solemnly. “We just have to do what we can with what we got until real help arrives.” He put a hand on Haruki’s shoulder.

“Ok…” Haruki answered, trying to keep himself calm. “What do you want to do next?”

“I figure our next best move is to start moving back the direction we came from and getting people out of their homes and away from the mine.” Akira replied. “If we get all the civilians together on the far side of town, we should be able to keep them safe until our reinforcements arrive. That hopefully shouldn’t be too long from now.”

Akira and Haruki were both distracted by a noise off in the distance. It was a series of pops coming from the north near the mine. The sound could only be one thing, rifles being fired. The whole group stopped what they were doing and listened. There were about fifteen shots in all. The frequency of them diminished as time went by. Finally, they stopped altogether. There was only quiet as Akira’s squad stood there listening and waiting to see what would happen next. No one was quite sure what to make of the incident. After a moment, a light shot up into the sky. It was a red flare.

“Damn… the right-flank boys must have gone up there without us.” Akira guessed. They would have been the closest group to the mine at the end of their search.

“What do we do?” Haruki asked.

“Well, they’ve got to be in trouble if they launched a flare.” Akira reasoned. “We need to get up there and try to support them. Have the villagers go to the far side of the village as we discussed. I’m going to take the machine gun and the rest of the troops up there to see what we can do.”

Most of the villagers agreed to follow Akira’s orders and withdrew back into the village. However, a few of them were determined to press on and find out what was going on at the mine. Akira didn’t argue, there wasn’t time to debate the issue. If they wanted to do their part to fight for their community, he didn’t have the right to stop them.

What remained of the group quickly made their way up the gravel path towards the mine. Akira led from the front, now welding a flashlight one of the locals had given up before retiring from the field. He could only guess at what they would find once they reached the top. He readied his pistol and kept a sharp eye out for any would-be threats.

Akira got a bad feeling as they rounded the last bend that would lead them to the main entrance of the mine. He signaled for the machine gunner to stop and ready his weapon for combat. The soldier set up around the corner and then rolled out into position on the road, looking for targets. Akira jumped out behind him in a crouched position, gun drawn. He could see very little ahead of them in the darkness. There were some lights on the ground, most likely dropped by men of the first group when they were trying to flee their assailant during the firefight.

Akira motioned for the rest of his men to join them behind the machine gun. One by one, the men took up firing positions. They all waited to see if anything would come out of the darkness at them, but everything was still. Akira got impatient and ordered everyone to stay in their place while he scouted ahead to get a better look at what lay ahead of them. He kept to the side of the road, allowing his men to have a clear line of fire to cover him.

As Akira approached the main mine entrance and got closer to the lights on the ground, he got a better picture of the scene that lay before him. There were seven bodies scattered around area. Two of them were near the entrance of the mine and had to belong to the guards who had been posted there by the local police. The other five bodies belonged to members of the first search group. Akira looked over each of them carefully. Two of them were soldiers, one of them was a police officer, and the final two were miners. There were empty shell casings everywhere. Akira got a feeling of dread. Despite getting plenty of rounds off, the men had still been massacred. Whatever killed them apparently was not afraid of getting hit by a hail of bullets on its way to them.

There was a sudden sound of one of the men on the ground gasping for air. At least one of them was still alive. Akira turned and saw that it was one of his soldiers. He knelt down beside the man and looked over his wounds. The solider had a deep gash in his left shoulder. The area around him was drenched in blood. Akira was amazed someone could lose that much blood and still be alive. Maybe if he could get the man some medical attention he could be saved before he slipped into shock.

Akira heard a noise from behind him. It sounded like a stick snapping. He half expected Haruki to be walking up on him, but it wasn’t Haruki. From about thirty yards behind him, a large form emerged from the bushes. It was not a man. It was something the likes of which Akira had never seen before. It was a gigantic insect. The creature had large blue compound eyes, sharp pincers on each of its forelimbs, a dark brown armored carapace, and hungry looking mandibles. It had been stalking Akira slowly, but now that he had turned towards it, the creature rushed towards him with more speed than he would have thought possible for something its size. Akira’s body and mind were at war with each other. His every instinct was telling him to run, but he didn’t want to leave the wounded man behind.

“Get out of there!” A man’s voice called to Akria from above. Several members of the first team had taken refuge on top of the nearby water tower.

Akira took aim with his pistol and rapidly fired off all six rounds at the oncoming threat. All but two of his shots ricocheted off of the insect’s shell. The two bullets that did penetrate did not seem to bother the monster whatsoever. It was still charging at him full speed.

Again, Akira was back to the dilemma of having to abandon the helpless soldier or not. There was no time to think. Self-preservation won out. Akira dropped the weapon and bolted away from the oncoming threat. He considered trying to get around the bug and then lead it into the line of fire of his men, but there was no way to guarantee their firepower would be any more effective than his was. He also wasn’t sure he’d be able to get around it in any case.

