Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

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Just a quick update. I've got chapter 25 pretty much done. The first and second drafts are both complete and I'm happy with them. (I do still need to edit though). :dizzy:

I'm also waiting on some military miniatures to arrive before I can start doing pictures for this chapter. I gave up on waiting for my Kickstarter Cold War game to be released and just sought out some units from a different source instead. If I kept waiting for that incompetent Mother*%!ker on Kickstarter to complete his game (it's 4 years past the estimated release date now), I'd never get anything done here. -_- :? :roll:

Anyhow, my replacement pieces will 'probably' arrive sometime this week. So maybe by next weekend I'll have a new chapter out. I can't say for sure though. Unlike some folks out there, I don't overpromise on what I can actually deliver. The release of chapter 25 will simply depend on how the rest of the week shakes out. Editing is usually a painful process and arranging miniatures can also be pretty time consuming.

I'd say within 2 weeks though, there should definitely be new material posted.
Last edited by Ashram52 on Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

Well we'll all look forward to that. Your miniatures are top notch. However as a multiple veteran I can definitively state that the actual army often employs shall we say lower tech scale models; I have a set of literal army men that were marked w literal units and used. So count your blessings.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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I might have to incorporate that idea into the story at some point. :)

There’s a lot of funny scenes like that in movies. The Dirty Dozen had their Donald Duck, Deadpool 2 had something similar, though I think it was a crayon drawing. I know I’m forgetting a really good one though... :?: A lot of the time they’re just drawing in the dirt. They even did that in a Godzilla movie once. Yeah… I’ll have to use the idea at some point. ;)

The thing that annoys me is I already have one chapter that has no photos whatsoever because this supplier’s screwing around. He said in the beginning that his project was ‘ready to go’ and just needed funding and he could start producing materials. “Ok, no problem”, I thought back then. By the time my storyline would reach that far into the timeline, he’d have the units out.

Well…. 4 years later and we have got nothing. Just today, this guy said the factory is going to start printing miniatures by the end of this month, but I’m more than a little frustrated by this point. And it’s really hard to take this fellow at his word. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times he said he was almost done. It’s like a George RR Martin meme: “Don’t worry those pizzas are coming.” -The you find out he hasn’t even ordered them yet. :|

I’m ok using a proxy for a unit from time to time if I don’t have a choice, but in the case of that chapter with the Russian Air Force trying to bomb the Rodans, I didn’t have a fighter, a medium bomber, or the all important heavy bomber like I was supposed to. :mad:

A story can only be as good as it’s weakest elements.

The good news is there’s a board game website that is starting to product Cold War era units that I can use as an alternative source of miniatures. So I can take advantage of that for now, but it sure would be nice to get the miniatures I paid for 4 years ago without having to pay for replacements. :?

Oh, those units I purchased for the next chapter did arrive yesterday, so as soon as I get some free time I can get back to work. This weekend is starting to look a little booked up to me, so the following weekend is probably more likely. I’d recommend anyone who is tired of having to come back and check all the time, turn on the notification for new posts on this topic.

I’m sometimes “Mr. I.T. Stupid”, so I only recently figured out how to do that. Seems like that should be automatically set to on if it’s your own forum topic though. :lol:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by mpsoldier »

I'm just saying the pros use super low tech too...and well, would it really be a PROPER Godzilla homage without incredibly cheesy models making an appearance? I mean if Godzilla doesn't step on a monopoly house or Rodan doesn't smash a popsicle stick house...are you really channeling the full Godzilla experience? Or even some axis and allies pieces. Heck break out the burger king Godzilla play doh toys. You've got to enjoy MAKING your art too.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

You kind of have a point there.

Even Hollywood movies have done that. The movie ‘Patton’ couldn’t get real German tanks for their action scenes, so they just repainted American ones as stand ins and hoped no one would notice.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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...



Chapter 25: Double Dragon

The port city of Magadan. The second largest seaport in Northeastern Russia and an important export hub. The area surrounding Magadan was rich with mineral resources, but gold in particular. The city was surrounded by mountains, which gave the city a beautiful backdrop in addition to natural resources. Thanks to icebreaking ships, the port was able to operate all year-round, despite the long and harsh winters of the region. That time was nearly upon them again. It would be perhaps one more month before the icebreakers would be necessary to open up the bay again. The population of Magadan was doing all they could to enjoy their last remaining warm days of the year.

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Alexei, a teenage boy, was one such resident. He was walking the streets of the city. His mother had sent him on an errand to the fish market to buy the catch of the day for dinner. The market was down near the port, so it was about a ten-minute stroll from his house. The morning breeze was cool but refreshing.

“Enjoy the weather while you can Alexei, it’s going to turn on us before the day is out.” One of his neighbors called out in greeting.

“I will!” Alexei called back, waving.

The whole city was going about its regular morning routine. Women were hanging freshly scrubbed laundry out on wires. They acknowledged Alexei with warm smiles as he went by. Alexei could smell the local baker pulling out his first batch of vatrushkas for the day. Alexei considered grabbing one on the way back from the market. If he could save enough money getting a good deal on the fish, then he might have enough for two.

Alexei passed one of his schoolmates Sarah, who was returning from the post office with a letter for her father. He had a crush on her, but never worked up the courage to say anything to her about it. One day he would. Sarah said nothing to Alexei as they passed on the sidewalk, but she flashed a mischievous smirk while tossing one of her long, blonde, braided pigtails at him. It almost hit Alexei on the shoulder. He was tempted to turn around and talk to her, but then thought better of it, losing his nerve.

As Alexei turned back around, he saw a big dog running towards him. He stopped in his tracks, bracing while preparing to protect himself. He thought for sure the animal was going to attack him. But the dog flew past him and continued onward down the street without any signs of slowing down. Alexei stood there confused. The dog wasn’t chasing anything and wasn’t being chased by anything that he could see either. It was odd.

Alexei decided to just get on with his day, dismissing the incident, and continuing onwards towards the market. When he arrived, the shops along the pier were already bustling with activity. Customers were shuffling from shop to shop picking out their goods. It was crowded. Alexei realized he should have gotten there sooner to beat the morning rush. Now it was going to take him twice as long to take care of his business.

There was something very off about the market that morning, and it wasn’t the customers. Something was missing from the usual mess of movement and noise that defined a standard trip to the market. It didn’t take Alexei a long time to figure out what it was. He didn’t see any seagulls. Usually by this point in the day, the obnoxious birds would be swarming all of the fish market trying to snag scraps of food from unwary shoppers. But there wasn’t a single one to be found that morning. Alexei didn’t particularly miss the pests. Most people regarded them as rats with wings, but it was quite odd not to see any.

Alexei stepped out near the water to look and see if he could spot any gulls out over the bay. None were there either. Where could they have gone? While there were no birds to be found, Alexei did however spot something in the sky beyond the bay. It was a white dot floating on the horizon out at sea. Whatever it was, it was pretty far out, but getting closer.

As Alexei stood there and watched, he discovered that it was an aircraft. A white helicopter. It was still out at sea, but it had nearly entered the airspace over the bay. It had stopped and turned just short of the shallower waters. Alexei struggled to get a good look at it while it was at profile. It didn’t appear to be a Russian design.

Alexei’s attention was drawn down away from the aircraft as a disturbance on the water took its place. A section of water in the middle of the bay was turning white as it churned and roiled. Suddenly, an enormous dark form exploded up from the middle of the swirling water, making its presence known to the people along the harbor. All of the shoppers in the market turned to see what was going on. They looked up to see Godzilla staring back down at them. The monster eyed them menacingly. Most of the people froze in fear.

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The force of Godzilla surfacing sent a wave of water barreling towards the shore. When it hit, the surging current overran the breakwater and poured into the market, bowling over the majority of people who were there. Alexei himself was forced to grab onto a signpost to avoid being swept away by the wave. The cold rush of seawater snapped him back into reality. He could hear women screaming all around him. It was the most terrifying noise he had ever heard. Adults were crying out like children.

Then Godzilla roared. Alexei was so close to the monster that it felt like his bones were shaking from the reverberation. With that, there was a new most-terrifying sound he had ever heard. It eclipsed the previous one by a very wide margin.

As Alexei picked himself back up from the wave, and the crowd of people in the market began pouring past him attempting to get away from Godzilla. A man carelessly knocked him back down to the ground. Alexei rolled out of the way as feet stamped past him. No one stopped to help him up. It didn’t matter to anyone that he was a kid. Everyone was out for themselves.

As Alexei picked himself back up for a second time, he heard the sound of thuds getting closer. He looked back to the bay and found that Godzilla moving. The monster was closing in on the harbor. The closer Godzilla got to the waterline, the louder the thumps got. By that point, the whole city was already aware of the monster’s impending attack. Alexei shot up to his feet and joined the mob of people trying to get away.

The crowd fleeing in front of Alexei was turning into a catastrophe all on its own. People were falling down and getting trampled by those following behind them. An old woman came out of her front door to see what was happening and got run over by the crowd in the panic and confusion. There was blood in the streets. It was awful. As Alexei started to catch up with the group, he saw flashes of light reflecting off of the buildings in front of him like a thunderstorm. He did not dare turn to see what was causing it.

Soon after, a blue stream of fire shot out above Alexei’s head. It struck the tallest building in town near its base. The beam sheered the top floors clean from the rest of the structure. Without being connected to the bottom supports anymore, the top floors of the building collapsed over sideways. They fell into the street and crushed people who were trying to escape. The resulting wreckage was burning out of control and spread to the surrounding area.

The smell of the bakery was rapidly replaced with smoke and the odor of cooking human flesh. Like so many others, Alexei was cut off by the flaming rubble and had to detour around the blocked off street. He was beyond frightened and the only thing he wanted to do at that point was get home and find his mother.

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By the time Alexei had gone around the debris, the fires had spread to the block where his house was located. Fortunately, the fire had stopped just short of his own family’s home. He dashed as fast as he could, nearly out of breath and coughing because of all the smoke filling the air. He was frantic and in tears from his ordeal, but relief was at hand. As Alexei approached his house, he saw his mother waiting for him. He was only a block away from her now. Once he got to her, she’d know what to do.

Alexei heard a crash from behind him and saw the specter of a shadow passing over him. Godzilla had kicked an oil container in the harbor area. It landed directly onto the burning house next to Alexei’s own. The burning structure immediately collapsed under the weight of the tank, kicking up embers. The container rolled slightly before wedging itself in the building’s remains and coming to a rest.

Alexei stood there stunned. The metal at the base of the tank was slowly starting to glow from the intense heat of the fire, but he didn’t notice it. His mother was shouting for him to turn back, but he couldn’t hear her. He unwittingly stepped forward towards the danger, his hand reaching out. The tank finally exploded and showered burning oil down onto Alexei. He walked onward on fire for about ten additional feet before succumbing to the flames and falling over.

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From above, Marcus watched as an explosion ripped through a neighborhood below. The Archimedes fleet had been tracking Godzilla’s movements under the water through the Sea of Okhotsk and across the narrow gap between the Kamchatka peninsula to Magadan using a Giger counter.

Godzilla was marching into Magadan virtually unopposed. This was primarily because the Rodans had been rampaging all throughout the northeast parts of Russia and the Soviet military already had their hands full. Most of their resources were focused on trying to contain them. As a consequence, there was no help coming to the Magadan.

The Rodans had been quiet for about twenty-four hours after their battle with Godzilla, but then had descended upon the Russian people with a great and powerful vengeance. They were downing aircraft all over eastern Russia, far outside of the established no-fly zones. According to intercepted Russian radio chatter that Ling translated, the two monsters were pushing out further west than they had ever done before. Nothing that moved was safe.

Below, Godzilla continued to march through the city on his own path of destruction. His foot clipped the edge of a building at the base, causing the floors above to crumble over and collapse. Marcus could see through the windows that people were still inside. Godzilla’s attack had been so sudden and without warning that many people simply did not have the time to get out. No evacuation had been put into effect ahead of time; thus, the streets were overflowing people desperate to escape.

Godzilla lumbered forward mercilessly, knocking over a steel radio towel which crushed people as they scrambled to get out of the way. Those who were not outright crushed by the falling tower were trapped and unable to escape the monster’s massive footfalls that were inevitably going to follow. The panicked people could do nothing but stare up and scream as they were trampled.

Out ahead of the horror, other people witnessed what was going on and scrambled in terror to avoid the same fate. Godzilla was advancing faster than expected. In the next building over, people were forced to jump out of their windows to escape, having no time to exit through the stairwells. Many people jumped from too high though and injured themselves in the resulting falls. Some even landed badly and died on impact.

The people living in the apartment across the street weren’t given the luxury of deciding their own fate. Godzilla unleashed another stream of his atomic breath upon the structure. The residents on the side nearest to him were vaporized as the fire cut through their homes. The people on the far side weren’t instantly killed, but undoubtably suffered a worser fate. Those individuals lived for several more agonizing moments as their fleshed melted away from their bones in Godzilla’s nuclear fire. A few souls jumped through the glass windows in a desperate attempted to flee. They burned on the way down but found their peace on the pavement.

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It was dead quiet in the chopper as they witnessed the terrible scene unfolding. For the small fraction of people who still remained alive in the apartment building, mostly just those who lived above the blast zone, they were left with a though choice, risk burning to death by remaining in the building or risk death hitting the ground by going out a window. Two unenviable options.

Godzilla meanwhile had turned his attention a grand multi-domed orthodox church near the center of town. More than a couple of the city’s inhabitants had taken refuge there, looking to the heavens above for help. Godzilla lumbered towards the church ominously. Finally, the monster got right up next to it and raised one of his feet up high. Godzilla then brought it back down, stepping onto the church. The domes collapsed and the entire structure gave way under the weight.

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“You destroy everything you touch…” Marcus finally broke the silence.

The words seemed to echo in Marcus’ head after he said them. A golden flash of light streaked across the center of his vision. He saw another city somewhere off in a hazy distance. The buildings there were on fire too. It seemed as though that city was also under siege. Just as soon as it had come, it was gone. Marcus was back flying over Madagan again. A bead of cold sweat rolled down his face.

“You’d think God would strike him down with a bolt of lightning for something like that.” Brock remarked.

“I don’t think a bolt of lightning would be enough to do the job.” Admiral Malek replied. “Marcus, if your radar picks up any Russian aircraft, we’re getting the hell out of here.” Marcus meanwhile was still a thousand miles away and not listening. “Marcus, you with us?” Malek nudged his shoulder to get his attention.

“Yeah, roger that sir.” Marcus agreed, reacclimating to his surroundings. “I’m not planning to take any unnecessary risks. I’m going to keep this bird above and behind Godzilla’s head. If he even starts to turn this direction, we’re bugging out.”

“Alright… good.” Admiral Malek seemed to sense Marcus was not quite himself, but just attributed it to scene below. “Ling, are you picking up on any Russian radio chatter that says what the Rodans are up to?”

“It’s surprisingly quiet.” Ling answered.

“Good, I doubt they will show up down here, but I hate surprises.” Admiral Malek noted.

“Jeezz... the Russians have both Godzilla and the Rodans to deal with.” Brock said in an uncharacteristically sympathetic tone while shaking his head.

“The Russian’s attack must have really pissed them off.” Ling remarked. “They have never been his aggressive before.”

“Well, they did try to nuke them.” Brock pointed out. “That would probably make me pretty grumpy too.”

“I imagine the Russians will think twice before trying to use another nuclear weapon on their own soil.” Ling pointed out. “Look what it brought them. They managed to attract Godzilla’s attention and now he’s rampaging through one of their cities. Best I can tell, there’s not a damn thing they can do to stop it. Hell, any country will have second thoughts after this debacle.”

“Aren’t we going to help them like we did with the Japanese?” Marcus asked. There was once again silence in the helicopter. No one else seemed to want to broach that topic. “Think what it might mean politically if we were seen to be lending a hand to these civilians. Innocent people whose own government is powerless to help.” Marcus pressed on, looking over to Admiral Malek for support, but he seemed unmoved by the suggestion.

“Communism is a disease to be wiped out.” Malek finally replied coldly. “We’re just soldiers. We don’t set policy, we follow it. But if it’s any comfort to you, if our roles were reversed, they would do the same to us or worse.”

