Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
Moderator: GodzillavsJason
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mpsoldier
- G-Force Personnel
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
Given the depth of your miniature work such a quick timetable is impressive.
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Ashram52
- Interpol Agent
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
If I had to build a miniature city for this chapter, it would take forever. I literally have to put them together building by building, block by block. Not this time though.
Miniature work is done. I should be able to wrap things up and post sometime tomorrow.
Custom Godzilla Modeler
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mpsoldier
- G-Force Personnel
- Posts: 625
- Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 3:37 pm
Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
Thanks. It's a good way to end the month.
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Ashram52
- Interpol Agent
- Posts: 456
- Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 9:53 am
Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
...
Chapter 59: The Ghost of Murmansk.
Marcus landed Charlotte back at the airstrip at Mech Command. He was still slowly bleeding onto the floor of his cockpit. His ordeal was over though. The remnants of the Kamacuras swarm were either dead or driven off by the National Guard after he defeated the alpha creature. Thus, they were no longer an active threat.
Once safely on the ground, Marcus guided Charlotte back into the bay and then powered down her fusion engine. He groaned and unbuckled himself from his chair. Only as he rose from his seat did Marcus realize the extent of the hammering he’d taken during the fight. His whole body was sore and he felt dizzy. Marcus took off his helmet and wiped blood from his brow. The helmet felt heavy in his hand, so Marcus just let it drop to the floor and then shambled forward. At that point, he was done mentally. He just wanted to hit the showers and then lay down. He knew the warm water would feel good against his aching muscles and joints, and would also help soothe his frayed nerves.
Marcus popped Charlotte’s outer hatch and then exited the machine. He was met at the door by one of the staff doctors who’d correctly predicted that Marcus would need medical attention following the battle. Marcus was tired and wasn’t particularly in the mood to be fussed over, but he didn’t fight it. He knew it would take more energy to resist. Therefore, Marcus let the doctor sit him down and start to examine him. The doctor immediately used his penlight to check Marcus’ pupil dilation, which was annoying, but necessary. He was beginning a concussion protocol. After the knocking Marcus had taken, there was no getting around the procedure. It had to be done. The doctor asked Marcus if he had a headache or was nauseous and then began to ask a series of other related questions.
After the doctor finished with his initial inquiry, he pulled out a suture kit and started to stitch up the laceration above Marcus’ eye. The lidocaine shot the doctor used to numb Marcus up hurt, but he could almost ignore it. Marcus just sat there and took the pain, feeling like a boxer sitting in his corner before the last round of a fight. He was already beat up and exhausted, so what was a little extra trauma at that point?
In the background, Marcus could see technicians beginning to make repairs to Charlotte.
The mechanics were already hard at work trying to patch up the damaged sections of her armored plating. Flashes from their blowtorches flickered and streams of bright sparks caught Marcus’ attention. It was kind of pretty in a way. Marcus almost laughed. He felt a little like a machine himself in that moment. Each he and Charlotte were being worked over.
Marcus’ attention shifted to the pinup of Shauna painted onto Charlotte’s hull. Fortunately, the artwork had survived the battle entirely unblemished. Marcus was glad for that. Charlotte wasn’t just a machine to him anymore. In a strange way, she embodied the presence of Shauna herself. It gave her a physical body that he could connect with in a unique way.
Marcus almost laughed again. He wondered if there was another man on the planet who was a strange and pathetic as he was, assigning such importance to a hunk of metal and even forming a strange emotional attachment to it. Maybe he had taken too much head trauma after all. But Charlotte had carried him through the battle and even protected him. So, maybe it wasn’t such a strange notion after all.
…
Kiki Saegusa and Dr. Orsini were walking into the Monsterland Command Center after breakfast, and they discovered a lot of commotion there. The officer on watch duty, Captain Buchanan, was frantically cycling through the island’s security cameras looking for something. Other members of the staff were watching him with looks of apprehension.
“What’s going on Captain?” Dr. Orsini asked, concerned. Captain Buchanan almost turned white when he realized that Dr. Orsini was standing behind him and watching. He turned around and hesitated to respond.
“Godzilla has gone missing.” Captain Buchanan finally reported.
“You lost Godzilla, huh?” Dr. Orsini replied flatly, his face not revealing any hint about how he felt about it. “How long has he been gone?”
“We’re not certain.” Captain Buchanan answered nervously, as if he expected to be chewed out at any moment. “No one has seen him all morning. We think he slipped out overnight. Should I call for a full alert, sir?” He asked.
“Well, that might be a little premature Captain.” Dr. Orsini replied, entirely unconcerned. “Mrs. Saegusa, would you like to join me for a special excursion?”
“Certainly doctor.” Kiki answered pleasantly.
“Remain on standby alert for now Captain.” Dr. Orsini recommended. “I’ll be contacting you again shortly.” He assured the young officer.
“Yes sir!” Captain Buchanan saluted, slightly confused.
Dr. Orsini led Kiki down a series of stairs until they arrived at the base’s underwater mini-sub pen. There, they found four yellow miniature submarines waiting to be used. The vessels were small, but each of them could hold three passengers comfortably.
“Shall we?” Dr. Orsini gestured towards the nearest craft with a smile.
…
Minutes later, Kiki and Dr. Orsini found their way into the lagoon of the main island of the Monster Island chain and were moving into the deeper ocean waters just off the islands. It was a magnificent experience for Kiki. The water alone was beautiful; clear, blue, and sparkling in the radiant tropical sunshine. Simply breathtaking. But what really made the experience unique was the vast variety of exotic sea life found there. Kiki had never seen the likes of it before. It was like being in the water tunnel of a high-end aquarium, only better. It was gorgeous. This was an adventure all to itself.
The ecosystem of the area was surprisingly healthy. This was in part due to Dr. Orsini’s interventions. Marine biology was his original field of study after all, and he knew how to nurture life and encourage it to flourish. More than anything though, it was Dr. Kusumi’s failed weather experiment which had changed things the most. The catastrophe which had produced the Kamacuras and evolved the other giant bugs on the land had affected the local sea life in similar ways, only to a lesser degree. There were enormous crabs inhabiting the bottom of the seafloor. Not large enough to be considered Kaiju, but much, much larger than normal. At least twenty times the mass of a normal crab. Some of them were even the size of a small car.
Several species of fish were also enlarged considerably by Dr. Kusumi’s fallout. Kiki’s father used to tell her tall tales about big fish that he’d caught. What she was seeing now put all his stories to shame. She wished he could have been there to see this. Such magnificent sights would have blown his mind.
The sea flora had also grown notably. The miniature sub passed through what could be described as a forest-sized patch of seaweed. Along with the enlarged fish, this provided the kaiju living on the islands with an alternative source of food. Everything was impressive, but none of it seemed too dangerous. The sea life around the sub seemed more than content to ignore it.
“Ah, just as I suspected.” Dr. Orsini noted. After venturing about for some time, he had finally found what he was looking for.
On the far side of the seaweed field, Godzilla was sleeping on the bottom of the ocean floor. Kiki could easily spot him through the front viewport of the submarine. Godzilla looked quite content, more peaceful than she had ever seen him look before. Entirely relaxed and at rest. Dr. Orsini kept approaching Godzilla until the sub had closed within two hundred yards, which was starting to make Kiki feel a little uncomfortable. Godzilla might be asleep, but he could easily wake up if he detected them moving towards him. There was no telling what he might do at that point.
Dr. Orsini took them even closer. The hairs on the back of Kiki’s neck were starting to stand on end. Dr. Orsini was getting way too close for comfort, much closer than necessary to get a good look at Godzilla. Kiki was starting to feel anxious. By the time that Dr. Orsini started to turn the sub, they were within rock-throwing distance. The sub was right next to Godzilla’s face. His respirations were strong enough to push the sub away from him slightly. Kiki could feel the movement even without her powers of extra sensory perception. She thought Dr. Orsini was insane to get this close, but she kept it to herself. In part, she didn’t want him to know she was so unsettled. She could sense him laughing on the inside. Kiki suddenly realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d pulled this trick on someone. Dr. Orsini was a little more twisted than she would have given him credit for.
Kiki also sensed that Dr. Orsini was impressed with her though. No one else had ever let him get this close to Godzilla before without insisting that they turn around. The submarine passed by Godzilla’s mouth, which was left partially open as he slept. Fish were picking at the particulates in the monster’s enormous teeth. Kiki felt both awe and terror at that moment. She doubted anyone else had gotten this close to Godzilla before and lived to tell about it. Finally, even Dr. Orsini seemed to have enough of playing around with fire and began to steer them away from Godzilla. He picked up the radio and made contact with the command center.
“Monsterland Control, this is Dr. Orsini.” He began. “I’ve found your wayward kaiju. You can stand down alert. Godzilla is sleeping it off in the lagoon again. We’re heading back to the barn. ETA twenty minutes.”
Kiki smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Orsini was silly for trying to play mind games with a psychic, and yet, he’d still managed to mess with her in a way most people never could. She was going to remember this excursion for a very long time.
