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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
…