“I know it doesn’t seem fair Marcus.” Brock chimed in. “But the Russians are not our allies. And we can’t really be seen here.”

“What about them?” Marcus motioned down the citizens of Magadan.

“I doubt anyone who is left down there after this will remember anything else but Godzilla’s attack.” Brock replied.

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By that point, Godzilla had nearly made his way to the far side of town. Most of the remaining citizens were fleeing into the mountains for safety. Madagan was slowly burning to the ground. The helicopter shifted in the air as the wind changed direction. A cold front was coming in through the north, bringing a frosty bite with it. As the air current hit Godzilla, he stopped his attack. He paused briefly and then turned southward towards the coastline.

“I’ve seen enough, get us out of here.” Admiral Malek ordered as Godzilla turned in their direction.



Akira sat on a pile of railroad ties in the early morning sun. He watched as squads of soldiers came and went from the mine at Kitamatsu. Tunnel by tunnel, they were clearing out the few remaining giant insects from the mine and destroying their eggs.

Akira was tired, cold, and beaten up, but he was also stubborn, and he didn’t want to move from that spot until he had heard an all clear given by the officers in charge. He’d be able to rest easier after hearing it. Such as it was, he just sat there sipping from a warm cup of tea. The medics had rebandaged his wounds. Akira was a hell of a pilot, but he was a shit nurse. The wrapping job he had done on himself was abysmal. As a result, he was a little pale from the amount of blood he had lost the night before.

“You look terrible boss.” Haruki rejoined Akira, now wearing a sling on his arm.

“You should see the other guy.” Akira quipped.

“I did.” Haruki pointed out. “There’s still bits of them over there, and some there too.” He pointed with his good arm.

“Yeah…. you’re right.” Akira smirked devilishly. Pieces of the monsters were being collected for scientific analysis. A soldier was strolling up to the pair in a ridge military fashion. He stopped just in front of them and then saluted.

“Sir, you’ve been waiting for confirmation.” The soldier began. “I’ve been given authorization to inform you. The mines are wholly under our control now. We’ve wiped out the enemy.” Akira slide his way off the wood pile, saluted back, and then finished his tea in one final gulp.

“Good, now get me the hell to a hospital.” Akira ordered.

“Yes sir, we have an ambulance ready to take you back to the air base immediately.” The soldier had to resist the urge to smile.

“Alright Haruki.” Akira turned to him. “Let’s get out of here.”



Marcus piloted his helicopter back to the Archimedes task force. The fleet was using light signals to communicate back and forth. They were doing so to avoid both detection by the Russians and the Rodans. A second helicopter had been dispatched to take over tracking Godzilla as he moved south through the Okhotsk Sea.

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The fleet turned and gave chase from a safe distance. Godzilla was moving at forty knots and his present heading put him on a collision course with Korea. Admiral Malek figured that was a development the Japanese would be interested in. He intended to inform them through a coded message just as soon as they were out of Russian waters. It could secure him support from the Japanese fleet if they felt their interests were at risk. That, and Godzilla would be skirting the waters off of Japan’s west coast. That would certainly grab their attention if nothing else.

Captain Lennox was on the flight deck to greet Marcus’ helicopter as they landed. Ling and Admiral Malek went directly back to the bridge, but Brock and Marcus lingered on the flight deck with Lennox, catching him up on what they saw while on the mission. They described the annihilation of Magadan and Admiral Malek’s apparent indifference to their plight. Captain Lennox was able to offer up some explanation for his attitude.

“During the last war, Admiral Malek was part of an American task force that went north to hit Soviet military facilities that were up bordering the Rodan’s territory.” He began to explain. “The Russians were using those bases as supply depots and staging grounds. They figured those bases would be pretty secure since both the American and Japanese fleets had kept well away from them up until that point. Malek was a captain at the time, in command of the task force’s flagship, the USS Ticonderoga. His mentor, Admiral Morris was in overall command of the fleet and was aboard the Ticonderoga with Malek. It was for that reason the Russians specifically targeted it. Somewhere along the line, there was an intelligence leak, and the Russians were up there waiting for them. The Rooskies could not even begin to compete with our naval power, so instead they sent hundreds of planes to attack the fleet while they were in route to their first target.”

“That sounds bad, what happened next?” Marcus asked.

“Well, our fleet was far from defenseless of course.” Lennox continued. “Admiral Morris was the cautious type of commander, so he always had plenty of fighters on combat air patrol over the fleet. It was a good thing he did. Those fighters fought the first wave hard and delayed them enough for the task force to get more planes up to engage them. A fierce battle ensued. The fleet was able to coordinate their firepower effectively and downed a lot of enemy planes, but for every one they downed, there were two more to take their place. The fleet started to take hits. Admiral Morris was killed in a strafing run on the bridge of the Ticonderoga and Malek assumed command of the fleet.

“Did Malek withdraw?” Brock inquired.

“No, he fought back like hell and eventually destroyed the attacking planes, except for the few that retreated.” Lennox went on. “Malek turned back their attack, but the Ticonderoga was badly damaged during the fighting. The damage control teams made a valiant effort to save the ship, but it was hopeless. Fires were put out and holes in the hull were patched, but the engines were too badly damaged to be repaired while at sea. Without some TLC in a drydock, the ship wasn’t going to get back underway under its own power. The Ticonderoga had to be scuttled to ensure the Russians wouldn’t get their hands on her. Malek had to watch his ship sink while being motored over to one of the nearby battleships and he had to leave a quarter of his men behind when it went down, most having been killed during the fighting. There just wasn’t enough time to collect all the bodies.”

“That had to have been hard.” Marcus noted.

“Yes, I’d imagine he’s still very bitter about that to this day.” Lennox agreed. “His crew were like his family back then. Malek was a very different man at the time. Anyways, he pressed on, and the fleet hit their targets. After the battle, he was promoted to Admiral, in part due to his actions during the fighting, but also because someone needed to be elevated to fill the shoes of his mentor. Malek hasn’t been the same since then. He’s colder and more calculating now and doesn’t get too attached to his subordinates anymore.”

“How do you know all of this?” Brock asked.

“I was on board the Ticonderoga during the battle.” Lennox answered. “I saw it all go down. I followed Admiral Malek to his next assignment. So, I can tell you, afterwards he carried out some particularly brutal attacks on the Russians. Some of them being fairly questionable. He’s good at covering his tracks. Take my strong advice, and don’t ever cross the admiral.”



Akira was brought back to the airbase at Yokota and taken to the infirmary to rest. The staff doctor decided it was best to give him two units of plasma due to the blood loss he had endured the night before. After that, Akira started to regain some of his color and strength. Haruki on the other hand had only suffered a moderate strain to his rotator cuff. It was hardly life-threatening, but it was fairly painful, so they kept him overnight too after giving him some pain medication. Haruki saw it as a small price to pay to mend some bridges back in his village.

As the night set in, the ward settled down. Haruki and Akira were the only patients there and they were both very stable, so the on-duty night nurse went out for a smoke break leaving them on their own. Akira was tossing and turning on his cot. It was dark and he was tired, but he still couldn’t sleep. He decided to hit the lavatory and take a short walk to help settle his nerves. He was happy to hear that all of the giant inspects were dead, but all of the things he had seen the night before kept coming back to him. He couldn’t get them out of his head. So much death and carnage.

After Akira was finished in the bathroom, he returned to the ward. As he was walking by the empty nurse’s station the phone rang. The timing of it made him jump. He was right next to the phone when it went off. Akira stopped and stood there, staring at the ringing phone. The black phone had a polished finish and gleamed in the light from the hallway outside of the ward. He had the strangest feeling that he should answer it. Akira reached down, telling himself he’d go out and fetch the nurse after he found out who was on the line. Undoubtably, they were trying to reach her. He guessed that she simply couldn’t hear it from outside.

“Hello… This is the nurse’s station.” Akira said, not knowing what else to say.

“Akira?” A familiar voice rang out on the other side of the line.

“Ah, yes.” Akira confirmed, slightly surprised, and confused.

“This is Kiki.” Kiki announced. “I just wanted to check and see how you were doing.”

“Oh… Kiki, I’m a little banged up, but I think I’ll pull through.” Akira informed her. “Probably going to be here a couple of days.”

“That’s good to know.” Kiki said warmly. “I had heard there was some trouble...”

“You’ve got a gift for understatement.” Akira smiled, nearly laughing. “Fortunately, that’s all over.” He reassured her. ‘Strange that she has already heard about what happened in Kitamatsu.’ Akira thought. ‘The military was trying to keep that quiet for the time being.’ They had in fact sealed off the town to outsiders when he left. ‘She must have friends or family living there that told her about it.’ Akira deduced. “Hey, how did you get this number anyway?” He asked. “It’s unlisted.”

“Oh, the base operator transferred me over when I asked for you.” Kiki answered.

“Huh, I’m surprised they’d do that for a civilian.” Akira noted. “Don’t tell anybody about it. You might get someone in trouble.”

“You don’t have to worry about me.” Kiki promised. “My lips are sealed.” Just then, Akira could hear the nurse returning from the outside.

“Hey, I had better get going.” Akira told her. “It was nice talking to you though.”

“Ok, do me a favor though and get some rest.” Kiki requested. There was an odd tone to her voice.

“Yeah… sure thing.” Akira answered and then hung up the phone. He resumed his path back to bed and put his head down on the pillow.

The nurse came back in a moment later and peered down the aisle to ensure her patients were still doing ok. Haruki smiled to her, and she smiled back. The nurse soon turned her attention to doing some paperwork sitting on her desk. As soon as she was good and distracted, Haruki turned to Akira.

“Hey Akira, who were you talking to?” Haruki inquired. Akira didn’t answer, so Haruki slipped out of his bed and crossed the aisle. He came around to find Akira was fast asleep in his bed.



The Archimedes fleet had tracked Godzilla all the way down to the Sea of Japan. Their present position put them just off of Korea’s territorial waters. Admiral Malek had been busy overnight, communicating with Korean officials with Ling’s assistance. The Korean government eagerly consented to allow them to enter their waters. Mostly because they wanted the extra protection of the fleet. The Koreans had no great navy of their own to speak of and were very concerned about Godzilla landing at one of their coastal cities like he had at Tokyo or Madagan.

The Koreans prepared the best they could, scrambling army units to the coast and making plans for civilian evacuations. There was some very bad news though. The Archimedes fleet lost track of Godzilla around noon as he was nearing the Korea Strait between Japan and Korea. The monster must have dived too deep for the Giger counters to detect him anymore. Whether he had done so deliberately or not was unknown. From that moment on however, Admiral Malek could only make an educated guess which way he had gone.

US Naval Intelligence reported some weeks back that they suspected the Chinese were secretly building a heavy water plant on the mainland, thought the report was far from concrete. There was no way to know how accurate the information was. It was based on speculation, not facts. In the end, Admiral Malek elected to follow the projected course Godzilla had been on and hoped to reestablish contact with him between their present location and China. It was the only lead they had. Meanwhile in Japan, the fleet was put back on full alert and their western coast braced itself for another possible attack.

By the next morning, the Archimedes fleet rounded the Korean peninsula and came out the other side into the Yellow Sea. That’s when they came up against a potential roadblock. Roughly half of the Yellow Sea was controlled by the Chinese government, and they would also have to give permission for the Archimedes fleet to enter their side of the sea if they wanted to continue the pursuit.

Ling was there to make the formal request go more smoothly, but he was pissed off about it. He didn’t even want to speak to someone who represented the communist Chinese government. Marcus tried to break the tension by offering to talk to them instead, despite not knowing a single word of Chinese. It helped loosen Ling up. In the end, he made the transmission. Unfortunately, they were still denied permission to enter Chinese waters. It wasn’t much of a surprise. The level of enmity from the Chinese government towards Americans was still very high following the war.

Such as it was, the Archimedes fleet was restricted to patrolling the Korean side of the Yellow Sea. They launched all of their search craft and swept through the best they could. It was all in vain though, there was no trace of Godzilla to be found. Soon after, it became apparent why that was the case.

Godzilla was detected the very next morning, but it was off of the northeast coast of Korea. At some point, the monster had changed course and headed north, shaking off his pursuers. Now the entire landmass of Korea was between the fleet and Godzilla. Soon after appearing, the monster made landfall and continued north. Strangely, Godzilla did not appear to be heading for any major coastal cities. That being the case, the Korean military did not try to impede his progress in any way. The monster had come to shore at the northeast tip of the Hamgyong province. That particular location was just a narrow stretch of sovereign Korean soil between the sea and China. Once Godzilla had crossed through it, he would be in Northeast China.

In just a few hours, Godzilla did precisely that, traversing the Tumen River and marching into China. The Chinese military command was caught completely off guard. Much like Admiral Malek, they had anticipated a landing somewhere much further south somewhere along their proper coastline. Instead, Godzilla was in the Jilin province after cutting through Korea. The monster was headed in the direction of Changchun, the largest city in the area. Oddly, the city wasn’t anywhere near the sea and there had been cities Godzilla could have more easily hit on the coast that he bypassed along the way. So, everybody’s question was, why Changchun?

That was a question Admiral Malek wanted answered too and he gave Marcus orders to go find out. The mission was straightforward enough. Enter Chinese airspace, locate Godzilla, and find out what had taken him so far inland. Carrying out the mission however was not going to be so straightforward. If the Chinese didn’t want them in their territorial waters, they certainly did not want them violating their airspace either. The markings on Marcus’ helicopter were painted over to avoid easy identification as an American craft. He was to land in Korea to refuel and then press on through the border and shadow Godzilla.

“Just stay below their radar and you’ll be fine.” Admiral Malek assured him, downplaying the danger. “They’ll be so distracted with Godzilla they won’t even notice you.” He saluted Marcus before turning to leave the flight deck. Brock stepped up next to Marcus and leaned in.

“Don’t let him fool you with that crap.” Brock muttered in his ear. “If they discover you, they’ll shoot you down. Don’t take any unnecessary risks and protect yourself above all.” He put a hand on Marcus’ shoulder. “You’re sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

“No, I think it would be best to minimize the risk.” Marcus answered. “No sense in gambling more lives than we already are.”

“Alright, good luck out there.” Brock pulled in Marcus, embracing him, and patching him on the shoulder.

“I’ll be careful.” Marcus was moved by Brock’s apparent concern. He hadn’t really expected it from the big man, but it must be a sign that he was really worried about the mission. Marcus stepped back to salute Brock, but he decided that didn’t feel like the right thing to do given the situation. Instead, he held out his hand and then shook it. “Thanks for everything Brock.”

With that, Marcus entered his helicopter and prepared for takeoff. A good portion of the flight deck crew showed up to see him off. They waved to him as he lifted off. Dr. Orsini watched him from the carrier’s island. Marcus nodded to him when he was high enough, then moved the stick forward to start the mission.



Hours later, Marcus was over Korea and approaching the agreed upon location to land and refuel. Once he started the second leg of his journey, he would have to be on his toes.

“Are we there yet…?” Ling asked from the back of the cabin.

“Ling, what in God’s name are you doing here?” Marcus asked astounded. “You should be back with the ship. Does Admiral Malek know you are here?”

“Yeah… he does not.” Ling replied sheepishly. “I thought I could be more useful to you here though. It’s too late to turn back now, right?”

“Yes… very.” Marcus noted. “That’s why you waited until now to come out, isn’t it?”

“Yep.” Ling smirked like the devil, joining Marcus in the co-pilot seat at his side. “I thought you might object, so I took the choice out of your hands.”

“Well, I guess since you’re already here, settle in.” Marcus conceded. “We still have aways to go.”

After having landed, Marcus and Ling were talking to the Korean ground crew as the helicopter was being refueled. The Koreans told them that the weather to the north was turning overcast, which would be to their benefit if they wanted to pass undetected. The terrain Godzilla was passing through was mountainous, which would help screen their presence from Chinese radars and avoid visual detection from the ground.



At the northeast border, a Chinese armored division was preparing for Godzilla’s arrival. They were setting up a defensive line on the far end of a long open plain. Engaging Godzilla on the plain would give them several key advantages. Chiefly, there would be no obstructions. They’d have perfect line of sight for all of their units, meaning they could focus down on the monster with overlapping fields of fire all at once. Ideal conditions for any defensive position.