Akira was cornered. The rockface the mine was dug out from was too steep for him to climb up quickly. He didn’t like his chances trying that. With the monster closing in, there was only one alternative way for him to go. Akira ran into the mine with the monster in hot pursuit.

The lighting inside the mine was actually better than the light outside. The whole tunnel was full of overhead bulbs spread out every twenty feet or so. Akira looked back to see that he was still being chased. He had managed put a little distance between himself and the monster, but it hadn’t given up on him. Akira was clearly faster than it was, but he didn’t know where he was going. He could run into a dead end at any moment. If he did, it wouldn’t matter how much faster he was.

Akira tripped on rail tracks which lead in and out of the mine. He stumbled forward, nearly falling but managing to catch himself and stay on his feet. Right after recovering from that, he had to dodge around a tan rail car connected to the tracks. The rail car was long and sectioned. It had a tin roof and chains around the sides to keep people from falling out. It was meant to take large groups of miners further down into the tunnels all at once.

The creature following Akira had to go over the rail car. It was too big to simply go around it like he did. The process slowed the monster down even more, but the racket from the flimsy metal breaking apart from the force of the impact drained any sense of optimism Akira might have gotten from it.

Akira spotted a sign indicating the tunnel was going to branch off soon into several paths up ahead. He hoped that he had gotten far enough ahead of the monster to disappear down one of the tunnels and lose it. He saw one labeled Mine #8. That was his lucky number, so he went for it.

Akira ran and ran. The tunnel was deeper than he thought possible. He started to think that if it kept going much further, he was going to run all the way to hell. As Akira raced down, he saw what looked like another branching tunnel that would take him back up, but he couldn’t risk stopping or even slowing down. The tunnel was full of the sounds of the monster pursing him. With echoes all around him, it was impossible for Akira to tell where the monster was anymore. It sounded like it was still right behind him. He dared not slow down or look back again. If he were to trip and fall down, that could be the end for him.

It was cold in the tunnels. Akira hadn’t noticed it at first, but the temperature inside the mine must have dropped at least twenty degrees from the outside. He wished he was still wearing his heavy flight suit. Akira’s footfalls echoed as he continued to run. He could see something up ahead in the tunnel. As he got close, he could see the tracks on the ground disappeared into a large pool of water that had flooded the bottom of the tunnel. It was the end of the line. There was nowhere else to go.

Akira slowed to a halt and considered the situation. There was no way to know what lay beneath the waterline. He didn’t want to risk drowning checking it out. If he had lost the monster at the intersection like he’d hoped to do, then he could just double back and escape the way he came. Akira looked back up the tunnel, watching and listening. He could hear something echoing up the tunnel behind him.

“Shit…” Akira whispered to himself, starting to panic. He turned off his flashlight to avoid drawing any more attention to himself.

Akira started to back himself into the water. If he hid under the water when the creature arrived, maybe he could conceal himself long enough for it to turn around. He didn’t really have an alternative. If it was between being hacked to death or drowning, drowning seemed like the better option. The water was cold as it inched further and further up Akira’s legs as he backed into it. Finally, Akira was up to his chin. He still kept his eyes on the tunnel ahead of him, watching as a shadow dancing along the wall. The creature was closing in on him.

Akira was starting to wonder how long he would be able to hold his breath once the creature was within distance of spotting him. He didn’t like his odds. He was never a strong swimmer. Akira looked around to see if there was any way he could get out of sight besides submerging. As luck would have it, the wooden support beams holding up the roof of the tunnel were thick enough for him to duck behind. It wasn’t large enough to hide Akira’s entire body, but if he kept most of his frame under the waterline, he could still put his head behind it.

There wasn’t enough time to consider another option. Time was short. The water was about two meters deep. Akira got as far into it as he could, tucking himself into the back left corner. Once there, he stayed as still as he could. Any movement could put ripples on the water and give away his position. Akira tried to slow his breathing. He was still trying to recover from running and the cold water was starting to make him shiver. It didn’t help that he was scared either. Down to his last option and trapped, Akira just pray that the creature didn’t find him.

Within moments, the monster had reached the end of the tunnel and stopped at the waterline. It stepped into the water, sending a ripple past Akira’s position. He eyed it, terrified. The creature took another step in, scanning the rockface and wood panels. Its mandibles clicked together, echoing in the shaft.

Step by step, the monster got closer until it was just three feet from where Akira was hiding. The monster paused and lingered there for several seconds. Akira didn’t know what do. He considered diving under the water and trying to swim around it to escape. Just as he was about to take flight, the creature shifted its weight and turned around. It stepped back out of the water and started to go back up the tunnel.