…
Over northeast China, Captain Zhang Wei was on his maiden flight as a pilot for the aptly named commercial airline ‘Air China’. He was nervous, but also excited. His plane, a Shanghai Y-10, was carrying 178 passengers, the maximum capacity. Zhang had the experienced pilot Wang Li supervising him, ensuring that everything went smoothly. So far, Wang hadn’t needed to lift a finger to help or correct Zhang. The entire flight had gone rather well. Wang was proud of his young Protégé. They were only forty-five minutes from landing in Beijing. The aircraft just needed to pass over the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, and then their journey would be over. The Khingan Range was a twelve-hundred-kilometer volcanic mountain system. It was breathtaking to see in person, even from forty thousand feet up.
Zhang looked down and saw a strange blip on his airborne weather control radar. The system was not designed to detect other aircraft, but rather the intensity of convective weather, and yet, he was seeing something peculiar. There was a disturbance in the regional wind shears. It was like a very localized storm, but not like anything Zhang had ever seen before. Zhang brought Wang’s attention to it, and he was just as confused by the readings their instruments were getting.
The pair of pilots decided to radio the control tower in Beijing to see if there were any reports about a storm building up. No such report existed. The projected forecast was entirely clear for the whole day, and yet, Zhang and Wang were picking up something strange nearby. No one could explain the anomaly. The tower chief suspected that their radar was simply faulty. Suddenly, the Y-10’s traffic collision avoidance system began to beep an urgent warning, indicating that the jet liner was about to collide with something.
Wang took manual control of the plane and drastically altered course in an emergency maneuver to avoid whatever imminent danger was approaching. Could there be another flight in the area? If so, why hadn’t the tower warned them about it? The jet shuttered from the rapid course change. There wasn’t any time to warn the passengers. Wang could hear a chorus of frightened screams coming from behind him. He decided he would just have to apologize to the passengers later. Wang got the plane clear of the immediate danger and the collision alarm stopped. His emergency maneuver worked. The flight had narrowly avoided disaster. Zhang and Wang looked over to each other with bewildered expressions. Neither of them understood what had just happened.
Wang angrily reached to the radio to contact the control tower for answers, but his hand never touched the receiver. In the passenger cabin, eight sharp talons punctured the fuselage of the jet, decompressing it. The top portion of the Y-10 was torn away, and what remained of the aircraft was sent tumbling out of control towards the ground.
…
Meanwhile at Mech Command, Marcus was lying on a massage table getting worked over. He was still sore from the mission. The shower had helped bring him back to life, but he remained tired and achy. Getting knocked around in the fight was the equivalent of being in several car accidents back-to-back, and it left Marcus feeling twisted and off. It was very hard on the body and would undoubtably lead to some long-lasting effects, but Marcus was okay with that. While he wasn't suicidal anymore, he didn't have a lot to live for either. Nobody was dependent on him living a long full life or being in good health anymore. There was no one to miss him or be held down if he destroyed his physical health while performing his duty.
What it boiled down to was someone needed to be in that cockpit and fighting that fight. It might as well be him, a man with very little to lose. The way Marcus saw it, at least he was doing something useful with what remained of his life. He could take pride that he was making a difference, and he thought Shauna would be proud of him if she could still see him. He'd come a long way from the simple sailor she’d known him as. His children would be proud of his work too. He would be like a superhero to them, piloting a gigantic robot and fighting monsters. Who could top that on career day? Even an astronaut would have a hard time competing. Those thoughts brought Marcus some peace and helped him ignore the hard reality of his situation, that his life was pretty empty.
Marcus would trade all of it to have his family back. He didn't need to be an action hero to be happy. In fact, it did very little for him. What he valued was the people he loved and getting to be with them. He would have been content as a milkman making deliveries in a small town if he could only hug his children one more time. Marcus was rather simple and straight forward like that. An uncomplicated man, just the basic needs would keep him satisfied. But of course, that wasn't an option. Life was strange like that. It seemed to Marcus that it would give him all sorts of things to try to keep him happy; except the one thing that he actually wanted. Though that wasn't exactly true. It had given him everything he wanted, just before it had taken it all away again. It was like a cruel joke. Was this God's design? Or simply random bad luck? Was he meant to suffer? Marcus couldn't say for sure, and he knew he'd never get a straight answer while he lived.
The masseur hit a particularly sore spot and brought Marcus back to reality. He lifted his head and then waved the masseuse away. Marcus got off the table and then went into the locker room to change back into his fatigues. After putting his clothes on, Marcus took a good long look at himself in the mirror. He could tell that the cut on his forehead was going to leave a permanent scar. His eye had also blackened by that point, and there was swelling just to the side of his face. He was a bit of a mess.
“So… it looks like your first mission went pretty well, huh?” A voice called out half-sarcastically, noting Marcus’ stitches and bruising. It was Brock. He’d slipped into the locker room quietly without Marcus noticing. He always had been very light-footed for such a big guy.
“I got the job done.” Marcus replied cooly, looking back at Brock in the mirror.
“Yeah, well it looks like you went three rounds with Ali in the process.” Brock countered with a smirk.
“For the record, my opponent was a little above his weight class.” Marcus noted.
“You good…?” Brock asked.
“I will be.” Marcus reached up to his cut, which was hurting just then and traced it with his finger.
“Don’t worry about it, it’ll give your face more character.” Brock teased.
“Well, you would be the expert.” Marcus cut back at Brock, eyeing the various scars on his face from countless fights and close calls on the battlefield. “You look like a damned walking crossword puzzle.” He added, not being able to stop himself from smiling. They both laughed, finally breaking the tension.
“Well, I’m here on official business, the old man wants to see you.” Brock informed Marcus.
“Debrief…” Marcus noted. It was more of a statement than a question. “Okay, let him know I’ll be in his office in ten minutes.”
…
“Come in Commander!” General Stapleton greeted Marcus warmly when he entered his office.
Unfortunately, the general didn’t have good news for Marcus. In fact, General Stapleton told him that he was being reassigned again. This time, he was being promoted to the chief instructor of the Mech Program. A new crop of pilots was being brought in to replace the old guard, and they’d arrive on site the next morning.
“You’re taking Charlotte away from me?” Marcus said plainly. It was hard for him to hide his disappointment and hurt.
“Your one of G-Force’s best minds Marcus.” General Stapleton replied. “And we could have lost you today in combat. That weighs on me. Your battlefield instincts and intuition are always spot on. Second to none. It occurred to me that we don’t need to risk you being in the pilot’s seat to utilize your talents. In addition to being the new pilot’s instructor, I want you to command tactical missions remotely from here. That way, you can still make the right calls and leave the dangerous work to the young hot shots.”
Marcus’ spirit sank. This was not what he wanted to hear. He felt like he was being told he was being put out to pasture, and worse, that he was losing his direct connection to his wife and children, or at least the last remaining physical representation of them. There was nothing he could do though. He knew General Stapleton had already made up his mind. Experience told him he wouldn’t be able to talk him into changing it. Deflated, Marcus simply saluted and exited General Stapleton’s office after being dismissed.
…
A short while later, Marcus was out on a run again. His whole body hurt with each thumping step he took, but he kept going anyways. Marcus needed to clear his head. He was trying to come to terms with the most recent wave of bad news in his life. Just after he’d finally gotten to perform the duty he’d spent years preparing for, he was being pulled out and reassigned again. Marcus couldn’t help but feel like it was related to his performance in the field. He had let the last Kamacuras escape and he’d nearly died during the battle. Maybe General Stapleton felt bringing in younger pilots was the right call because he failed to get the job done.
Marcus began to wonder what the point of continuing to live was. Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse for him and he seemed to matter less and less to the wider world. He had very few connections with people anymore. Maybe that was his own fault though. He’d allowed himself to fade into the background. He didn’t put himself out there to interact with people and he had to be dragged into things by his few remaining friends. He was just losing his connection with the world, and it seemed to be losing its connection with him in return. He wasn’t sure how to keep carrying on anymore.
Through the lens of a scope, a reticle was centered on Marcus’ face. The crosshairs followed his every movement carefully, keeping him targeted. On the other end of the scope, Samara’s eye was watching him. She could see the hurt and disappointment on Marcus’ face, though she didn’t understand the cause. Marcus was often melancholy during his runs, but this was deeper. Samara had been keeping tabs on him for years, and she’d never seen him look this down before. And he was hurt physically as well. His last mission clearly had not been kind to him. That was plain to see through his cuts and bruises. It made Samara sad. She wanted to comfort him in a way that was impossible at that moment.
Samara had the perfect excuse to keep Marcus under surveillance. He was a mech pilot for G-Force. A valuable target for the Kingdom of Mu. He could be a rich source of intelligence should they decide to abduct and interrogate him. His daily pattern was so consistent that they’d barely need to plan it, just sit and lay in wait and snatch him during one of his runs. And if they decided he’d be better off dead at an opportune moment, he was always running out in the open. Nothing could stop them from assassinating him, perhaps save one thing. Being so close to the head of Mu’s central intelligence, Samara would always ensure she’d be the agent assigned to that mission, and she had devised several alternative plans to prevent that trigger from ever being pulled.