The plain was miles long and miles wide, so there was plenty of room for the Chinese to dig their forces in. They could fortify well-prepared positions and then just lay in wait for Godzilla to arrive. Their side of the valley was wooded around the edges. The woods gave them perfect cover to hide their numbers and vehicles until the monster got into range.


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The troops in question were the Chinese border guard units meant to challenge any invasions through the Korean peninsula. They were the first line of defense. During the last war, Japanese and American forces had pushed their way through the area after the initial Chinese invasion into Korea had floundered. Korea was a strong strategic foothold for them back then and would remain so for any future conflict. It was vital that the corridor was protected.

It just so happened that Godzilla was following the same path, though it was hardly a coincidence. The topography of the area funneled any land-based army marching northward through the mountain corridor and would lead them into the area the Chinese were using as a staging ground for their ambush. The Chinese knew Godzilla would have to pass through the region unless he wanted to climb over several mountains.

The border force’s goal wasn’t to kill Godzilla, but simply to change his direction. They were hoping to deflect his march out of their territory and force him to go back south where he would be Korea’s problem again. To that end, they were going to hit the monster with everything they had. The division had about two hundred tanks at their disposal. They were supported by various artillery pieces, one brigade of infantry, and a number of rocket trucks. Perhaps more importantly, the defense would be additional bolstered by the red air force. There was a forward airbase only a couple miles to the north which would further augment their firepower with around forty Mig-15s.

In charge of the defense was General Feng-Lu. He was an experienced officer and a veteran of the Second Great War. Though in the end his side lost, he was still held in high esteem, having served well, and distinguished himself on a number of occasions. Feng saw it as his great honor to defend his country’s borders from any would be attackers, including giant fire-breathing reptiles. Chinese folklore was full of dragons, though they were usually powerful and noble beasts who brought good luck to mankind. The one they faced however was simply dark and dangerous. Feng-Lu had an opportunity to write himself into legend, like the Chinese heroes of old, if he could defeat Godzilla.

Feng-Lu didn’t take Godzilla lightly though. He knew pushing the monster back would be no easy task. He would need to employ all of the might he had at his disposal. Feng used every moment he had preparing and strengthening his position and he called for additional reinforcements. A heavy bombing group had been put on alert and were being loaded to bear. If Feng’s ground forces and air wings were insufficient to deal with Godzilla, he would decimate the entire valley as a last resort. The bomber’s base was much further to the west though. They would have to be summoned at the right time to be properly utilized.

The weather conditions were perfect. If it wasn’t for the impending battle looming over them, it would have been a nice day to go into the plains for a picnic on the grass. Sadly, that wasn’t an option. Instead, Feng-Lu was having his infantrymen placing landmines into the valley. The mines weren’t likely to do much more than annoy Godzilla, but maybe a lucky explosion right between his toes would be enough to make the monster retire from the field.

Feng-Lu ordered his men to mark the spots well so they could remove the mines afterwards. Godzilla wouldn’t be able to see where the markers were anyways, and Feng wanted to ensure that they could find and remove the explosives afterwards. No sense in leaving a deathtrap for civilians after the fact.

Feng’s second in command, Colonel Xu-Tang wasn’t so confident in their chances against Godzilla. He had taken a great deal of interest in studying the previous military skirmishes with Kaiju. Whether it be on land, sea, or air, they almost all universally shared the same outcome: defeat for the military forces in question. Even the sparce successes had one thing in common: heavily losses in men and material. A pyrrhic victory was the best outcome they could hope for, but crushing defeat was much more likely.

Not a single Kaiju to date had been killed by conventional military forces and Godzilla was arguably the most formidable one of them all. The odds didn’t seem too good to Xu. The two officers walked up and down the defensive line together, assessing its strength. Feng-Lu could sense the apprehension of his subordinate and sought to bolster his resolve.

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“Don’t look so glum Colonel.” Feng began. “The Japanese were able to turn back this beast’s attack, and they were employing outdated American equipment. Using Shermans… what were they thinking? Those tanks were under-gunned and under-armored when they were brand-new twelve years ago. We will be utilizing state of the art T-10s, fresh off the assembly line. Superior in every way. However, the real key to winning is our jets.” Feng went on. “The monster retreated when the Japanese attacked with their Sabres, but they waited too long to deploy them. If they weren’t so afraid of damaging their own capital, they may have managed to save it. We aren’t burdened with any such dilemma. We have plenty of Mig-15s at our disposal and we will act more quickly than they did. Out in this field, our pilots can rain down fire as they see fit. We’ll have close air support the whole way through the battle.”

“Yes sir.” Xu replied, feigning confidence, though in his heart, doubt was still alive and well.



Marcus and Ling were back in the air and following Godzilla’s trail through the Chinese countryside. In sharp contrast to the relatively calm flight into Korea from the sea, Marcus was now on high alert. He kept a wary eye out for threats. He was employing the terrain to his advantage as planed and stayed amongst the hills and mountains. While still on guard, Marcus and Ling started to talk to help pass the time and keep their anxiety in check.

“You know, at first I got into the navy just because I thought I wanted adventure, but now I think it’s just because have a broad love for the ocean.” Marcus explained. “There’s something magical about it. All life began in the ocean. Maybe that’s what I’m sensing when I look at it and feel that tingly sensation. I think I get that from my father. He loved the water. It was his second home. Some might even say it was his first. He took to the water like a fish. I don’t remember much about him, but I do remember that much. Looking back, I realize my lust for adventure was pretty childish. All I really want at this point is to get through these missions in one piece so I can get back to my wife and kids.” He thumbed a picture of Shauna and his children he had taped on the instrument panel.

“That helps you get through missions?” Ling asked.

“Yeah, it helps remind me what’s really important in life.” Marcus answered. “I can’t help but wonder if the admiral is punishing me for speaking up during the mission of Madagan. He seemed pretty annoyed with me.”

“I don’t think he’d throw away one of his best scouts over something so trivial.” Ling observed. “I’d say he’s just a little over-zealous about keeping up with the latest intelligence. The man doesn’t give up once he has decided on something.”

“You’re probably right.” Marcus grumbled in distain. “There are times when the admiral doesn’t seem so bad, but then he does stuff like this and reminds you of who he really is. I’m only here because of him fucking around with my terms of service in the first place. This mission just serves as a reminder to how ruthless he can be when he wants something.” He sighed and then decided to change the subject. “So, how does it feel to be home? Danger aside, these mountains and the land in general are beautiful. I think when we first met you said you were from the northern regions of China, right?”

“China will always be my first home.” Ling smiled. “Though I doubt I will ever be able to return to her in my lifetime. No, I think my family is going to have to make peace with the fact that your country is our home now. And that isn’t so bad. Despite the differences, there are a great many things I like about America. Where else can you have so many people from so many different backgrounds come together for the common good? The men who took power in China did so under the guise of doing it for the people, but the common people have suffered greatly under their rule. People are dying of starvation here. Those men in power have proven themselves to be no better than the warlords who ruled before them. In your country, my family can truly be safe and free.”

“Well, let’s hope this all goes smoothly.” Marcus replied. “I’d hate to see what your former countrymen would do to us if we’re shot down here. Brock used to tell me some pretty gruesome stuff about being captured and interrogated. I hope he was just trying to mess with me back then.” As he finished the sentence, Marcus was becoming acutely aware of a developing problem out ahead of them.

The sunshiny day that they had started out with was quickly disappearing as a cold front was moving in, along with a wall of moist air. Condensation was already starting to build up as the water vapor thickened in the air close to the ground. Fog was starting to form. The natural humidity of the mountainous region just accelerated the process. The further they flew into the sky ahead of them, the worst the conditions were getting. Pretty soon, the foothills around them started to melt into the mist forming around them.

Marcus’ plan of sticking to the mountain pass was starting to look more and more suicidal as time went on and the sky around them grew hazier. He realized that he needed to climb up higher to avoid crashing into a hidden peak. Marcus was concerned about the exposure, but he figured the fog was thick enough to where they couldn’t be spotted by the naked eye from the ground anyways. He pulled up on the stick and took them out of the rocky corridor.

“Ok, hopefully we’ll be alright here.” Marcus noted nervously.

“Shouldn’t we just turn around at this point?” Ling asked. “We can’t follow Godzilla’s trail anymore, and if we can’t see that anymore, we certainly won’t be able to gather any intelligence.”

“You make a good point Ling.” Marcus agreed. “This does give us the perfect excuse to head back. Maybe we should quit while we’re still ahead, eh?” Just then a voice rang over the radio. It was sharp, demanding, and Chinese. Marcus looked over to Ling and asked. “What did they say?”

“They said: Unidentified craft, this is Hu fighter patrol, identify yourself.” Ling answered.

“Oh shit, we’ve been detected.” Marcus realized, considering dipping back into the mountain pass. “They must only have us on radar, otherwise they probably would have shot us down by now.”

“Let me have the receiver.” Ling requested. Marcus gave it over to him without question. Ling began to speak to them in Chinese. Marcus simply sat there waiting, keeping a steady course forward. Ling spoke back and forth with them for a while and Marcus could only guess at what they were saying. Finally, Ling put the receiver down.

“Just keep your course for now.” Ling instructed Marcus. “I told them we were a Chinese patrol helicopter that got lost in the fog trying to keep tabs on Godzilla.” He went on with a smirk. “I think they bought it. But if they see us try to turn around now, they’re going to know something is up...”

“…And they’ll try to shoot us down.” Marcus finished for him. “Ling you are beautiful, you saved our asses. If you weren’t here, I would probably be a pile of burning ashes already. We’d better hope those fighters are out of range before the weather clears though, or we’re going to be in trouble all over again.”



Down in the valley passage where the Chinese armored division was waiting for Godzilla to arrive, the fog had already taken the visibility down to only about sixty meters. Colonel Xu-Tang was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The benefits their positions had given them earlier in the day were gone now. He was reading the most recent reports from their search aircraft, and he didn’t like what he saw.

“Aerial recon has nothing for us sir.” Xu turned to tell General Feng-Lu. “It’s soup up there. They lost track of Godzilla thirty miles ago and haven’t given us anything useful since. The monster was last spotted to the southeast of our position and heading this way.” Xu leaned in so the rest of the officers couldn’t hear him. “General, I recommend that we make a strategic withdraw from the area immediately. As it is now, our aircraft are of no use to us. They will not be able to support the ground attack.” The general stood there thinking. Xu could see that he was giving his recommendation serious consideration.

“Gather the brigade commanders here.” Feng-Lu relented, seeing Xu’s assessment of the situation was correct. “We need to hurry but remain organized. If we do not retreat in good order, no one is going to get out of this valley anytime soon.” Just then, the two officers felt a tremor off in the distance. It could only mean one thing. Xu got a cold chill up his spine. Feng-Lu straightened his back and turned to him. “Cancel that order, it’s already too late to retreat. We have no choice now. We must stand and fight here. Prepare the men.”

As Feng stood there waiting for his orders to be carried out, he felt another impact and then another. They were gradually getting louder. By then, every man in the division could feel them approaching. The soldiers in the line struggled to see through the fog, but it was of no use. They were sitting ducks. Panic was starting to set into the ranks. The men had been ready to stand against an enemy that they could see, but now they were being asked to fight completely blind. The target scopes of the tanks were just as useless as the naked eye. The pressure was building with each passing moment. An unseen terror was coming for them.

Individual units began requesting permission to open fire, but to do so would reveal their positions. The officers shouted them down while waiting for orders from the General. Feng-Lu himself was divided over the next best course of action. Some probing shots might actually help them locate Godzilla in the mist, but it would also reveal their presence to him. Their only remaining advantage was the monster didn’t know they were out there waiting for him. If they waited for Godzilla to get closer, they might be able to open on up him with one large, coordinated volley. As Feng-Lu sat there thinking, it occurred to him that they had placed mines in the valley. If he just waited for Godzilla to start setting them off, it would reveal his position to them. He relayed his orders to continue to hold fire until that happened.

The soldiers received their orders and couldn’t believe what they were hearing. They were to just sit there and do nothing while the monster continued to close in on them? The tension in the air was as thick as the fog. Chinese military discipline was being put to the ultimate test as the giant footfalls continued to come closer. Dirt was starting to fall back into the trenches from the impact tremors and the only thing the soldiers could do was sit there and sweat it out. Men inside of their machines were literally getting rattled by the vibrations. Finally, one of the tank commanders couldn’t take it anymore and fired off a round. That was all the excuse other units needed to start opening up themselves.

The rocket artillery sprang into action, letting loose with their volleys of fire. They had no choice but to make an educated guess as to where to fire. Their rockets shot up into the mist and flew off into the unknown. The artillery spotters closely observed the red-flamed tails of the rocket’s engine mounts streak through the fog, hoping to see an impact and explosion before they hit the ground. Before long, there were many, many, glowing explosions off in the distance, but no way to be certain if any of them hit their intended target or not.

There was a pause in the action as the rocket crews scrambled to refill their tubes. The tanks held their fire as well, trying to get a sense of what was happening post barrage. Everyone could see the glow of fires through the mist, but they couldn’t make out their target any better than they could before. The soldiers knew one thing for sure though, the first assault had failed. They could all still hear the thumps of Godzilla’s steps coming at them.

The tank commanders started using their machine gun mounts on top of their vehicles to probe the valley ahead of them with tracer rounds. They swept through the void, desperate to locate Godzilla. After a time, the second salvo was ready. The tanks started to fire their main guns again while the rockets were launched by the hundreds behind them. The regular artillery joined in too. They managed to put on quite the fireworks display. When the thunder of the second salvo had died down, the fog started to thin out slightly, perhaps due to of all the flames burning across the battlefield. There was still no sign of Godzilla, however.

Suddenly, there was a great deal of shouting from the right flank of the defensive line. The men there had spotted a dark figure moving through the mist. Only trouble was it had emerged from behind their lines. Godzilla had flanked around their position in the fog and was coming at them from the side. All of the firepower they had unleashed was completely in vain. None of it had landed anywhere near him. The monster had been approaching from the side the whole time. Now that they could see him, he was only about two-hundred yards away from the edge of their right-wing positions. Godzilla was practically on top of them.

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It was too late to reposition. Godzilla was only a few steps away by that point. Chaos descended upon the Chinese armored division as fear sweep through their ranks. Soldiers began to panic and abandoned their positions in droves. Unit cohesion was faltering as individual courage wavered.

“Get back here and fight you cowards!” Xu-Tang shouted to a squad of infantry who were dashing away from the trenches.

The left flank and the center of the formation tried to come to the aid of the right. Their tanks opened up with fairly accurate supporting fire. The shells did very little against Godzilla’s tough hide though. In their desperation to get away, several squads of infantry men ran into the open field. Some of the unlucky ones tripped mines and blew themselves to pieces.

The mist surrounding Godzilla began to glow blue, revealing his exact position to every solder on the field. Not that it was going to do them much good anymore. Godzilla’s mouth opened wide, and he spew flames down upon the tanks closest to him. He then worked the stream of fire up the line until he had wiped out half of the vehicles in the division with one overwhelming strike. The woods the tanks and artillery had been concealed in burned intensely around the remaining men. Ammo stockpiles were exploding up and down the line. Many of the infantrymen had been instantly vaporized by Godzilla’s heat beam. It must have felt like a living hellscape to the few survivors.

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The heat of Godzilla’s breath had been so intense that it evaporated much of the mist surrounding him. The fighter patrol aircraft in the area could finally spot the monster from the air and dove down to attack him with their rockets. The whining of their jet engines clued Godzilla into their approach and he looked up to the sky. The fighters launched their weapons, but they were greeted in kind by a second blast of Godzilla’s breath. He swept both jets from the sky, resulting in two falling fireballs. More mist was vaporized, and more fighters targeted Godzilla.

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What was left of the ground forces tried to rally under General Feng’s leadership. It was either win or die for them now. Godzilla had advanced to the point where he had cut off their escape route out of the valley…

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Marcus and Ling could see a light up ahead on the horizon. The fog was starting to lift, so they had to option to resume the more cautious approach of dipping down into the mountain pass to avoid Chinese radar. After their previous close call, they decided to take that opportunity. If the fog continued to thin out the way it was, the next fighter patrol they ran into wouldn’t have to radio them to identify who they were. Marcus guided the helicopter through the narrow canyon pass, making adjustments when needed. As they got closer to the end of the passage, they could see bursts of bright orange over the mountain peaks.