Akira could hear water dripping off of it as it sauntered away. He finally peeked around the edge of the support beam and saw the giant insect disappear around the corner. Akira let out a silent breath of relief. He had eluded danger for now. Trouble was, he was still trapped down the tunnel. The monster was blocking his only escape route.

Akira looked across from his hiding place and noticed something odd. There was a hole in the stone tunnel. It lay within the support wall, so it wasn’t something the miners would have dug out, not if they were smart anyway. Akira made his way over to examine it closer.

The hole was just above the waterline and was large enough for a man to crawl through. There was no way to know what lay on the other side of it, but Akira decided it was worth taking the risk. He pulled himself out of the water as quietly as he could, hoping the sound of water leaking off of his back wasn’t loud enough for the monster to hear. He crawled through the opening slipped inside. Once there, couldn’t see much, so he turned his flashlight back on. The hole was pretty tight. Akira had to dig a couple rocks out of his way to get by. Pockets of water trickled around him and poured into the pool behind him as he made his way forward.

After nearly twenty feet of crawling, Akira found an opening leading to another large chamber. There was a smaller pool of water on the other side, but this water was warm. It was like an underground hot spring. Akira wriggled into the pool and lay in there for a moment, allowing the water to warm his body back up again.

In the pool in front of him, Akira saw an object sticking out of the water. At first, he assumed it was a rock, but as he took a better look with his flashlight, he realized it was too round to be a rock. Akira crawled up close and discovered it was an egg. The far side of it was broken open, indicating that something had hatched from it. Akira saw there were other eggs too, but they were sitting outside the water on a ledge and remained intact.

Above Akira, he could see an opening where the water was leaking in. He went over to look at it only to discover another large cavity in the far wall. It looked to be where the creature had forced its way through. On the other side of the divide, he found another vein of the mine.

Akira quickly put together that the warm spring water must have incubated the egg, allowing the creature inside to hatch. It was starting to become clear where the monster had come from. The miners had dug too deeply and disturbed an ancient nest of the giant insects, allowing warm water and oxygen into the egg chamber and bringing them back to life.

The cavern stretched further into the darkness, beyond what Akira could see, but he wasn’t about to go exploring that way when there was an escape route right in front of him. He could find no reason to linger any longer. Akira stepped through the opening in the wall and started to walk through the newly discovered passageway.

It wasn’t long before Akira discovered the body of a miner. The man had tried to defend himself with a shovel, but it had been snapped in two. He was still clinging on to the two pieces in death. Judging by his state of decay, he must have been there a couple days. It had to be the body Goro, the miner who everyone had placed the blame on. His name could finally be cleared, though Akira was sure it would be of little comfort to him now. Akira closed his eyes and moved on.

Akira next found a tool shop where the miners stored some of their equipment. Most of the tools were pretty useless, but he did find four sticks of dynamite, a lighter, and some electrical tape. Akira taped the dynamite together and pushed it down his shirt and put the lighter in his pocket. No doubt they would come in handy, but what he was really hoping to find was a map of the tunnels. Akira had no idea where he was or where he was going. He didn’t want to run into any dead ends. One more mistake could mean his death.

With no other alternative, Akira just kept moving through the tunnel which was moving upwards. He thought as long as he just kept going, eventually the shaft would have to come out on the surface somewhere. Akira’s path however flattened out and he arrived at an intersection of several tunnels. There were three to pick from. Akira looked down each but couldn’t see far enough down any of them to decide if they were heading upwards.

Akira just stood there, trying to figure out which of the three was the wiser choice, but none of them seemed any better than the others. Suddenly, he felt a twinge of dizziness and got an irresistible urge to take the left tunnel. Before he knew it, his feet were carrying him towards it. He felt oddly certain that it was the correct way to go now. As it turned out, it wasn’t a moment too soon. The monster had come up and around from tunnel #8 behind Akira and had spotted him again. Akira saw creature too and made a break for the left tunnel.

As Akira ran through it, the tunnel began to slope downwards. Akira cursed to himself; certain he was about to come to another dead end. Two hundred and fifty yards of tunnel later, that exact thing happened. He came upon the end of the vein. This time there was no water to hide in, just a solid rockface staring back at him. Akira grabbed a loose support beam and prepared to make his final stand. If he was going to die, at least he was going to go out on his feet.

The monster was once again closing in on him. Akira stepped forward to meet it and then saw something he hadn’t noticed while running through the tunnel before. There was an automated coal elevator built into the side of the wall. This particular vein of the mine was newer than some of the others and was still packed full with mineral ore. So much so that the miners had installed the elevator to send bucket loads to a higher level of the mine. If Akira could just turn the machine on, he would be able ride it up and escape.

