Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Chapter 36: “Battle of the Bugs”

In Shizunoura, Marcus sat quietly by himself at the top of the hill overlooking Mothra’s remains. Wind was blowing through the tall grass around him. He just couldn’t believe what had happened. He stared off at nothing in particular, his mind working through everything. There were so many questions floating around in his head. Why hadn’t Mothra retreated, or at least tried to fight with the new monster that had emerged from the egg? Together they may have stood a chance. In the final moments of the battle, what had Mothra done to Godzilla and why did it seemingly kill her doing it?

What was the armored caterpillar that had emerged from the egg? How did it relate to Mothra? Clearly there was some type of connection. Who wanted it destroyed, and why? Who were the spirits from Marcus’ dream and why did they want the egg protected? Why would Mothra go to such an extreme, going so far as to sacrifice herself, to protect it? The end of the battle had certainly left more questions in its aftermath than it answered.

Marcus’ innermost thoughts were disturbed by the thumbing of helicopter blades. He looked up and saw an Archimedes helicopter arriving above him. When it landed, he could see Brock inside. The burly marine got out, walked over, and informed Marcus that he was there to collect him and take him back to the USS Independence. The new monster was being tracked moving out to sea and Admiral Malek wanted Marcus to take part in the operation.

Akira and Ling had spotted the helicopter and were making their way back up the hill. Marcus watched them for a moment, and then slowly began to rise. Brock could tell he was upset, so he waved to the pilot to give him a moment so Marcus could explain what had happened. Marcus then summarized it all very quickly and concisely for Brock.

“Wow, you threatened a civilian?!” Brock asked incredulously when he was done.

“Well, he was an asshole.” Marcus replied defensively.

“Hey, I’m not attacking you, in fact, I couldn’t be prouder.” Brock waved a hand, belly laughing. “I only wish I was there to see it myself. That would have been classic.”

“Yeah, well I just hope he doesn’t raise a complaint.” Marcus countered anxiously. “It could reflect poorly on the organization if it were to get out.”

“He won’t.” Kiki cut in, standing behind Marcus and Brock. Somehow, she snuck up on them and had been eavesdropping on their conversation. They both turned to face her. “And his partner won’t either.” She followed up, anticipating Marcus’ next question. “They are both dead. They were in a hotel nearby that Godzilla crushed on his way here. Their broken bodies are being pulled from the wreckage by emergency crews as we speak.” Marcus peered behind Kiki and saw that she had been brought to the site by the IJA, who were fanning out. They must have needed her in to consult in some fashion.

“How do you know?” Brock asked suspiciously. He was very leery of Kiki, not forgetting about their last encounter together. She simply took her index and middle finger and tapped them twice on her temple, smiling at them knowingly.

“I see.” Marcus replied, understanding perfectly.

“Don’t fret, they were both scum.” Kiki said in a somewhat indifferent tone, which was very uncharacteristic for her. “They died fighting each other like animals. The two of them lived hateful and greedy lives, exploiting those around them. Trust me, they had it coming.”

“I suppose that’s what they get for having the hubris to try to keep a kaiju captive.” Marcus agreed.

“Marcus…” Kiki stepped forward unexpectedly. “I know that you are distraught about what happened to Mothra, but don’t be sad. It’s all going to work out in time. She simply gave something to Godzilla, and she took something in return.” She added cryptically.

“What do you mean?” Marcus asked confused. “How is she supposed to use anything she gained from Godzilla? She’s dead…” Marcus’ words trembled; he was starting to get upset again. His eyes welled up.

“I don’t know, actually.” Kiki answered, looking off to the side unsure of herself. Then she leaned forward and touched Marcus’ shoulder, quietly using her powers to sooth his sorrow. She did not take it away entirely, but rather made it more manageable. “I just have this feeling. Sorry, I don’t mean to be so ambiguous. All I know for sure is something was given, and something was taken away.”

“What are they going to do with the body?” Marcus asked, shaking off the strange feeling that was coming over him.

“I suppose that’s for the authorities to decide.” Kiki replied.

“Admiral Malek wants it studied.” Brock cut into the conversation. “He’s having one of the cruisers remain behind to begin the process. Dr. Orsini is going to be part of the team of scientists. She’s too big to move…” Brock hesitated before going on, he could see the news was hard for Marcus to hear. “…so they are going to build a facility around her.” Marcus found the notion distasteful, but at the same time, he understood. They had made a several breakthroughs understanding Kaiju through studying Kamerus’ body. They couldn’t waste this opportunity. Marcus could tolerate it, just so long as he didn’t have to be part of it.

“I guess it’s time to go.” Marcus noted, seeing that Ling and Akira had arrived at the top of the hill. Knowing what was going to happen, he didn’t want to be at the site anymore. He knew they shouldn’t keep the admiral waiting any longer anyways. Marcus, Brock, and Ling began walking towards the waiting chopper. But Ling stopped and turned back, facing Akira.

“Thank you for defending me.” Ling said simply, nodding to Akira in respect.

“It was nothing.” Akira replied, taken a little by surprise. “A man should be judged as an individual, by his own merits, not by his race or creed.”

Ling stared for a moment considering those words before nodding a second time to Akira. Then he got inside the helicopter and the side door closed behind him. The chopper lifted off, offering Marcus and the others one final look at Mothra as they began to rise up high into the sky.

“Thank you…” Marcus whispered to Mothra peering down. Then the chopper started forward, carrying them away from the area.



Their helicopter arrived at Suruga Bay sometime later. The Archimedes fleet was already beginning to break up. As Brock said, one cruiser was heading to the nearest harbor to remain behind with Mothra and set up shop. Another was setting a course to Sollgel Island. Marcus assumed Admiral Malek was dispatching them to retrieve his wayward spy. Brock had filled him in about the S.O.S. during their helicopter ride back to the fleet. Finally, the cruiser they landed on, the USS Olympia, was earmarked to pursue the new monster, who was heading away from Japan and out to sea due east. He was swimming on the surface of the water, so he was easy to track. The rest of the Archimedes fleet were spreading out to locate Godzilla, fearing that he was still lurking in Japanese territorial waters.



On Sollgel Island, events were moving forward. Despite help being enroute, the troubles of the survivors were far from over. A strange tropical illness had descended upon the party. Three-quarters of the men were stricken with high-fevers, extreme fatigue, and hallucinations. Fortunately, Raeko had already encountered this disease in her time on the island and she knew how to treat it. Near the center of the island was a lagoon of red water which had medicinal benefits. If they could obtain enough of it, they could essentially cure everyone overnight.

Out of necessity, Raeko had to go since she was the only one who could locate the pool. Maki wasted no time in volunteering too. Dr. Kusumi decided it was best to keep the number of personnel on the expedition to a bare minimum to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Two people on their own might have a better chance of remaining undetected compared to a large group. At first, Maki wanted to set out at night and stick to the forest to avoid discovery by one of the larger predators, but Raeko was quick to point out that they’d need to see and avoid the man-eating plants they had encountered on their last outing.

Raeko instead suggested an alternative that seemed safer, and yet carried some risks of its own. If they were to take the path that ran through the Spiga’s presumed lair, they could avoid the killer plants entirely and potentially the Kamacuras too. The expanse around the Spiga’s nest was rocky and unsuitable for vegetation to grow, and when they were normal sized, the Kamacuras avoided that area like the plague. However, it was possible that the giant mantids had grown bolder with their newly found stature. Nothing was certain.

Maki found Raeko’s reasoning suspect. The justification for taking her route lent weight to the theory that Spiga was more than just an island legend. If the Kamacuras avoided the area, it meant that they perceived a real threat residing there. However, the possibility of awaking a giant spider that could be imagined versus the near-certainly of encountering one of the Kamacuras, or something else equally dangerous in the jungle, undoubtedly was the lesser of the two evils. Thus, Maki agreed to Raeko’s plan.

The pair departed early in the morning to avoid the worst of the island heat. They soon found themselves traversing the outer ring of the stony crater which was allegedly Spiga’s home. There were no signs of activity, which made Maki feel better, but Raeko wasn’t feeling the same level of confidence he was. Her apprehension was written all over her face. Maki could hardly blame her. For Raeko, this was a dark, deep-seeded fear from her childhood that had never been properly confronted. Raeko thought she heard a noise below and froze. She stared down into the valley, watching for movement.

“Don’t worry Raeko, I’m right here with you.” Maki said quietly, coming up from behind, taking her hand supportively. “I won’t let anything happen to you, but we’d better keep moving.” He suggested. Raeko said nothing, but she looked at him and nodded.

Before long, they had made it to the other side of the crater and were moving onwards towards the waiting pool of red water. The path between them and it was surprisingly clear. They saw more animal-sized insects along the way, but nothing that was particularly threatening to them.

“The whole ecosystem here is changing, becoming sinister, and savage.” Raeko noted solemnly.

“Yeah, you can’t throw a rock around here without hitting at least three of these bugs.” Marcus replied, stepping over a three-foot-long millipede scurrying below him.

“I thought about what you said.” Raeko went on. “This really isn’t the home I knew anymore. I will return to Japan with you.”

“That’s great.” Maki exclaimed, trying to tone down his enthusiasm. “I was thinking too. You know, there are a lot of green places in Japan out in the countryside I’m sure you’d love. That might be a happy medium between this island and a city. There are still insects, but they certainly aren’t as big.” He quipped. Raeko smiled back at Maki as they came over a hill revealing the lake they sought. “Hey, look over there, it’s the red water. Let’s get some and then get the heck out of here.”

Raeko and Maki ran over to the shore of the red lake and took out their various canteens. One by one, they dipped the containers into the water and filled them up to the brim. As Raeko was finishing filling her final container, she took a healthy swig of the red water and then refilled it again. Maki was quick to follow her example. They might as well get ahead of any infection that could already be brewing inside of their systems.

The two of them rested there for a moment securing all of their cargo. As Maki was helping Raeko strap a container to her thigh, he noticed something troubling in the water next two them. Before they arrived, the surface of the lake was relatively still, but now Maki could see consistent ripples on the water. They were rhythmic, consistent, and getting stronger. It instantly dawned on Maki what could be causing it. He grabbed Raeko by the hand and took off with her running for the nearest cover.

Just as Maki and Raeko reached a line of trees, they heard the shrill call of one of the Kamacuras behind them. The steady impacts of the monster’s twin pairs of legs hitting the ground were what was causing the wrinkles on the water. Maki peaked out from their cover and saw that the monster was still a little ways off and hadn’t noticed them yet. He looked at Raeko, and without words, could see that they agreed the best thing to do was to keep moving away from the monster through cover.

By mere chance, the Kamacuras seemed to be going the same direction Maki and Raeko were. The monster was unknowingly closing in on their position. The mantid stopped briefly to drink at the lake but then kept moving forward towards them. After a few minutes, the Kamacuras was getting very close. Raeko and Maki started to run, recognizing that stealth was no longer the best option. They hoped if they could make it back to the Spiga’s lair, the giant mantis wouldn’t dare to follow them there.

The Kamacuras’ compound eyes picked up on Maki and Raeko’s movement amongst the trees and it shifted course, coming right for them. Any possibility of going unnoticed was gone. Worse, the water Maki and Raeko were carrying was starting to slow them down. Just as the came to the edge of the jungle, the monster used one of its hooked claws to sheer away the canopy over them. Trees tops popped off like dandy-lion heads, and fell all around Maki and Rako, fully revealing their presence.

Raeko and Maki kept going, desperately dashing to get away. They were nearing the outer edge of the stone valley. Now that the Kamacuras had seen them, nothing was going to stop him. The giant mantis took to the air and flew out ahead of Maki and Raeko. As he landed, Kamacuras found himself on the uneven surface of the inner edge of the crater. The monster slid slightly, displacing an entire section of boulders, sending the rocks tumbling down into the valley below.

Eventually Kamacuras found solid ground and regained his footing. He started to wheel around to face his prey. Maki and Raeko came to a halt, nearly out of breath and cut-off from their escape route. Neither of them was sure what to do next. Seeing very few options, Maki made a decision. He stepped in front of Raeko and began to take off his water bottles.

“When I say so, you take off to the left and try to make your way around the monster.” Maki instructed Raeko. “I’m going to charge it to get its attention and then break right. If I can keep it occupied long enough, you might just be able to escape.”

“What?!” Raeko exclaimed as Maki’s meaning sunk in. Clearly, he meant to sacrifice himself for her. “No, you can’t do that!” She objected.

“I’m sorry, Raeko.” Maki looked over to her with regret. “I didn’t want it to end like this. But one of us might make it this way.” Maki was tearing up, realizing these were likely going to be the last moments of his life. But if he was going to die, at least it was going to be doing something worthwhile.

“I can’t go along with that!” Raeko came up and put her arms around Maki, preventing him from going. “You can’t ask me to.” She was weeping too.

“There’s no time to argue.” Maki pleaded with Raeko. “Please, just do this for me.”

Meanwhile Kamacuras was still trying to climb back out of the crater. The loose soil there was giving him a hard time. With all of the monster’s weight being focused on the shaft-like tips of his thin legs, the dirt just couldn’t hold up to the stress, giving out again and again. The mantid was literally facing an uphill battle. Unbeknownst to all of the parties involved, something sinister was ensuing at the bottom of the pit.

All of the commotion Kamacuras’ struggling was causing had provoked the apex predator of Monster Island. Its domain encroached upon; Spiga was beginning to stir underneath the ground. No longer just a myth or a legend, he was awake. Suddenly, a massive hairy leg breached the surface of the pit. Neither Raeko, Maki, nor the Kamacuras were yet aware of the looming threat, even as it continued to emerge. More and more legs of the giant spider sprouted from the earth. Once enough of them had gained a foothold, Spiga pulled the rest of his body up to the surface. He took shape as rocks and dirt rolled off of his back.