Samara had been very careful to ensure that her weapon’s safety was on before starting her surveillance. She wouldn’t dare risk an accident. Samara almost laughed at herself. The current circumstances were in stark contrast to the first time she’d watched Marcus this way when she had nearly pulled the trigger on him years ago. She could have, and arguably should have taken him out at the time. Marcus was actively interfering with her mission after all.
Samara was glad that she didn’t though. Marcus had become an obsession for her. The object of her affection that she couldn’t act on. Their two worlds kept them apart, but in a strange way, that just made her desire him more. The one thing she couldn’t have was the one thing she wanted more than anything. She could only satiate her yearning for Marcus with these brief moments where she watched him from afar. It was small consolation. She wanted and needed more. Samara needed to find an excuse to get close to him again, but it wasn’t as simple as walking out and approaching him openly. She needed something to happen.
…
Over the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, a squadron of Chinese Shenyang J-7s, a domestically built copy of the Soviet MiG-21, were scrambling to investigate the downed Shanghai Y-10. The flight leader, Captain Long Fei, could see smoke rising from the mountains ahead of his flight group. A large radar contact had been detected in the area just after the incident, and a new unknown kaiju was assumed to be responsible for the attack. The Monsterland facility had been officially contacted by the Chinese government, and all of their internees were accounted for. Thus, something new was assumed to be stalking the skies.
Long Fei kept one eye on his radar screen. He was understandably nervous. He had no idea what he and his squad-mates were getting into. There wasn’t a lot of information about what happened to the commercial flight. The plane was simply there one minute and then gone the next. So, it was largely left to Long Fei’s imagination to fill in the gaps. He was envisioning the worst.
When the fighters reached the crash site, they found very little left of the downed Y-10. Parts of the aircraft were scattered across a burning two-mile stretch of landscape. There didn’t appear to be much hope for survivors, just smoldering wreckage.
“Chen, go down and take a closer look.” Long Fei instructed his wingman.
“Yes sir.” Chen replied.
Chen’s J-7 broke away from the formation and descended into the mountainous valley below. The fighter’s presence had not gone unnoticed. Indeed, the sonic boom of the entire squadron announced their arrival long before Chen’s descent. As his jet passed through a hilly area packed with dense trees, an enormous head jetted out and snapped around his aircraft which erupted into a fireball.
Above, Long Fei was shocked by the sudden explosion and appearance of a kaiju. How could a creature so big manage to hide its presence so easily? The answer soon became apparent. As the flight of fighters circled back around, they could see a wide cavity in the ground that the monster had dug out for itself. The enormous chasm had been concealed by the trees from the far side.
Now out in the open, Long Fei was immediately able to identify their adversary. It was Rodan. The creature was identical to the previous pair of specimens which had ravaged Asia. Long Fei wondered if one of the original monsters could have actually survived the blast in Russia and somehow found its way to China. But the creature in question didn’t have a mark on it. No blemish to even suggest an old wound, and no burns. Long Fei assumed such a powerful explosion would leave some lasting effects. Moreover, if this was a survivor of the nuclear incident, why was it only revealing itself now, and how had it remained hidden for so long?
At that point, Long Fei did the only sensible thing that he could. He turned his squadron around and retreated. He knew his fighters had next to no chance against the monster. It was simply better to cut their losses and return to base. He needed to report what they’d found to his superiors.
…
The world was shocked by the sudden reappearance of another Rodan. Nowhere did the news hit harder than in Russia though. The country as a whole was horrified by this revelation. The memories of what the monsters had done during their reign of terror had not faded from the collective Russian memory whatsoever, and the newly discovered monster was only a couple hundred miles from their border. Just a short flight away for the creature.
Debate raged whether this was one of the old Rodans, a notion which scared the hell out of people because that would mean it had survived a point-blank nuclear blast, or perhaps the offspring of the original pair.
Marcus was of the opinion that this was a totally new Rodan which had emerged independently from the first pair. He found it difficult to believe the Rodans could have survived a nuclear blast at such close range. And if one of the Rodans had somehow survived, why not the other? Furthermore, if this was one of the original Rodans, shouldn’t it have evolved like Godzilla from the intense radiation it absorbed?
That was Dr. Tadokoro’s old theory about monsters from that time period, that each of them had the potential to become more powerful versions of themselves if exposed to intense radioactivity. His theory was widely accepted and had been the one thing that kept the world’s governments from trying to use nuclear weapons against Kaiju, particularly after the disaster of Godzilla’s rapid growth and increase in power seemed to prove the theory true. So again, if this creature in China was indeed one of the Rodans caught up in the blast, why was it still very much in a base form, both unchanged and uninjured?
And if this was a chick sired from the first pair of Rodans, as some suggested, could it have realistically survived on its own? It wasn’t impossible, but Marcus didn’t find that likely. Without a steady source of nourishment, it shouldn’t have been able to survive its hatchling phase by itself. No, the most likely explanation was this was another member of the Rodan species who’d simply emerged separately.
Whatever the explanation though, the monster was in China and causing havoc, and both the Chinese and Russians were demanding that G-Force do something about it. And they had every right to do so. Each government had supported the Mech program in the U.N. Security Council and even provided funding.
General Stapleton was hesitant to deploy one of his mechs on Chinese soil though. If the robot should fall in combat, the Chinese government, who were rather notorious for stealing weapon platforms, would undoubtably take advantage of the situation. However, security treaties were in place for this exact scenario which guaranteed G-Force’s support in the event of a kaiju attack. Therefore, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
General Stapleton found a solution to this problem, however. There was a U.S. carrier group stationed near Japan. He could put aircraft over the combat zone if he needed to. Moreover, he could keep one of the Cybersaur units on standby. He wasn’t one-hundred percent certain the Cybersaurous model could reach the other side of the world, because they hadn’t tested them to fly that far yet, but the U.S. had naval and air bases all across the Pacific. The Cybersaur unit could always break up the journey by island hopping if they needed to. Thus, having a second robot to guard the wreckage of the first was an option on the table if it really came down to it.
Given the limitations of the other G-Force Mechs, there was only one clear choice for the mission: Mechagodzilla. While it was certainly risky to send the most advanced robot, it was the only one which could realistically carry out the task. The Mechagodzilla robot was capable of spaceflight, which meant it could enter and exit the atmosphere and reach China within a very small window of time. Given the urgency of the situation, that’s what was called for. The necessary orders were issued and Major Jamison was on his way in Mechagodzilla.
…
Misha Popov was once again taking radiation readings at the perimeter of the Murmansk contamination zone. He had been paying attention to the global news, and like every other Russian, he was worried about the reappearance of Rodan in China. But he was just as worried about what was happening on his side of the Empire. The radiation levels in the contamination zone were continuing to plummet at an incredible rate and the zone itself was continuing to shrink by yards each day. Misha was no closer to discovering the reason why. He had convinced the military to do some reconnaissance flights over the area to see if they could locate a cause, but the aircraft couldn’t get in close to the ground without risking radiation contamination, so the searches had largely come up empty.
The only odd thing the pilots did report, which struck Misha as quite odd, were occasional radar contacts in the region which would appear and then fade again within moments. The readings were simply there and then gone again within seconds. By the time the planes got to the area of the contact, they would find nothing but clear skies. The pilots got to calling the phenomenon: ‘The Ghost of Murmansk’ after several missions found nothing. The airmen never uncovered any physical evidence of anything living in the zone and struggled to explain the phantom radar readings.
The official report left the unknown contact listed as unidentifiable, and it was chalked up as a UFO. The Russian government closed the book on it, at least in an official capacity. Misha was frustrated by that. He suspected someone in the administration knew what was going on and was suppressing the truth. There were rumors of an old military base out in the zone which belonged to a clandestine organization which had performed covert experiments. Those were secrets that Misha was not privy to, and which someone apparently wanted to keep buried. What the hell had they done out there? Misha was asking himself. But the better question was, what the hell could withstand that level of radiation?
The bottom line was, the Russians couldn’t send in ground forces to investigate what was going on in the contamination zone unless they could find someone suicidal enough to make a one-way trip on just a whim. The Russian’s capacity to sacrifice the lives of their grunts was legendary. They never met a problem that they couldn’t throw a pile of bodies at. But even the ruthless men running the Russian Army needed some kind of solid justification first.
…
Hours later, Mechagodzilla-1 was reentering the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Marcus was watching the readouts closely from his station at Mech Command Headquarters. The heat gauge was within normal limits. All systems were green. He could see Major Jamison at his station. His face was like stone. It was difficult to tell if he was nervous or simply focused.
Mechagodzilla-1 was over Chinese airspace following its programmed trajectory. The robot was descending down through the stratosphere. It was a smooth ride for Jamison. Mechagodzilla was more sophisticated than Charlotte and specifically designed with flight in mind. Major Jamison might as well have been a passenger on a commercial flight. The autopilot was handling all the course corrections. But Jamison switched over to manual. At the speed he was going, it wouldn’t be long before the robot entered the engagement zone.
Rodan had staked out a patch of territory for itself and was attacking anything that entered. It wouldn’t take the monster long to detect the heavy war machine. Mechagodzilla was a lot of things, but subtle wasn’t one of them. Jamison began to slow Mechagodzilla down and leveled it off. Gradually, the robot reduced speed until it was flying normally over the mountainous landscape.