The monster was nearly upon him. Akira flung the wood support beam as hard as he could at the monster and then rushed towards the machine. He found a green button to push, and the machine sprang to life. Akira looked up and judged that there would be enough space for him to fit between the apparatus and the rockface. The monster meanwhile had caught the plank and used its pincers to snap it in half. The distraction delayed the monster just long enough for Akria to jump onto the conveyer belt and ride a bucket out of the monster’s grasp. It snipped at him just a second too late.

Akira came out of the other side to a new floor in the mine. He looked down and saw the creature staring up at him. The opening was far too small for the monster climb up after him. It cackled angrily below him, scraping its claws uselessly against the solid rockface. Akira pulled out the dynamite from his shirt along with the lighter. He lite the fuse and then positioned the pack to avoid getting caught by the buckets as they moved upwards.

“Eat this you son of a bitch.” Akira dropped the dynamite down below, spit at the creature, and then ran away from the hole as fast as he could.

Akira saw a path leading upwards and immediately followed it. As he continued towards freedom, the dynamite detonated behind him. The noise was much louder than he anticipated and shook him up a bit. Still, Akira felt fortunate that the explosion was in the cavern below him. He tried to shrug off the shock of the blast and continue forward.

The new tunnel was a little smaller than the old one. Akira had to stoop over while walking. It seemed as though this was also newer area in the mine. They hadn’t had enough time to dig it out as thoroughly as the other shafts. As Akira continued upwards, the tunnel grew larger, and he was able to stand upright again. His back was thankful for that, after walking for several minutes tilted, it was starting to tire out.

After walking for another couple of minutes, Akira heard a noise behind him. He turned to look and couldn’t believe what he saw. There was another creature coming up in the tunnel behind him. Akira took off up the tunnel, running as hard as he could. Running upwards at an incline proved to be way more taxing that running down one though. He didn’t know how long he could keep it up.

‘Which would you prefer to be, exhausted or dead?’ Akira thought to himself, trying to keep his body going. The incline of the tunnel was becoming more steep, making it even harder on him. His legs were on the verge of cramping up. Pretty soon, willpower alone wasn’t going to keep him going. Akira’s luck hadn’t run out yet though. He spotted a line of connected mine cars ahead of him and got an idea.

Akira got around the row of cars and then jumped on the end of them. He found the emergency break and released it. Once he had done that, the carts began to move on their own. They were very heavy, loaded down by a full load of coal that was left aboard. The weight of the train immediately started to build momentum as it rolled down the steep incline. Akira turned on the light at the front of the cars and then jumped off of the back, letting nature take its course. The giant bug seemed to be attracted to light. Akira hoped it would encourage the monster stay directly in the path of the runaway carts.

Akira sat there watching from the ground as the creature finally appeared from down the tunnel. It was right in the middle of the tracks as he anticipated. The monster was still in full pursuit of him. The giant insect saw the carts coming at it but didn’t register them as a threat. It was a mistake.

The line of mine carts collided with the monster only moments later, smashing right into its face. The monster was heavy enough to derail the cars, but that only made the wreck that much more devastating. The creature’s head was shattered and forced inside of its own body. The cart’s momentum carried it up and over the monster’s body, cracking its exoskeleton and partially crushing it. Coal and debris flew all over the place hurdling down the tunnel. The crash made a horrific racket.

Akira took the opportunity to stop and rest. He was satisfied that the creature was dead. There was zero moment to be seen down the tunnel. He stood up and leaned against the side of the tunnel wall catching his breath. After a moment, he looked up towards the tunnel and saw what looked like a loading station up ahead of him. He had to be getting close to an exit now. With a sense of pride, he turned and started to walk back up the tunnel.

Abruptly, a claw shot out from the wall and caught Akira’s left shoulder. He experienced a sharp pain as it clutched onto him. Akira looked over and saw yet another creature had reached out from a closed off section of the mine. A wood plank was wedged between its pincers and was preventing it from entirely closing it around him. Still, it had a hold of him, and it hurt. Akira struggled against the creature’s grip. He saw a pickaxe leaning up against the wall within his reach. He grabbed the tool and used it to pry open the claw just enough to free himself.

Akira slipped out of the monster’s grasp and inspected his wounds. Blood was pouring out from both sides of his shoulder. It didn’t seem to have broken any of his bones though. He could still move just fine. Akira got angry and pulled back with the pickaxe. He swung it wildly at the monster’s exposed pincer. Akira landed his shot right at the base of the claw where the two sections met at the joint. The ax penetrated the armored shell of the giant insect and embedded itself deep into the flesh below.

The creature screeched in pain and pulled the ax back through the opening, snapping off most of the handle. Akira got a sick sense of satisfaction. His victory was short lived though. The monster used its mandibles to pull out the pickax and then used its good claw to smash through one of the wood planks blocking its way. After that, it started to tear its way through the barrier bit by bit.