“The Chinese must be trying to fight off Godzilla.” Marcus observed.

Marcus piloted the helicopter around the final bend of the mountain between them and the battlefield. Slowly, both Marcus and Ling got of sense of what had happened. They found a field of fire and destruction. Plumes of smoke dominated the landscape. Burnt out trees, husks of obliterated tanks, and countless bodies were everywhere. The battle was already over. Godzilla was already gone, leaving behind only the dead and dying in his wake. It was wholesale destruction as far as the eye could see. The explosions Marcus and Ling had seen at a distance were just random ammo stockpiles going up with the spreading fires.

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Ling teared up at the sight. He wasn’t used to seeing such overwhelmingly horrible sights. There were thousands of men dead, slaughtered without a chance to fight back or escape. This transcended any differences in politics. The fallen soldiers were still men and they had suffered just the same regardless of what banner they followed or beliefs they held. Marcus wanted to say something to Ling to make him feel better, but he couldn’t come up with a single word to make what he was seeing alright again. It was simply an ordeal to endure.

Having seen enough, Marcus steered them away from the battlefield and followed Godzilla’s path of destruction out of the area. They followed the monster’s trail for miles and discovered that he had changed direction away from the city of Changchun after clearing the mountain pass.

“He’s changed direction…?” Marcus asked himself. “Well, if he’s not going after the city, then what the hell did he trek all the way up here for?” He checked the fuel gauge to see how much further they could go. The tanks were still well-above half, so they could afford to follow Godzilla’s route a little further to see where it led.



When they finally caught up with Godzilla, the found that the monster had stopped and appeared to be staring at a clump of green wooded hills ahead of him. Godzilla’s tail was flailing around lazily, as if he were waiting for something. Marcus guided the chopper closer, while still maintaining a healthy distance.

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“What’s he doing?” Ling asked. “He’s just standing there.” Godzilla lifted his foot and stomped the ground, roaring at the empty hill. “What is that about?”

Birds flew up from the trees ahead of Godzilla. Then there was a rumbling, like an earthquake was shaking through the green slopes. The trees swayed back and forth before giving way. The hillside split open and began to crumble as a mass rose from under it. A monster was emerging from underground. Soil poured off from its back as is rose up to meet the challenge of Godzilla. As the monster pulled itself out of the hole, its reddish-brown skin was revealed to the world.

“Baragon…” Marcus announced as the monster’s identify became clear.

Baragon shook off the remaining dirt from its back and then poised itself on the hilltop in defiance of Godzilla presence. Baragon’s ears were angled up and forward aggressively. His back plates were frilled up to make himself appear larger than he was. His nose horn was burning bright yellow. Small torrents of fire passed between his teeth as he hissed out a warning. Baragon’s red eyes were intensely sharp and fixated on Godzilla who had invaded his territory. Baragon’s threat display didn’t seem to intimate Godzilla though. He roared back at him thunderously.

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“Maybe we should get out of here.” Ling suggested.

“Are you kidding?” Marcus asked incredulously. “I’m about to see Baragon take his medicine.” Marcus still held a major grudge for what happened during the Zao Ming conference. “I’m staying to watch this.”

Back below, Baragon made the first move. He leapt forward in an impressive display of agility. His back legs were strong like a frogs, and he sprang up into Godzilla’s face before he could react. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting it. Baragon bit into Godzilla’s left arm with his sharp teeth and latched on to it. Godzilla was visibly pained by it, roaring in anger. Gravity brought Baragon back to the ground, but he maintained his vice-like bite, which forcefully yanked Godzilla’s upper body down from the extra weight.

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Godzilla tried to counter by kicking Baragon in the stomach. However, because of the way he was bent over, his kicks couldn’t get much strength behind them. Baragon was simply too close to him to build up much force anyway. Seeing his efforts were fruitless, Godzilla changed tactics, trying to use his free hand to pry open Baragon’s mouth. That too proved to be of little use. Baragon’s jaws were stronger than his one free hand. Godzilla next resorted to clenching his fist and pounding it against Baragon’s head like a hammer to get him to let go, but Baragon still clung on to him tenaciously. The spikes on top of Baragon’s head were damaging Godzilla’s hand more than he was damaging Baragon’s head.

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Godzilla employed one final maneuver to break the stalemate. He spun around, lifting Baragon completely up off the ground. It seemed to catch Baragon off guard and he loosened his bite grip just enough to start slipping free. Baragon hung in the air for several seconds before he completely slid off Godzilla’s arm. He landed on his stomach, which temporarily knocked the wind out of him. Godzilla meanwhile was regaining his footing. By the time that Godzilla turned back around to face him, Baragon had recovered and was already thinking out his next move.

Baragon turned and made his way back to the hole that he had emerged from. Godzilla gave chase and stomped up the hill after him. Baragon was faster though and jumped inside of the pit. He quickly began to burrow back inside of the earth. Godzilla was just a few steps behind him, and he got a face full of soil and debris in his eyes for his trouble. Godzilla took a step back down the hill and tried to wipe the dirt from his eyes. Baragon used the opportunity to pop out from under Godzilla and knocked him over. Godzilla went tumbling down the hillside blindly.

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Godzilla cleared his vision and then quickly got back to his feet. He scanned angrily the ground for any signs of Baragon. He could feel Baragon moving around underneath him somewhere. Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath out of frustration, scorching the earth around him. While Godzilla’s attention was diverted by his breath attacks, Baragon popped out of the ground behind him and slashed at his back with his front claws.

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Godzilla responded instantly by knocking Baragon over with his tail. The attack struck Baragon on the side of the face and he was sent rolling. Baragon decided to get himself back underground before Godzilla could turn to face him once more. Seeing what Baragon was doing, Godzilla utilized his tail to attack again. He reached out with it and hit Baragon as he was only halfway in the hole. Baragon’s back legs were still sticking out and took most of the punishment. The impact only did superficial damage to Baragon, but it would slow him down a smidge for the remainder of the fight.

Once Baragon had disappeared underground again, Godzilla watched, listened, and waited to see what he would do next. He could hear Baragon moving away from him, so he moved to give chase again. It was a mistake. Godzilla’s foot sunk into the ground as he caved one of Baragon’s shallow tunnels which had been left there as a trap. Godzilla fell forward but broke his fall with his outstretched arms.

As Godzilla pulled himself back up, Baragon sprang from the ground once again and unleashed a fire attack of his own. His orange flames swept over Godzilla body, engulfing him. The heat seared the top layer of Godzilla’s epidermis and stung his eyes. Godzilla closed his lids to protect them, then reeled back and struck Baragon in the face with his clawed hand, knocking out one of his teeth in the process. The force of the strike drove Baragon back down into his hole, dazing him.

Godzilla took the opening to get back on his feet and then he reached down to pull Baragon out of the hole. Godzilla held Baragon up, face to face, and prepared to use his atomic breath at point blank range. Baragon recovered and saw what was about to happen to him. In desperation, Baragon resorted to using his most powerful attack. He charged up his horn until it was glowing with energy and then slashed it down at Godzilla’s chest in a yellow streak of light. The attack cut down past Godzilla’s skin and into his flesh. He immediately dropped Baragon. Godzilla actually backed off, assessing the damage. His chest had a massive cut carved into it. There wasn’t much blood, but that was only because the heat of the attack had cauterized the wound.

Baragon charged forward, trying to take advantage of the situation. He powered up his horn again and aimed to gore Godzilla’s stomach like a rhino. Godzilla however, had no intention of letting that happen. He reached out with his arms and stopped Baragon dead in his tracks. He then grabbed Baragon by the horn and threw him into the side of a mountain. Godzilla stayed right on Baragon, kicking him in the side of the gut. Baragon tried to fight back by biting Godzilla’s leg, but Godzilla saw it coming and stuffed bolder into his mouth. Godzilla kicked again, catching Baragon under the jaw. The rock in Baragon’s mouth shattered as he was forced to bite down on it.

Baragon fell back into the mountainside onto his back. That left his vulnerable underbelly exposed to attack. Godzilla sensed an opportunity to strike a decisive blow. He brought up his foot, intending to stomp on Baragon’s wide open stomach. Baragon looked up and saw the sort of trouble he was in. He rolled to the side to get out of the way. Godzilla’s foot only just missed, and he followed up with a tail whip. Baragon continued to roll and managed to avoid the second attack too.

Godzilla was not giving up though. He was hot on Baragon’s heels. Baragon wasn’t beat yet either. He saw a chance to regain the initiative. Baragon rapidly changed direction and then jumped over a patch of soil he knew he had passed under earlier in the fight. As Godzilla stepped on to the area the ground completely collapsed and his whole body plunged down into it. Godzilla ended up flat on his face down in the tunnel. Baragon meanwhile had wheeled back around and jumped onto Godzilla’s back. Baragon bit into the back of Godzilla’s neck, going for what he thought would be a killing blow.

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Only trouble was, the back of Godzilla’s neck was lined with rows of hard armored spines and Baragon’s teeth could not penetrate them. Godzilla used all of his strength to stand back up with Baragon hanging onto the nape of his neck. Godzilla then lurched forward, flipping Baragon free of his back. Baragon tumbled head over heels in the air, crashing into the field ahead of them. Baragon was slow to recover. Being tossed around the battlefield was starting to take its toll on him.

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Godzilla climbed out of the hole to face up with Baragon again. He was relentless. Baragon was running low on tricks and being overpowered. Trying to match Godzilla strength to strength was pointless. Baragon saw one last opportunity to gain the upper hand. He dived back down into one of his previous dug tunnels and made his way towards a cliff Godzilla was standing next to. Baragon emerged from the top without Godzilla noticing him. Once there, Baragon pushed a large boulder down onto him. The boulder caught Godzilla in the shoulder and stunned him for a moment but failed to do any serious damage.

Seeing that the surprise attack had not put Godzilla down, Baragon shoved every bit of loose rock he could down on Godzilla trying to bury him, but it was no use. The gamble had not paid off. Baragon looked down and saw that Godzilla was already spinning his direction, looking for some retribution. Baragon was running out of options, so he leaned down, getting himself as close as he could to use his fire once again. He let loose and lost sight of Godzilla as the wall of flames hit him.

A moment later, Baragon could see something through the flames. It was a blue light. The light grew until it eclipsed his own. Godzilla’s atomic ray cut right through the center of Baragon’s fire breath and struck him in the chest, knocking him backwards. Baragon’s tail kept him from barreling over as the ray burned into his chest. The pain was intense. Baragon didn’t know how much longer he could endure it before falling.

The ray finally died down, giving Baragon a reprieve. Baragon peered down at Godzilla who was staring back up at him coldly. Baragon decided from that moment onwards he wanted no further part in continuing the fight. He was outmatched. Baragon backed way from the cliff face and retreated back inside of his tunnel.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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So far loving the update. Was just talking to a friend how animals pick up on signals of natural disasters way before we do and evacuate. Then you wrote the birds scene, showing the same thing. Nice. BTW what Godzilla figure is that in the model?

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Fri Apr 01, 2022 11:18 am So far loving the update. Was just talking to a friend how animals pick up on signals of natural disasters way before we do and evacuate. Then you wrote the birds scene, showing the same thing. Nice. BTW what Godzilla figure is that in the model?
Yeah, I was thinking about earthquakes specifically when writing about the birds and dog. There was a really neat program about that I was watching a couple months ago.

The Godzilla I use is a slightly modified version of GMK Godzilla. I wanted to imply the look of the original Godzilla without actually using it. But this version of Godzilla is not GMK Godzilla, just in case anyone is reading this and wondering. It is in effect ‘54 Godzilla with a slightly meaner look.

So that being said, the fight with Baragon was kind of a ‘more-even’ rematch from GMK. I rewatched the fight from that movie for some inspiration and discovered something interesting. Baragon’s fight with Godzilla in that movie is surprising brief. I didn’t time it, but compared to other Kaiju battles, it felt pretty short and one sided.

Of course, that is entirely the point in that movie. They wanted to show just how overwhelming Godzilla’s strength was in comparison to Baragon’s. And I kind of wanted to show that too, but I also wanted, for the readers (and Baragon fans in particular) for Baragon to put up a good spirited fight. Show what he could really do.

I want to give every monster a chance to shine, even in defeat. ;)

I had one reader say they were disappointed that Godzilla didn’t kill Baragon. But we’ve seen that already, and I have other plans for him in the future. :Baragon:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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I'm liking the chapter, but its a little jarring? It seems you took the "lack of horror" criticism a little serious. The attack on Madagan was harsh! Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but Godzilla seemed downright spiteful. In most incaranations Godzilla's carnage is either simply a natural result of being 200 feet tall or retalitory in nature. Here he got recently fed from that nuke and it seems odd that he was so vicious.


And Akira. I know this takes place in WW2 and cold war era and people were quite a bit simpler and less...shall we say sci fi oriented, but our Japanese pilot seems almost comically dense with her. I mean shes living in an abandoned village, news travels much slower in the 50's, and the news about the mine attack is being suppressed. How on earth does he not put those facts together? And she somehow finds him at the hospital? Even with the base operator explanation, wow man. Something is very clearly WAY out of left field there, I suppose you could chalk it up to exhaustion and blood loss but the weirdness around her is mounting. Its a good mystery, its just wow. Head in the clouds type of guy!

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:20 pm I'm liking the chapter, but its a little jarring? It seems you took the "lack of horror" criticism a little serious. The attack on Madagan was harsh! Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but Godzilla seemed downright spiteful. In most incaranations Godzilla's carnage is either simply a natural result of being 200 feet tall or retalitory in nature. Here he got recently fed from that nuke and it seems odd that he was so vicious.


And Akira. I know this takes place in WW2 and cold war era and people were quite a bit simpler and less...shall we say sci fi oriented, but our Japanese pilot seems almost comically dense with her. I mean shes living in an abandoned village, news travels much slower in the 50's, and the news about the mine attack is being suppressed. How on earth does he not put those facts together? And she somehow finds him at the hospital? Even with the base operator explanation, wow man. Something is very clearly WAY out of left field there, I suppose you could chalk it up to exhaustion and blood loss but the weirdness around her is mounting. Its a good mystery, its just wow. Head in the clouds type of guy!

I was definitely going for harsh. But let me explain my thought process a little though…

I think the first time a Japanese audience saw the original Godzilla movie, they probably thought it was a little jarring too. Godzilla King of the monsters was, as much as anything, a horror movie at its core. It depicted a lot of imagery that was meant to invoke the real life nuclear attacks on Japan, which at the time was still pretty fresh in the memories of people who actually lived through them.

So yeah, the attack on Madagan was ‘absolutely’ harsh, but it was meant to be. It served to further demonstrate the nastiness of being a civilian in a city during a Kaiju attack and further showed what a threat Godzilla is.

In the first 4 Showa Godzilla movies, (King of the monsters, Raids Again, Vs. Kong, and vs. Mothra) Godzilla is kinda a nasty boy and he does not play well with others. He burns down Tokyo, then Osaka, he kills Angirus in a pretty savage way, he is definitely the bad guy in Kong, he kills adult Mothra and also tries to eat her egg. He’ s 100% a villainous character until movie #5, and that’s the Godzilla I’m going for. Getting back to his villainous roots. He is to be feared and respected.