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Once in the open air, Spiga wasted no time. He quickly identified a target and began to clamor up the side of the crater towards it. Unfortunately for Kamacuras, he was the target. The giant mantis finally started to detect the oncoming threat and turned its head to see the massive spider heading right for him. Kamacuras acted immediately, using its wings to fly up and over the edge of the crater, getting entirely clear. He landed a hundred yards back, facing towards Spiga. Instinctively, Kamacuras knew it was facing a lethal threat, but he was himself a predator, and hungry to boot. Spiga would make a grand feast if he could defeat him.

Kamacuras, however, had made a crucial error in judgement. If he was wise, he should have just kept flapping his wings and gotten away while he still had a chance to. When Spiga finally crested the outer ring of the basin, Kamacuras could see that the spider-kaiju was in fact quite a lot larger than he was. Spiga had looked considerably smaller when he was at the bottom of the pit climbing up. Now face to face, Kamacuras knew that he was outmatched. Perhaps if his two companions were with him, together they might stand a chance, but what lay before him was not a winning scenario.

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Seeing no other choice, Kamacuras rushed forward bravely, clamping down on one of Spiga’s front legs, trying to force him back into the crater. If he could just push Spiga back onto the loose soil, he could perhaps knock the giant spider back to the bottom of the pit, then escape into the sky while he was recovering. Spiga, however, was heavier than Kamacuras and had far more legs to push back with. He steadily pressed forward, forcing the mantid-kaiju backways until they were both on solid ground.

Out of desperation, Kamacuras tried to take flight, but his effort was short-lived. Spiga unleashed one of his most potent weapons, a strong and steady stream of webbing flowed forth from his mouth. Almost instantaneously, the webbing obstructed Kamacuras’ wings, preventing them from flapping anymore. Kamacuras sank back to the ground, landing almost exactly where he’d taken off from. Spiga spurt even more silk on him, which incapacitated Kamacuras even further. His every move became stiff and difficult.

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Sensing that Kamacuras couldn’t put up much more resistance, Spiga moved in for the kill. However, as the giant spider closed in, Kamacuras used all of its strength to rip through the web holding back its claws. The mutated mantid used its pointed claw to stab into Spiga’s face while using the hooked one to try to hold him back. Neither effort stopped Spiga for long though. The spider powered forward until he was right up next to Kamacuras’ face. Only then did Spiga deploy the venomous stinger from his mouth. The spike-like projectile pierced into Kamacuras forehead and injected poison inside. The toxin worked incredibly quickly. Within seconds, the light left Kamacuras’ compound eyes and his body collapsed to the ground, leaving Spiga to consume his meal at his leisure.

Maki and Raeko were both relieved and horrified at the same time. Raeko had always been scared of stories about Spiga, perhaps then it was ironic that he had just saved her. Just the same, he could hardly be looked upon as a friend going forward. As the battle ended, Maki and Raeko took up the red water and slipped around Spiga’s blind spot, making for the safety of the cavern. The remaining Kamacuras on the island were certainly still a threat, but they paled in comparison to Spiga. The rest of the science team needed to be warned about his emergence.



Several days later, Marcus was sailing out in the Pacific Ocean on board the fastest cruiser in the Archimedes fleet, the USS Olympia. They were on the trail of the armored caterpillar kaiju. Per Marcus’ suggestion, the new monster had been dubbed Battra. Much like Mothra before him, Marcus somehow just knew that was his proper name. Given that Marcus was the first person to realize that Battra wasn’t simply another Mothra larva and was also one of the few people present when he hatched, the higher ups decided to go with his name recommendation.

Japanese long-range aircraft had lost contact with Battra two days prior, but they reported that he was moving back out along the same trajectory Mothra had flow into Japan on. Thus, if they followed the flightpath long enough, they might just catch up with Battra. He was last seen continuing to swim on the surface, so they had a good chance of spotting him once they got close. The USS Olympia could only accommodate one helicopter on her aft helipad. Thus, they couldn’t send out dozens of search aircraft at a time. They needed to wait until they had something promising to investigate before launching.

Finally, at the extreme edge of the cruiser’s radar range, they detected something large out in the water ahead of them. It had to be Battra. The blip was enormous and still moving along the predicted path. Marcus had been waiting on standby in his flight gear and immediately scrambled to his helicopter as soon as he heard. He wanted to visually confirm it was Battra himself.

As Marcus’ chopper got a few miles away from the Olympia, the captain radioed to him that there were now multiple contacts out ahead of them. Marcus didn’t know what to make of that, but he figured it probably meant trouble. He’d have to be careful. As the minutes passed, and Marcus closed in on the targets, he thought about what Admiral Malek told him. The admiral wanted him to stick to Battra like glue. Gather as much intelligence on the monster as he could. He wanted a good feel for Battra’s capabilities. Marcus was essentially assigned to formulate a threat assessment. Too many times before Kaiju had managed to surprise them. Surprises in their field of work were generally very costly in men and material.

As Marcus scanned the sky ahead of him, he couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be a thunderstorm on the horizon. There were numerous flashes of purple and green light in quick succession. Marcus called in the strange sighting back to the Olympia, checking to see if there was supposed to be any inclement weather that day. The radio man reported back no storm activity was forecasted, only slightly overcast skies. That worried Marcus. He was getting closer to whatever was happening and could still see intense flashes of light.

In time, Marcus could make out plumes of smoke and explosions. A battle was taking place and Battra was at the heart of it. Marcus couldn’t yet identify who or what Battra was fighting against though. Another minute rolled by, and Marcus was nearly able to make out the action. He wished he’d remembered to take his binoculars with him. It looked as though he had missed the vast majority of the fight already.

Finally, as Marcus got closer, he came in low to investigate. What he found was mostly just burning wreckage. What Battra left in his wake appeared to be ships, but the hull designs weren’t like anything Marcus had ever seen before. They looked weird to him, almost too ornate for military vessels. Perhaps it was simply that the ships were so badly damaged, but Marcus couldn’t place the type of craft or their country of origin. Even the metal was darker than what was common for most navies. Very strange.

The question of who had attacked Battra and why was likely going to remain a mystery. The battle had taken place in a deep part of the Pacific and the seafloor was far below what any navy divers were going to be able to reach. Salvage of any form was unlikely. Marcus didn’t have a camera ready, so he just took a mental note of the ship designs. The ill-fated fleet had already started to sink. There were no less than eight battleship-sized warships. The lion’s share of each ship was already well-underwater.

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Marcus couldn’t quite understand why the battle was necessary. There were no great powers in the area who could possibility feel so threatened by Battra as to dispatch such a large fleet. And Battra wasn’t threatening anything whatsoever as best as Marcus could tell. There was nothing remotely in the vicinity to fight for. It just didn’t add up. Battra meanwhile had already resumed course to wherever his destination was. His head aggressively chomped up and down in the water as he glided through the ocean. Marcus redirected his helicopter to pursue. One thing was for sure, Battra could certainly be assessed as a legitimate threat.

As Marcus flew over Battra, he noticed a detail that helped explain something he hadn’t understood about the previous battle against Godzilla. The armored plates which made up Battra’s exoskeleton looked different than before. They were darker and looked more rigid than previously, as though they had hardened in the time since he hatched. A deeper understanding washed over Marcus. That must have been why Mothra didn’t want Battra to fight Godzilla alongside her. As a fresh hatchling, Battra simply wasn’t ready for a difficult fight. In his exposed state, he would have been quite vulnerable. The more Marcus thought about it, the more it made sense. When regular-sized insects molted or hatched, their new exoskeletons needed time to harden and dry. Mothra’s sacrifice was now somewhat understandable, though Marcus knew there was something more to it that he simply wasn’t seeing yet.

As the moments passed and Marcus pondered on what Kiki meant by something lost and something gained, he became aware that Battra and himself were approaching a landmass ahead of them. It was an island. Marcus radioed back to the Olympia to see if they had the isle on their charts. It took them a moment, but eventually they informed Marcus that it was on the charts and its name was Infant Island. A mysterious feeling shot up and down Marcus’ spine as he heard the name. A sensation of foreboding was building up in his gut. It was not a mistake that he had found himself here.

“It’s charted, but largely unexplored.” The radio man clarified, but Marcus wasn’t really listening to him.

Below, Battra made landfall and then did something Marcus was not expecting. The armored larva immediately began to dig into the soil of the beach and quickly disappeared underground. Perhaps Battra had realized that he was being followed and wanted to shake off his tail, but whatever the reason, he was gone. If Marcus couldn’t figure out where he went, he was going to be in hot water with Admiral Malek.



Off of the East coast of Japan, one Archimedes’ scout helicopters was following up on a lead. They were investigating a report which might indicate Godzilla’s presence. A local fisherman claimed to have seen an inexplicable spurt of foam and bubbles in one of his favorite fishing spots. There had been a lot of reports flowing in about potential Godzilla sightings in the last forty-eight hours. Most of them were well-meaning, but people were scared and jumping at shadows, leading to lots of dead ends.

As the helicopter closed in on the coordinates, the pilot could see a Japanese passenger liner passing through the area. Its crew must have missed the hazard bulletin that had gone out urging all shipping to avoid the area until it could be properly checked out. The chopper pilot, who was named Reggie, had a bad feeling. If Godzilla were to appear, things would go very badly for the liner and all abroad. Reggie’s helicopter was a standardly outfitted search and rescue bird, it lacked any heavy weaponry, and certainly lacked anything that was even remotely capable of getting Godzilla’s attention. Since there had been so many false sightings, the rest of fleet was spread thin. No other Archimedes assets were close by. Reggie was on his own. The civilian craft would have no real defense should the worst take place.

Reggie detected something in the water out ahead of the liner. A small area of white water, an irregularity on the surface of the ocean. It was about twenty meters wide. Not huge, but absolutely noticeable. Perhaps this was what the fisherman had been talking about. The anomaly was small and stationary. Reggie wasn’t certain what he was looking at, so he came a little closer to get a better view. The ship meanwhile was getting closer to the disturbance as well. Reggie switched on his radio and started to cycle through the channels on his receiver trying to raise the radio officer on the ship. Unfortunately, there was no answer no matter what he tried. Either he was on the wrong channel, they weren’t listening, or they simply didn’t understand him.

Suddenly, the worst-case scenario presented itself. The small anomaly came to life and grew until Godzilla ultimately came bursting up to the surface. He must have been sitting on the ocean floor and the proximity of the ship had roused him. Only then did the crew of the liner realize the danger they were in and started to alter course to avoid colliding directly with Godzilla. The ship’s collision alarm began to blare out a warning. Reggie was watching it all form above.

“Jesus, those people down there don’t stand a chance.” Reggie whispered to himself dismayed. There wasn’t a thing he could do about it either except for broadcast a mayday.

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Down below on the liner, the passengers and crew alike were panicking. Many people leap from the ship into the choppy ocean water. The wisest among them at least tried to grab lifejackets, ringed life-preservers, or even untie the lifeboats before abandoning ship, but many of them didn’t take the time to think about what would happen until after they had already hit the water. It was pandemonium.

Godzilla turned, seeing the ensuing chaos, drawn to it by all of the noise and commotion. To the shock of everyone present, Godzilla just ignored the vessel, starting to turn and move away from it. The worst thing that happened during the encounter was Godzilla’s tail popped up next to the liner and nearly swiped against it. His tail didn’t end up making contact though. However, the resulting wave sent the ship careening off course. After that, Godzilla paid the ship and the people floating helpless on the water very little mind. He just didn’t seem interested in them.

Reggie couldn’t believe it, this behavior was notably divergent from Godzilla’s normal pattern, seemingly less aggressive. Godzilla had an opportunity to destroy a ship and didn’t take it? Very strange indeed. Reggie suddenly remembered himself and called in the incident, sparing no details.

...

Back at Infant Island, Marcus was still searching for Battra. He circled the island interior with his helicopter, looking to see if the monster had resurfaced somewhere. Marcus found no traces of Battra, but he had discovered something else instead. On top the highest mountain of the island, there was a large stone temple built right into the peak of the rockface. Once Marcus laid eyes upon it, he had an irresistible urge to go inside. He sensed that there was something important waiting for him within.

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By that point, Marcus’ helicopter was running low on fuel though. He’d need to return to the ship and replenish his tanks before he could investigate further. The Olympia was trailing behind him, but closing in. If Marcus told the captain that Battra had disappeared on the island, it wouldn’t take much to convince him to allow a team to explore the area. That was Marcus’ in for the temple. He knew exactly who he’d hand pick for it too. Having Ling and Brock at his side would certainly be beneficial before proceeding any further. Reluctantly, Marcus turned his helicopter around and radioed the Olympia to update them on what he had found.

Within two hours, Marcus had returned with a team on board. As they passed over the jungle, Brock noted that a bad storm must have hit the island recently. There were trees down all over the place, most of them had been snapped in half from strong winds. That got Marcus to thinking about how far away Sollgel Island might be from there. The failed weather experiment had far-reaching effects and consequences, perhaps even more than they yet realized.

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As the helicopter got close to the mountain at the center of the island, Marcus started to look for a place to set down. The jungle below them was thick with vegetation. However, as they got to the mountainside, the options opened up a bit. No one wanted to make an extended climb up the mountainside, so Marcus looked for a flat stable spot as close to the mysterious temple as possible. He soon found a suitable location, but the party would still have a fairly elevated hike up the rockface to get to the shrine.

None of that bothered Marcus too much though. He was just eager to reach the temple. As soon as they landed, Marcus got out ahead of everyone and vigorously began to scale the mountain path. Brock actually had to call up to Marcus to slow down. Unlike Marcus, Brock’s top priority was safety. He didn’t want anyone to get separated from the group or risk falling off the side of the mountain because they weren’t being careful.

Marcus did his best to heed Brock’s warning, but he felt like a kid getting out of the family car at the entrance to a theme park after a long road trip. He anxiously waited for the others to catch up, feeling a mixture of excitement, nerves, and impatience all at once. The island was hot and humid, and for everyone else besides Marcus, the climb was a chore. Finally, everyone arrived at the huge temple doors. The structure was impressive to say the least. There was no telling how long it had stood, but it was massive and looked ancient.