“Alright Major, be on guard.” Marcus cautioned Jamison. “You’re entering the zone.”
“Roger.” Jamison replied cooly. “Switching on search radar.” Marcus could see the screen become active from his station.
“Don’t rely on the radar too much Jamison.” Marcus advised. “The Rodans have proved to be pretty crafty. They’ve managed to undermined radar detection at least twice in the past.”
“Yes sir, I’ll make sure not to neglect the main monitor.” Jamison noted. His eyes shifted over to a large view screen which fed him a window to the outside world via a live camera feed.
There was a sudden warning beep on both Jamison and Marcus’ instruments. Rodan had been detected. The monster was wasting no time and already flying up at Mechagodzilla from the ground. As before, the creature was using the mountains for cover, waiting for the robot to fly in close to spring a trap. While Jamison hadn’t been taken entirely off guard, it was still difficult for him to react in time. Rodan was moving incredibly fast. The monster struck the robot in the shoulder, knocking it off course and out of control. Mechagodzilla started to lose altitude as it spun in the air.
“Pull up Major!” Marcus shouted. If Jamison crashed Mechagodzilla at that speed, it would almost certainly be fatal.
Major Jamison fought to regain control of Mechagodzilla and was successful. He banked the robot around to face Rodan who was also in the process of turning. Jamison fired the robot’s rainbow-colored optical lasers, but Rodan was easily able to avoid them, dodging expertly in the sky.
“I recommend taking the fight to the ground.” Marcus suggested. “Rodan will always have the advantage in the sky.”
“Agreed.” Major Jamison replied. “But I need to by myself a little breathing space though.” He tapped a few buttons and fired off all ten of Mechagodzilla’s finger missiles. The projectiles had been outfitted with a new tracking feature which allowed them to home in on Rodan, despite the monster’s agility in the air. Rodan twisted and turned, but half of the missiles still found their mark. They knocked Rodan around, but the creature managed to maintain its flight with relative ease.
Meanwhile, Jamison began to maneuver Mechagodzilla onto the ground. The missile attack proved to be the perfect distraction. By the time Rodan had come back around, the robot was settled and ready for it. Jamison fired the eye beams and another volley of rockets from the machine’s fingers. The ray missed again, and the rockets didn’t have enough time to lock on. Rodan rushed forward, narrowly avoiding being hit by any of the projectiles. The monster drove its armored underbelly into Mechagodzilla’s face as it passed, grinding off fragments of the robot’s silver armor. If Mechagodzilla had been an organic foe, it would have been painful. But such as it was, the damage wasn’t too serious to the robot, just scratches.
Inside Mechagodzilla, Jamison was jostled around violently. Fortunately, the attack had only been a glancing blow. A full-on impact at that speed would have been very dangerous. Marcus was sweating in the command center. The battle had only just started, and Jamison’s life had been in jeopardy twice already. They needed to take control of the fight, and quickly.
“You have to force Rodan out of the sky.” Marcus advised. “Fire everything you got.” Jamison instantly responded. The flap on Mechagodzilla’s chest opened up and the robot unloaded all of its weaponry at once. The cross-attack beam managed to strike Rodan in the wing, sending the creature tumbling to the ground. Jamison kept up the pressure, continuing to discharge a steady stream of firepower. Marcus was watching Mechagodzilla’s heat gauge like a hawk. It was steadily climbing as the seconds rolled by.
“Okay Major, you’d better ease off, you’re getting a little hot.” Marcus warned. Jamison didn’t reply, but he was listening. He stopped using Mechagodzilla’s ray weaponry and continued the barrage just with his missiles.
Rodan recovered and rose back up again. The monster took to the air once more, but only to close the gap. The creature glided over and stopped just short of ramming into Mechagodzilla, landing directly in front of the robot and pecking at its face. The first shot landed clean, shattering the right eye of Mechagodzilla. The next shot ricocheted off the robot’s forehead. Jamison was not idol. He engaged Mechagodzilla’s hand-to-hand combat module and knocked Rodan away with two hard chops.
Sparks poured out of Mechagodzilla’s damaged eye socket. Jamison cycled power away from the area to prevent a fire from breaking out. Rodan was proving to be a tougher opponent than anyone had anticipated. The creature was giving Major Jamison and Mechagodzilla a real run for their money. The robot was undoubtably taking the worst of the punishment so far. Jamison fired off the cross-attack beam again, as well as the optical laser from the remaining eye which sent Rodan tumbling backwards. The heat gauge was closing in on the red again.
Rodan took to the sky once more, recognizing that extended close quarters combat with the robot was not to its advantage. The creature had grasped onto a boulder and pulled it up into the air with it. Rodan circled around and dive-bombed Mechagodzilla with the stone. The creature’s aim was perfect and the rock hammered into Mechagodzilla’s chest. The rock bounced off, only leaving a minor dent in the armored plating, but inside, Jamison felt the hit and it rattled him.
Rodan lifted another rock from the ground and swept back up into the sky again. This time, Jamison wasn’t going to let the monster get a free lick in though. He fired his finger missiles, and when those failed to stop Rodan, he discharged the optical laser, which missed. Rodan chirped at him in a mocking way, as though the monster was laughing at him. The laughter was short-lived though. Rodan suddenly seized up and dropped the rock from its talons.
Directly above Rodan, one of the Mothras had appeared and was using its powder. Rodan was paralyzed and began to glide downwards towards what could be a very unhappy landing. Mothra wasn’t going to let that happen though. Her tiny legs grasped onto Rodan and pulled the immobilized monster back upwards. For a few seconds, they made for a perfect target. Major Jamison prepared to launch all of Mechagodzilla’s weapons at once.
“No, let them go.” Marcus intervened. “Leave the rest to Mothra. She knows what she’s doing.”
...
Chapter 59: The Ghost of Murmansk.
Marcus landed Charlotte back at the airstrip at Mech Command. He was still slowly bleeding onto the floor of his cockpit. His ordeal was over though. The remnants of the Kamacuras swarm were either dead or driven off by the National Guard after he defeated the alpha creature. Thus, they were no longer an active threat.
Once safely on the ground, Marcus guided Charlotte back into the bay and then powered down her fusion engine. He groaned and unbuckled himself from his chair. Only as he rose from his seat did Marcus realize the extent of the hammering he’d taken during the fight. His whole body was sore and he felt dizzy. Marcus took off his helmet and wiped blood from his brow. The helmet felt heavy in his hand, so Marcus just let it drop to the floor and then shambled forward. At that point, he was done mentally. He just wanted to hit the showers and then lay down. He knew the warm water would feel good against his aching muscles and joints, and would also help soothe his frayed nerves.
Marcus popped Charlotte’s outer hatch and then exited the machine. He was met at the door by one of the staff doctors who’d correctly predicted that Marcus would need medical attention following the battle. Marcus was tired and wasn’t particularly in the mood to be fussed over, but he didn’t fight it. He knew it would take more energy to resist. Therefore, Marcus let the doctor sit him down and start to examine him. The doctor immediately used his penlight to check Marcus’ pupil dilation, which was annoying, but necessary. He was beginning a concussion protocol. After the knocking Marcus had taken, there was no getting around the procedure. It had to be done. The doctor asked Marcus if he had a headache or was nauseous and then began to ask a series of other related questions.
After the doctor finished with his initial inquiry, he pulled out a suture kit and started to stitch up the laceration above Marcus’ eye. The lidocaine shot the doctor used to numb Marcus up hurt, but he could almost ignore it. Marcus just sat there and took the pain, feeling like a boxer sitting in his corner before the last round of a fight. He was already beat up and exhausted, so what was a little extra trauma at that point?
In the background, Marcus could see technicians beginning to make repairs to Charlotte.
The mechanics were already hard at work trying to patch up the damaged sections of her armored plating. Flashes from their blowtorches flickered and streams of bright sparks caught Marcus’ attention. It was kind of pretty in a way. Marcus almost laughed. He felt a little like a machine himself in that moment. Each he and Charlotte were being worked over.
Marcus’ attention shifted to the pinup of Shauna painted onto Charlotte’s hull. Fortunately, the artwork had survived the battle entirely unblemished. Marcus was glad for that. Charlotte wasn’t just a machine to him anymore. In a strange way, she embodied the presence of Shauna herself. It gave her a physical body that he could connect with in a unique way.
Marcus almost laughed again. He wondered if there was another man on the planet who was a strange and pathetic as he was, assigning such importance to a hunk of metal and even forming a strange emotional attachment to it. Maybe he had taken too much head trauma after all. But Charlotte had carried him through the battle and even protected him. So, maybe it wasn’t such a strange notion after all.
…
Kiki Saegusa and Dr. Orsini were walking into the Monsterland Command Center after breakfast, and they discovered a lot of commotion there. The officer on watch duty, Captain Buchanan, was frantically cycling through the island’s security cameras looking for something. Other members of the staff were watching him with looks of apprehension.