Now there’s definitely room for character development down the road. I don’t want to get too far into what I have planned, but suffice to say, Godzilla will ‘evolve’ as the story does. He’s starting out as a terror to mankind, but let’s just see where he goes from here. :godzilla1962:

As for Akira, I generally find that guys are willing to ignore a lot when a pretty girl is giving them attention. Speaking from personal experience, us fellows are willing to ignore some pretty obvious ‘Red Flags’ when we first meet an attractive woman. :lol:

But yeah, I’ll admit, it is a bit of a stretch with Akira being so oblivious, but it’s also kinda fun. There may also be a ‘story reason’ why he’s not necessarily picking up on Kiki’s peculiarities. And you are correct, there’s something not quite right with her. :huge:

More to come later on that front. For now, I just going to put it out there: I had eye surgery last week, and that really has hampered how much time I can put into writing. So the next chapter might take a little longer to get out there. :?
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Rest your eyes if you gotta man, we're willing to wait as long as we have to.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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CommanderPhoenix wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 8:06 pm Rest your eyes if you gotta man, we're willing to wait as long as we have to.
I appreciate that CommanderPhoenix.
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Yeah, I went blind by 22 and had to have some major eye work myself. My eyes were so light sensitive afterwards I became like a vampire for 6 months. Still wear sunglasses outside almost always. Computer screen is probably a bad idea for a bit. Rest, relax. Maybe plan it out a bit on paper or just in the your head.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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mpsoldier wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:15 pm Yeah, I went blind by 22 and had to have some major eye work myself. My eyes were so light sensitive afterwards I became like a vampire for 6 months. Still wear sunglasses outside almost always. Computer screen is probably a bad idea for a bit. Rest, relax. Maybe plan it out a bit on paper or just in the your head.
I had lasik surgery done. There’s the type where you get up the next and and basically can function and go back to work, and then there’s the type that apparently takes months to heal entirely and you do not go back to work for at least a week. Guess which one I got? :dizzy:

For the first week, I can totally relate to your vampire comment. That’s exactly how I felt. Couldn’t do much of anything and had terrible light sensitivity. And Holy crap… day 2 in particular was just awful. :shock:

The doctor said I ‘may’ need to take pain meds if I got uncomfortable. Now what they should have told me is: Immediately start taking pain meds on a rotating schedule starting on day two. Now I know how it feels to be one of those naked mole rats. A very ‘not’ fun experience.

But I agreed to take part in a medical study (so the surgery was free). I just had to take this medicine that was supposed to increase tear production and help you heal faster. However, I think I am in the ‘control group’ and got the placebo. Cause it don’t seem like the med is helping me too much. A month later, and my vision is still fairly blurry.

I can see why they are doing this study and offering to do the surgery for free. Because if you can do basic lasik and be back to operational by the next day, why would you want to do the one that takes more than a month to heal? I can also see why they are trying to develop a drug to speed up the process. -_-

After the fact, they told me it could take up to 3 months to completely take effect. Now they tell me…. :roll:

I go back into the eye doctor tomorrow after work, so hopefully they’ll give me a better idea of what to expect going forward. I was hoping for ‘advanced vampire eyesight’ by now, but that just hasn’t happened yet. :lol:

Anyways, after the first week of horror, I did managed to start working on the next chapter. I’m ten pages away from having the 2nd draft done. I should get that done tomorrow. After that, I got to edit. Maybe…. by the end of the weekend I’ll get that done. And if I do, maybe I’ll have all the miniatures work completed and photographed by the beginning of May. I’m aiming for the 1st, but hard to say for sure at this point.

One way or the other, it won’t be too much longer before we get back into the monster action. :godzilla1962: :Anguirus: :Rodan56: :Mothra61: :Baragon:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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I just started reading last night (starting with the Blessed Crab chapter and going forward) and wow. This is truly something special.

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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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Cryptid_Liker wrote: Fri Apr 29, 2022 3:38 pm I just started reading last night (starting with the Blessed Crab chapter and going forward) and wow. This is truly something special.
Thanks, I really appreciate hearing that. I put a lot of thought into this story.

Stay tuned. There should be a new chapter posted within a week or so. ‘Maybe’ even this weekend.

I got the second draft done. I’m currently on page 7 of 30 editing chapter 26 right now. The eye doctor dilated my eyes on Wednesday. I didn’t know they were planning to do that, so it cost me an entire day’s worth of writing. :? :dizzy: -_-

But I’ll get it out as quickly as I can.

Thanks again!
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

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...

Chapter 26. Godzilla Raids Again.

Godzilla was triumphant and roared letting the world know about it. Marcus and Ling knew it was time to beat a hasty retreat of their own. As they flew away from the battlefield, a somber mood settled into the cockpit. Marcus wasn’t talking. He just sat there looking unsettled as he operated the controls of the helicopter. Ling wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“What’s wrong?” Ling finally broke the silence after a minute had gone by. “I thought seeing Baragon getting humbled like that would make you happy?” Marcus eyed over to Ling, and then back at the wide-open sky ahead of them.

“I don’t know, it just didn’t seem like a fair fight to me.” Marcus remarked. “I almost felt sorry for Baragon.” He admitted. Ling seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yes, I suppose I see what you mean.” Ling replied. “Baragon was so clearly the underdog. I guess that makes it a little harder to cheer against him, huh?” Ling looked out the window back at the torn-up field. “He did about as well as we have fighting Godzilla, which is to say, not so well. But for being so much smaller and less powerful, Baragon at least put up a pretty good fight. He was at a disadvantage from the start.”

“Well, there is one good thing that came out of the fight.” Marcus noted.

“Oh…?” Ling raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Baragon survived, which means I still have a chance to take him down myself in due time.” Marcus replied.



Hours later, and getting low on fuel, Marcus rendezvoused with the Archimedes fleet. He reported his findings to Admiral Malek, trying to hold back the feelings of resentment he felt towards his superior officer for putting him in harm’s way. Despite his efforts, the anger was still showing through. Malek was either oblivious or he just didn’t care. He didn’t even acknowledge it.

Malek did like the fact that the mission had bore some fruit, however. An entire Chinese division annihilated by Godzilla and Baragon reemerging were both certainly noteworthy pieces of intelligence. It would be curious to see how the Chinese government would react to those developments. More curious still would be what Godzilla would do next.

Marcus was well aware of that too and was concerned Admiral Malek was going to order him to turn right back around and find out. But instead, the admiral congratulated Marcus on a job well done and simply dismissed him. Perhaps Malek felt that Godzilla was getting too far into Chinese territory to risk further covert operations.

Such as it was, Admiral Malak had another decision to make. The Archimedes fleet was positioned in the Yellow Sea bordering the Bay of Korea. Godzilla was still assumably far northeast of them. Should the fleet remain where it was or double back around the Korean peninsula to the Sea of Japan? Which way would Godzilla go next? Admiral Malek elected to remain where they were and wait.

Through intercepted radio chatter about an hour later, they discovered that Godzilla was on the move again. He was headed south, smashing his way through the Chinese countryside. The heavy bombers that General Feng had waiting in reserve were deployed. They hammered Godzilla relentlessly, but to no avail. The bombs seemed to do little more than annoy Godzilla, which only antagonized him more.

The Chinese were starting to panic as they projected Godzilla’s course. It looked like the monster was on his way to the capital at Beijing. Every available force was mobilized to counter Godzilla. Beijing had to be defended at all costs. The force arrayed against Godzilla was impressive. The Chinese army assembled twenty divisions and then waited for him, preparing for a fight to the death. As it turned out, that wouldn’t be necessary. Godzilla turned south towards Shenyang instead.

The Chinese army made a second attempt to deflect Godzilla towards the sea. Two armored divisions rushed south and set up a blockade to redirect the monster away from the city. Unlike the first battle, the Chinese were able to engage Godzilla in favorable conditions. Unfortunately, the result was much the same. Any Chinese units that stood their ground were wiped out.

A day later, the city of Shenyang was destroyed. However, the sacrifice of the soldiers on the battlefield bought much needed time for the civilian population to escape the horrors of a Godzilla attack. The buildings were gone, but the life blood of the city, its people, survived and could rebuild again. After the attack, Godzilla continued south until he found the sea.



In Russia, Dimetri and Zev were riding in a long column of military trucks that were retreating out of an area the Rodan’s were just beginning to assault. For days now, the monsters had been relentlessly flattening the eastern part of Russia. The Rodans had finally caught up with the convoy carrying the egg. It wasn’t clear whether or not the monsters were aware that the Russians were in possession of it. However, they seemed more interested in inflicting damage than searching for anything.

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Dimitri look back at the pillars of smoke rising just miles behind them and had a terrible thought. He had made it out of those horrible woods of death, but maybe for his sins, he would never again be rid of the Rodans. The monsters had been content in their little corner of Russia, but he and his men had set them loose on the rest of the country by going into their nest and smashing their eggs. Now that the Rodans were filled with a terrible malice for mankind, where would their path of destruction end?

Two squadrons of Mig-15s flew over the convoy to meet the Rodans as they approached the area. Dimitri knew if the monsters spotted the egg, that would be the end for them, and there wasn’t a thing they could do about it. Their convoy was like a caterpillar slowly crawling along the pavement trying to evade a pair of eagles. There was just no escaping the monsters on the ground.

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The lead truck driver of the convoy seemed to have a plan though. Up ahead of them, there was a large tunnel cut into the mountainside. He turned the off of the main road, steering the entire caravan towards it. One by one, the vehicles followed him and disappearing inside of the tunnel. The truck carrying the egg was next in line and Dimitri was in the vehicle directly behind it. He held his breath, watching to see if the top of the egg would clear the top of the tunnel. Dimitri could see that it was going to be very close. He was all but certain it was going to turn into a messy disaster right before his eyes.

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The truck and the egg vanished inside the entrance, only clearing the tunnel by a few inches. Dimitri breathed a sigh of relief. Seconds later, he was safely inside the tunnel too. Once all the vehicles were inside, the convoy slowed to a crawl and then stopped. They had little other choice but to sit there and wait out the Rodan’s attack until it passed them by.

Outside, every manmade structure was being brought down. Nothing was spared. An occasional wind gust swept through the opening of the tunnel when the Rodans passed close by. The wind howled through the shaft eerily, as if it were alive and shrieking threats at the Russians hiding inside. On one particular occasion, the last truck in line had its canopy blown clear off. The vehicle’s tires even slid forward on the pavement slightly. Zev poked his head out, taking a look back. His hat blew right off his head in the torrent of wind. Dimitri shook his head as Zev leaned back in, his hair having been blown all over the place too. He always had too look back.

There were frequent rumblings from outside of the tunnel, most likely rockets and planes hitting the ground. Dimitri didn’t know how long they would have to stay hidden in the tunnel, but it was certainly better than venturing back out onto the battlefield.

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In the northern Marianas islands, a U.S. base had been established to keep watch for Anguirus since he had disappeared into the Marianas trench. The base was created during the Second Great War so that U.S. warships would no longer have to stay on station anymore. Otherwise, they would be sitting ducks for enemy submarines.

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In their place, a series of specialized senor buoys had been set up to monitor for any unusual activity. From the base, they could observe any subtle changes in temperature, underwater vibrations, and ocean currents. The buoys were also equipped with the latest type of sonar. The technology had been in part adapted from weather systems that monitored for earthquakes and tsunamis.

For years, the system hadn’t registered any significant changes. Assignment to the base was usually a sign that your military career was on a downward spiral, or that you were being punished by a superior. Nothing much happened there. The base was little more than a geothermal outpost or a slightly more advanced weather station. The most exciting duty on an average day was going out to repair or do routine maintenance on the sensor buoys.

When a tropical storm would blow through, it was fun to watch the buoy network light up with activity. The base had a few false alarms now and then, usually when an earthquake would ripple through the area. Due to the advanced nature of the equipment, the base did sometimes host college students who were interested in learning more about how the technology worked.

One such student was Lisa Taggart from the University of Miami, whose father was rich enough to pay for a plane ticket and a two-week trip out to the island. Lisa was thoroughly enjoying her time out to the tropical island. The beaches were sunny and sandy, the chance to play around with the weather equipment was fascinating and being an attractive college-aged girl made her very popular with the young men on the base who were bored and looking for something to do.

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Some of the boys had made a competition out of trying to impress Lisa through various means. She still hadn’t decided which one she liked the best though. Lisa had been assigned to shadow Colonel Dr. Richford, a man who was old enough not to be so suspectable to Lisa’s feminine charms. He was a no-nonsense scientist who was more interested in his work than anything else. On a few occasions, he had to chase away a few interested soldiers who had pursued Lisa into areas of the base where they had no business being. The lab area in particular gave Lisa a safe zone to hide in. She liked the attention, but the laboratory provided a temporary reprieve from the chase when she needed a break from it.

Lisa was sitting at a control station while Dr. Richford was tinkering with a new type of enhanced monitoring buoy. It was a prototype that would make the old ones they’d been using for years obsolete. As Dr. Richford fiddled with the wires, a sound began to register on the control panel in front of Lisa. One of the buoys had been triggered and was sending back data. It wasn’t unusual, they did get triggered from time to time. As Lisa looked at the printout the machine was making, another one of the buoys was set off. Then another. The machinery in front of her was all starting to come alive.

“Uh… Dr. Richford.” Lisa called over to him nervously. “Something is happening over here.”

“What’s that…?” Dr. Richford looked up and over his shoulder at her, still half-engrossed in his work. While he was talking, conditions had been met in the machine’s programming which required it to automatically set off the warning alarm within the room.

“Doctor, I think you need to come see this!” Lisa started to panic, having no idea what to do. Once Dr. Richford heard the alarm going off, he began to understand something serious was happening. He rushed over to the readouts and read through them as quickly as he could. The machine continued to spit out paper as information came in.

“Oh no…” Dr. Richford frowned, sweat starting to bead on his brow as he began to understand what the data meant. “This is bad… this is very, very, bad.” Dozens of buoys had been triggered by that point. Dr. Richford hit the button for the general base siren, which would alert everyone else to what was going on.

Outside, soldiers began to man their stations, scrambling to tall lookout towers all along the beachfront. Up in the towers, there were high-powered naval binoculars built into the observation decks, the types usually found on warships. From miles out, they could see a disturbance on the surface of the water. The ocean was churning furiously, sending white waves in all directions.

Anguirus suddenly erupted to the surface and roared, ending his years long absence in dramatic fashion. No one knew what to do at that point. It had been so long, no one really thought the monster was really still down there and alive. The base didn’t have any significant defenses with which to repel the monster. They were sitting ducks should Anguirus decide to attack.

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Anguirus didn’t seem to have any such intentions though. He turned north and began to swim away on the surface, his tail flickering behind him on the water. Dr. Richford immediately got the word out, Anguirus was back on the prowl again.



Meanwhile the Archimedes fleet was once again on the hunt for Godzilla. However, there was a lot of ground to cover in the Yellow Sea. To make matters worse, they could only patrol half of the body of water as the Chinese government continued to refuse the fleet entry into their zone of control. The Chinese were moving in patrol craft of their own. After two days of searching without any signs of Godzilla, it became apparent that they would likely have to wait for another incident to occur before they could pick up on his trail again.

Finally, on the third day, there was a distress call from a large Chinese fishing boat about fifty miles to the south. Godzilla had somehow managed to get around the Archimedes fleet. Undeterred, they set an intercept course. Over an hour later, they arrived at an archipelago of islands nearby the coordinates of the now missing freighter. Search helicopters were launched, and they found drown sailors floating on the surface of the water, but little other traces of the ship.

The search chopper also spotted what was unmistakably Godzilla’s footprints on the beach. The trail lead into the interior of the island. However, fog was beginning to roll in from the north as another cold front pushed through. That made tracking Godzilla via aircraft very difficult, and so they were recalled.

Night fell and Admiral Malek ordered the fleet to fan out. He sent most of the destroyers to probe the shallow waters between the narrows of the islands while the larger ships circled around the perimeter. Sailing around the islands took a few hours and morning light began to peek through by the time the fleet began to link up again.

Admiral Malek kept the Essex a safe distance away from the islands. He watched and waited until the patchiness of the fog began to break up. He sent Marcus out with Brock in toe to see if aerial reconnaissance was once again a viable option. They flew from fog bank to fog back with clear areas between here and there. Finally, they were able to spot land. Marcus guided the helicopter towards a narrow channel of water with high cliffs on either side.

As they closed in on the bluffs, Marcus and Brock could see a light emerging from the narrows of the passage. Marcus pulled back on the controls, keeping them from getting any closer. They sat there hovering above the passage, waiting to see what was on the other side of the mist. The fog bank in front of them rolled through and a ship emerged from the haze. It was one of the fleet’s destroyers. The whole top portion of the deck was on fire. The ship was out of control and clanged against the rocks of one of the cliffs as it collided with it.