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Marcus only marveled at the temple for a moment before proceeding to the huge wooden doors. He immediately started pushing against them. Unlike the stonework of the temple, the doors were not ancient. They weren’t exactly new, but they couldn’t have been there more than a couple years. Someone had to have replaced them relatively recently.

“Hey, be careful would you!” Brock growled. “There’s no telling if there are traps or something. We need to take this slow.”

“Would you just give me a hand with this?” Marcus scoffed annoyed. “You sound like an old woman.” Whatever kind of wood the doors were made out of, they were extremely heavy.

“Are you sure it’s not a pull door?” Brock replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes, and walking up next to Marcus. Brock put his shoulder into the door and began to press forward using his legs, digging his boots into the dirt. Even with Brock’s considerable assistance, the door was slow to open. The hinges creaked and finally gave way, opening up the temple to the outside world. Clearly, no one had come into the temple though the main doors in a long time.

The air inside of the temple was at least thirty-degrees cooler than the outside. The rest of the team stepped inside and were relived to be out of the heat. Marcus, however, wasn’t impressed with the change in temperature. He was already going forward, starting down the main passageway. It was just like his dream. He could feel goosebumps on the back of his neck. This was Mothra’s temple, he could feel it. He was treading upon sacred ground. Marcus could almost hear Mothra’s music reverberating in the walls. There was something in the air too, it might have just been ancient dust, but Marcus swore there was a golden shimmer to it. After a moment, Marcus felt Brock following behind him, no doubt trying to keep him out of trouble.

“I can feel the power of this place.” Marcus’ voice echoed back to Brock. He had a certain reverence in his tone. “Brock, keep an eye everyone else. Make sure they respect the temple. Don’t allow them to leave any trash in here and ensure nobody steals anything valuable they might find. When we’re gone, I want it to be like we weren’t even here.”

The group eventually found there way into the main chamber, and everything was just as Marcus remembered it. Only now he had the time to take a closer look at things. Ling was very interested in the murals and accompanying writing on the walls. He’d brought a camera along to document everything they found. He was overwhelmed by the sheer about of material he discovered.

“These are very old…” Ling remarked awestruck. “They have to be thousands of years old.”

“Can you read any of it?” Marcus inquired curiously.

“I think so.” Ling replied excitedly. “Give me a couple of minutes to wrap my head around it though. This language looks somewhat similar to Malaysian, but it’s older, more like the root-language. I need to concentrate for a bit to figure it out.” Ling was clearly enthusiastic about the discovery.

“Alright.” Marcus responded, letting Ling go about his business.

Marcus looked through the etchings in the wall. He could almost understand the stories without the words. Each mural depicted an event. Many of them appeared to be battles Mothra fought in. There was no way of knowing how far back some of them went and many of Mothra’s adversaries were truly bizarre. Marcus couldn’t decide if they were real or just myths the craftsmen of the temple had dreamt up. One of them was a three-headed dragon with gold painted scales. Could such a creature really exist? Another depiction close by looked like some sort of blueish-green mutant chicken with hook hands. Other illustrations were more reasonable, seemingly grounded in reality. One very closely resembled Anguirus, perhaps it was one of his ancestors?

Marcus circled the whole room until he found the statues of the twin priestesses, they were indeed real. The flames in their hands were real too. Marcus approached them with caution, not certain what to expect. The flames only sat there burning though. Marcus wasn’t sure what fed them. There were no candles, no wicks, no sticks with incense. There was nothing at all that was physically burning. The flames were seemingly sustaining themselves, burning eternally on top of the naked stone.

Marcus soon moved on, looking at yet more murals leading down a side hallway. The carvings down that section of the temple looked newer. They were old, but not ancient. As Marcus continued onward, the fresher the etchings got. He came up to an intersection and heard a noise around the corner. It seemed as though someone was there.

“Hello…?” Marcus said coming around the corner. He half-expected to see one of his men standing there, but whoever had been around the corner bolted when they heard him coming.

Marcus found a newly carved mural that was actually still in progress. Amazingly, it seemed as though someone was actively working inside the temple. The new mural depicted the fight Mothra just had with Godzilla in Japan. It was rudimentary, but all of the key hallmarks were there.

“I think I got it!” Ling’s voice echoed from the main room. When Marcus arrived, he could see that Ling had been standing there writing notes to himself the whole time he’d been off exploring.

“Ok, lets have it.” Marcus said eagerly to Ling.

“Ok, this isn’t going to be perfect, but here’s the story.” Ling began. “Mothra is the guardian monster of Earth. She is immortal so long as the lifeforce of the Earth itself endures.”

“Literally, or just like this is a myth and they are using creative license?” Brock asked, interrupting.

“I don’t know, that’s just what is says.” Ling replied. “The people who carved it could be exaggerating, but they seemed to have believed it. In any case, every battle Mothra has ever fought in is on these walls.” He went on. “She was created to maintain the balance and order of nature. Mainly, she was meant to control the Earth’s monsters. Ensure they never got too out of hand and keep them in check. She was also chosen to keep outside threats at bay.”

“That seems to track to me.” Marcus agreed with Ling. “When you consider the battles she’s fought.”

“Outside threats…?” Brock asked suspiciously. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Not sure on that point.” Ling answered. “The murals say something about the stars above though. Read into that what you will. It could be simply hyperbole. Anyways, all of the monsters in the carvings are opponents Mothra is said to have vanquished.”

“So, she was our protector.” Brock remarked. “Not anymore though, and it’s our own damn fault. We… mankind I mean, created something that nature could not, a kaiju Mothra couldn’t defeat.”

“That… seems so.” Marcus agreed. “What about this big mural in the center.” He asked Ling, quickly changing subjects. “It seems awfully important.”

“This temple was erected at about that time.” Ling replied. “Supposedly twelve thousand years ago Mothra won a great victory. The temple was erected to commemorate that triumph.”

“Holy smokes!” Marcus exclaimed. “That old…?” That predates the Romans, Egyptians, and even the Mesopotamians. This very well might be the oldest recorded human civilization to ever exist.”

“Yeah, well until we can get some sort of archologist in here to do some carbon dating, we’re just going to have to take their word for it.” Brock grumbled dismissively.

“So, what about the mural?” Marcus asked, trying to steer them back on topic.

“That is the story of The Black Mothra.” Ling went on, gesturing towards the huge mural with Mothra facing off against what appeared to be a dark version of herself. “At the time, there was an advanced human civilization populating the Earth. They had nearly perfected a device to control the world’s climate. This device, however, was throwing off the natural order of the planet and the Black Mothra appeared to challenge the might of this civilization.”

“Battra...” Marcus asserted.

“Battra.” Ling confirmed. “Well, a devastating war ensued between Battra and this advanced culture. At its climax, Battra destroyed the weather control device which inadvertently caused massive flooding across the globe. The floods all but wiped-out humanity. However, even this wasn’t enough for Battra. Protecting the planet was his one and only goal. To ensure humans never had another opportunity to build a second device, Battra sought out the survivors. He virtually wiped out all civilization. Mothra, however, was created to preserve all life, even flawed ones like mankind. So, she fought with Battra to protect us. In the end, she prevailed after an extended duel. Mothra didn’t kill Battra though. She simply sealed him away from the rest of the world. After the flood waters receded, the survivors began again from scratch. But many portions of the land remained permanently under the ocean, even to this day. A terrifying reminder of the cataclysm that came before, and a dire warning to those who would tamper with mother nature.”

“Hang on a moment, if they were such big enemies, why did Mothra sacrifice herself so that Battra could get away in Shizunoura?” Brock asked.

“I don’t think they are enemies.” Ling responded. “They share many of the same goals. They just disagree on one big issue, us.”

“I hate it when family gets divided by politics.” Brock quipped.

“I think I finally understand something.” Marcus announced to the group. “Battra first appeared because mankind created a weather control system, right? Well, isn’t that more or less what they are trying to perfect on Sollgel Island? What if the reason Battra has reappeared is because of their weather experiments? Yes, that has to be it.” Marcus convinced himself. “I know where Battra is going.”

“Sir, I’m getting a message from the Olympia.” Private Clemins reported, holding a radio. “They say a massive unidentified flying object is approaching!”

The group hastily made their way back to the temple’s entrance. By that point, a new monster was flying directly over Infant Island. It passed right over the temple, unnerving everyone and forcing them to retreat back inside. The creature came in for a landing, it was unclear if it had detected them or not, but it was blocking the path between the temple and the helicopter.

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The newcomer was a giant brown and burnt orange insect kaiju. It resembled a cross between a fly and a hornet, though it didn’t really favor one over the other. The monster clearly had a stinger at the rear end of its striped abdomen. Its wings were thin and had a transparent orange hue. The head was proportionally large compared to the body. Spikes were protruding from the back of its cranium. It had large round orange compound eyes, two antennas, and an oversized set of mandibles with a proboscis sticking out of its mouth. Overall, it could be best described as a hideous mutant.

“It must have flown in from Sollgel.” Marcus observed. “Reports coming out of there say it is crawling with giant insects like this. Maybe Battra has a point about wanting to destroy mankind. We have a penchant for creating new threats to ourselves and others.”

“How are we supposed to take off with that thing flying around?” Brock asked agitated.

“First we need to see if we can find another way out of the temple.” Marcus replied. “If we try to go out the front, that thing will see us for sure. There was someone else in the temple with us. If we can figure out where he went, maybe we’ll find the back door out of here.”

The group turned around and quickly marched back through the corridors of the temple until they came across the new wing. Beyond the works in progress, Marcus found a stone staircase leading downward. His instincts told him that was the way to go. As the group descended, it got very dark and hard to see. They had to be very mindful of where they stepped. However, as the group reached the bottom of the stairs, they could see a dim light in the tunnel ahead of them. They followed it until they entered an enormous underground chamber the size of a football stadium. Light was coming in from the top of the cavern where there was an opening in the middle of the ceiling.

In the center of the space there was an enormous brick staircase which vaguely resembled the pyramids found in South America. The stone steps led up to a raised pit which was flanked on all sides by a great stone wall. At the center of it all was a colossal blue and yellow egg. Marcus and Brock had seen one just like it before and they instantly recognized it for what it was, a Mothra egg. In Marcus’ heart, his hope and faith were restored. Perhaps the Great Moth Goddess really was immortal after all.

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There was a rumbling coming from above. Soot and soil fell from the ceiling. The giant insect from Sollgel was moving around above the temple, disturbing its very foundations. In so doing, the intruder provoked a strong response. Marcus could hear the music of the temple coming to life, stirring the spirit of his very soul, as well as other things around him. The egg up on the platform flashed with bright yellow light, drawing the attention of everyone in the cavern. As they all watched, the egg began to hatch. But instead of a single Mothra Larva emerging from the shell, there were two. It was easy to distinguish between the two siblings. One of them had red eyes, the other blue.

Though they had just been born, the twin larva wasted no time. They began moving. One after the other, they made for the exit. There was a large tunnel on the far side of the egg’s shrine which allowed them to leave the temple and move into the jungle outside. Marcus and the team stood there for a moment before they ran to follow them out. The larva had shown them the back door out.

By the time Marcus and the others got outside the battle had already begun. The intruding insect monster had taken to the sky and was circling the Mothra larva, sizing them up. It decided that they were a potential meal, but it had badly underestimated what it was up against. The creature dove down, intending to sting and carry off the blue-eyed Larva. However, the red-eyed larva defended its sibling, raising its head and spraying a solid jet of silk at the attacker when it came close. The intruder didn’t expect that. One of its compound eyes ended up completely covered by the silk, hampering its vision. The flying predator retreated out of range towards the coast trying to clear the blockage over its eye, but its front legs couldn't reach its face. Thus, it just kept circling in a tight pattern over and over again.

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The Mothra larva weren’t idle during this time. They pursued the giant insect to the beach and waited. As the invader continued to circle, they lined him up for a second volley. When he came around, both Mothra Larva launched a coordinated strike, each of them targeting one of his wings. Their silk quickly found its mark, entailing the wings of the intruder. Very quickly, the monster’s wings were gummed up and stopped flapping. Practically paralyzed without the use of his wings, the monster fell from the sky into the ocean. His legs were virtually useless for keeping himself afloat on the water and the monster’s own weight rapidly pulled him below the waves. As he sank, the monster let out one final dead cry as his mouth filled up with water.

The threat was vanquished, but the Mothra larva didn’t sit around to celebrate their victory. Instead, they took to the ocean themselves and began to swim on the surface. Marcus was impressed as he watched their heads bob up and down. For worms that lacked any significant arms or legs, the Mothra larva took to the water remarkably well, as though it was second nature to them.

“Where are they going?” Brock asked.

“Same place we are.” Marcus answered. “Let’s get back to the Olympia so we can get underway.”



Three hours later off of the coast of Sollgel Island, the USS Clarkstown was arriving for its retrieval operation. The cruiser slowed as it crept towards the coastline until it stopped entirely. Her captain looked through his binoculars and sighted the dilapidated weather towers, confirming their location. The helicopter on the back deck was being readied, and the radio officer was preparing to make contact with the science team to let them know they had arrived.

No sooner had the Clarkstown put down its anchor than Battra burst out of the ocean right next to the ship. He slammed his body down across the middle of the vessel like a hammer. The crew of the Clarkstown never even had a chance to respond, Battra’s weight split the ship in two. Both halves of the ship exploded as the ordinance inside ignited. The cruiser was demolished, no possibility of survivors.

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Inside of the cave on Sollgel, Fuji had picked up the Clarkstown’s initial hail, but the ship was gone before he could even acknowledge them. He tried to raise them again and again and only got dead air in response.

Having eliminated the first obstacle in his way, Battra landed on Sollgel and proceeded towards the ruins of the research base. When he arrived there, Battra began to flatten every building he found. Any equipment that had been left behind was lost for good, nothing was left standing. Satisfied with that, Battra turned and started to scour the rest of the island for people. Anything that valued its life got out of his way.