At that point, Akira knew well enough to get the hell out of dodge while he still could. He was out of tricks and weapons. The creature’s one good claw was still more than enough to finish him off once it could get to him. Akira made his way towards the exit on his exhausted legs, hoping that it wouldn’t be too much further. He could hear the monster shattering the last few boards and forcing its way through the barrier behind him.

Akira came to what appeared to be a dressing room for the miners. There were worker’s jumpsuits hanging above him on hooks attached to pull-chains which would lower them down. There must have been at least fifty of them hanging above him. In the poor lighting, Akira thought they looked like phantoms watching him struggle to escape. The monster meanwhile was catching up to him.

Akira turned and saw it closing in on him. Out of desperation, he pulled on one of the chains. The suit came plummeting down and surprised the creature. The monster thought it was another man and attacked cloth, stabbing through it with its pincer. Akira pulled more and more of the chains around him, confusing the monster even more. It couldn’t seem to distinguish Akira from the clothing. Every time the monster struck at one of the jumpsuits, it only made them swing on their line and increased the movement of things around it, adding to the confusion.

Akira used the opportunity to retreat, triggering more suits to fall as he went to cover his escape. Akira next found himself in a locker room with a shower. He considered turning on the water to confuse the monster even more, but the hanging jumpsuits seemed to be doing a good enough job of that already. It might backfire if he tried something else. Instead, Akira continued to make his way out of the tunnel. He knew he had to be very near the exit if there were showers and changing rooms.

Akira spotted a first-aid kit hanging on the wall and snatched it up as he went. He was still bleeding from his shoulder wound. Once he had left the locker room, he finally found the opening to the outside. Akira stepped into the outside air and freedom. He saw an office building not far from the mine entrance and started towards it. From there, he could hide and patch himself up from relative safety.

The office was unlocked, and Akira discovered that it was at least in part a drafting room for one of the mine’s engineers. He slumped over, leaning his back on a desk, while pulling his arm out of his shirt. Akira just threw aside the blood-soaked garment and then took out a roll of gauze from the first aid kit. He wrapped it around his wounds as best he could. As he did, he could hear the angry shriek of the monster coming out of the mine after him. Akira retreated to the back end of the office and hid himself under a desk.

For a time, there was only quiet as Akira crouched under the desk. But then the monster smashed its way through the wall of the office. Akira him jumped in surprise from the sudden impact. He was panicked. How did the monster know where he was? Akira peeked out from his desk and saw that the creature had found its way to the corner where he left his shirt.

‘It can smell blood?’ Akira thought bitterly, starting to back away and look for a way out of the office. As luck would have it, there was a rear exit he could utilize. He slipped out unnoticed.

Back outside, Akira crept through the mining facility’s grounds, on the lookout for any possible threats. He saw a trainyard connected to the mine, no doubt purposely built to load up and ship out the coal from the area. He could see a conveyer built next to the tracks which would pour coal directly into the train cars. It might be a while before they did so again.

As he scanned the area, Akira heard a loud crash which drew his attention. He spotted one of the creatures at the base of one of the train cars. The monster had rammed its body against the car attempting to knock a man off the top of it. The giant insect had nearly succeeded. Akira could see a man hanging off of the edge. The only thing keeping him from falling was another man hanging on to him. The monster was right below them just waiting for him to drop.

Akira realized that Haruki was the one hanging on to the dangling man. Akira got closer and saw that Haruo was the man suspended above the monster. Haruki wasn’t nearly strong enough to pull a man as big as Haruo was back up to safety, but at the same time, wasn’t willing to let him go. He was starting to slip down himself.

Akira could hear Haruo urging Haruki to let him drop. Haruki stubbornly refused. Akira could see Kasai’s body between himself and them. He was still grasping his katana in his hand. True to form, it looked as though he went down fighting. Akira saw an opportunity. He rushed forward, seizing the sword along the way, and charged the distracted creature, which was reaching up trying to snatch Haruo’s foot. He was just inches out of its reach.

Akira swung the blade hard and completely severed the claw from the monster’s arm. Then, before it could react, he took the tip of the sword and shoved it in directly below the monster’s head and into its thorax. Akira must have hit something vital because it made no effort to retaliate. Instead, the creature just collapsed, and the sword slipped out of it. Haruki and Haruo came crashing down a second later, landing on the monster, which ironically helped them out by breaking their fall.

“Look out!” Haruki called to Akira, bringing his attention to the other creature which had chased him out of the mine. It was still on his trail.

Akira stepped forward, putting himself between the monster and the other two men who were still picking themselves up off the ground. He was done running. Either he was going to kill the monster, or the monster was going to kill him. He readied the katana, gripping it with both hands. Akira figured he had a good chance of prevailing since the creature only had one good appendage left to work with. The creature moved forward towards him, though more cautiously than it had before. Apparently, it recognized Akira as a legitimate threat and not just prey.