“Jesus…” Brock said in an ice-cold tone. Marcus banked to the left to keep a safe distance away from the destroyer. The still burning ship slipped past them eerily. It was unnervingly quiet, like a ghost ship, though it was unclear if any of the souls aboard were still alive or not. The burning destroyer glided into the fog behind them and disappeared. “We need to get out of here.”

“No argument here.” Marcus agreed nervously. He thought he could see something else moving in the fog. Taking no chances, he quickly spun them around and made for the fleet at full speed.



By the time they had reached the fleet, Marcus could tell that something was wrong. The formation of ships was in disarray and maneuvering to turn southwards. It turned out that three of the fleet destroyers had been sunk during their search mission. What was left of the fleet was withdrawing from the area to regroup.

The patchy fog was still plaguing the area, which would make accurate gunnery near impossible should the fleet need to defend itself. Fighters and other aircraft would be just as hampered by poor visibility. After hearing Marcus’ report about the Chinese getting annihilated in the valley, Admiral Malek was taking no chances. It was time to cut their losses and run.

The decision came none too soon. The sonar of the picket ships towards the outskirts of the fleet started picking up a large unidentified object approaching just as they got underway. There was a real sense of dread among the crews as Admiral Malek ordered flank speed. They were running. Sailors gathered on the aft section of the carrier with binoculars trying to get a look at their pursuer. The million-dollar question on everyone’s mind at that moment? Was the fleet faster than Godzilla?

Just in case they weren’t, the general quarters alarm was sounded, and battle stations were very quickly occupied by the crew. The battleships oriented their guns aft, and the destroyers prepared to launch their depth charges and torpedoes. Despite the fog, the air crews began to prepare the aircraft on the flight deck of the Essex. There was no sense in letting the planes just sit on the deck if the carrier was under threat of being sunk. Marcus himself found his way into a Sabre waiting in line to launch. He was starting to regret his complaint about flying so many non-combat missions.

The contact on the sonar maintained its pursuit for twenty miles without gaining or losing ground. The question that dogged Admiral Malek now was if it would be wise to launch an attack or not. The fog was starting to clear, and an air attack might distract the monster, gaining them the opportunity to escape. On the other hand, if they attacked Godzilla, that might only provoke the monster further and give him more incentive to continue the pursuit.

Admiral Malek elected to keep everyone on standby. He ordered all ships to only engage at his express command. The sonar contact was maintaining its distance, and so long as it was not closing on them, he didn’t see the need to escalate the situation further. The longer he stalled for time, the better the chances they’d emerge from the fog, which would help to even the odds.

Little by little, the sonar contact faded until it was off of their scopes. Admiral Malek couldn’t be sure that they weren’t still being chased for certain, but either Godzilla was getting tired or just losing interest in them. Given the situation, his next best course of action was to return to Japanese waters where the fleet could request for reinforcements if necessary.



Two days later, the Archimedes fleet was approaching the harbor at Osaka. Osaka was three-hundred and forty miles closer than Tokyo and had a port large enough to accommodate them. Tokyo was still in the very early stages of recovery following Godzilla’s rampage and the harbor there was overrun with merchant ships bringing in supplies. Osaka was clearly the better choice.

A Japanese destroyer rushed out to meet the Archimedes fleet as it approached, signaling a warning. The Japanese navy had begun to set up a mine field around the port and any ships coming or going needed to follow a strict approach or risk wandering into the mines. The Japanese destroyer was there to guide them through. The Imperial navy was spread too thin trying to cover their entire east coast of Japan. They were attempting to prevent Godzilla from entering specific areas by limiting the approaches to major ports.

Buoys were being set out to mark the boundaries of the minefields, but the work was still underway. Mine sweepers and minelayers were working around the clock. It was a symptom of Japan’s terror. Fear was rampant, sweeping across the country like wildfire. The Japanese population was traumatized by the attack on Tokyo and were terrified by the threat of another potential Godzilla landing. With him last seen moving south again, preparing for the possibility seemed all the more urgent. The Diet Building being destroyed didn’t help. It was the very symbol of the Japanese government, which seemed powerless to protect its people. The members of the Diet were forced to relocate to Japan’s former capitol, Kyoto for the time being.

The mining of the major ports was just one of the emergency decisions the Diet had authorized. The mines might not stop Godzilla, but they weren’t entirely impractical either. At the very least, the mines could act as an early warning system when they started going off. The Diet had also been the ones to send Japanese fleet out to patrol their waters so aggressively. It was felt this show of force would help to ease fears at home.

In addition to those measures, the Diet had also opened the door to more international agreements, in particular with the United States. Defense treaties were rapidly being negotiated. The most important one was called the ‘Pan-Pacific Pact’. Giant monster attacks were not just a Japanese problem anymore and there was a very real concern that another major city would be wiped out soon. It had happened three times already. Tokyo, Magadan, and Shenyang all just within the last month. And that didn’t even account for the destruction the Rodans were causing in Russia. With Godzilla’s location unknown, another major attack could easily happen again, anytime, anywhere in the pacific.

The threat was ever more earnest with five monsters on the loose. The Rodans were actively on the warpath, Anguirus was lurking somewhere in the western pacific, Baragon was undoubtably still hiding underground in China licking his wounds. All of their recent activity did nothing to sooth anyone’s anxieties. Godzilla was bad enough on his own, but the presence of more monsters like him just made the situation even more volatile.

“I hope that Jap captain knows where he is going.” Brock groaned as the IJN destroyer continued to guide the Archimedes fleet through the jagged corridor towards the safety of the other side. “One mistake, one slight navigation error, and we’re all going to be in a world of hurt.”

“Maybe we should be running with a mine sweeper ahead of us?” Marcus suggested. “Just to be safe?”

“Any ship can be a minesweeper once.” Brock replied with a devilish grin and a snicker. “I’m just glad it’s one of theirs out front.”



It took a little while to direct the entire fleet through the minefield, but eventually they all made it without incident. With that, the Archimedes fleet entered Osaka Bay and laid anchor. Admiral Malek immediately prepared to leave the Essex to meet with some Japanese officials to begin discussing future defensive plans, but before he could, Captain Hillard informed him that they had received a coded message from Washington. The admiral had a friend on capitol hill, and he had some bad news to pass along to him.

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Captain Hillard handed over the decoded transcript and Admiral Malek was visibly upset as he read it. Admiral Malek didn’t bother to keep the news to himself. He summarized the letter, letting the entire bridge crew know that the loss of several navy ships, along with their crews, for no practical gain had not gone over well in the senate oversight committee that was following the Archimedes organization. In fact, they were not impressed with the overall progress the fleet had made so far. There was talk of forcing Admiral Malek to step down as the head of the naval branch and the Archimedes fleet’s entire budget was under threat. The committee was starting to view them as a ‘bad investment’. As such, they could be disbanded.

“We need to make something happen soon or we're finished.” Admiral Malek told Captain Hillard. He crumpled up the paper in his fist and tossed it aside. Then he leaned forward on the console in front of him, visibility frustrated, thinking.

Marcus had a mixed reaction to the news. On the one hand, he was offended that all of his efforts were evidently going unappreciated back home. But there was also an opportunity. If the Archimedes fleet was disbanded, then there was a good chance that he would be allowed to finish out his original term of service and be honorably discharged when it was up. He could finally go home and shake off the extension Admiral Malek had forced on him.

There was no time to let the news settle in though. Admiral Malek was ready to get back to the task at hand and ordered Marcus and Brock to put on their dress uniforms and be ready to join him for the conference in a half hour.



The three men met on the flight deck and boarded a motorboat that was waiting for them. Joining them were two additional marines, Ling, and Dr. Orsini. Once they were all in, the group was lowered down into the water. After settling onto the surface and unhitching their craft, they motored away from the Essex and towards the city harbor. Marcus enjoyed the view of the Osaka as they bobbed up and down over the small waves.

It only took a few minutes to reach the harbor, and once they had docked at the pier, they discovered that a sizable number of Japanese civilians had gathered there to cheer their arrival. The appearance of a large American fleet had given them courage in the face of another potential monster attack. They were being viewed as heroes who were willing to fight and perhaps die for the good of the Japanese people. This earned them a certain level of reverence among the Japanese civilians.

The friendly crowd made Marcus feel good. Maybe the men of Archimedes fleet weren’t being appreciated amongst their own people, but here they were at least being honored. Two jeeps were waiting for the group, and they brought them to city hall where the meeting was to take place.

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Once they arrived, they found the bottom level of the building had been taken over by the Japanese army and navy. In the center of the room, they had set up a large map of Japan and the large bodies of water surrounding the island nation. From there, they were keeping track of any reports or sights of Godzilla and marked them out on the chart accordingly with pins and notes.

Admiral Malek and the rest of the group were allowed to examine the map up close and saw lots of reports written in. It was all written in Japanese, but Ling was there to read them out for the group. There were dozens of sightings reported within the last twenty-four hours all over the map. Clearly, they couldn’t all possibly be accurate. However, it was impossible to distinguish which ones were genuine and which ones were not. The faulty ones were a real problem because they were causing a lot of confusion. The Japanese did not know where to direct the bulk of their forces.

As it was now, the IJN was spreading itself thin trying to investigate each sighting. Nervous fishing boat captains were jumping at the first sign of trouble and making monsters out of manatees. One report had already been debunked and taken off the board. Ling picked it up and saw that the disregarded sighting had turned out to be just a pod of whales surfacing.

While most of the reports were on the water, there was one that stood out among the rest. It was a sighting reported on land. The account wasn’t from a ship but rather a pair of pilots who were working for the Kaiyo Fishing Company as aerial scouts. One of them had been forced to ditch their plane in the shallow waters of a tiny rocky island called Iwato due to engine trouble. The second pilot had come to rescue his friend and also landed near the island. While the pair were drying themselves off around a fire on the beach, waiting for a ship to come collect the disabled plane, they heard a disturbance from the interior of the island.

Upon investigation, the pilots found Godzilla battling Anguirus. They didn’t see much though. The encounter was very brief. The men reported that the fight ended when the two monsters stumbled off a sheer cliff and fell into the sea. However brief the incident was, the pilots were still very certain of what they had seen. Admiral Malek studied the position of Iwato island on the map and determined that Godzilla certainly could have made it there in the time since they had lost contact with him. Anguirus also could have made it there since his reemergence from the Marianas trench. That gave the pilot’s story at least some credibility.

The pilots in question were Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi. The Japanese officials felt it was worth while bringing the pair in for further questioning. Brock as usual was somewhat skeptical. He was instantly doubtful of their reliability. He cited that Shoichi and Koji could simply be two blue collar guys who had too much sake while sitting around the campfire.



Shoichi and Koji arrived and were interviewed by the Japanese officials while the Archimedes delegation waited down below in the chart room listening to new reports as they came in. Nothing of terrible import had come in over the last half hour. Brock and Marcus went outside for a smoke break. Which was to say, Brock smoked, and Marcus just paced around killing time while he did so.

“I feel like one of Ming-the-Merciless’ troopers wearing this uniform.” Marcus complained, fidgeting around with the collar. “Black doesn’t suit me much.”

“Well, I don’t know, I think the yellow in it really brings out the color of your teeth.” Brock jeered.

“Says the smoker...” Marcus fired back with a smirk.

“They’re ready to begin now.” Dr. Orsini came out to collect them for the meeting.

Together, Brock, Marcus, and Dr. Orsini made there way back into the building, up the stairs, and into a large conference room where everyone else was gathered. The Archimedes delegation had their own corner of the table where Admiral Malek, Ling, and the U.S. ambassador to Japan were sitting. Brock was ‘officially’ there for security reasons, so he, along with the other two marines, were to stand in the background behind the table. He was more than a little annoyed with that arrangement, but there was nothing to be done about it.

The meeting began with the introduction of Dr. Yamane. He spoke briefly before starting a film showing Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo. Much of the footage Marcus had not seen before. The Japanese military had kept it to themselves. It gave little new insights about Godzilla, but it absolutely reenforced the danger and the terror the monster presented. The U.S. ambassador in particular seemed disturbed by the recording. As it turned out, he was a recent appointee to the position, and had never seen footage of Godzilla before then.

When the film was over, the ambassador spoke up, urgently asking if the Japanese had a plan. Ling was there to translate, and it was a good thing too. The ambassador was stumbling over his words and even mistakenly referred to Godzilla as ‘Gigantis’ because he couldn’t remember his proper name.

Admiral Malek shifted in his chair and was starring daggers at the ambassador. It was good thing most of the Japanese did not understand much English, because he was making them look foolish. Ling did his best to clean up the question and provide damage control by making corrections where needed. Malek however was irritated and stepped onto the ambassador’s foot to get him to shut up. While the attention was off of them, Malek leaned in close so no one else could hear them.

“Jesus Stu, you can’t even remember the monster’s proper name?” Malek scolded. “What the hell is wrong with you? You’re making us look like assholes in front of the Japanese. Leave the talking to me from now on or I’ll ensure your next assignment is in Timbuktu. You read me?” He pressed and twisted his foot harder, squishing down onto the ambassador’s toes. The ambassador’s eyes were getting red, and he nodded in understanding. Brock saw what was happening from behind. It took all of his military discipline to keep a straight face.

Meanwhile, Dr. Yamane was answering the ambassador’s question, noting that they had not yet developed a weapon with which to counter Godzilla. He did however suggest that both Godzilla and Anguirus might be attracted to lights. If they shut off all of the lights in an area were either of the monsters were and deployed flares out to sea, they might be able to divert their attention away from populated areas. The Japanese brass on hand seemed to like the idea. Blackouts and flares were at least something to consider. It was better than relying on sheer firepower, which had failed to produce results time and time again. From then on, Dr. Yamane seemed to sink into a melancholy mood and stopped being useful. He went off on a tangent about Godzilla’s creation, waxing poetic.

“Godzilla’s existence is a conflict of evil and sadness.” Dr. Yamane began. “He’s a sacred beast of the nuclear apocalypse. The son of the atomic bomb. He represents man’s greatest failings in this modern world we’ve created.”

Another Japanese scientist, Dr. Tadokoro, steered the conversation back into a more productive direction. He was a geneticist associated with the U.N. and suggested that Anguirus and Godzilla might be somehow related. He felt that they could have a common ancestry.

“Do you think there’s any creditability to that Doc?” Marcus leaned over to Dr. Orsini.

“Perhaps in a general sort of way.” Dr. Orsini answered. “There may be some genetic similarities. I don’t know how this man is drawing such wild conclusions though.”

Dr. Tadokoro then produced and passed around some paperwork to the table which summarized some of his research. Following his rampage in Tokyo, some of Godzilla’s blood had been found nearby the port area. Dr. Tadokoro had previously acquired a sample of Anguirus’ blood from the battlefield in the Philippines where he had taken a tank shell to the eye. In both samples, he had made one interesting discovery. Each were extremely resilient to decay. The cells of Godzilla and Anguirus managed lived outside of the body far longer than any other specimens he had tested before. There were even indications of regeneration in both, though in Godzilla’s case, it seemed to be a fair amount stronger than Anguirus’.

Dr. Tadokoro attributed the difference in the samples resilience to the mutations Godzilla had undergone by being so thoroughly exposed to radiation. He speculated that it could have taken his natural healing abilities and enhanced them exponentially. DNA testing was still somewhat in its infancy, but Dr. Tadokoro had noted some other similarities between Godzilla and Anguirus at the cellular level. More time and effort would be required to deduce anything else useful from this information, but there was one very interesting question this raised.

“Doctor, what would happen if Anguirus got blasted with a strong dose of radiation?” Marcus asked. “If they are indeed genetically similar, would you see a similar outcome comparable to Godzilla’s?” Ling relayed the question for Marcus.

“That is indeed a good question.” Dr. Tadokoro noted. “Let me start by saying these creatures didn’t grow up on the same earth that we have. They predate even the dinosaurs. At the time that they evolved, the earth was a more radical place to live. High levels of radiation were more commonplace. These creatures not only developed ways to survive it, they learned to thrive on it. What you see with Godzilla is only one example. In my opinion, if you were to blast any of the other monsters from this begone era, you would likely see a similar result. A bigger, faster, more aggressive version of the monsters we know now. That is just a theory mind you, but here is a fact. Godzilla was exposed to two nuclear tests that we are aware of. And in both instances, he had become more powerful and more dangerous.”