“What’s going on Captain?” Dr. Orsini asked, concerned. Captain Buchanan almost turned white when he realized that Dr. Orsini was standing behind him and watching. He turned around and hesitated to respond.
“Godzilla has gone missing.” Captain Buchanan finally reported.
“You lost Godzilla, huh?” Dr. Orsini replied flatly, his face not revealing any hint about how he felt about it. “How long has he been gone?”
“We’re not certain.” Captain Buchanan answered nervously, as if he expected to be chewed out at any moment. “No one has seen him all morning. We think he slipped out overnight. Should I call for a full alert, sir?” He asked.
“Well, that might be a little premature Captain.” Dr. Orsini replied, entirely unconcerned. “Mrs. Saegusa, would you like to join me for a special excursion?”
“Certainly doctor.” Kiki answered pleasantly.
“Remain on standby alert for now Captain.” Dr. Orsini recommended. “I’ll be contacting you again shortly.” He assured the young officer.
“Yes sir!” Captain Buchanan saluted, slightly confused.
Dr. Orsini led Kiki down a series of stairs until they arrived at the base’s underwater mini-sub pen. There, they found four yellow miniature submarines waiting to be used. The vessels were small, but each of them could hold three passengers comfortably.
“Shall we?” Dr. Orsini gestured towards the nearest craft with a smile.
…
Minutes later, Kiki and Dr. Orsini found their way into the lagoon of the main island of the Monster Island chain and were moving into the deeper ocean waters just off the islands. It was a magnificent experience for Kiki. The water alone was beautiful; clear, blue, and sparkling in the radiant tropical sunshine. Simply breathtaking. But what really made the experience unique was the vast variety of exotic sea life found there. Kiki had never seen the likes of it before. It was like being in the water tunnel of a high-end aquarium, only better. It was gorgeous. This was an adventure all to itself.
The ecosystem of the area was surprisingly healthy. This was in part due to Dr. Orsini’s interventions. Marine biology was his original field of study after all, and he knew how to nurture life and encourage it to flourish. More than anything though, it was Dr. Kusumi’s failed weather experiment which had changed things the most. The catastrophe which had produced the Kamacuras and evolved the other giant bugs on the land had affected the local sea life in similar ways, only to a lesser degree. There were enormous crabs inhabiting the bottom of the seafloor. Not large enough to be considered Kaiju, but much, much larger than normal. At least twenty times the mass of a normal crab. Some of them were even the size of a small car.
Several species of fish were also enlarged considerably by Dr. Kusumi’s fallout. Kiki’s father used to tell her tall tales about big fish that he’d caught. What she was seeing now put all his stories to shame. She wished he could have been there to see this. Such magnificent sights would have blown his mind.
The sea flora had also grown notably. The miniature sub passed through what could be described as a forest-sized patch of seaweed. Along with the enlarged fish, this provided the kaiju living on the islands with an alternative source of food. Everything was impressive, but none of it seemed too dangerous. The sea life around the sub seemed more than content to ignore it.
“Ah, just as I suspected.” Dr. Orsini noted. After venturing about for some time, he had finally found what he was looking for.
On the far side of the seaweed field, Godzilla was sleeping on the bottom of the ocean floor. Kiki could easily spot him through the front viewport of the submarine. Godzilla looked quite content, more peaceful than she had ever seen him look before. Entirely relaxed and at rest. Dr. Orsini kept approaching Godzilla until the sub had closed within two hundred yards, which was starting to make Kiki feel a little uncomfortable. Godzilla might be asleep, but he could easily wake up if he detected them moving towards him. There was no telling what he might do at that point.
Dr. Orsini took them even closer. The hairs on the back of Kiki’s neck were starting to stand on end. Dr. Orsini was getting way too close for comfort, much closer than necessary to get a good look at Godzilla. Kiki was starting to feel anxious. By the time that Dr. Orsini started to turn the sub, they were within rock-throwing distance. The sub was right next to Godzilla’s face. His respirations were strong enough to push the sub away from him slightly. Kiki could feel the movement even without her powers of extra sensory perception. She thought Dr. Orsini was insane to get this close, but she kept it to herself. In part, she didn’t want him to know she was so unsettled. She could sense him laughing on the inside. Kiki suddenly realized that this wasn’t the first time he’d pulled this trick on someone. Dr. Orsini was a little more twisted than she would have given him credit for.
Kiki also sensed that Dr. Orsini was impressed with her though. No one else had ever let him get this close to Godzilla before without insisting that they turn around. The submarine passed by Godzilla’s mouth, which was left partially open as he slept. Fish were picking at the particulates in the monster’s enormous teeth. Kiki felt both awe and terror at that moment. She doubted anyone else had gotten this close to Godzilla before and lived to tell about it. Finally, even Dr. Orsini seemed to have enough of playing around with fire and began to steer them away from Godzilla. He picked up the radio and made contact with the command center.
“Monsterland Control, this is Dr. Orsini.” He began. “I’ve found your wayward kaiju. You can stand down alert. Godzilla is sleeping it off in the lagoon again. We’re heading back to the barn. ETA twenty minutes.”
Kiki smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Orsini was silly for trying to play mind games with a psychic, and yet, he’d still managed to mess with her in a way most people never could. She was going to remember this excursion for a very long time.
…
Over northeast China, Captain Zhang Wei was on his maiden flight as a pilot for the aptly named commercial airline ‘Air China’. He was nervous, but also excited. His plane, a Shanghai Y-10, was carrying 178 passengers, the maximum capacity. Zhang had the experienced pilot Wang Li supervising him, ensuring that everything went smoothly. So far, Wang hadn’t needed to lift a finger to help or correct Zhang. The entire flight had gone rather well. Wang was proud of his young Protégé. They were only forty-five minutes from landing in Beijing. The aircraft just needed to pass over the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, and then their journey would be over. The Khingan Range was a twelve-hundred-kilometer volcanic mountain system. It was breathtaking to see in person, even from forty thousand feet up.
Zhang looked down and saw a strange blip on his airborne weather control radar. The system was not designed to detect other aircraft, but rather the intensity of convective weather, and yet, he was seeing something peculiar. There was a disturbance in the regional wind shears. It was like a very localized storm, but not like anything Zhang had ever seen before. Zhang brought Wang’s attention to it, and he was just as confused by the readings their instruments were getting.
The pair of pilots decided to radio the control tower in Beijing to see if there were any reports about a storm building up. No such report existed. The projected forecast was entirely clear for the whole day, and yet, Zhang and Wang were picking up something strange nearby. No one could explain the anomaly. The tower chief suspected that their radar was simply faulty. Suddenly, the Y-10’s traffic collision avoidance system began to beep an urgent warning, indicating that the jet liner was about to collide with something.
Wang took manual control of the plane and drastically altered course in an emergency maneuver to avoid whatever imminent danger was approaching. Could there be another flight in the area? If so, why hadn’t the tower warned them about it? The jet shuttered from the rapid course change. There wasn’t any time to warn the passengers. Wang could hear a chorus of frightened screams coming from behind him. He decided he would just have to apologize to the passengers later. Wang got the plane clear of the immediate danger and the collision alarm stopped. His emergency maneuver worked. The flight had narrowly avoided disaster. Zhang and Wang looked over to each other with bewildered expressions. Neither of them understood what had just happened.
Wang angrily reached to the radio to contact the control tower for answers, but his hand never touched the receiver. In the passenger cabin, eight sharp talons punctured the fuselage of the jet, decompressing it. The top portion of the Y-10 was torn away, and what remained of the aircraft was sent tumbling out of control towards the ground.
…
Meanwhile at Mech Command, Marcus was lying on a massage table getting worked over. He was still sore from the mission. The shower had helped bring him back to life, but he remained tired and achy. Getting knocked around in the fight was the equivalent of being in several car accidents back-to-back, and it left Marcus feeling twisted and off. It was very hard on the body and would undoubtably lead to some long-lasting effects, but Marcus was okay with that. While he wasn't suicidal anymore, he didn't have a lot to live for either. Nobody was dependent on him living a long full life or being in good health anymore. There was no one to miss him or be held down if he destroyed his physical health while performing his duty.
What it boiled down to was someone needed to be in that cockpit and fighting that fight. It might as well be him, a man with very little to lose. The way Marcus saw it, at least he was doing something useful with what remained of his life. He could take pride that he was making a difference, and he thought Shauna would be proud of him if she could still see him. He'd come a long way from the simple sailor she’d known him as. His children would be proud of his work too. He would be like a superhero to them, piloting a gigantic robot and fighting monsters. Who could top that on career day? Even an astronaut would have a hard time competing. Those thoughts brought Marcus some peace and helped him ignore the hard reality of his situation, that his life was pretty empty.
Marcus would trade all of it to have his family back. He didn't need to be an action hero to be happy. In fact, it did very little for him. What he valued was the people he loved and getting to be with them. He would have been content as a milkman making deliveries in a small town if he could only hug his children one more time. Marcus was rather simple and straight forward like that. An uncomplicated man, just the basic needs would keep him satisfied. But of course, that wasn't an option. Life was strange like that. It seemed to Marcus that it would give him all sorts of things to try to keep him happy; except the one thing that he actually wanted. Though that wasn't exactly true. It had given him everything he wanted, just before it had taken it all away again. It was like a cruel joke. Was this God's design? Or simply random bad luck? Was he meant to suffer? Marcus couldn't say for sure, and he knew he'd never get a straight answer while he lived.