Just as it seemed that the fight was about to commence, there was a loud crackle of machine gun fire. Two streams of bullets struck the creature from the side. While some of the bullets penetrated, they did not kill the monster. It still struggled forward stubbornly. The machine guns stopped firing and a man wearing a face shield and a large cylindrical fuel tank on his back stepped forward and sprayed a stream of burning gasoline onto the creature. The ball of fire completely engulfed the giant insect within seconds.

The soldier using the flamethrower wasn’t conservative with his fuel and continued to douse the giant insect until it fell over and stopped moving altogether. The machine gunners took no chances and piled in several more rounds just to be sure, but the creature was already well past dead by that point.

“Over there!” A voice rang out from the group of soldiers.

Another giant insect was emerging from the tunnels. This time, a trooper armed with a bazooka took aim at it. He lined up his barrel with the target. Everyone behind him knew to clear out. The soldier pulled the trigger and an anti-tank rocket shot out from the tube. The round was well-aimed and hit the creature dead center. The monster exploded from the inside into at least a hundred smoking pieces.

It was all over. Akira’s reinforcements from the base had finally arrived and were gaining control of the area around the mine. Once it was secured, they could sweep through the tunnels and clear out any remaining creatures and their eggs. Akira returned the sword to its fallen owner. At least for them, the fight was done. He checked to see how Haruki was faring. Haruki was oddly favoring his shoulder too. He either injured it during the fall or strained it trying to hold up Haruo for so long. Akira padded him on his good shoulder and smiled at him.

“Still think stopping here was a good idea?” He smirked.



After he finished consuming the radiation at Kamchatka, Godzilla had unexpectedly moved off to the west into the Sea of Okhotsk. Marcus followed him for as long as their fuel would allow before returning to the fleet. Once they were back, Admiral Malek called a meeting in the ready room to discuss their next move.

“The Japanese have elected not to join us up here.” Admiral Malek began. “They don’t want to deal with Godzilla as long as he’s not in their territory. Though they would like us to keep them in the loop as to his activities. To a certain extent, I’m inclined to do so. I don’t see the harm in it, so long as their priorities don’t conflict with ours. Keeping up friendly relations with the Japanese is useful. It should guarantee they continue to allow us to use their ports to resupply. That will keep us on the front line and enable us to pursue our goals.”

“Aren’t you concerned with the Russians taking issue with us violating their territorial waters admiral?” Captain Hillard asked.

“No, I don’t think they will contest our presence.” Admiral Malek answered. “In the first place, they don’t have any naval assets in the area. Intelligence indicates that they were forced to evacuate years ago, even before the war, and haven’t been able to regain a foothold since because of the Rodans. Second, they can’t risk launching air patrols in this area either. The Rodans wouldn’t tolerate them.”

“You aren’t worried about them either?” Hillard inquired.

“Well, on that front, I don’t think the Rodans will bother us with Godzilla so close.” Admiral Malek noted. “After watching the end of their fight, I’d say they’ve had enough of him for now. We should have a free hand to operate for now. We’ll just shadow Godzilla from a distance and learn what we can about him. There are a few things we can already deduce based on our previous experiences, but Dr. Richards has come to tell us about some of his more recent discoveries. Dr. Richards...” He invited the scientist to take the floor.

“Through studying the corpse of Kameras, we have learned a few things about Kaiju biology.” Dr. Richards began. “Though we can’t confirm this is true of all Kaiju at this time, we can infer some things about their common attributes. In particular, we’ve discovered something rather interesting in regard to their toughness. With perhaps the exception of Gezora, who proved to be at least somewhat susceptible to conventional weapons, the other monsters we have encountered have shown a great deal of resilience to standard military munitions. I think I have discovered why, at least in part.”

“Really…?” Brock raised an eyebrow. “This outta be good.”

“Upon examining samples of Kamera’s skin, we found very high levels of carbon in the epidermis.” Dr. Richards went on. “Carbon is a common element, but when it is concentrated in a pure form, it can be incredibly sturdy. Diamonds for example, which are a pure form of crystalized carbon, are the hardest element known to exist. The concentration of carbon in Kamera’s skin is not as hard as diamond, but it’s still very, very tough. I suspect all kaiju have a similar organic makeup, which makes them extremely durable. The concentration of carbon for Kameras was heavier in his claws, teeth, and armored areas. I suspect that would follow suit with the other monsters as well. These creatures are virtually invulnerable in some areas, however, in the case of Kameras, there were certainly weak points.”

“Godzilla was definitely able to find one.” Marcus added.

“Yes, exactly my point.” Dr. Richards agreed. “Since Godzilla’s claws would have a higher carbon count, in theory, they would be able to punch through the skin with the lower sum. All signs point to that. Admiral, have you heard any word about our stake on the island?”