As Battra searched, he was eventually confronted by a group of Kamacuras, the two remaining full-sized specimens, and a number of smaller ones who had joined them. The troop had just finished consuming a giant hornet they’d ambushed and torn to pieces. Now they were eyeing Battra as a potential second course. It was getting crowded on Sollgel island, small wonder there were individuals who were starting to branch out to other places. The various islands in the Sollgel chain were already being infested at a rapid rate.

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Battra recognized the Kamacuras as aberrations, the unnatural offspring of the weather experiments. Therefore, he had very little respect for their continued existence. One of the two larger Kamacuras lunged at Battra, hoping to take him by surprise, but it was the giant mantis that was in for a surprise. Battra’s head lit up with powerful yellow jolts of power as he charged up for an attack. A moment later, Battra unleashed intense bolts of purple energy from his eyes. The prism beams cut right through Kamacuras’ carapace, dismembering the insect in a violent spectacle.

The body parts fell to the ground, innards staining the soil. The other Kamacuras, in particular the only remaining full-sized one with the damaged compound eye, witnessed what happened to their companion and were a lot less willing to test Battra’s resolve after that. Battra however didn’t wait for them to make the next move. He released even more purple prisms which slaughtered several of the smaller mantids.

The alpha Kamacuras wisely took to the air and retreated. But it didn’t just fly to another part of the island. Instead, she just kept flying, leaving Sollgel behind entirely. Some of the other smaller Kamacuras took their que from her and followed behind. They had left behind a parting gift though. A clutch of eggs had been laid just days before, ensuring that there would be a second generation of the monsters on the island in the months to come.

With the threat dispatched, Battra moved on continuing his sweep. He was on course to pass right over the hidden refuge of the scientists but had to cross through Spiga’s territory to do so. The spider Kaiju detected Battra approaching and came out to challenge him when he arrived. Spiga managed to surprise Battra, emerging from its pit in front of him seemingly out of nowhere. He began to spray Battra with his webbing. Pressing his advantage, Spiga poured more and more webbing on top of Battra.

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Before long, Battra’s head was nearly covered in the silk, and he couldn’t see. Spiga saw his opportunity and closed in for the kill. He came right up to Battra’s side and launched his stinger into his neck. However, things didn’t remotely go the way Spiga had intended them to. His needle-like stinger bounced right off of Battra’s heavily armored exoskeleton and shot painfully back into his mouth. Battra then used his prism beams to burn right through the webbing covering his eyes.

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Now able to see a target, the horn on top of Battra’s head burnt bright yellow, melting away much of the remaining silk. Battra brought the still burning horn down upon one of Spiga’s exposed legs, slicing it clean off at the most distant joint. Spiga shrieked in pain and backed off. Battra oddly did not escalate the fight further, even though he could have easily unleashed more of his deadly prism beams at close range. Instead, Spiga retreated back into its hole and Battra moved on.



Meanwhile, the USS Olympia, trailing behind the twin Mothra larva, arrived at Sollgel. The wreckage of the Clarkstown was still in the area, clueing them into the fate of their sister ship. Marcus just hoped the scientists weren’t already on board when it happened. The Olympia’s radio man attempted to contact the scient team. Fuji instantly responded, giving them exact coordinates of where to land. Marcus told the scientists to be ready to evacuate in ten minutes, sensing a certain urgency in the air.

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The Mothra larva had already crawled onto the beach in the meantime and were disappearing into the jungle beyond. The Captain of the Olympia contacted Admiral Malek and brought him up to speed on the situation while Marcus ran to the helipad to get into the air.

Inside of the cave, Fuji told the rest of the survivors to pack up anything they couldn’t live without and get topside for the evacuation helicopter. Everyone was overjoyed to hear the news. After all of the hardships and horrors they had gone through, they were finally being rescued. Dr. Kusumi and the majority of the team immediately went to the surface. Raeko and Maki told them they’d bring up the rear, helping Fuji walk since his leg was still pretty banged up.

Above the cave, high upon the rocks, was a plateau which would be an ideal landing spot for the helicopter when it arrived. The men started to climb up to it, so they’d be easy to spot from the sky. Some were even carrying spare articles of clothing to wave.

Maki, Raeko, and Fuji were still lagging behind at the entrance as the others reached the crest of the hill. What waited for them there wasn’t the helicopter though. Two huge menacing red eyes were staring the men in the face. Battra had been waiting there for them all along. As the whole science team stood there in shock and horror, energy began to dance along the jagged crests of Battra’s head until finally his purple prism beams shot out and vaporized them.

Maki could see the discharge of energy fly above his head and felt the heat of it. He knew something terrible had just happened. But it wasn’t over. Furukawa, the lone survivor of the attack, ran down the side of the hill towards them shouting. Battra was climbing up the far side of the hill in pursuit, caving in the cavern below them. There was nowhere to go now, and Furukawa was leading the monster right to them. Battra was closing in fast. When Maki caught sight of him, he didn’t know what to make of Battra. All he saw was a vast black mass of rage. It felt like death was coming for them. So close to escape, only to die like this.

Maki looked over to Raeko with remorse. If Japanese scientists hadn’t come to her island, she could have lived a long, full life there in relative peace. Their experiments had cost her everything. They deserved their fate for tampering with nature, but she hadn’t, and she didn’t. If Maki could only have one final wish, it would be for her to be spared.

Their absolution was already at hand though. Before Battra could deliver a death blow, he was struck by the sticky silk of another monster’s attack. Maki thought perhaps it was Spiga, but he was wrong. Two new monsters had arrived on the scene, a pair of ugly brown worms. They confronted Battra and drew his attention away from the last survivors of Sollgel. As Battra moved away, Maki could hear the pitter-patter of helicopter blades beating against the air from the direction of the sea. Their rescue had finally come.

Meanwhile, the Mothras were calling to Battra to keep his interest. Battra called back, sounding disgruntled with them. Finally, Battra lost his cool and lashed out, firing his prism beams at his cousins. The Mothra twins had anticipated such a response and made sure to position themselves close to cover that they could duck behind. The grey rockface in front of them absorbed a healthy dose of punishment in their place.

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“Holy smokes, I didn’t know he could do that!” Marcus exclaimed from his cockpit, seeing the flashy yet brutal attack unfold. He pulled down the visor on his helmet to compensate. Below, Marcus could see the last four survivors of the science team running towards him. He put down as fast as he could safely. “Come on, get in!” He shouted through his open window.

Furukawa was the first one inside the helicopter, leaving Raeko and Maki behind to help Fuji. Furukawa had a wildness in his eyes. A part of him definitely wanted Marcus to take off right that second and leave the others to their fate. Eventually Maki, Raeko, and Fuji finally made it on board too. Marcus pulled away as soon as they shut the door. Battra finally noticed the helicopter and turned towards it. Marcus hit the throttle and pushed his machine as hard as he could to get distance between them and Battra.

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Battra unleashed his prism beams, but the rays were hard to focus on such a small target. The beams missed both left and right of the helicopter, slashing up and down wildly in the air. Battra had missed. They’d gotten very lucky, but Battra wasn’t done. He prepared to take another shot at them but was prevented from doing so. One of the Mothra larva employed a new trick. She had spit out a line of silk as usual, but it was more concentrated and remained connected inside her mouth. The larva attached the strand to Battra’s head and used it to pull his face away from the retreating helicopter. When Battra unleashed his attack, it ended up blasting the ground around his feet.

After recovering, Battra glared over the Mothra larva. The helicopter was now too far away to target again properly. They had gotten away, and Battra was not too pleased about it. The blued-eyed Mothra released the line, but it was already too late. Battra retaliated, striking her with his prism beams. The larva took the hit well, but it still hurt. Battra then started towards the pair of Mothra larva, looking to inflict some punishment. The Mothra larva had other ideas though. They both unleashed their silk spray, beginning to cover Battra with it.

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Aside from physically slowing down an opponent, the silk had another more subtle purpose. It was coated with a tranquilizing pheromone formulated to calm and sedate a target. For Battra, this meant soothing his rage. The beauty of it was the silk didn’t have to penetrate his armor to be effective. Battra was breathing it in through the spiracles on his abdomen.

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As with Spiga, Battra countered the silk attack using a combination of his prism beams and the heat of his horn attacks to burn it off. However, Battra had no way of counteracting the pheromone itself. Vaporizing the silk only put more of it in the air around him. Battra started to slow and then finally stopped. The pheromone vapors were having an effect on him. Battra however wouldn’t allow the Mothras to win a decisive victory over him. He crouched down and began to burrow underground to escape. He was gone in thirty seconds, leaving the twin Mothras alone on the battlefield to claim victory.



A day later, the USS Olympia was rejoining the rest of the Archimedes fleet. Admiral Malek was personally waiting the on the flight deck of the USS Independence to interview the survivors before they were transported back to Japan. Marcus flew them over himself; he wanted to see how the Admiral would react to them. While flying back to the Olympia from Sollgel, Maki had told Marcus all about what happened on the island. The failed experiment, the giant insects, and the mysterious cargo the Russians had hauled away.

When they landed, Furukawa lay down on the deck of the carrier and wept. For the first time in a long time, he finally felt safe. Marcus could tell Furukawa’s experience on Sollgel was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He’d never fully get past it. Fuji, who was now on crutches, moved past Furukawa, sparing him a glance of distain. Admiral Malek walked towards the two men as soon as he saw them. Marcus made sure to get himself within earshot of the conversation.

“Do you have it?” Malek demanded impatiently.

“I have some of it.” Fuji replied, opening up the satchel hanging from his shoulder. “Here are the full notes on the chemical composition of the freeze-formula. From this, the compound can be reproduced. It got pretty hairy on the island when giant bugs started attacking. Most of the other technical notes were lost during our march through the jungle. There’s nothing I could do about that. They got eaten with the men carrying them.”

“Dr. Kusumi was killed for certain...?” Admiral Malek asked coolly.

“Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.” Fuji confirmed. Malek seemed very disappointed by that news.

“I suppose there’s nothing for it.” Malek grumbled. “We’ll just have to do the best with what we have.” When Marcus heard that, he knew he had to say something, even if it meant risking exposing himself for reading the file in Admiral Malek’s office. The stakes were just too high, lives were at risk.

“Sir, we can’t risk pursuing the weather control system.” Marcus said earnestly. Malek looked over at him sternly, obviously annoyed that he already knew about it. “If we do, we will bring down that new monster Battra upon ourselves. He simply will not allow anyone to complete such a device. He destroyed an entire civilization to prevent it in the past. I found strong evidence to support that theory. If you’d just give me a moment to collect it.” Admiral Malek held up his hand to quiet Marcus down.

“I see that you have been talking to the other survivors.” Admiral Malek noted. He immediately assumed Maki and Raeko were Marcus’ sole source of information. “When I debrief them, you can bring your evidence along and present it to me. You are one of my very best men, I’ll certainly hear you out.”

“I don’t think we could reproduce the system again at this point anyways Admiral.” Fuji cut in. “Dr. Kusumi was the heart and soul of the project. With him gone, it’s a major setback. However, I think we could potentially produce a focused and directable cryo-weapon.” Malek stood there considering it.

“That might be worth something.” Admiral agreed.
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ConvergeTakedown
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by ConvergeTakedown »

Is the hornet guy based on any monster in particular, or is he a one-off? I almost thought he was a matured Meganulon for a moment.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

ConvergeTakedown wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 1:25 pm Is the hornet guy based on any monster in particular, or is he a one-off? I almost thought he was a matured Meganulon for a moment.
That particular Kaiju is loosely based on an old school Marvel Comics character from the late 1970s named Lepirax. I believe this is actually the first time I used one of their monsters, but it won't be the last time. I'll attach a few photos for reference:

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It may seem like it for now, but I'm not actually done with the Meganulon plotline quite yet either. ;)

Added in 10 minutes 12 seconds:
BTW, I can see what you are talking about with the resemblance to a mature Meganulon. Perhaps a missed opportunity...? Then again, I only have one of these figures, and I'd want a bunch for a flock of Meganulons.

It's a really neat figure, but I have no idea what it is or where it is from. I just happened upon it on ebay when I was looking for something else. I think it fits in real nicely with the ascetics of the established Godzilla universe though. May not be the last time this figure/character makes an appearance in some shape or form. In the comics, he had a few friends. A "reunion" might be in order.
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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Hey, really enjoying the update. You've gotten better as a writer, your work is a little less heavy handed. More subtle, which is much better for some scenes. Although Kaiju works don't often call for subtlety it works with the human moments. The Spriga model was a definite high light. The shot of it coming out of the cave was positively masterful. I had mentally braced myself for disappointment to be honest because the whole giant Spider vs Mantis thing was foreshadowed so often we all knew it was coming. Given the size discrepancy I thought at least with only a single mantis it should be a total mismatch; and for some reason (heck, I blame the WWE) writers these days seem to consider the idea of a one sided battle or a total blowout to be wrong. I was expecting you to make it much more of a battle then it should be; especially since the KWC specifically forbids total defeat in their series. It was refreshing to finally see a much more realistic take on things.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

..

Yeah, I got lucky with the Spiga (Kumonga) model. A company called Iwakura made figures for both him and the 3 individual Kamacuras characters. So, not only do they size up perfectly, but each also has a very high level of detail. Iwakura does good work. More than a couple of my models/characters are theirs.

A Squash-match can be fun if it’s handled correctly. I’m guessing you’re not entirely done with the chapter yet, because it’s sort of a theme throughout the whole thing. There are several one-sided battles. The thing about Kamacuras (our ‘enhancement’ talent for the chapter) is individually they seem very weak to me. Only in large numbers, or when facing an even weaker opponent, are they really a legitimate threat. If I was still doing the Kaiju stat card thing from earlier chapters, Kamacuras would definitely be one of the lowest rated monsters. There’s just not a lot of other Kaiju they could beat, even with a numbers advantage.

I generally try to write Kaiju battles in a realistic sense. If there’s room for a competitive fight, great, I try to respect (or at least not not alienate) the fans of individual monsters, but Spiga one on one against Kamacuras, there just isn’t much the poor mantis can do against those odds. Kamacuras simply isn’t equipped for a threat like that. As you pointed out, it’s a total mismatch.