The masseur hit a particularly sore spot and brought Marcus back to reality. He lifted his head and then waved the masseuse away. Marcus got off the table and then went into the locker room to change back into his fatigues. After putting his clothes on, Marcus took a good long look at himself in the mirror. He could tell that the cut on his forehead was going to leave a permanent scar. His eye had also blackened by that point, and there was swelling just to the side of his face. He was a bit of a mess.
“So… it looks like your first mission went pretty well, huh?” A voice called out half-sarcastically, noting Marcus’ stitches and bruising. It was Brock. He’d slipped into the locker room quietly without Marcus noticing. He always had been very light-footed for such a big guy.
“I got the job done.” Marcus replied cooly, looking back at Brock in the mirror.
“Yeah, well it looks like you went three rounds with Ali in the process.” Brock countered with a smirk.
“For the record, my opponent was a little above his weight class.” Marcus noted.
“You good…?” Brock asked.
“I will be.” Marcus reached up to his cut, which was hurting just then and traced it with his finger.
“Don’t worry about it, it’ll give your face more character.” Brock teased.
“Well, you would be the expert.” Marcus cut back at Brock, eyeing the various scars on his face from countless fights and close calls on the battlefield. “You look like a damned walking crossword puzzle.” He added, not being able to stop himself from smiling. They both laughed, finally breaking the tension.
“Well, I’m here on official business, the old man wants to see you.” Brock informed Marcus.
“Debrief…” Marcus noted. It was more of a statement than a question. “Okay, let him know I’ll be in his office in ten minutes.”
…
“Come in Commander!” General Stapleton greeted Marcus warmly when he entered his office.
Unfortunately, the general didn’t have good news for Marcus. In fact, General Stapleton told him that he was being reassigned again. This time, he was being promoted to the chief instructor of the Mech Program. A new crop of pilots was being brought in to replace the old guard, and they’d arrive on site the next morning.
“You’re taking Charlotte away from me?” Marcus said plainly. It was hard for him to hide his disappointment and hurt.
“Your one of G-Force’s best minds Marcus.” General Stapleton replied. “And we could have lost you today in combat. That weighs on me. Your battlefield instincts and intuition are always spot on. Second to none. It occurred to me that we don’t need to risk you being in the pilot’s seat to utilize your talents. In addition to being the new pilot’s instructor, I want you to command tactical missions remotely from here. That way, you can still make the right calls and leave the dangerous work to the young hot shots.”
Marcus’ spirit sank. This was not what he wanted to hear. He felt like he was being told he was being put out to pasture, and worse, that he was losing his direct connection to his wife and children, or at least the last remaining physical representation of them. There was nothing he could do though. He knew General Stapleton had already made up his mind. Experience told him he wouldn’t be able to talk him into changing it. Deflated, Marcus simply saluted and exited General Stapleton’s office after being dismissed.
…
A short while later, Marcus was out on a run again. His whole body hurt with each thumping step he took, but he kept going anyways. Marcus needed to clear his head. He was trying to come to terms with the most recent wave of bad news in his life. Just after he’d finally gotten to perform the duty he’d spent years preparing for, he was being pulled out and reassigned again. Marcus couldn’t help but feel like it was related to his performance in the field. He had let the last Kamacuras escape and he’d nearly died during the battle. Maybe General Stapleton felt bringing in younger pilots was the right call because he failed to get the job done.
Marcus began to wonder what the point of continuing to live was. Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse for him and he seemed to matter less and less to the wider world. He had very few connections with people anymore. Maybe that was his own fault though. He’d allowed himself to fade into the background. He didn’t put himself out there to interact with people and he had to be dragged into things by his few remaining friends. He was just losing his connection with the world, and it seemed to be losing its connection with him in return. He wasn’t sure how to keep carrying on anymore.
Through the lens of a scope, a reticle was centered on Marcus’ face. The crosshairs followed his every movement carefully, keeping him targeted. On the other end of the scope, Samara’s eye was watching him. She could see the hurt and disappointment on Marcus’ face, though she didn’t understand the cause. Marcus was often melancholy during his runs, but this was deeper. Samara had been keeping tabs on him for years, and she’d never seen him look this down before. And he was hurt physically as well. His last mission clearly had not been kind to him. That was plain to see through his cuts and bruises. It made Samara sad. She wanted to comfort him in a way that was impossible at that moment.
Samara had the perfect excuse to keep Marcus under surveillance. He was a mech pilot for G-Force. A valuable target for the Kingdom of Mu. He could be a rich source of intelligence should they decide to abduct and interrogate him. His daily pattern was so consistent that they’d barely need to plan it, just sit and lay in wait and snatch him during one of his runs. And if they decided he’d be better off dead at an opportune moment, he was always running out in the open. Nothing could stop them from assassinating him, perhaps save one thing. Being so close to the head of Mu’s central intelligence, Samara would always ensure she’d be the agent assigned to that mission, and she had devised several alternative plans to prevent that trigger from ever being pulled.
Samara had been very careful to ensure that her weapon’s safety was on before starting her surveillance. She wouldn’t dare risk an accident. Samara almost laughed at herself. The current circumstances were in stark contrast to the first time she’d watched Marcus this way when she had nearly pulled the trigger on him years ago. She could have, and arguably should have taken him out at the time. Marcus was actively interfering with her mission after all.
Samara was glad that she didn’t though. Marcus had become an obsession for her. The object of her affection that she couldn’t act on. Their two worlds kept them apart, but in a strange way, that just made her desire him more. The one thing she couldn’t have was the one thing she wanted more than anything. She could only satiate her yearning for Marcus with these brief moments where she watched him from afar. It was small consolation. She wanted and needed more. Samara needed to find an excuse to get close to him again, but it wasn’t as simple as walking out and approaching him openly. She needed something to happen.
…
Over the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, a squadron of Chinese Shenyang J-7s, a domestically built copy of the Soviet MiG-21, were scrambling to investigate the downed Shanghai Y-10. The flight leader, Captain Long Fei, could see smoke rising from the mountains ahead of his flight group. A large radar contact had been detected in the area just after the incident, and a new unknown kaiju was assumed to be responsible for the attack. The Monsterland facility had been officially contacted by the Chinese government, and all of their internees were accounted for. Thus, something new was assumed to be stalking the skies.
Long Fei kept one eye on his radar screen. He was understandably nervous. He had no idea what he and his squad-mates were getting into. There wasn’t a lot of information about what happened to the commercial flight. The plane was simply there one minute and then gone the next. So, it was largely left to Long Fei’s imagination to fill in the gaps. He was envisioning the worst.
When the fighters reached the crash site, they found very little left of the downed Y-10. Parts of the aircraft were scattered across a burning two-mile stretch of landscape. There didn’t appear to be much hope for survivors, just smoldering wreckage.
“Chen, go down and take a closer look.” Long Fei instructed his wingman.
“Yes sir.” Chen replied.
Chen’s J-7 broke away from the formation and descended into the mountainous valley below. The fighter’s presence had not gone unnoticed. Indeed, the sonic boom of the entire squadron announced their arrival long before Chen’s descent. As his jet passed through a hilly area packed with dense trees, an enormous head jetted out and snapped around his aircraft which erupted into a fireball.
Above, Long Fei was shocked by the sudden explosion and appearance of a kaiju. How could a creature so big manage to hide its presence so easily? The answer soon became apparent. As the flight of fighters circled back around, they could see a wide cavity in the ground that the monster had dug out for itself. The enormous chasm had been concealed by the trees from the far side.
Now out in the open, Long Fei was immediately able to identify their adversary. It was Rodan. The creature was identical to the previous pair of specimens which had ravaged Asia. Long Fei wondered if one of the original monsters could have actually survived the blast in Russia and somehow found its way to China. But the creature in question didn’t have a mark on it. No blemish to even suggest an old wound, and no burns. Long Fei assumed such a powerful explosion would leave some lasting effects. Moreover, if this was a survivor of the nuclear incident, why was it only revealing itself now, and how had it remained hidden for so long?
At that point, Long Fei did the only sensible thing that he could. He turned his squadron around and retreated. He knew his fighters had next to no chance against the monster. It was simply better to cut their losses and return to base. He needed to report what they’d found to his superiors.
…
The world was shocked by the sudden reappearance of another Rodan. Nowhere did the news hit harder than in Russia though. The country as a whole was horrified by this revelation. The memories of what the monsters had done during their reign of terror had not faded from the collective Russian memory whatsoever, and the newly discovered monster was only a couple hundred miles from their border. Just a short flight away for the creature.
Debate raged whether this was one of the old Rodans, a notion which scared the hell out of people because that would mean it had survived a point-blank nuclear blast, or perhaps the offspring of the original pair.
Marcus was of the opinion that this was a totally new Rodan which had emerged independently from the first pair. He found it difficult to believe the Rodans could have survived a nuclear blast at such close range. And if one of the Rodans had somehow survived, why not the other? Furthermore, if this was one of the original Rodans, shouldn’t it have evolved like Godzilla from the intense radiation it absorbed?