“It is uninhabited and had not been previously claimed.” Admiral Malek answered. “We’ve quietly declared it within our sphere of influence, while not drawing too much attention to why on the world stage. The cover story is going to be that an oil deposit was found there. That should satisfy most of the foreign curiosity the claim will raise. So, at least for now, it’s ours uncontested. Whatever secrets Kameras may yet reveal are ours alone. Plans are underway to build a more permanent research base to aid your work. That will also ensure a higher degree of security.”

“Oh, that reminds me, everyone here who is not military personal will have to sign a non-discloser agreement after this meeting.” Dr. Richards noted.

Dr. Orsini seemed more than a little perturbed. Marcus couldn’t decide if it was because of the non-discloser remark or the fact that he felt the Kameras project should have been his from the start. Dr. Orsini probably did not like being regarded as an outsider who was not directly connected with the project.

“Back to the topic at hand, since we’ve established that conventional weapons are mostly ineffective, how is Project-M progressing?” Admiral Malek asked.

"We're waiting on confirmation from the lab stateside.” Captain Hillard replied. “But they are hoping to have a prototype up and running within the next three months.”

"Alright, well tell Dr. Steiner we need to move up the timeline.” Admiral Malek remarked.

“Boy… he’s not going to like that.” Captain Hillard replied. “You know how particular he is.”

“Well tell him a couple days ago I was standing in what used to be Tokyo.” Admiral Malek frowned. “If we don’t start to step up our game soon, we won’t stand a chance against these things.”

“Yes, unless we act, there will be more devastated cities on the news.” Dr. Richards agreed. “The appearance of Godzilla means we need to roll out sooner than anticipated. He’s far more aggressive than the previous kaiju we’ve encountered and arguably more dangerous.”

“The quiet days of the kaiju are over.” Malek added. “We need to get to mass production going as soon as possible. Dr. Steiner doesn’t have the luxury of time to fine tune things anymore. We just need a viable weapon on the field. If he doesn’t like it, I’ll have him flown out to Tokyo to let him see for himself how bad it is first-hand. Given his own personal history, I don’t think he’ll like it too much.”

“All of that may not be necessary, just tell him there was a sighting of Varan.” Dr. Orsini suggested. There was quiet in the room while several people took stock of what he had said. Most were surprised to have heard Dr. Orsini of all people say it. “Hate is a hell of a motivator.” He added, just to clarify his point.




Notes from author:

If you are wondering why there are no pics for this chapter, well it's simply not a very photogenic chapter. Pretty much everything happens at the human level.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Ha. I was reading it, and my memory was tickled. Not sure what exactly started the process. I didn't clue in on the time name or the miners name but I eventually clued in to the plot of the original Rodan. That's a classic Kaiju movie. Well done. A little mystery to it. I don't like the people heavy Kaiju movies, which, sadly, is almost all of them. But in that case its building tension and kind of a mislead as you find out its the bugs not Rodan. It was a good choice to dip into. Incidentally if there is any old school RPG fans out there theres a similar really good mine story quest called Inindo, Way of the Ninja. It also catches you way off guard. But if you try that youd best go in well prepared. Good advice whenever you find yourself going into a monster filled mine!

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Yeah, I’ve always liked the original Rodan movie. The human plot early on is just about as interesting as the monster story as a whole. And that’s kind of rare. There are a lot of Godzilla movies where you sit through the human drama just to get to the monsters action at the end, but you don’t have that problem with Rodan. I’d say it engages the audience almost from the get go. It works for me anyways. :Rodan56:

The big bug swerve is an absolutely a good twist. If there are any younger Godzilla fans reading this who have only watched Legendary Godzilla films and you have no idea what we are talking about, do yourselves a favor go check out the original stand alone Rodan movie. It’s on Tubi for free. Also, sorry for spoilers in my story. :lol:

The actual Rodan movie story is different though. It’s from the perspective of different characters and it plays out way different than my chapter does. Kind of the same events, but with a different outcome.

Seems like folks on the Fanfiction website liked this chapter too. Got several favorable reviews over there. Guess I’ll have to do a few more like this. I already have one particular plot in mind, but it’ll have to wait for the right time for that to land. Can’t just rush to it when other things have to happen first. The next couple of chapters are going to go back to my standard chapter format.