Lost me with KWC. I don’t think I’ve read that.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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KWC, the Kaiju fight club here on the Toho Kingdom main page. There's over 400 battles. Some are great, some are bad but almost all are amusing to a Kaiju fan. They expressly forbid total blow outs which is why I didn't end up doing my idea for a Jet Jaguar/Ghidorah battle. They range from a few paragraphs to a few pages.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 5:10 pm KWC, the Kaiju fight club here on the Toho Kingdom main page. There's over 400 battles. Some are great, some are bad but almost all are amusing to a Kaiju fan. They expressly forbid total blow outs which is why I didn't end up doing my idea for a Jet Jaguar/Ghidorah battle. They range from a few paragraphs to a few pages.
Ah, I see. Clearly I don’t get out much. ;)

I’ll probably stay away from KWC for the very simple reason of I don’t want reading them to influence anything I’m doing. I’d guess they forbid blowouts for the same reason I tend to avoid them. However, should a dramatic or logical reason compel me to, I’ll write other ‘jobber’ matches. :)
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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After reading the latest chapter, I’ve gotta say, Battra tearing his way through Sollgel Island was pretty awesome. Definitely a highlight of the whole story for me.
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:Gigan: Gigan <3 :Gigan:
But Gigan is a villain that prove you support only villain not hero
Wrong. The current MonsterVerse films are “kaka”. At least these classic Showa kaiju films ain’t WOKE!

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Gojira 41mk11 wrote: Tue Jun 13, 2023 6:15 am After reading the latest chapter, I’ve gotta say, Battra tearing his way through Sollgel Island was pretty awesome. Definitely a highlight of the whole story for me.
I’m a pretty big fan of Battra. He’s very cool. I wouldn’t quite go as far as to say he is my favorite Godzilla monster (just cause there are so many really well designed and written characters from the franchise), but he’s a good’n for sure and he’s Definitely going to play an important part in the story going forward. He ties in closely with no less than two major plots yet to come.

Like a lot of the earlier monster characters I the story, He’s woefully underrepresented in the franchise. Just one movie appearance. I think he needs a little more love. :lol:

Added in 15 minutes 58 seconds:


Oh, and I’ve been meaning to post this for awhile, but I’m going on a longer break again.

I really need to go back and re-read old chapters to figure I where I was going with the overarching plot. I’m finally out of old notes. When my junk drive broke down, I wrote down as much material as I could remember from memory. And now that material has pretty much been expended too.

I kind of know what next chapter is going to be, but I need to get reorganized or I’m going to start making continuity errors and the overall story quality will suffer. I’m still really bummed out about the lost notes, because I know there were some great ideas in there that I’m simply not going to remember again. They’re just lost forever now. :dizzy:

Anyways, I’m hoping to get back on track ‘maybe’ by the end of this month and then hopefully will be ready to post the next chapter around August 1st. Can’t quite promise that though.
Last edited by Ashram52 on Tue Jun 13, 2023 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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The loss of the notes is lamentable but gives you a little more creative freedom to re evaluate things and come up with something better. Or at least a few tweaks to improve it. Yeah Battra needs more attention. His whole weather balance fits in well with our current world. Thanks to global warming forest fires are out of control. Huge parts of Canada were on fire earlier this week. Floods, hurricanes, heat waves, whole world has gone crazy.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Looking forward to more Godzilla tacky *** salt.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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:lol:

Well, I think I’m going to get started writing the next chapter this weekend.

I’m not even close to being caught up with re-reading old chapters yet, but I don’t really have to be to write the next chapter. I already know exactly what I want to do with it anyways. :Rodan56:

I should be able to keep my word and get the new chapter posted by early Aug, then I’ll try to get back to my reading backlog.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Chapter 37: The Signal.

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In the Murmansk Oblast, fifty miles west of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet Headquarters in Severomorsk, the Russians had built a secret research and development base. In the beginning, its sole purpose was to further develop ICBM technology. However, Russia’s list of enemies was extensive and included giant monsters which occupied its own territory. Thus, they needed more advanced weapons which wouldn’t leave their countryside uninhabitable when all was said and done.

Since the base’s inception, it had expanded into several other areas of research. A new organization was created and grew until it became the Russian equivalent of Archimedes. Above ground, there was an airbase for bombers and fighters. Below ground, there were nuclear missile silos, a huge machine shop for building Helltanks that the Russians were creating with their stolen Maser blueprints, and an advanced research center dedicated to studying Kaiju.

On the surface of the base, near the main access tunnel of the underground bunker, a woman in a white lab coat was waiting at the helipad. She inspected her watch, noting impatiently that the shipment she was waiting on was already overdue by an hour. Although the sun was high in the sky, the wind had a wicked chill to it. This was actually considered the warm time of the year for the area, but the base was located very far north in the Russian frontier. The woman was around thirty-five years old, thin, had long blonde hair, and icy blue eyes. She didn’t mind the cold so much. Appearances aside, she was quite tough and was focused on the task at hand. She was quite eager to get a look at her new specimen, so she just paced back and forth to pass the time and stay warm.

At last, the woman heard what she was waiting for approaching. A large transport helicopter was arriving at the base from the north. She stepped behind a nearby barrier to avoid the strong gust of air the helicopter displaced as it neared the landing zone. When it touched down, the crew inside the chopper wasted no time. They got to work opening the cargo bay and unloading their payload. A specialized transport truck was brought up from the tunnel and the cargo was loaded onto it. There was a label on the side of the container that read: Sollgel Island.

Once the crate was in the hands of the base personnel, the helicopter crew retreated back to their craft and departed. As the gusts of wind died down, the blonde-haired scientist emerged from her refuge and came over to inspect the cargo for herself up close. The loading team looked annoyed, but they knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be denied. Without a word, the workers used their crowbars to open the top portion of the crate so she could see what was inside.

Anya, the scientist, eagerly climbed to the top of the crate to get her first look at its contents. To her delight, there was a very large egg nestled inside the container. It was roughly the size of a car; bigger than the last specimen she’d received. Anya just stared at the egg, fascinated by the discovery, and taking in every detail. Color, texture, dimensions, she soaked it all in. The egg had brown and tan striations from top to bottom. Natural camouflage, well-suited for the wild.

The driver of the transport vehicle shouted back to Anya that he was ready to proceed into the base. Anya decided she wanted to go along for the ride and shouted back to him to proceed onwards. She wasn’t ready to let this marvel out of her sight just yet. The vehicle lurched forward forcefully, rocking both Anya and the egg. Annoyed and incensed, Anya was about to yell up for the driver to be more careful, but before she could, she was distracted by something quite unexpected. The egg was changing color before her very eyes. It seemingly turned a shade of bright orange. With that, the words fell away from Anya. She didn’t know what to make of it. In all of her years in research, she’d never seen anything like it before. As the truck got going and steadied, the color of the egg faded back to its normal brown and tan color scheme.

The transport truck descended down onto the declining cement ramp and then entered the underground base through a huge set of metal doors. Just beyond the entrance was the beginning of a long tunnel which would lead them deeper inside towards the main bunker. The corridor was vast and speckled with overhead lights every twenty yards or so. Anya didn’t count how many they passed along the way, but the cycle of darkness and light was repeated many times until they found themselves at the base’s inner security checkpoint.

The transport vehicle stopped and was thoroughly inspected. IDs cards were checked, and clearance verifications were confirmed before they were allowed to proceed further. The Russians couldn’t be too careful; the facility was designed first and foremost as a first strike base. Several sections of the facility were still dedicated launch sites and contained nuclear weapons.

Once the armed guards were satisfied with what they found, Anya and the transport team were allowed to enter the inner sanctum of the base. The big doors opened, and they drove through, passing more soldiers and scientists at work along the way. Before too long, they found the hub of the kaiju research center. There the hauler came to a halt. A horde of research assistants came out to help remove the egg from its wooden crate. They stripped away one side of the frame and then slowly began to roll the egg down a ramp.

Anya was feeling a little anxious about this step. If they lost control over the egg at this point, it could be a very messy disaster. However, with ten men on each side, they were able to carefully maneuver the egg down safely. Once they were off of the platform, the hazardous portion of their task was done. Everyone involved breathed a little easier from that point forward. The men rolled their prize into a pre-prepared glass box with soft grooved brackets on the floor to secure it. The containment unit had its own separate climate controls where the egg could rest in warmth and safely. Anya came forward again to admire it from the other side of the glass. She could now see the egg in its entirety. It was a wonder to behold, more precious than the jeweled Faberge eggs of Saint Petersburg that had belonged to the Czars.

Anya only took her eyes off the mystery egg for a moment to peer over to the companion next to it, the stolen Rodan egg recovered from Kamchatka. What a sight they were together.



On the other side of the world, Marcus was doing a reconnaissance flight over the Sollgel Island chain, or as they were more commonly becoming known, the Monster Islands. They’d gained that moniker for good reason. The isles below were overrun with various new species, many of them large and quite hostile to mankind. Chief among them was Spiga. After Battra’s disappearance, Spiga resumed his place as the most dominant force of the islands. He was undisputed as the top of the food chain and had plenty of other things to prey upon there.

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A lot of things had changed since the most recent battle. Dr. Orsini was no longer needed for the Mothra research project in Japan. Primarily because Mothra’s body had disappeared and there wasn’t anything left to study. She had simply vanished overnight, and no one could explain it. So, Dr. Orsini had rejoined the Archimedes fleet at Sollgel. He asked to join Marcus on his most recent recon flight to get a better look at the new lifeforms discovered on the islands. He was, however, still very preoccupied by Mothra’s disappearance.

“How could anyone move something that big without anyone noticing…?” Dr. Orsini asked exasperated. “Poof and she’s gone just like that.” He snapped his fingers for dramatic effect. “Admiral Malek was furious about it when he heard. We didn’t even get a chance to start studying her body. No useful information was collected whatsoever... I just don’t know what to tell him. No one could have stolen it out from under our noses. She’s just gone like magic. Now you see her, no you don’t.” He complained.

“I got nothing…” Marcus replied. “It sounds pretty insane for sure.” He noted. Despite his genuine sympathies for Dr. Orsini, Marcus was secretly happy to know that Mothra’s body was not going to be defiled. He just couldn’t say it openly to anyone. “At least you’ll have some new specimens here to study.” He tried to change the subject. “An entire new ecosystem in fact.”

“Well, you’ve found the silver lining.” Dr. Orsini sighed. “There’s certainly a lot going on down there.” He agreed, peering out the side window. Below they could see various species of giant insects moving around, large carnivorous plants, and most interesting of all, Spiga’s severed section of leg had entirely grown back since his fight with Battra. While the injury had been small, the giant spider had still recovered remarkably fast.

Regardless of all the impressive sights they saw on Sollgel, Dr. Orsini couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed. He’d hoped to catch a glimpse of the twin Mothra larvae and Battra, but they’d all disappeared from the island after their showdown. None of them had been heard from since. The doctor was quite curious about the differences in the two Mothra specimens. Marcus had described them as being markedly different from one another. Dr. Orsini theorized that perhaps one of the Mothra larvae was male and the other was female. That could explain the variation of eye color and their uniquely shaped heads. Of course, that could just come down to distinct differences between one individual to another as well. Still, Marcus liked Dr. Orsini’s theory. He thought there might be something to it.

As the helicopter continued surveying the island, a giant hornet heard their engine and began to rise up from the jungle to challenge them. Marcus spotted the mutated insect coming, as well as a large round structure ahead poking out above the trees. It could only be a hive the giant hornets constructed recently because it hadn’t been there a couple days ago during the last survey flight. Marcus alerted his fighter escorts to come back him up and readied the chopper’s own weapons just in case the phantoms failed to perform adequately enough on their own.

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The giant hornets were becoming bolder. Without the Kamacuras around to prey upon them, their numbers had grown unchecked. If they ventured to close to Spiga’s lair, he made short work of them, but wasps could recognize landmarks from the air. They’d learned to avoid his crater over time. And though Spiga absolutely dwarfed them in size, with more time and numbers, enough of the hornets working together might one day be able to overwhelm and kill the Spider King of Monster Island. They were already aggressively attacking anything that came into what they perceived as their territory.

The individual giant hornet that was hunting Marcus’ helicopter started to close in, but before it got within a thousand yards of the survey chopper, the fighter escorts were bearing down on it. Two F-4 phantoms pulled in behind the enormous wasp and opened up with their machine guns, tearing both of its wings to shreds. The hornet fought hard, struggling to stay in the air. For its trouble, the phantoms peppered it again with a second burst of machine gun fire directly to its abdomen and thorax. While the bullets were less effective against the hornet’s armored carapace, when enough rounds were spent, they started to have a cumulative effect, penetrating the durable exoskeleton. After that, the hornet rapidly fell out of the sky. Doomed, it would make a hearty meal for whatever found it in the jungle.

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“Thanks guys, really appreciate the help.” Marcus called over to his escort pilots. The phantoms rose back to the level of the helicopter. As Marcus glanced over, one of the pilots gave him a thumbs up. After that, the fighters resumed their position high above the helicopter. “Those bastard hornets are part of the reason we can’t establish a new base on the island.” Marcus pointed out to Dr. Orsini. “Super aggressive...” He added. Just then, more radar contacts appeared on Marcus’ screen. “Crap, looks like our dearly departed friend wasn’t on his own.” Marcus announced with growing alarm in his voice. “I think we’d better get back to the fleet.” He whorled the helicopter around sped away as fast as he could. The radar blips quickly multiplied. “Oh shit… the one we downed must have released a warning pheromone to the rest of the nest. They’re all coming out to say hi now.”

“What are we going to do?” Dr. Orsini asked nervously, recognizing the situation was escalating quickly.

“It’s definitely too much for us to handle on our own, even with the phantoms.” Marcus replied, pushing the engine to the max. “We’re going to need the firepower of the fleet.” He noted. “I’m going to tell the escorts to keep those little shits off our backs for as long as possible. These hornets can’t fly quick enough to keep up with the fighters, but we’re certainly not fast enough to outrun them.”