That was Dr. Tadokoro’s old theory about monsters from that time period, that each of them had the potential to become more powerful versions of themselves if exposed to intense radioactivity. His theory was widely accepted and had been the one thing that kept the world’s governments from trying to use nuclear weapons against Kaiju, particularly after the disaster of Godzilla’s rapid growth and increase in power seemed to prove the theory true. So again, if this creature in China was indeed one of the Rodans caught up in the blast, why was it still very much in a base form, both unchanged and uninjured?
And if this was a chick sired from the first pair of Rodans, as some suggested, could it have realistically survived on its own? It wasn’t impossible, but Marcus didn’t find that likely. Without a steady source of nourishment, it shouldn’t have been able to survive its hatchling phase by itself. No, the most likely explanation was this was another member of the Rodan species who’d simply emerged separately.
Whatever the explanation though, the monster was in China and causing havoc, and both the Chinese and Russians were demanding that G-Force do something about it. And they had every right to do so. Each government had supported the Mech program in the U.N. Security Council and even provided funding.
General Stapleton was hesitant to deploy one of his mechs on Chinese soil though. If the robot should fall in combat, the Chinese government, who were rather notorious for stealing weapon platforms, would undoubtably take advantage of the situation. However, security treaties were in place for this exact scenario which guaranteed G-Force’s support in the event of a kaiju attack. Therefore, he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
General Stapleton found a solution to this problem, however. There was a U.S. carrier group stationed near Japan. He could put aircraft over the combat zone if he needed to. Moreover, he could keep one of the Cybersaur units on standby. He wasn’t one-hundred percent certain the Cybersaurous model could reach the other side of the world, because they hadn’t tested them to fly that far yet, but the U.S. had naval and air bases all across the Pacific. The Cybersaur unit could always break up the journey by island hopping if they needed to. Thus, having a second robot to guard the wreckage of the first was an option on the table if it really came down to it.
Given the limitations of the other G-Force Mechs, there was only one clear choice for the mission: Mechagodzilla. While it was certainly risky to send the most advanced robot, it was the only one which could realistically carry out the task. The Mechagodzilla robot was capable of spaceflight, which meant it could enter and exit the atmosphere and reach China within a very small window of time. Given the urgency of the situation, that’s what was called for. The necessary orders were issued and Major Jamison was on his way in Mechagodzilla.
…
Misha Popov was once again taking radiation readings at the perimeter of the Murmansk contamination zone. He had been paying attention to the global news, and like every other Russian, he was worried about the reappearance of Rodan in China. But he was just as worried about what was happening on his side of the Empire. The radiation levels in the contamination zone were continuing to plummet at an incredible rate and the zone itself was continuing to shrink by yards each day. Misha was no closer to discovering the reason why. He had convinced the military to do some reconnaissance flights over the area to see if they could locate a cause, but the aircraft couldn’t get in close to the ground without risking radiation contamination, so the searches had largely come up empty.
The only odd thing the pilots did report, which struck Misha as quite odd, were occasional radar contacts in the region which would appear and then fade again within moments. The readings were simply there and then gone again within seconds. By the time the planes got to the area of the contact, they would find nothing but clear skies. The pilots got to calling the phenomenon: ‘The Ghost of Murmansk’ after several missions found nothing. The airmen never uncovered any physical evidence of anything living in the zone and struggled to explain the phantom radar readings.
The official report left the unknown contact listed as unidentifiable, and it was chalked up as a UFO. The Russian government closed the book on it, at least in an official capacity. Misha was frustrated by that. He suspected someone in the administration knew what was going on and was suppressing the truth. There were rumors of an old military base out in the zone which belonged to a clandestine organization which had performed covert experiments. Those were secrets that Misha was not privy to, and which someone apparently wanted to keep buried. What the hell had they done out there? Misha was asking himself. But the better question was, what the hell could withstand that level of radiation?
The bottom line was, the Russians couldn’t send in ground forces to investigate what was going on in the contamination zone unless they could find someone suicidal enough to make a one-way trip on just a whim. The Russian’s capacity to sacrifice the lives of their grunts was legendary. They never met a problem that they couldn’t throw a pile of bodies at. But even the ruthless men running the Russian Army needed some kind of solid justification first.
…
Hours later, Mechagodzilla-1 was reentering the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Marcus was watching the readouts closely from his station at Mech Command Headquarters. The heat gauge was within normal limits. All systems were green. He could see Major Jamison at his station. His face was like stone. It was difficult to tell if he was nervous or simply focused.
Mechagodzilla-1 was over Chinese airspace following its programmed trajectory. The robot was descending down through the stratosphere. It was a smooth ride for Jamison. Mechagodzilla was more sophisticated than Charlotte and specifically designed with flight in mind. Major Jamison might as well have been a passenger on a commercial flight. The autopilot was handling all the course corrections. But Jamison switched over to manual. At the speed he was going, it wouldn’t be long before the robot entered the engagement zone.
Rodan had staked out a patch of territory for itself and was attacking anything that entered. It wouldn’t take the monster long to detect the heavy war machine. Mechagodzilla was a lot of things, but subtle wasn’t one of them. Jamison began to slow Mechagodzilla down and leveled it off. Gradually, the robot reduced speed until it was flying normally over the mountainous landscape.
“Alright Major, be on guard.” Marcus cautioned Jamison. “You’re entering the zone.”
“Roger.” Jamison replied cooly. “Switching on search radar.” Marcus could see the screen become active from his station.
“Don’t rely on the radar too much Jamison.” Marcus advised. “The Rodans have proved to be pretty crafty. They’ve managed to undermined radar detection at least twice in the past.”
“Yes sir, I’ll make sure not to neglect the main monitor.” Jamison noted. His eyes shifted over to a large view screen which fed him a window to the outside world via a live camera feed.
There was a sudden warning beep on both Jamison and Marcus’ instruments. Rodan had been detected. The monster was wasting no time and already flying up at Mechagodzilla from the ground. As before, the creature was using the mountains for cover, waiting for the robot to fly in close to spring a trap. While Jamison hadn’t been taken entirely off guard, it was still difficult for him to react in time. Rodan was moving incredibly fast. The monster struck the robot in the shoulder, knocking it off course and out of control. Mechagodzilla started to lose altitude as it spun in the air.
“Pull up Major!” Marcus shouted. If Jamison crashed Mechagodzilla at that speed, it would almost certainly be fatal.
Major Jamison fought to regain control of Mechagodzilla and was successful. He banked the robot around to face Rodan who was also in the process of turning. Jamison fired the robot’s rainbow-colored optical lasers, but Rodan was easily able to avoid them, dodging expertly in the sky.
“I recommend taking the fight to the ground.” Marcus suggested. “Rodan will always have the advantage in the sky.”
“Agreed.” Major Jamison replied. “But I need to by myself a little breathing space though.” He tapped a few buttons and fired off all ten of Mechagodzilla’s finger missiles. The projectiles had been outfitted with a new tracking feature which allowed them to home in on Rodan, despite the monster’s agility in the air. Rodan twisted and turned, but half of the missiles still found their mark. They knocked Rodan around, but the creature managed to maintain its flight with relative ease.
Meanwhile, Jamison began to maneuver Mechagodzilla onto the ground. The missile attack proved to be the perfect distraction. By the time Rodan had come back around, the robot was settled and ready for it. Jamison fired the eye beams and another volley of rockets from the machine’s fingers. The ray missed again, and the rockets didn’t have enough time to lock on. Rodan rushed forward, narrowly avoiding being hit by any of the projectiles. The monster drove its armored underbelly into Mechagodzilla’s face as it passed, grinding off fragments of the robot’s silver armor. If Mechagodzilla had been an organic foe, it would have been painful. But such as it was, the damage wasn’t too serious to the robot, just scratches.
Inside Mechagodzilla, Jamison was jostled around violently. Fortunately, the attack had only been a glancing blow. A full-on impact at that speed would have been very dangerous. Marcus was sweating in the command center. The battle had only just started, and Jamison’s life had been in jeopardy twice already. They needed to take control of the fight, and quickly.
“You have to force Rodan out of the sky.” Marcus advised. “Fire everything you got.” Jamison instantly responded. The flap on Mechagodzilla’s chest opened up and the robot unloaded all of its weaponry at once. The cross-attack beam managed to strike Rodan in the wing, sending the creature tumbling to the ground. Jamison kept up the pressure, continuing to discharge a steady stream of firepower. Marcus was watching Mechagodzilla’s heat gauge like a hawk. It was steadily climbing as the seconds rolled by.
“Okay Major, you’d better ease off, you’re getting a little hot.” Marcus warned. Jamison didn’t reply, but he was listening. He stopped using Mechagodzilla’s ray weaponry and continued the barrage just with his missiles.
Rodan recovered and rose back up again. The monster took to the air once more, but only to close the gap. The creature glided over and stopped just short of ramming into Mechagodzilla, landing directly in front of the robot and pecking at its face. The first shot landed clean, shattering the right eye of Mechagodzilla. The next shot ricocheted off the robot’s forehead. Jamison was not idol. He engaged Mechagodzilla’s hand-to-hand combat module and knocked Rodan away with two hard chops.