“So, if you attack these things with nuclear weapons, you’d better make sure that you kill them, because if you don’t, they’ll only come back at you stronger?” Admiral Malek asked.

“Perhaps if you could get a monster in the center blast zone and vaporize them, a nuclear weapon might work, but a near miss could do more harm than good in the long run.” Dr. Tadokoro observed.

That remark seemed to send shivers down the spines of each man present. Many of them were counting on nuclear bombs being the weapon of choice against Kaiju when they were pushed into a corner all else failed. But if the awesome power of their most potent weapons could be turned against them, what hope did they have?



Two days passed while the fleet sat at anchor in Osaka Bay. There had been no further confirmed sightings of Godzilla or Anguirus. That was in part due to the fact that most Japanese merchant vessels had abandoned the surrounding area. Both Godzilla and Anguirus had a notable history of attacking ships in the past.

The Archimedes fleet had been resupplied and Admiral Malek was hammering out a defensive plan with the local Japanese commanders. They were at the point of just waiting on some type of report to come in, so they’d know where to focus their efforts. Meanwhile, the Japanese military presence in the area was growing stronger with every passing hour as more units arrived on the scene. Search planes flew around the clock missions.

The nearby airbase was packed to capacity as new airwings were brought in to prepare for Dr. Yamane’s proposed flare defense. It was being referred to as ‘Operation Falling Stars’. Additional dirt runways were hastily being paved into the fields around the airbase to increase its capacity. Tanks and rocket artillery rolled into the city and were deployed to key locations. The Japanese army moved their headquarters to the historic Osaka Castle. Its position commanded the entire city, and its high tower provided an excellent vantage point from which to direct troops. The Japanese navy retained their post at city hall.

Having no more immediate use for them, Admiral Malek gave Brock and Marcus liberty for the rest of the day to wander the city. He was just sorting out the final details with the Japanese brass. By the next morning, they’d have their marching orders again. The first thing Marcus and Brock did was take a closer look at the majestic Osaka Castle and its impressive architecture and gardens. It was a sight to behold. An artistic marvel and the pride of the city.

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After that, Brock insisted that they try more local Japanese cuisine. Marcus was less resistant to idea this time around. They found a suitable restaurant in the market area and Marcus tired tempura shrimp. He really enjoyed it. The pair were still enjoying hero status and the owner of the joint was so pleased to have them in his restaurant that he told them the meal was on the house. Marcus insisted on leaving the staff a hefty tip though.

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Halfway through the afternoon, Marcus and Brock decided to return to the harbor area and give their friends on the Essex an update to what was going on, and then maybe head over to a bar for a few hours afterwards. As they came through the port gates, Marcus saw something he couldn’t believe he was seeing. There was a white woman wandering around the docks with a suitcase. She had long flowing red hair. It looked a lot like Shauna.

“Am I dreaming… or is that your wife again?” Brock asked as he spotted her too.

“Yeah… I think that’s her.” Marcus answered. The woman turned and saw them staring at her.

“Mark!!!” Shauna shouted while waving excitedly.

“Yep, that’s definitely her.” Marcus shrugged, a little confused as she dropped her bag and ran over to him.

“Is she a spy or something?” Brock asked. “How does she keep doing this?”

“I haven’t got the slightest clue.” Marcus replied. With that, Shuana was upon them and threw herself into Marcus’ arms with delight. He had to take a step back to keep his balance. “Woah, easy.” He said, teetering back and forth before managing to stabilize. “How on earth did you get here?” Marcus asked.

“I just had to see you, and no power in the universe will keep me from seeing my man.” She affectionally kissed his cheek.

“Ok, but how did you even know how to find me?” Marcus inquired.

“Don’t you know?” She began. “They are broadcasting all the news about you guys back home. It’s on the radio, television, and in the newspapers. The press is really pushing the positives of the relief efforts your fleet is preforming to help the Japanese. They even had your helicopter on film in Tokyo. It was heard to tell, but I knew it was you. It only takes about twenty-four hours to get here by flight now a days.”

“That was in Tokyo though.” Brock pointed out. “We’re in Osaka now.”

“Hello Brock.” Shauna winked at him. “Suspicious as ever I see. Well, truth be told, it was a little difficult to find you.” She admitted. “I flew to Tokyo first, and by the time I got there, your fleet had already sailed. So, I made myself useful and joined the international red cross to help with the relief effort. I figured if I waited long enough, you would return to Japan. Sure enough, after a few days, I heard that you had arrived here in Osaka.”

“How did you find lodgings for all that time?” Marcus asked.

“The Red Cross was happy to provide me with room and board in exchange for my services as a nurse in the meantime.” Shauna answered. “Anyhow, once I knew where you were, I bought a train ticket down here. That wasn’t so easy though. There are not many Japanese people who speak fluent English, and I had to rely on my English-to-Japanese translation booklet to get by. I’m afraid to say, I still got some very strange looks. My accent must be horrendous. In the end, I got lucky and found a man who was able to help me purchase a ticket. From there, it was just a matter of finding my way to the docks, and here we are.”

“That’s all well and good.” Marcus began. “But you shouldn’t be here, it’s not safe.” His tone shifted, suggesting he was a little upset. Shauna looked over to Brock. “Don’t look to him to save you, he can’t help you now.” Marcus paused, collecting his thoughts. “Look, I’m touched that you came all of this way, I really am, but it was foolish. This isn’t like Paris. The situation is completely different. This city could be attacked at any time. If something were to happen to you, I don’t know what I would do. Promise me you won’t do this sort of thing again.”

“I…” Shauna began to protest, but then thought better of it. “Ok, this is the last time.”

“You didn’t bring the children with you, right?” Marcus asked.

“No, my mother is watching them.” Shauna answered. “For the record, she didn’t like this idea either.”

“Which is why I have always had the upmost respect for your mother.” Marcus smiled. “Well, you are here now. We might as well make the best of it while we can.” He relented. “We’re back on duty in the morning. I was just telling Brock we should round up the guys and find a place for a quiet drink.”

“Make it a nightclub and you’re on.” Shauna smiled. “I packed a nice dress.”

“Ok.” Marcus agreed, smiling back warmly. “Brock, any ideas on that? You’re the well-traveled one here.”

“Well… I haven’t been ‘here’ before.” Brock noted. “But I have a few ideas where to start looking. I’ll round up the boys and meet you back here in an hour. You two take some time to catch up without me eavesdropping.”



An hour later, the group gathered and then found their way to the entertainment district of Osaka. It didn’t take them long to find an establishment that catered to both American and Japanese clientele. The Western Star Lounge was the name of the place. It had been built during the war when American soldiers could be found wandering the streets in droves. Their specialty was western music, which included some live performers, and western cuisine. The theme helped them stand out amongst their completion and was surprisingly popular among the Japanese patrons looking for something different and exotic.

Once they had found a place to sit, it didn’t take long for Shauna for pull Marcus away from the table and onto the dance floor. She looked stunning in her red dress. As they took the floor, the young woman singer on stage began to perform a cover version of ‘Only You’ by The Platters. It was a nice and slow melody to dance to. Shauna rested her head on Marcus’ chest as they swayed back and forth. Marcus closed his eyes, enjoying the moment of quiet in the sea of chaos he found himself in. It was the most at peace he had been in weeks. Marcus hadn’t realized just how much he needed it. The next song was ‘In the Still of the Night’ by The Five Satins. It was an equally relaxing, slow-paced love ballad. With the song switch, Shauna lifted her head.

“We belong together.” Shauna whispered in Marcus’ ear. “Until the end be of time.”

“You’re an extraordinary woman.” Marcus replied. “I feel sorry for the other guys, their best girls can’t just reach out and find them the way you do with me.” He had turned towards their table to see most of the men sitting there looking somewhat lonesome listening to the love songs. “Perhaps this club is not the best venue for them.”

“Well, maybe I think of some way to help them out too.” Shauna replied turning to see them too.

“How so…?” Marcus inquired.

“Have them write up some nice letters to their girlfriends and I can carry them home with me.” She smiled. “I feel quite confident they’re all in the right mood for that.”

“You know something, you’re an angel.” Marcus whispered in her ear.

“Fresh...” She smirked. “That silver tongue of yours is going to get you in trouble later.”

“There was something else I wanted to talk to you about.” Marcus switched gears. “There’s a chance the Archimedes fleet will be disbanded. Admiral Malek has made a few mistakes and apparently there’s talk about him being dismissed from command. If the organization is disbanded, I might be coming home a lot sooner than we thought.”

“Are you serious…?” Shauna asked. “That’s fantastic news! Maybe I can encourage my father to influence some of his friends in the senate towards that goal. But no matter what happens, remember: Your ass might belong to the admiral, but your heart belongs to me.”

“I’d prefer to think that belongs to you also.” Marcus smirked.

As the second song wrapped up, Marcus noticed someone was staring at him from across the room, drawing his attention. It was a Japanese woman. He had no idea who she was, but her eyes were locked right on him. Had he run into her earlier in the day? No, she was attractive enough to where he’d certainly remember her face. Maybe she just though his uniform was a little strange? He himself wasn’t entirely comfortable with it.

As Marcus stood there trying to figure it out, he noticed the woman was sitting next to a man that he did recognize. It was the Japanese pilot Akira. They were sitting at a table right next to his own. What an odd coincidence Marcus thought. He immediately took Shauna over to introduce her. Akira turned his head and saw Marcus coming over with Shuna and rose to meet them.

“Shauna, this is Akira, the man who helped Brock save my life during the Zao-Ming conference all those years ago.” Marcus began. “Akira, this is my wife.”

“It seems I own you a great debt of honor.” Shauna said, taking his hand. Akira’s English was somewhat limited, but he still got the gist of what the Americans were saying.

“No, the honor is getting to meet you.” Akira said charmingly, with a heavy accent.

“And who is this lovely young lady who is escorting you tonight?” Marcus asked politely. Akira turned and helped to pull the chair out for the woman.

“This is Kiki.” Akira gestured.

“Pleased you meet you Kiki.” Marcus gently took her hand. Kiki’s fingers grasped onto Marcus’. She paused for a moment after taking his hand, as if she was thinking.

“The pleasure is all mine.” Kiki answered in perfect English. Akira turned and looked somewhat surprised but said nothing.

The two women turned to shake hands next, but when Kiki made contact with Shuana, the courteous smile drifted away from her face. Kiki just stood there, almost catatonic, holding Shauna’s hand for a few seconds. When she snapped back to reality, she turned to the side, wiping away a tear so no one else could see it. Then she turned back, apologizing sheepishly, noting that her allergies were acting up. The other three found it a little peculiar but struggled off the incident.

“Well, it looks like we are going to be working together soon.” Marcus noted, trying to shift attention away from the awkward moment. Akira didn’t understand a few of the words. He stood there trying to connect the dots.

“He means you are going to be fighting the monsters, side by side.” Kiki informed him in Japanese.

“Oh yes, our squadrons will be… coordinating.” Akira agreed.

“Best of luck to all of us.” Marcus took his glass from the table and held it up in a half hazard sort of toast. The others took up their drinks and sipped. “Have a good evening Akira. I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”

With that, Marcus and Shauna returned to their seats with the marines. Akira and Kiki meanwhile decided to get a little air outside. The nightclub was built right along the Yodo River, and they had a lovely garden area in the back patio that looked out over the water. Fireflies were lighting up the night.

“So, you speak English?” Akira asked curiously, not able to hold back the question any longer.

“Yes, a little.” Kiki replied, seeming a little nervous about the question.

“I’m impressed.” Akira noted. “Did you study English in school?”

“No, I just picked it up here and there.” Kiki answered.

“You picked up that much English just by listening to people?” Akira raised an eyebrow. “Now I’m more than impressed, I’m astonished.”

“I’m a fast learner.” Kiki remarked.

“Clearly.” Akira observed. “You read people so well. It’s like you know what they’re thinking.”

“I’ve always had a knack for that.” Kiki smiled. “Wow, just look at that night sky. With the citywide ordnance of only having vital sources of light on, you can really see the stars.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Akira agreed. “It has really cut down on the light pollution.”

Akira and Kiki walked through the grassy path, looking up and enjoying the majesty of the night. A shooting star streaked across the heavens. It gave off brilliant shades of blue and purple as it burned up in the atmosphere.

“You should make a wish.” Kiki suggested.

"I'd just use it on something selfish.” Akira noted. “You go ahead and make one.”

Kiki smiled at Akira but said nothing more. With that, the pair returned to the nightclub. No sooner had they gotten back inside when they heard a loud buzz from the intercom on the wall. It began relaying an urgent news report. Godzilla had finally been spotted again. He was moving towards the Shikoku area. All of the military personal in the building immediately got up and made their way towards the exit.



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By the next morning, Marcus was having to say his goodbyes to Shauna. He had bought a painted souvenir mask for her to take back to the kids. Shauna was also carrying a number of letters the boys had written up the night before. There were so many of them, they barely fit into her suitcase. Marcus wanted to request an escort a mission to ensure Shauna’s plane out of the area safely, but he knew Admiral Malek would ‘never’ go for that.

The fleet was to weigh anchor within the hour. With Godzilla spotted, every military unit in the area was on the move. Flights out of the city were all booked up, so if Shauna missed hers, she would be stuck there in Osaka. Marcus couldn’t have that. There was no more time, he’d have to part with her right then and there. They shared one last embrace at the docks and then went on their separate ways.

Shauna stepped into her cab and Marcus stepped onto his motorboat. They both looked back until the other was out of sight.



The Archimedes fleet set out to join the forces who were already looking for Godzilla. It appeared as though he was going to bypass Osaka. The last reports had him moving northeast between the Shinkoku and Kii provinces. Godzilla did not appear to be entering the channel in the middle of them, though he had not been seen for a number of hours now.

Getting the fleet through the mine field once again was a slow and difficult process. Wherever Godzilla was going, he’d no doubt have a good head start on them. Once the fleet was gathered up past the mines, they set out at flank speed. Aircraft were being prepared for takeoff on the deck, but until they had a positive target, Admiral Malek decided to hold them back. There were already plenty of Japanese patrol planes scouring the area.

This time, the Archimedes fleet would be focused on combat. Marcus was even assigned to the fighter squadrons instead of his normal role as a scout in his helicopter. Like all of other pilots, he was waiting on deck in his flight suit for a scramble order to be given. Overhead, he saw what he thought might be Shauna’s commercial flight leaving the city. He spent a moment fantasizing about taking his jet up and checking the windows to ensure she was on it.



As the day pressed on, the search effort bore little fruit. Morning turned to afternoon, and afternoon turned to evening with nothing to show for it. At around 5:00pm a Japanese civilian search plane behind the Archimedes Fleet spotted unusual activity just outside of Osaka Bay. The pilot was understandably alarmed and followed the disturbance on the water until it entered the mined area.

Suddenly, plumes of water shot up into the air fifty feet high. Something was definitely moving under the water and setting off the explosives. The search plane radioed in its report as more and more explosions went off below. It definitely wasn’t a submarine. The first mine would have crippled it and brought it to a halt if that were the case. Finally, Godzilla’s head popped out from under the waves, confirming what the pilot suspected all along. The Japanese’s worst fear was at hand. Godzilla had apparently changed course and was now heading directly for the city of Osaka.

When military central headquarters got word, they sprang into action. Sirens began to go off all over Osaka, singing an ominous song of impending doom to all of its inhabitants. Lights all over the city went out as the authorities alerted everyone to the immediate attack by Godzilla and blackout protocols were put into full effect. There was full blown panic in the dark streets of Osaka. The police were urging civilians to seek out the shelters, though the smart ones didn’t bother with that. Instead, they just got themselves clear of the city altogether. Overhead, warplanes were taking to the sky, their engines whining and echoing across the skyline and adding to the menacing atmosphere.

Word was finally sent the naval forces out at sea looking for Godzilla. The recall order was given. A request to return was also relayed to the Archimedes fleet. Admiral Malek was happy to oblige, and the entire armada spun around and started to head back to the city. However, the fleet had been sailing for hours in the opposite direction. There was no chance they would arrive on the scene before Godzilla made landfall.