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The phantom fighters did their best to run interference, diving down to engage, but they could only slow down the swarm of giant hornets, not stop them. Marcus radioed the fleet and warned them of the oncoming threat. General quarters alarms began to blare across every ship in the Archimede’s flotilla. Sailors ran to their battle stations while guns were quickly loaded and oriented towards the island. The USS Independence started to launch as many of her aircraft as they could get in the air. The regular combat air patrol that was already on station over the fleet moved out to meet the threat. In the distance, the swarm looked like a dark cloud on the horizon.

As the helicopter closed in on the fleet, Marcus looked back and saw that they were only a couple hundred yards ahead of the angry hornets. The CAP fighters had closed the distance and quickly launched dozens of rockets into the crowded airspace behind Marcus’ chopper. There wasn’t much need to aim. There were at least thirty to forty angry hornets all clustered together. The rockets struck several of them, exploding upon impact and tearing insects to pieces. The hornet’s armor simply wasn’t up to the task of protecting them from anti-kaiju missiles. However, the bugs still had the number’s advantage. For each individual that fell, there were two more to take their place.

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Marcus finally arrived at the deck of the USS Independence and landed just as hastily as he could. The giant hornets were still right behind him though. The carrier’s air defenses came to life, spewing thousands upon thousands of rounds of high caliber anti-aircraft munitions into the swarm. The rest of the fleet followed suit and bugs began to fall from the sky left, right, and center.

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Some giant hornets began to descend upon the fleet, landing on ships and trying to utilize their stingers. One found its way onto the bridge of the Independence and penetrated a glass window of the control tower. The deck gunners couldn’t fire on it without risking hitting the officers within, but some quick-thinking sailors from the damage control party used their firehose to spray down the giant insect. Once it fell to the deck, it was blown to bits at close range by a nearby section of AA cannons.

More hornets arrived on deck, seeing the ships of the fleet as massive enemies to kill. They fruitlessly prodded at the armored hulls with their stingers. One of the wasps landed right next to Marcus’ helicopter and started to make its way towards the craft. Its vicious mandibles were chomping open and shut anticipating the carnage to come. Marcus was not in a position to attack the giant bug with his nose cannon or missiles, so he shouted at his side-gunner to open up on it. The hornet got within five yards of the helicopter before the gunner sprayed him in the face with the heavy machine gun. The stream of fire found and ruptured one of the hornet’s compound eyes.

The grievous injury didn’t stop the giant hornet though. It slammed into the side of the helicopter, pushing it over and forcing the damaged aircraft towards the side of the flightdeck. There was nothing Marcus or anyone else aboard could do about it now. They were virtually helpless. However, a heavily armed squad of marines had run onto the flightdeck and engaged the hornet, forcing it to take flight again. Marcus and company had been only meters away from going over the side when they were delivered from danger.

By that time, the aircraft launched by the Independence had wheeled around and were now hunting down the hornets that remained in the air. The bug’s numbers had already been thinned out considerably by the AA cannons. Despite their aggressiveness, the hornets could do very little against the armored hulls and other defenses of the Archimedes fleet. They were getting shredded.

One by one, the giant hornets were picked off until none remained. Remarkably, no sailors or airmen were lost during the fight, but there was quite the mess to clean up on the top decks of the ships afterwards. In particular, the Independence’s flight deck was littered with hornet corpses and entrails.



At the secret base in the Murmansk Oblast, Anya was starting some basic experiments on her newly acquired egg specimen. The first thing she wanted to do was determine what kind of creature was hiding inside it. Anya hadn’t needed to bother with this step with the Rodan egg because she already knew what it was from the get-go. This new case, however, was a complete mystery. There was no telling what she might find, and that excited her. Science at its core was about exploration after all.

Anya employed an ultrasound machine to try to get a good look at the egg’s occupant. She applied some gel and then scanned around the surface of the shell with her wand. Section by section, she made rudimentary sketches with a pencil and paper of what she could see. Whatever was inside the egg, it was clearly still developing. The creature was curled up in a fetal position within the egg and Anya couldn’t get a good scan of its face. She could make out two arms, two legs, and a rudimentary tail. It might be some time before Anya could identify more specific features. It simply needed time to grow.

Anya’s military supervisor, Coronel Polotov, had come into the laboratory for an inspection. Like her, he was interested in the new arrival. Anya told him everything she had discovered so far, and Polotov didn’t seem impressed. Much of Anya’s research was scientific theory and guesswork, and Polotov preferred direct concrete conclusions. He didn’t like any margins for error and couldn’t appreciate scientific method for what it was. He just wanted results which could be adapted for military applications. For weeks, Polotov had been pushing for Anya to perform riskier experiments on the Rodan egg, which could endanger the unborn life inside.

Anya had hoped that having a new specimen in the lab would at least temporarily distract Polotov from such ideas, but she was wrong. Instead, Polotov chose to interpret the situation as them having a spare specimen if something should happen to the first one, ignoring the fact that each was unique. He wanted to immediately proceed with their thermal testing, which was designed to identify any vulnerability the Rodans might have to extreme hot or cold temperatures. Anya was horrified when he told her. Worse still, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to ignore Polotov’s requests for much longer.



The Archimedes fleet stationed off Sollgel Island was mobilizing for an air raid on the hornet’s nest. Marcus and Admiral Malak agreed that destroying their hive would be a wise precaution to prevent any further attacks from happening in the future. Malek also noted that it would be good for the taxpayers and politicians back home to hear about a victory prior to the upcoming defense budget meetings.

They had killed off many of the worker drones during the recent sea battle, thus the nest would be vulnerable to a quick decisive strike. The giant hornet’s hive appeared to be constructed essentially the same as most wasp nests. The workers used saliva and wood pulp they chewed from trees to form into a paper-like material. With that, they could create comb on the inside of the nest to store food and house their pupa as well as construct a barrier on the outside to keep the elements out. The whole setup had a glaring weakness though. Their paper was very susceptible to fire.

Marcus suggested using napalm to bomb the hive. If they could kill the queen and the brood inside the nest, the hornets would cease to be a threat going forward. Any surviving drones wouldn’t be able to reproduce on their own. Of all of the islands in the Sollgel chain, the main one was the only one which was known to harbor the giant hornets. So, if they exterminated this one nest, they might instantly eliminate them as a threat.

Alternatively, if left to their own devices, the giant hornets had the potential not only to spread to other islands in the Sollgel chain, but also to other populated parts of the world. The giant hornets might not be much of a threat to heavily armed warships, but civilians on the ground wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Everyone agreed, they needed to prevent that possibility from ever coming to pass.

The operation began and the first couple of jets in the strike force began to take off and circle the carrier as the rest of the fighters followed behind them. Marcus insisted upon taking part in the attack. For starters, he’d sleep better seeing the nest burn firsthand, but he also wanted a little payback from earlier. The hornets had sent him running before and he needed to reclaim a little self-respect.

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“You do realize we’re pretty much kicking the hornet’s nest here, right?” Airman Wilson pointed out to Marcus over the coms. “Is this a good idea?”

“It definitely is.” Marcus replied coolly. “We have the tools and the talent to fight them, so we need to. Imagine if these bastards were to descend upon some small town in America where the most effective weapons to fight them would be shotguns and pitchforks. We’re going to make this our fight so those folks never have to face up to that situation. Besides Wilson, your wing commander tells me you could use the target practice anyways.”

“Well, when you put it like, how can I say no?” Wilson chuckled somewhat nervously, but excited.

“Don’t worry Wilson, I won’t let them sting you!” Charlie chimed in, his voice smacking with smugness.

“I hate wasps…” Peterson added. “The little assholes are bad enough, but these f*ckers are really something else.”

“Sounds like someone had a bad experience.” Charlie snickered.

“Well Peterson, look at this as your opportunity to get out a lot of your unresolved pent-up aggression towards them out.” Marcus replied, smirking to himself. “Looks like everybody is with us now. Alright Orkin flight, let’s form up and get on mission. We got us some bugs to go stomp on.”

The twelve phantom jets got into combat formation and proceeded towards the center of Sollgel Island.

“Ok everyone, let’s climb to twelve hundred feet to avoid detection until we are over the target.” Marcus ordered. “Don’t want the bugs to realize we are coming until it’s already too late. On my mark gentlemen, three… two… one… mark.” The formation in unison began to gain altitude. It wasn’t long before they were over the island and approaching the target. “It shouldn’t be too hard to spot boys, just look for the structure that looks like an angry onion. Failing that, just follow my lead and you’ll be fine. Trust men I know where we’re going.”

“I think got the target, sir.” Wilson reported. “About five clicks out, six o’clock low.”

“Confirmed, good eyes Wilson.” Marcus could see the nest too. “Alright, everybody prep your ordinance. This is the real deal.”

“Hey boss, I’m seeing some activity on the surface.” Charlie reported as they got closer.

“You got better eyes than me.” Peterson replied.

“Yeah, I can see that there’s a couple scouts lingering on the outside of the hive.” Marcus agreed with Charlie. “Ignore them, they’ll burn right along with the rest of them.” He instructed. “We’re almost in range. Prepare for combat dive. Happy hunting everyone.”

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A moment later, Marcus pushed his stick forward and dove his phantom down, gaining speed as he went. He watched through his HUD and waited, getting even closer to the hive. He wanted to ensure his payload would hit the target dead on. Once he was practically on top of the nest, Marcus released the bomb from the belly of his plane and pulled up hard. The large tank dropped directly onto the nest and tore its way through the paper walls.

There wasn’t an immediate explosion on impact, however. It turned out that the nest’s material wasn’t solid enough to detonate the bomb on contact. Instead, the canister passed though the entire nest until it found its way to the ground. Once there, it ignited and a firestorm ripped through the bottom section of the hive, destabilizing the structure. The next two pilots failed to hit the target directly, but their bombs exploded on either side of the hive, creating a sea of fire around the nest. The scout hornets on top of the hive took off but didn’t understand what was happening. Two more bombs penetrated the nest and exploded while still inside. The gelatinous napalm spread quickly. The liquid components seeped downward while the flames rose up naturally.

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The base of the nest was rapidly being eaten away by the fire Marcus had started and each follow up explosion was damaging the foundation even more. Finally, it became too much, and the entire nest tittered over into the blaze burning all around it. Drones tried to escape out of the side of the hive, but the only exit was already engulfed by the flames. One by one, the hornets caught fire and dropped to the ground burning. Those lucky few hornets that did make it all the way out of the nest and away from the fire were still badly burnt as they fled to the sky. They didn’t end up making it very far before dropping to the ground.

The scout hornets who had been on the outside at the beginning of the attack bobbed up and down around the burning hive, helpless to stop the carnage that was engulfing their home and brood mates. The flames quickly spread until the entire hive was on fire. Nothing that was still inside would be alive by the time the fires burned themselves out.

Marcus and his flyers circled back, watching from a distance. Their primary objective was complete. The hive was doomed. Now they just had to pick off the survivors. It was highly unlikely that any of the remaining hornets were future queens, but there was no sense in taking any chances. They all needed to be mowed down. First to go, the still mobile ones that were flying above the wrecked nest.

“Go for the wings first.” Marcus instructed his pilots. “They’ll be sitting ducks once they can’t fly anymore.”

Marcus felt a certain degree of satisfaction. After getting their butts kicked time and time again by vastly superior Kaiju, it was nice fighting an enemy that could be effectively countered. One by one, all the of the hornets were cut down as the fighters paired off and targeted them. After two passes, all that remained of the hornets were the injured drones on the ground, and the disabled scouts who had joined them.

“Alight, they’re all down.” Marcus announced. “Switch to rockets. Let’s do this one at a time to ensure we don’t all aim at the same target. I’ll go first, everyone else attack by flight order.”

The once might hornets had been brought low. They were now nearly helpless against the onslaught coming down on them. It was only at this point that Marcus felt a little pity for them. Firing upon the virtually defenseless drones just didn’t feel quite right to him, but it was necessary. He had to see the mission through to the end. Perhaps if the hornets had been of a more temperate nature, they could have avoided this fate, but it was too late for modesty now. Rockets from the Phantoms began to rain down on them and brought an abrupt end to their would-be empire.

“Alright boys, they’ve had it.” Marcus announced. “Everything left down there is either dead or dying. Let’s go home.”



Minutes later, Marcus and his squadron were circling around wide to get into position to land on the USS Independence. Just as Marcus was straightening out his flight path, a purple prism beam cut through the water directly under him, nearly striking the left wing of his aircraft.

“What the Hell…?!?! Break off!!! Marcus shouted to the flyers coming in behind him. Everybody break off!!!” Flashes and sparkles were still erupting all over below Marcus’ aircraft. He got clear and circled back around to get a look at whatever was going on. Within seconds, Battra and Manda exploded to the surface of the ocean, locked in combat. ‘Battra is still in the area?’ Marcus thought astonished.

Manda had wrapped his coils all around Battra’s body, attempting to squeeze the life out of him. The only trouble was all of his constricting was rather pointless. Battra’s armored plates were thick, solid, and locked into place. Thus, they prevented Manda from being able to force the air out of Battra’s body. Battra was immobilized for the most part, but otherwise unharmed. Manda, however, was wasting a lot of energy pressing him for little return.

Manda eventually recognized that his strategy was failing to yield results, so he uncoiled the top portion of his body and latched onto the throat area of Battra’s neck with his jaws. This tactic was equally unfruitful for Manda. His teeth just couldn’t get through all of Battra’s plate armor. Finally seeing an opening, Battra fired prism beams from his eyes. The rays struck along Manda’s back, but the water dragon’s armored scales absorbed or deflected the vast majority of the energy. He too was far from defenseless.

Manda answered back with a powerful attack of his own. He charged up for a strong electrical strike. Marcus could hear the ensuing crackles all the way up in his cockpit. The sea flashed brightly and steamed over. Battra’s armor was practically useless against the electrical current Manda was pouring into him and being in the water only made it hit that much harder. Still, Battra took the assault in stride, showing just how tough he really was.