I had one guy complaining a while ago that there wasn’t enough horror in my story, since I had it listed under (sci-fi / horror). Hopefully this helps to shut him up. -_- I mean satisfy his need for horror. ;)
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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When I was younger I actually didn't like horror movies; as I age I find myself liking them more and more. Horror pairs very well with Science fiction; but I think it's not very fitting with the Kaiju theme. Usually. Kaiju are all about towering, awe inspiring world altering creatures whereas horror works best as an individual or group response to a terrifying situation. It's macro versus micro scale. That's why I think you made the right choice here. A chapter in a story or a scene in a kaiju movie can go the horror route, but overall it doesn't usually work well for Kaiju. Like the lice or parasites or whatever you want to call them in Cloverfield infecting people was a few scenes amidst a much larger story so it worked well.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:16 am When I was younger I actually didn't like horror movies; as I age I find myself liking them more and more. Horror pairs very well with Science fiction; but I think it's not very fitting with the Kaiju theme. Usually. Kaiju are all about towering, awe inspiring world altering creatures whereas horror works best as an individual or group response to a terrifying situation. It's macro versus micro scale. That's why I think you made the right choice here. A chapter in a story or a scene in a kaiju movie can go the horror route, but overall it doesn't usually work well for Kaiju. Like the lice or parasites or whatever you want to call them in Cloverfield infecting people was a few scenes amidst a much larger story so it worked well.
I like horror movies. I think some Godzilla movies can arguably be put into the horror category. ‘54 Godzilla and Godzilla 1985 would be the ones that jump out at me as leaning towards more traditional horror, but I think sci-fi/horror is typically a much better label for most Godzilla movies. Because, after all, they have both elements of horror and science fiction. Whenever I would look for Godzilla movies in my local video store, that’s the category they’d put them in. So, that makes the most sense to me.

I definitely like to have horror elements in my story, while at the same time not going too far off the rails and forgetting what Kaiju movies are supposed to be about. I would agree with you that they kind of occupy their own unique category of movie.

The guy who criticized the story for not being “horror enough” also said I was “ripping off” IDW comic storylines and that my characters were all “Mary Sues”. I think he assumed a lot of things without really considering what he was saying. :?

I’m going to be honest, usually I would take criticism in stride when I think it’s reasonable, but in his case, I came down hard and I ate him for lunch in a series of private messages. It took me awhile to explain to him everything that was wrong with what he said. He’s about the only person I’ve had to chew out for making dumb remarks. And that’s just because I felt they were baseless.

For starters, I’m not sure he understood that in fanfiction it’s pretty hard to rip off anything when nothing is your original IP to begin with. Making references to the original work is pretty standard with fan fiction and is not the same thing as ripping them off.

All things considered, I think I’ve done a lot of pretty original things with my story. My philosophy has always been to “respect the old, and embrace the new”. Or in more straight forward terms, tell a similar story, but with new and interesting elements.

Interestingly, I don’t think I have borrowed much of anything from the IDW comics yet, (though I actually do plan to later down the road). They’ve had a few ideas I like and would have written myself if they hadn’t beat me to the punch. But I don’t think there’s much of a basis for that bit of criticism at this point. If anything so far, I’ve borrowed a lot elements from the movies, but not from the comics. So, I don’t know where that criticism came from. :eh:

As for the “Mary Sue” remark, that is what really pissed me off. In the simplest terms, he was accusing me of writing characters who are good at everything, never fail, and lack any flaws. And that is just pure B.S. -_-

So… I handed his ass to him. I don’t think he expected me to come back at him, but I don’t just ignore that kind of behavior. :roll:

In the end, he really couldn’t argue with any of my counter points. I don’t like to get pissed off like that, but I think he was really asking for it. Long story short, if you want to be a critic, make sure you can back up your criticism with something solid. Otherwise, you’re going to get schooled.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

I wanted to mention something earlier but got side tracked with work stuff. You mentioned earlier you were disappointed you couldn't fully capture the military. Well as a veteran I can confirm the scene with the racoon? Half the soldiers in the world have been in some variation of that. In my case we heard something creeping around in the woods, called the halt, no response, waited on high alert for 15 minutes, heard something creeping up on our position and thought for sure it had to be the opposing force (it was training) so opened fire w blanks. From the muzzle flash we saw a very very panicked beaver. Thankfully all worked out ok there. Another time a friend of mine was rudely surprised by a rattlesnake on guard duty. That one ended worse for the snake. So congratulations, you nailed it. You captured the military experience very well this chapter!

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

mpsoldier wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 5:19 pm I wanted to mention something earlier but got side tracked with work stuff. You mentioned earlier you were disappointed you couldn't fully capture the military. Well as a veteran I can confirm the scene with the racoon? Half the soldiers in the world have been in some variation of that. In my case we heard something creeping around in the woods, called the halt, no response, waited on high alert for 15 minutes, heard something creeping up on our position and thought for sure it had to be the opposing force (it was training) so opened fire w blanks. From the muzzle flash we saw a very very panicked beaver. Thankfully all worked out ok there. Another time a friend of mine was rudely surprised by a rattlesnake on guard duty. That one ended worse for the snake. So congratulations, you nailed it. You captured the military experience very well this chapter!
Nice. :lol:
Custom Godzilla Modeler

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