By 7:30pm Godzilla had pushed his way through the minefield and was already invading Osaka Bay. He was only minutes from entering the harbor area. Akira’s squadron was circling around the city’s skyline, waiting for the order to begin their mission. Inside the castle at the top of the hill, the Japanese commanders were marking off the evacuated zones on the map. The harbor and the districts closest to them were completely empty. Tanks and rocket launchers were in position. Thus, the generals gave the word to begin aerial operations.

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“Air unit, proceed with Operation: Falling Stars.” Akira heard the order come through his headset.

“Roger.” Akira replied, confirming the order. “Everyone stay in close formation.” He radioed to his flyers. “We’re going in.”
Akira led his squadron out over the waters of the bay, far above Godzilla. The monster stopped and looked up at the jets as they came near but then ignored them after they’d failed to swoop down to attack him. Not seeing them as a threat, Godzilla just began to move forward again.

“Alright, let’em go!” Akira ordered.

All at once, the fighters began to deploy their payloads, dropping down bundles of flares from their wings and bellies. Within seconds, dozens of flares crackled to life and lit up the night sky. Godzilla stopped and took notice. The sparkling orbs seemed to captivate the monster. Godzilla followed them with his eyes as they drifted above and over him.

Just as the first wave of flares started to fizzle out, a second squadron of aircraft flew over and set off a second batch just behind Godzilla. The monster turned his whole body back towards the bay two keep his eyes fixated on the twinkly lights. The third wave deployed their flares even further out. The wind was carrying them out to sea as they floated away. Godzilla started to move again, following the lights as planned. The defenders on shore breathed a collective sigh of relief. No one really expected this gambit to pay off, but it actually seemed to be working.

The fourth wave of fighters began their run as Akira’s group circled back around preparing to make their second pass. As Akira banked around, he looked down to the city and saw something disturbing. There was a truck racing around the streets with its lights on, flying in the face of the blackout regulations. It was being chased by two police cars.

‘What in the hell is going on down there?!’ Akira thought furiously. He looked to see if Godzilla had noticed them.

Fortunately, the monster was still happily chasing the flares further and further out to see. Akira had the urge to dive down and strafe the men in the truck, but then thought better of it. If the gas tank in the vehicle ignited, it could be a disaster. He just couldn’t risk it.

The disaster however was unavoidable. Akira watched as the truck lost control and crashed into the pipes of an oil refinery near the harbor. A fireball erupted that was so intense Akira could feel it in his cockpit. The fire spread fast, engulfing the entire facility. Akira’s eyes shifted back to Godzilla, who was already starting to turn back around. It was too much to hope for that he hadn’t seen the blaze.

“Shit!!!” Akira cursed, guiding his group of planes back towards the monster, desperate to distract him with their flares. Akira suspected it was pointless effort, but he had to try anyway and hope for a miracle. The flares were dropped and immediately ignored by Godzilla. They tiny lights just could not compete with the raging inferno ahead of him.

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Akira’s heart sank. Godzilla was moving towards Osaka with devastating intentions and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. All of his planes, every single fighter in the immediate area, were only armed with decoy flares. Command had put all of their chips behind that strategy working and it had failed. Akira’s fighters could return to base and rearm, but it would be at least a half hour before they could get back into the fight, and Godzilla could do a lot of damage in that amount of time.

Only the reserve attack squadron was armed for traditional combat. Those fighters were already moving into position, but they were just a handful of fighters. It wouldn’t be enough against the likes of Godzilla. The tanks and rockets began to open up from the harbor area, seeing the writing on the wall.

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“Those rockets aren’t going to stop Godzilla.” Haruki radioed to Akira.

“They aren’t meant to stop anything.” Akira replied. “They’re just meant to slow him down a bit to buy a little more time for the civilians to evacuate the city.”

The barrage continued as Godzilla moved through the harbor slowly. Soon he was stepping onto one of the larger docks. The monster crushed it beneath his feet as he walked. The structure could just barely hold his weight. A hail of shells and rockets continued to rain all around him.

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The reserve fighters engaged Godzilla while he was still finding his footing. The lead jet came right at Godzilla, launching as many missiles at him as he could. Godzilla had the plane in his sights and unleashed his atomic breathe in retaliation. The jet burst into flames and then nose-dived into the bay. It exploded shortly after hitting the water.

“Dragon one is down!” Akira could hear a panicked wingman shouting through the radio.

The rest of the squadron was more cautious after seeing that. They kept their distance and only attacked from angles Godzilla couldn’t see them approaching from. They kept him busy on the docks for a time, allowing the rocket artillery more time to reload for the next barrage. Godzilla just stood there, swatting at planes that ventured too close.

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As Akira observed the battle progress from a safe distance, he noticed something unsettling happening in the waters of Osaka Bay. There was a massive white wake approaching. It was stirring up the seawater as it passed through. The mass of water gained speed as it got within the vicinity of the docks, dumping over small boats tied up there. Anguirus emerged from the roiling tide and crept up onto the docks behind Godzilla.

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Akira watched it all unfolding dejected, realizing that the flares his fighters had dropped must have attracted Anguirus from further out at sea. It was their fault. They had brought him there. Godzilla seemed to sense the threat and turned to face off against Anguirus. There was a brief pause as the two titans sized each other up. Godzilla and Anguirus roared threats back and forth. Both Kaiju were eager to engage with the other. Finally, the two monsters launched themselves against one another and the fight was on.

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Unlike Baragon or Rodan, Anguirus was large enough, strong enough, and sturdy enough to go toe to toe with Godzilla. Godzilla was not enjoying much of a size or toughness advantage this time. Anguirus fought ferociously, getting up on his back legs and lurching towards Godzilla’s throat. Godzilla swung his right arm and caught Anguirus around the left ear. Anguirus shook off the blow and then returned the favor, bashing Godzilla in the left eye with his front paw. The force of the punch and counterpunch were about equal.

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The military bombardment resumed as the fight on the docks continued. Explosions crackled all around the two monsters, but neither of them seemed to care all that much. Anguirus’ back legs briefly slipped back off the docks and into the water as he wrestled with Godzilla, but he quickly recovered, driving the top of his spiked head into Godzilla’s gut, forcing him backwards towards the solid ground of the city.

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Godzilla and Anguirus barreled over a crane as they moved out of the dock area. The military forces nearby began to pull back as the fight was moving in their direction. It was clear they would get crushed if they remained where they were. Anguirus launched himself up again, and bite close to Godzilla’s neck. This time it was apparently was too close for comfort. Enraged, Godzilla charged up and then utilized his atomic breath. The attack hit dead center against Anguirus’ shell, but it appeared to do little damage. Anguirus himself seemed virtually unfazed by it.

The buildings behind Anguirus were another story altogether though. They caught on fire as Godzilla’s blue flames streamed past Anguirus. Ships floating in the dock were also set ablaze as they floated on the water. The fire spread inland due to the wind changing direction. A breeze was now blowing in from the harbor. The firestorm moved deeper into the interior of the cityscape consuming more buildings as it went.

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A fishing cannery was next to be crushed as Anguirus and Godzilla continued to grapple against each other moving the fight further inland. Meanwhile, the fire Godzilla had set was moving towards a grain elevator. The grain dust inside ignited from embers flowing in from the outside and the entire structure exploded in a chain reaction. The fire was getting well out of control now. Billowing smoke could be seen for miles against the light of the inferno.

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The Kaiju battle was progressing towards the industrial heart of the city. Godzilla and Anguirus found themselves amongst a forest of smokestacks. Godzilla seemed to be having a hard time grappling with Anguirus. Every inch of his opponent’s back being covered by sharp spikes was difficult to contend with. The spines were able to penetrate Godzilla’s tough hide if enough pressure was applied. Out of frustration, Godzilla flicked his tail, toppling it over one of the flues.

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With his ranged attack seemingly useless against Anguirus’ armor, and melee fighting not proving much better, Godzilla was forced to get creative. He tore a large smokestack away from the factory it was attached to and then smashed it across Anguirus’ shoulder. The shaft shattered into a thousand pieces as it impacted against Anguirus’ body. It slowed Anguirus down but didn’t stop him. Godzilla wanted to follow up with a kick, but Anguirus rushed him again, keeping him off balance. If Godzilla tried to shift his weight too much to get in a blow, he risked getting bulled over. Anguirus simply was not an adversary that was easy to deal with.

One by one, Anguirus and Godzilla tussled through the industrial buildings, either tumbling over them or smashing through. Dust and debris were kicked up as the pair separated briefly, each taking a moment to catch their breath. It wasn’t long before Anguirus charged again. This time he managed to get up and under Godzilla and lifted him completely off his feet. When Godzilla came down, he landed on his side. Anguirus had kept moving forward though and was out of position to take advantage of the situation. Godzilla quickly clamored back up to his feet with a head full of steam. Anguirus turned back towards Godzilla to find him ready and waiting.

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Anguirus next used his tail to knock off the top of a building, sending hunks of cement flying up into Godzilla’s face, to his distain. Godzilla turned in time to avoid any of the debris hitting him in the eye, but some of the projectiles sailed past him and into the air. The hail of concrete struck one of Akira’s fighters, forcing the pilot to eject. The fighter went out of control and smashed into an apartment building, adding to the destruction. The pilot’s parachute opened, and he made it to the ground ok, but Akira didn’t like his odds of surviving the battle below.

‘What can ordinary men do in the face of such monsters?’ Akira thought bitterly as he watched the fight continue. The monster’s duel was flattening the city block by block.

Below, Godzilla finally had a good opening to retaliate. He kicked Anguirus in the side, managing to bypass his spikes and hit him in the underbelly. Anguirus felt it, tilting to the side, and almost losing his balance from the strike. One of his back legs even left the ground. However, just as it looked like Anguirus was going to go over, he started to tilt back the other way. Godzilla was moving in on him, trying to take advantage of the situation. As he got in close, Anguirus used the momentum of his weight shifting back to whip his spiky tail at Godzilla with the extra force behind it.

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The attack landed on Godzilla’s right shoulder. The spikes penetrated Godzilla’s skin and sunk into the flesh below. It clearly pained Godzilla as he let out an angry roar. However, the fact that the spikes had punctured in so deeply served a useful purpose for Godzilla. If he had been hit that hard by a blunt tail, he would have been toppled right over from the force of it, but the spikes hung into Godzilla hide just long enough for him to stay on his feet before they slipped back out. The spikes certainly hurt, and they drew blood, but they hadn’t gone deep enough inflicted any serious damage.

Godzilla roared and counter charged Anguirus, which seemed to catch him off guard. Godzilla tackled Anguirus and the two monsters plunged back into the water of the bay. A huge wave of water washed into the area. Turrets of seawater flooded through the streets sweeping away any unwary people who failed to evacuate when they had the chance. Sadly, most of the water was too low and couldn’t reach up high enough to put out any of the fires that were now ravaging the city.

Godzilla and Anguirus found their way back on to land and the battle was starting to take its toll. Anguirus’ hyper-aggressive strategy throughout the fight seemed to be weighing on him. He was significantly more sluggish than before. Though Anguirus didn’t have the same vigor he previously enjoyed, he still seemed pretty determined to carry on the fight. He wasn’t backing down, but neither was Godzilla.

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In contrast to Anguirus, Godzilla was still pretty fresh and had taken over as the aggressor. The bleeding from his shoulder wound had already stopped. Anguirus was backing away towards Osaka Castle, seemingly trying to think out his next move and recover more energy. Central military command inside of the castle meanwhile was frantically rushing to evacuate the building as the two monsters approached.

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As Anguirus was backed into the edge of the castle’s courtyard, he made his move. He charged forward once again, this time intent on goring Godzilla with his horn. Anguirus built up speed and momentum, aiming to bury the large horn on his nose into Godzilla’s gut. Godzilla saw the attack coming and braced himself. Recognizing the danger, he leaned forward and caught Anguirus by the shoulders as he came in. The spikes there stuck into Godzilla outreached hands, but he stood firm and halted Anguirus’ momentum, preventing his attack from hitting a more vital area.

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Godzilla brought his leg forward and kneed Anguirus right under the jaw. Anguirus was momentarily stunned by the attack, but when he recovered, he sank his teeth into Godzilla’s left upper arm. Godzilla quickly counterattacked, using his free arm to swing around and deliver a strong uppercut to Anguirus as he was standing on his hind legs. The blow forced Anguirus backwards. As he stumbled back, he tripped over the wreckage of a steel plant and lost his balance, sending him rolling onto his back. Anguirus’ spines partially embedded themselves into the soil when he landed.

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This was the opportunity Godzilla needed. With Anguirus’ underbelly exposed, he could finally do some meaningful damage. Godzilla’s back spines began to glow blue as he charged up a massive attack. He opened his mouth and aimed it at Anguirus, who was near helpless, still struggling to get off of his back.

Just as Godzilla unleashed his furious assault, a large rocket slammed into the side of his face, which slanted his blast away from Anguirus and onto the ground next to him. The force of the blast helped to turn Anguirus to the side and he clambered back to his feet. Anguirus seemed to recognize he was on the verge of defeat and had just escaped what could have been his death. He used the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat towards the open water of the bay.

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Godzilla meanwhile was infuriated and turned to see what had hit him. It turned out to be the fighters of the Archimedes fleet. Marcus, along with several squadrons of planes, had launched from carriers to aid in the defense of the city. Their Sabres were outfitted with heavy-duty missiles that were designed to have more firepower against Kaiju. The main drawback was the rockets were generally less accurate than traditional rockets, but Marcus had managed to land an amazing shot. The rockets were not guided, which meant having to get in close to use them.

The look Godzilla had on his face when he turned shook something deep in Marcus’ soul. The moment of delight Marcus had felt shrank away and was replayed by terror. He pulled his fighter up and took evasive action, fearing a deadly reprisal. Other fighters launched their attacks though and bailed Marcus out by distracting Godzilla.

“Good shot captain.” The flight leader radioed to Marcus. “I think you really rang his bell with that one.”

“He took such a beating in the fights against the Rodans and Baragon, how can he still have so much fight left in him?” Marcus asked incredulously. “Sure, he won those fights, but neither of them were push overs. Both Baragon and the Rodans gave as good as they got.” At that point Marcus noticed that the chest wound Godzilla had suffered at the hands of Baragon was gone. “Sir, look at Godzilla’s chest. It’s healed already… How did he mend such a grievous wound so quickly?”

“Not only that captain, but he’s got amazing endurance too.” Lieutenant Larson noted. “This makes Godzilla four and zero. He’s outlasted all of his opponents. And even now, he’s still pretty fresh fighting us. What kind of steroids do you think he’s on?”

“The nuclear kind.” Marcus replied coolly. “Maybe Dr. Orsini can tell us something about it.”

“Well, we were ordered to save the castle.” Lieutenant Larson remarked. “I think we’ve managed that. Of course, we also managed to save Anguirus in the process. Not sure command is going to like that. They’d probably prefer that Godzilla had finished him off here and now. Appears like the big guy is looking for that spiky bastard again, but he already bugged out. I guess that means Anguirus is smarter than he looks.”

“Hey, Godzilla is leaving too.” Marcus observed.




Special thanks to MPsoldier, CommanderPhoenix, and Cyptid_Liker. This chapter is for you guys. ;)
Last edited by Ashram52 on Sun May 01, 2022 3:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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CommanderPhoenix
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by CommanderPhoenix »

Just read it and left a review over on Fanfiction, but the addition of the pictures definitely makes reading it on here still a good idea.

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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Ashram52 »

CommanderPhoenix wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 5:18 pm Just read it and left a review over on Fanfiction, but the addition of the pictures definitely makes reading it on here still a good idea.
Appreciate the review there and the post here. I always used to tell people you better the fuller experience here with the pictures, but people were oddly stubborn about that. 🤷‍♂️ :lol:
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.

Post by Cryptid_Liker »

Ashram52 wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 3:11 pm Special thanks to MPsoldier, CommanderPhoenix, and Cyptid_Liker. This chapter is for you guys. ;)
Aww, ya didn't have to. :D

Great chapter, as always! Although, I will say that there's some extra color leaking through in the fire pics. If that wasn't intentional, I suggest making it black-and-white and then applying the orange filter.

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