“Why did Battra pick a fight with Manda?” Wilson asked as the squadron circled around the battling titans.

“Maybe Manda picked the fight with him.” Marcus replied.

Below, the battle raged on. Battra was angry now and countered Manda using his powerful horn attack to slash at him. Manda saw the glowing edge of the blade bearing down on him and he desperately dodged to avoid the brunt of the blow. However, a section of his coils still got caught by the outer arch of the attack. The damage Battra’s horn caused couldn’t be ignored. The powerful strike had cut right through the scaled defenses on Manada’s back and left him bleeding. The wound wasn’t particularly deep, but Manda’s armor was gone. If Battra managed to hit the same section a second time, he might slice Manda completely in half.

That possibility was not lost on Manda. He immediately recognized the danger and rapidly began to disengage himself from Battra. He swung his head and neck around wide to ensure Battra couldn’t hit him again right away. Then the rest of his body slacked loose and swiftly slipped around Battra, rolling free like a firehose. The speed and grace of which Manda was able to pull off the maneuver was amazing. Within seconds, his whole body was slinking away from his opponent.

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Manda had clearly given up the fight, but Battra sent a few parting prism beam bolts his way anyway for good measure. Perhaps it was his way of getting the last word in? From above, Marcus eyed Battra fearfully. With Manda gone, there was nothing keeping him from turning around and decimating the Archimedes fleet.

“Sir, orders…?” Wilson asked.

“Standby…” Marcus replied, never taking his eyes off of Battra. He needed a minute to think.

In all likelihood, they were probably about to get into another fight. Marcus’ fighters were in a bad position. They had virtually expended all of their ammo wiping out the hornet’s nest. If Battra attacked the fleet now, they’d be able to do little else but watch. And if all of the ships were sunk, the airmen would have to ditch their planes and try to survive on Sollgel. Given the present state of the island, they might be better off just kamikazeing their planes into Battra. At least that would be a fast and honorable death.

Battra, however, surprised everyone. He turned and began to swim away, ignoring the warships entirely. Apparently, he had better places to be at that moment.



Back in Murmansk, Anya was in the communications room attempting to reach someone higher up in the Russian chain of command. Colonel Polotov was no longer just requesting that she commence the thermal tests on the Rodan egg, but rather ordering her to do so. Unless she could convince someone higher up in the food chain that it was a bad idea, she’d have no choice but to acquiesce to Polotov’s demands the next day when he returned.

The radio operator, named Anton, knew that Colonel Polotov would be angry if he found out he was helping Anya, but she was an attractive woman, and he was sweet on her. Thus, Anton was willing to take the risk. Unfortunately for both of them, he was having problems raising anyone in Severomorsk. Anton was nervous, not because of the issues with the radio, but because he hated the idea of looking like a fool in front of Anya. This was one of the few opportunities he had to impress her and the problems he was having were making him look like he didn’t know what he was doing. He struggled with the controls, desperate to get the system working properly.

“They’re going to try again you know.” Anton remarked, trying to distract Anya while he fiddled with the controls. “The Brass hasn’t changed. They just keep trying to eject the monsters periodically. Each time we leap forward slightly with technology, they get brave and decide to test our metal against the Rodans again. It ends the same way every time… in tears. They’ve done this countless times, for years now. The woods surrounding the Rodan’s lair has become a monument to their obstinance. It’s filled with the corpses of brave soldiers and rusting equipment. They can’t even risk sending in men to collect the bodies, so they just rot out there for the next wave to find. The grunts have taken to calling them the ‘Dead Woods’.”

“That’s charming. So, what’s the latest thing they’re trying to deploy against them?” Anya indulged Anton while she waited for him to fix the radio.

“Well, there’s a couple things in the works.” Anton replied. “First, they have a new mass-produced jet fighter interceptor, the MIG 21. They’re extremely fast. I hear they can go up to Mach two. Second, they developed a new anti-kaiju missile they copied from the Americans. The new Migs have been designed to carry them. And third, on the ground, they have the HT-64s, or as they are nicknamed, the Helltanks. Those have the converted mazer technology borrowed from the Americans. The prototypes are actually here at the proving grounds for their final testing. It’s too early to say for sure, but they look pretty promising.”

Finally, Anton could hear a transmission coming through his receiver, but it wasn’t an ordinary radio signal. In fact, he’d never heard such a sound before. The signal was getting louder and more powerful to the point where Anton had to take off his headphones. Suddenly, the power inside of the facility began to fluctuate. The lights flickered on and off.

“What hell is going on…?” Anton asked rhetorically, alarmed by the sudden turn of events. Within a few seconds, the disturbances ceased, and everything went back to normal. Even the radio was working properly again.

“Dr. Kiselev, please report to the research laboratory immediately!” One of Anya’s research assistant’s voices came over the PA system. She could hear the urgency in his voice.

Anya dropped what she was doing and ran from the control tower all the way to lab to see what was the matter. When she arrived, she could see that the newly arrived mystery egg was bright orange again. Even more so than before. As it was, no one could miss it.

“I don’t know what happened. The power flickered, and the egg just lit up like a Christmas tree.” Pavel explained to Anya. “I didn’t know what else to do but call you so you could see it for yourself!”

“Ok, well let’s see if we can get an idea of what’s going on inside.” Anya suggested. She took off her coat and grabbed the Ultrasound machine. As Anya put her hand on the egg, she could feel that it was warmer than last time. She ignored that for a moment and started to move the wand around on the surface of the egg. She could see that the lifeform inside was moving.

“Is it hatching?” Pavel asked.

“No, it’s way too soon for that.” Anya answered. “But whatever just passed through the base, it seems to have agitated the hell out of own our little friend here.”



Elsewhere, all across the globe, an energy pulse was detected moving along the surface of the planet. Every radio station was briefly disrupted and lost service, power plants temporarily went offline, and every single electronic device ceased to function for about thirty seconds as the wave rippled through. The whole civilized world was forced to stop and take notice of the phenomena.

In addition, the signal seemed as though it affected animals too, Kaiju in particular. Monsters all over the whole rose up from their hiding places and made themselves known. Many that mankind had already discovered, but just as many that were brand new. Some of them went on rampages, while others disappeared nearly as quickly as they had surfaced. Those in populated areas were documented, but what was scary for mankind were the numerous other specimens that had undoubtedly gone unnoticed in the wild parts of the world.

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On Sollgel Island, the level of violent encounters between kaiju escalated tenfold on the day the signal passed though. The monsters were simply enraged by it. Spiga in particular made several unnecessary kills that he didn’t even end up eating when all was said and done. The Rodans reportedly left their nest in Kamchatka, beginning to fly westward through Russia.

The Archimedes fleet pulled out of the Sollgel Island chain and returned to port in San Deigo. The President wanted their forces in U.S. territory in case any monsters closer to home became an immediate threat.



Before the fleet could arrive back at the West Coast, Admiral Malek and Marcus were called in for an important meeting at the Archimedes organization headquarters in San Deigo. They flew out ahead of the ships of the task force and arrived to find representatives from all branches of the armed forces there for a special briefing. At the center of it all was a NASA engineer who was very conspicuously out of place among the gathering of military men.

“What’s with Rocket boy over there?” Marcus overheard a grizzled old marine colonel ask.

“Ok, gentlemen, let’s all settle down so we can get started.” Marcus heard a voice and turned to see that Robert McNamara, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, was personally running the meeting. “I know that everyone is probably curious about why you were summed here.” He went on. “As we are all aware, something very strange occurred over the last couple of days, and nobody is quite sure how or why it happened. Well, as it turns out, someone here does know at least a little bit about it, and he’s come here to explain some of the how and why to us. Please give him your undivided attention. With that, I present Dr. Johansson.”

“I’m not sure exactly where to start, but as Secretary McNamara just pointed out, the world has seen some pretty strange events over the last seventy-two hours.” Dr. Johannson began. “During that time period, monster attacks and appearances spiked dramatically all over the world. The number of known Kaiju more than doubled overnight. This is chilling to say the least, and sobering. Luckily for us, a good number of the monsters disappeared nearly as quickly as they appeared. Still, the obvious question is why? What brought about this response? What cataclysm provoked such a violent reaction? Myself, and some of my colleagues at NASA have a theory.” He thumbed at the controller of his projector. “Lights please.” He requested. His assistant shut the lights off.

“This is the Harbinger Comet.” Dr. Johannson clicked the first image on screen for everyone to see. “Most of you have been around long enough to remember its appearance in the nineteen-thirties. I believe it, my friends, is the cause of all our troubles. I was only in college at the time, but I was working on a science project which provided me with some insight. This is a mark-III Undaphone.” Johannson wheeled out a machine roughly the size of an outdoor grill. “It is of my own design and is the latest model in a line of these machines. I’ve been perfecting them over the years.” He opened up the case to reveal the inner workings of the odd piece of equipment. “Each member of its family performs the same function. They can all detect special electromagnetic signals that most radio equipment cannot. The day the Harbinger Comet came through, meteors hit the planet the world over and a particularly big chunk of rock landed somewhere in the pacific.”

Dr. Johannsson clicked through a number of slides in quick succession, showing the results of meteor impacts.

“I don’t think that particular piece of rock was a piece of rock at all.” Dr. Johannsson went on. “After it landed, a transmission was sent out and my machine picked up on it. At the time, the signal was very weak though. Unlike the most recent broadcast, nobody else was able to detect it, aside from myself. For years after, I didn’t let it go. I waited every night in vain listening for another transmission. Ultimately, I adjusted my undaphone so that it would record and alert me once another pulse was detected. Nearly fifteen years later, it finally happened again, and I had a printed readout to prove it. What’s more, the signal was stronger than the first one. Still not enough for the world at large to notice it, but enough to peak my interest. By this time, I was working as part of a research group for the university, but my boss didn’t know what to make of the signal. In truth, I didn’t really know what to do about it either.”

Johannsson moved onto the next slide which had a graphed timeline with several highlighted dates.

“Now let’s take a quick look at some significant events. Here you will see that first signal coincides with the emergence of Anguirus, Baragon, the Rodans, Mothra, Varan, Kamerus.” The doctor pointed out. “The second signal corresponds with a second wave of monsters, the most notably being Godzilla. And the already emerged Kaiju became more active again at that time. Simply a coincidence…? Maybe, it’s possible that such things could happen twice at the same time by accident. What is undeniable, however, is that every government on the planet could detect the third pulse and a hoard of monsters appeared again at the exact same time. I personally don’t think coincidences like this happen in threes. Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.”

Johannsson clicked through pictures taken from various monster rampages.

“More worrisome, is the timing.” Dr. Johannsson pointed out. “Time between pulses have gotten shorter. Between the second and third pulses, only about ten years passed. That’s one-third quicker than that between the first and second pulse. So, not only are the pulses getting stronger, but also more frequent. That does not bode well for the human race remaining the dominant species of this world long term. Whatever the signal is, I think it is what’s waking up the monsters, or at least the thing that’s drawing them to the surface.” This observation lead to some concerned murmuring amongst the audience.

“If I understand you right, you are saying the initial signal was weak and only reached some of the slumbering monsters?” Marcus remarked. “And the second and third signals were stronger and reached even more of them? So, if we follow that logic, if there were to be a fourth signal, it would have the potential to raise even more kaiju all at once? That’s a horrifying prospect…”

“I agree.” Dr. Johannsson concurred before moving on with the presentation. “The signal is electromagnetic in nature. That’s why it’s affecting power grids and causing fluctuations in electrical devices.” He explained. “One thing the newest iteration of my machine can do is trace the path of the signal and I discovered something quite odd about it, aside from what we’ve already discussed. The signal’s speed increases the further away it gets from its source. I think the first two transmissions were limited to our own atmosphere, but this last one got out past it. So, it could potentially draw the attention of ‘outside parties.’ Dr. Johannsson warned.

“What do you mean, like Moon-men or Martians?” One of the air force generals chuckled. “I think all we need to worry about for now are terrestrial threats doctor, of which, there are plenty already.”

“All I’m saying is each successive wave will be more powerful.” Dr. Johannsson went on. “As they reach space, they will continue to accelerate more and more as they leave earth, making them a perfect beacon leading back to us for anyone or anything that might be out there listening. Maybe that’s even what it was designed to do.” Dr. Johannsson suggested. “After all, it’s not exactly from around here, is it?” The room went quite for a moment. “At this time though, we can’t know one way or the other.”

“You said you were able to identify the signal’s origin point to the Pacific Ocean, right?” Admiral Malek noted. “Have you been able to pinpoint its location? Whatever it is, maybe we can find it and shut it down before it causes anymore trouble.” He proposed.

“We have a general idea of where it is, but the point of impact is deep in the ocean, far beyond what a manned mission can reach.” Dr. Johannsson replied. “It realistically could be decades before we are able to build a machine to withstand the crushing forces of that depth… if ever. It’s simply beyond our scientific abilities. We literally have a better chance of landing a man on the moon at this point.”

“Do you have any idea what is sending out the signal?” Marcus asked. “If we can’t reach it, then perhaps we can find a way to communicate with it? Make it stop transmitting of its own accord?”

“I’m sad to say that we have no idea what it is.” Dr. Johannsson admitted. “But I personally feel that it wants to be found. Otherwise, what’s the point of all the signals?”

“Could it be a distress call?” Marcus asked.

“It could be a warning.” Admiral Malek remarked before Dr. Johannsson could answer.

“Well, we should have a couple years to figure that out before it fires again.” Dr. Johannsson noted.

“To think, it’s been here this whole time, and ‘almost’ nobody knew about it.” Marcus said to Malek.



At the secret Russian base in Murmansk, things were not going well. Quite unexpectedly, the Rodans had nearly flow across the whole of Russia and were crushing any resistance they came across. At present, they were only four hundred miles away from the R&D facility and it seemed as though they were heading directly for the base. As fast as the Rodans were, the monsters could conceivably be on top of them within an hour. Such as it was, chaos had arrived at the base well-ahead of the monsters. Most of the science team fled and a good number of soldiers had also deserted their posts.

What remained of the base’s airwing was preparing to fight. Their aircraft were armed with the anti-kaiju rockets and the pilots hoped they’d be enough to turn the tide in their favor. The Russians weren’t holding anything back. Even the experimental masers unit Helltanks were being deployed alongside the base’s regular ground forces. The brass decided that it was no time to be conservative. Everything was committed to the fight and caution was to be thrown to the wind. On this day, however, there were monsters in the wind.

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It seemed as though the Rodans had finally gotten wise to radio lures. Time and time again during their journey through Russian airspace, the military tried to distract the monsters only to find that they were ignoring them. Something deeper was driving the monsters now, and they couldn’t be dissuaded from their goal. Perhaps they knew that their surviving egg was being held captive at the secret base?

Just prior to the onset of the battle, Anya came to the surface to watch the events unfold. She refused to leave the eggs like the rest of her staff. If they survived whatever was to come next, she’d be there to take care of them. Anya saw the Migs taking to the sky as well as the ground vehicles finding what their crews determined to be good defensive positions. With the Rodan’s ability to fly, it would negate any well-organized ground defense they could come up with, so the crews were allowed to choose their own ground to hold.

The air raid alarms began to sound all over the base, signaling that things were about to escalate. It felt like a storm was about to erupt at any moment. Instead of retreating back inside the facility, Anya stood her ground, perhaps foolishly. In the mayhem that was to come, she would hardly be a target, but the battleground would undoubtably be treacherous and unpredictable. Anya didn’t care about that though.

As the last few peaceful moments on the base passed, the Russians rolled out one last secret weapon they had at their disposal. From underground, several huge, armored vehicles loaded with enormous missiles rolled to the surface. These powerful missiles had been specially crafted to counter the Rodans. They were designed to either blow the Rodans out of the sky or into pieces, whichever occurred first.

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In the skies above, Anya watched the Mig twenty-ones forming up and maneuvering. There seemed to be a sudden urgency among their ranks. As it turned out, the Rodans had significantly increased speed on the final leg of their journey, and they were already in the immediate vicinity of the base. The battle was beginning.

At first, the Rodans ignored the jets and seemed focused on looking around the ground. This gave the Russian pilots the initiative to engage on their terms. The first squadron pulled in behind the Rodans and launched their rockets as a group. The spread of missiles filled the sky and raked each of the Rodans as they flew. Orange fireballs exploded all over the monster’s backs. The Rodans withstood the pelting, but the attack did slow them down somewhat. They’d also lost some altitude.

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The pilots of the first squadron switched to cannons and sprayed the Rodans with considerable firepower. The monsters weren’t sitting still anymore though. The first attack had done more than simply get their attention. Angered, each Rodan banked in the opposite direction of the other nearly in unison. The monsters sharply maneuvered, circling around the fighters. The lead planes tried to keep up with the monsters, but their machines simply weren’t up to the task. Their airframes would fly apart before they could match the flexibility of the Rodans in the air.

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Once behind the squadron, both Rodans went to work tearing the planes out of the sky one by one. Two other Mig squadrons moved in to support their comrades, but it was already a hopeless fight. Their rockets failed to damage the Rodans in their first salvo. Even if they could hit the monsters now, they just didn’t have the necessary firepower to bring them down. Russian fighters quickly began to fall out of the sky. Anya could only watch as they rain down in torrents of fire and smoke.

On the ground, the Helltanks couldn’t even raise their guns high enough to effectively target the Rodans. They wouldn’t be able to join the fight until the Rodans landed. However, the other large machines loaded with huge, winged missiles were able to engage. They elevated their munitions into firing position and then launched while the monsters were still preoccupied with the jets. The missiles had a revolutionary radar-guided targeting system, similar to American Nike systems, only these keyed in on larger moving targets in the sky. They were designed to prioritize larger targets like the Rodans and ignore the smaller aircraft like the Migs currently flying around them.

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This was their big field test. With the Rodans dogfighting with the remaining Migs, they’d slowed down, which made them perfect targets. Flying directly over the base, they’d never have a better opportunity to hit them. The first missile whizzed up leaving a thick layer of smoke in its wake. It targeted nearest Rodan and rapidly closed in on the monster. At the last second, the monster noticed the projectile approaching and jinked to dodge it. The missile had a proximity fuse though and exploded just after passing the monster. The Rodan was rattled by the huge detonation but was otherwise unharmed.

More of the missiles were launched, and the first Rodan called out a warning to the second. Each of them quickly found themselves making evasive maneuvers as the skies were littered by large, yellow, tracking rockets. The weapons were hardly perfect though. Despite their programing, one of them slammed directly into one of the Migs, blowing itself and the aircraft to bits. One of the rockets did, however, catch one of the Rodans square in the belly. The monster’s armored undercarriage prevented any serious damage, but the force of the blow did knock the wind out of the monster, forcing it to the ground.

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Now with a target aim for, the Helltanks opened fire with their blue energy beams. The grounded Rodan was being focused down by three pairs of double-barreled maser cannons. Its mate saw the danger and swooped down, coming to its defense. The monster passed within twenty meters of the ground, directly over the formation of Helltanks. The regular army units all went flying, being peeled from the ground by the intense torrent of winds, but the Helltanks were too big and heavy to he displaced. They were slightly pushed out of position, forcing them to reorient their guns to reacquire the grounded Rodan as a target, but largely unmoved otherwise.

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The Helltanks were undamaged and resumed their assault, preventing the second Rodan from taking to the sky again. They fired volley after volley, the battle seemed to have shifted in the Russian’s favor. However, disaster was only moments away. Since the Russian spies had stolen the maser blueprints prior to the weapons being fully field-tested, they never knew about the severe overheating defect in the firing mechanism. Therefore, they never corrected the problem. Every shot the Helltanks fired with their stolen weapon design brought them closer to catastrophic burnout.

One by one, the massive war machines overheated their capacitors until they finally failed outright. The first Helltank still tried to fire continuously until it entirely overloaded the weapon system and exploded. The other two Helltank crews were wise enough to recognize that there was a serious problem and ceased operations. It was already too late for them though. The first Rodan swooped back around and snatched up the second unit in its powerful claws. The vehicle’s heavy armored chassis prevented the monster from immediately crushing it in its grasp, so instead the Rodan flew up high with the Helltank and then dropped it directly on to the fuel storage tanks of the airbase, causing a huge explosion and starting an intense fire. The crew was killed instantly.

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The last remaining Helltank was charged by the grounded Rodan and smashed to pieces as the monster got some measure of revenge. The monsters then turned their attention to the buildings on the surface of the base. The battle was effectively over. All of the Russian’s new weapons had failed. They didn’t have any more defenses to fall back on. The remaining Mig pilots pulled out, giving up and heading for the closest airbase.

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Anya looked on, understanding that it was over. It would be just a matter of time now before the Rodans dug down to reclaim their egg. What would they do with the mystery egg…? Who could say. But they would certainly have what was theirs back.

It was then that Anya noticed something very troubling. The warning lights around the ICBM missile silos were flashing. Someone inside the missile base, perhaps out of desperation, was actively trying to launch nuclear weapons. If they actually fired those weapons, no one within a five-mile radius would survive the blast. The Rodans noticed the lights too and were drawn towards the silos. The surface doors for the ICBMs started to crack open, indicating that a launch was indeed imminent.

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Aggitated, one of the Rodans pecked down at the doors, bending the metal frames so that they could not fully open. As Anya looked on from a distance, she could see a burning light coming from inside of the silos as well as plums of grey smoke. The missiles were launching!!! Anya dropped to her knees and quickly tried to make her peace with God. She knew she was coming to meet him.

An immense flash of light, blinding and overwhelming, burst into being, sweeping over the entire base. All the buildings, the machines, the men, Anya, and even the Rodans, were devoured and vaporized by the resulting blast. Nothing on the surface survived.

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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Ahh more Kaiju craziness in time for my Birthday. Thanks. It wouldn't be a birthday without a few :blackholealien: :godzilla2021: :Destoroyah: running around. When I was 10 I rented Godzilla (think 1989?) For my birthday and I thought it was great.

mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

The model work on the new chapter is actually more impressive then before. One would expect a Kaiju enthusiast to have models of the main ones and a few of their personal favorites but the giant hornets, the nice landscape of Monster island and the increase of base facilities really shows off the varieties of models you have. Seeing the sandbag circle around the AA guns at the Russian base really shows off your attention to detail. I've spent some time building and manning those so the fortification really seems valid. In fact some of the bases facilities and your military jargon has improved so much it really put me back to my army days. Good job. You can see alot of evolution in both modeling and writing in this chapter..

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

Awesome, happy birthday!!!

I think you must mean Godzilla 1985. I loved that one as a kid. Still one of my all time favorites. Rented it over and over and from my local store (small rural town).

Some people give Godzilla 1985 a lot of grief these days, but I personally feel it’s one of the better Godzilla movies overall. And for it’s time, it was outstanding. The effects were actually on par with American made movies of the same era, something not a lot of other Godzilla movies can claim. Toho made a real effort to improve their quality and the results are on display for all to see on the screen. When you consider that Terror of Mechagodzilla came out just a few years ahead of it, wow!

To be clear, I’m not saying that Terror of Mechagodzilla a bad Godzilla movie by any means, but when you are just comparing the two film’s effects apples to apples, it’s a night and day difference.

And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I actually prefer the American cut of the film. They edited out some of the less convincing effects, added some music which enhanced several scenes, and Raymond Burr’s speech at the end of the film is fantastic. I don’t really mind the added American scenes either. They worked well enough for me, even with the very obvious product placement, but then again, I’ve always been fond of Dr. Pepper. :lol:

To be fair though, the Japanese cut has more scenes, and keeping them all in makes the human plot make more sense. The awkwardness between the two love birds is understandable when you realize Maki kind of used her for a story early on. The American cut makes the our hero Maki look less like a A-hole by cutting that out though, which works for me. :huge:

Anyhow…. Back to the story. Believe it or not, I still haven’t gotten to the most impressive buildings or Kaiju I have. My reserves for both buildings and monsters are both still well beyond 75% of what I have shown so far. So there’s still a lot to look forward to. More surprises to come soon.

I don’t know exactly when I’m going to get the next chapter out though. I have to renew my medical license by October, which means 20 hours of continuing education that has to come out of my already limited free time. So it will be competing with my writing. Also, I’m planning to take a vacation at the end of Sept, so that will slow things down too, as I need to plan a little for that. But on the plus side, I’ll be in Washington DC and that might give me an opportunity to buy some new souvenir buildings that could be used for the project.

If I can knock out my CEUs fast enough, I should be able to get another chapter out before the trip. I already have a partial outline ready. Then again, I need to catch up on reading old chapters at some point too.

Anyways, thanks as always MP.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

The giant bear Kaiju, is that the "Canadian Kaiju" you alluded to earlier? Believe it or not it is a real creature, or at least it WAS a real creature. Canada hosted 2 giant super predators, a sort of giant version of both Wolves and Bears. The Dire Wolves of D&D and Game of Thrones are based on them. Supposedly around Headless (Nahanni) Valley sightings of both have been reported. The Natives call it the Waheela. Given it's epic remoteness it's at least possible such a creature could survive. Not sure if it was intentional or not but a Bear Kaiju really does have its place in both reality and mythology.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

mpsoldier wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2023 6:50 am The giant bear Kaiju, is that the "Canadian Kaiju" you alluded to earlier? Believe it or not it is a real creature, or at least it WAS a real creature. Canada hosted 2 giant super predators, a sort of giant version of both Wolves and Bears. The Dire Wolves of D&D and Game of Thrones are based on them. Supposedly around Headless (Nahanni) Valley sightings of both have been reported. The Natives call it the Waheela. Given it's epic remoteness it's at least possible such a creature could survive. Not sure if it was intentional or not but a Bear Kaiju really does have its place in both reality and mythology.
There are two Kaiju in that montage of monsters that are meant to be Canadian. (Canada is a big country after all). One of them has a basis in existing Godzilla lore (sort of), and the other just because it makes sense to me. The Dire Bear, (which is indeed a D&D figure), is one of them.

The other one may not be as obvious, but it is the ‘actual’ one I was alluding to. Points if you can guess which one it is. It’s not actually from Canada in Godzilla cannon, but for me at least, it is closely associated with Canada because that is the one and only place it appeared while it was featured.

I suppose an argument could be made for a third one in the suspect lineup to be Canadian too, but I think two is already plenty. No need to go overboard. :lol:
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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Well the Water serpent with the Titanosaurus matches perfectly with Canadas Ogopogo and some incarnations of my aforementioned Champ. The other water serpent also fits in that niche but the background on that says "tropical." So I'm guessing its the Sasquatch/Big Foot. Yes that also is a very Canadian creature, though of course would be shared with the more wooded areas of the US especially Alaska. That's also a Cryptid associated with Headless Valley. That would be a good place for a chapter. It's like Canada's Area 51 only with monsters instead of aliens (though with all the weird history there they would not be really out of place).

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

mpsoldier wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2023 12:10 pm Well the Water serpent with the Titanosaurus matches perfectly with Canadas Ogopogo and some incarnations of my aforementioned Champ. The other water serpent also fits in that niche but the background on that says "tropical." So I'm guessing its the Sasquatch/Big Foot. Yes that also is a very Canadian creature, though of course would be shared with the more wooded areas of the US especially Alaska. That's also a Cryptid associated with Headless Valley. That would be a good place for a chapter. It's like Canada's Area 51 only with monsters instead of aliens (though with all the weird history there they would not be really out of place).
Good guesses and good reasoning for the guesses MP. I’ll let time tell on if you were correct or not. ;)

If anyone else would like to hazard a guess, you’re sure welcome to. Bragging rights to the person who correctly identifies the character, and extra super bonus points if you come up with their name. :lol:

Maybe next chapter I’ll ID them, but I already have something else in mind for the next one. So we’ll see. Sometimes it’s better to let the mysteries simmer for a while.
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