Sparks poured out of Mechagodzilla’s damaged eye socket. Jamison cycled power away from the area to prevent a fire from breaking out. Rodan was proving to be a tougher opponent than anyone had anticipated. The creature was giving Major Jamison and Mechagodzilla a real run for their money. The robot was undoubtably taking the worst of the punishment so far. Jamison fired off the cross-attack beam again, as well as the optical laser from the remaining eye which sent Rodan tumbling backwards. The heat gauge was closing in on the red again.
Rodan took to the sky once more, recognizing that extended close quarters combat with the robot was not to its advantage. The creature had grasped onto a boulder and pulled it up into the air with it. Rodan circled around and dive-bombed Mechagodzilla with the stone. The creature’s aim was perfect and the rock hammered into Mechagodzilla’s chest. The rock bounced off, only leaving a minor dent in the armored plating, but inside, Jamison felt the hit and it rattled him.
Rodan lifted another rock from the ground and swept back up into the sky again. This time, Jamison wasn’t going to let the monster get a free lick in though. He fired his finger missiles, and when those failed to stop Rodan, he discharged the optical laser, which missed. Rodan chirped at him in a mocking way, as though the monster was laughing at him. The laughter was short-lived though. Rodan suddenly seized up and dropped the rock from its talons.
Directly above Rodan, one of the Mothras had appeared and was using its powder. Rodan was paralyzed and began to glide downwards towards what could be a very unhappy landing. Mothra wasn’t going to let that happen though. Her tiny legs grasped onto Rodan and pulled the immobilized monster back upwards. For a few seconds, they made for a perfect target. Major Jamison prepared to launch all of Mechagodzilla’s weapons at once.
“No, let them go.” Marcus intervened. “Leave the rest to Mothra. She knows what she’s doing.”
...
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mpsoldier
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
It was a good entry. I really like the Spider Robot. It's got a charm to it, it's not arrogantly big or overcompensating like MechaGodzilla. And it's harder lines empenthise it's robot nature while still appearing spider like. It's a very good design. The underwater scene was nice, it's important to occasionally have a softer moment. Plus it lets you display the changes to the world's ecology. Perhaps you could've even extended the scene? Your story is approaching novel territory, novels have the space to dig into the world alot more. Gone into the Jacques Cousteau territory, explored the underwater beauty. It was nice to see a Rodan back. He is too big a player in the Kaiju world to have been removed so early. Plus Rodan's character and design is just more likable and understandable then most Kaiju. He is very evocative of ancient Earth and having him missing from an alien invasion story would have been a disservice. And it was nice to see him do so well against MechaGodzilla.
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Ashram52
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
…
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how All-Terraintula turned out. I got to exercise a lot of creativity with it. Both in terms of character changes (if you can really say that about a robot) and the physical model itself. I had to custom paint that, and I think I did a pretty ‘okay’ job there. But I got really lucky to find something in the right scale with the right look.
Anyways, it was fun to bring such an obscure character into a more mainstream type of plot. I suspect a lot of readers have never heard of it before. I’m not sure how popular the Dark Horse run of Godzilla comics was. There were definitely a lot of weird entries into the series. They were not all winners.
Dark Horse just did not want to shell out a lot of money for Toho monsters, so they did a lot of improvising, for better or for worse. Modern comics have figured out that Godzilla fans generally like that traditional characters and want to see them featured.
I think the more modern comic adaptations are generally done better, although I have hardly read all of them. There have certainly been a few that didn’t look like 10/10s. But ‘Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth’ for example was really well done in my opinion. I started writing my story before that comic came out and a lot of the stuff they did was stuff I was planning to do.
So on one hand, it validated a lot of my ideas, but it also meant that for certain chapters it probably felt like I was just copying them because they beat me to the punch. The War of the Gargantuas chapter when they faced off against Godzilla is one example of that.
That particular comic did a good job of featuring lesser utilized Showa era monsters. A philosophy I can certainly get behind. There will be more similarities between that and my work before we are done.
I did enjoy writing the underwater scene a lot. It was kind of relaxing. Not quite a par-for-course scene in my story. Usually there’s a lot of tension and drama.
But you are correct, I did kind of rush through that scene. I wasn’t sure readers would enjoy it the same way I did and I wanted to keep things moving. I thought about adding more there, but I thought it might seem like I got too caught up in the minutiae.
DAM kind of mentions the sea life around Monsterland and I wanted to explore that a little deeper. (Pun intended).
Anyways, I have in my notes to write more ‘slice of life’ scenes for Monster Island. The lagoon scene was the first attempt at that concept. There will be a few more. Actually, if you have any thoughts on that, you can PM me. I got a few ideas written down for next chapter, but I’m open to suggestions.
And that message goes out to anybody. If any of you have any idea you’d like me to explore, I’m open to suggestions. Since my notes got blown up, I’m doing a lot more flying by the seat of my pants.
Oh yeah, I couldn’t go to where I’m going next without Rodan. It simply wouldn’t be right. I want the whole band together for the ‘big’ event. And in a more general sense, I have some more Rodan ideas to explore outside of just being featured in battle. I won’t say too much about that yet though.
But Rodan is one of the big ‘5’. Way too important to just disregard.
Rodan vs Mechagodzilla feels like a fight we should have gotten in the Showa era, but I doubt they would have had Rodan do as well as I did. Most likely, they would have went the Anguirus route and used Rodan to establish the threat level Mechagodzilla represented. And that would have been a bummer.
There are probably folks who would expect Mechagodzilla to mop the floor with Rodan and are annoyed with my battle. I gave Rodan a lot in my fight, but I think it was justifiable.
The fact that G-Force Mechagodzilla-1 has a pilot really levels the playing field in Rodan’s favor. It’s a major vulnerability compared to the original Showa robot who could simply tank a lot of damage.
…
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how All-Terraintula turned out. I got to exercise a lot of creativity with it. Both in terms of character changes (if you can really say that about a robot) and the physical model itself. I had to custom paint that, and I think I did a pretty ‘okay’ job there. But I got really lucky to find something in the right scale with the right look.
Anyways, it was fun to bring such an obscure character into a more mainstream type of plot. I suspect a lot of readers have never heard of it before. I’m not sure how popular the Dark Horse run of Godzilla comics was. There were definitely a lot of weird entries into the series. They were not all winners.
Dark Horse just did not want to shell out a lot of money for Toho monsters, so they did a lot of improvising, for better or for worse. Modern comics have figured out that Godzilla fans generally like that traditional characters and want to see them featured.
I think the more modern comic adaptations are generally done better, although I have hardly read all of them. There have certainly been a few that didn’t look like 10/10s. But ‘Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth’ for example was really well done in my opinion. I started writing my story before that comic came out and a lot of the stuff they did was stuff I was planning to do.
So on one hand, it validated a lot of my ideas, but it also meant that for certain chapters it probably felt like I was just copying them because they beat me to the punch. The War of the Gargantuas chapter when they faced off against Godzilla is one example of that.
That particular comic did a good job of featuring lesser utilized Showa era monsters. A philosophy I can certainly get behind. There will be more similarities between that and my work before we are done.
I did enjoy writing the underwater scene a lot. It was kind of relaxing. Not quite a par-for-course scene in my story. Usually there’s a lot of tension and drama.
But you are correct, I did kind of rush through that scene. I wasn’t sure readers would enjoy it the same way I did and I wanted to keep things moving. I thought about adding more there, but I thought it might seem like I got too caught up in the minutiae.
DAM kind of mentions the sea life around Monsterland and I wanted to explore that a little deeper. (Pun intended).
Anyways, I have in my notes to write more ‘slice of life’ scenes for Monster Island. The lagoon scene was the first attempt at that concept. There will be a few more. Actually, if you have any thoughts on that, you can PM me. I got a few ideas written down for next chapter, but I’m open to suggestions.
And that message goes out to anybody. If any of you have any idea you’d like me to explore, I’m open to suggestions. Since my notes got blown up, I’m doing a lot more flying by the seat of my pants.
Oh yeah, I couldn’t go to where I’m going next without Rodan. It simply wouldn’t be right. I want the whole band together for the ‘big’ event. And in a more general sense, I have some more Rodan ideas to explore outside of just being featured in battle. I won’t say too much about that yet though.
But Rodan is one of the big ‘5’. Way too important to just disregard.
Rodan vs Mechagodzilla feels like a fight we should have gotten in the Showa era, but I doubt they would have had Rodan do as well as I did. Most likely, they would have went the Anguirus route and used Rodan to establish the threat level Mechagodzilla represented. And that would have been a bummer.
There are probably folks who would expect Mechagodzilla to mop the floor with Rodan and are annoyed with my battle. I gave Rodan a lot in my fight, but I think it was justifiable.
The fact that G-Force Mechagodzilla-1 has a pilot really levels the playing field in Rodan’s favor. It’s a major vulnerability compared to the original Showa robot who could simply tank a lot of damage.
…
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mpsoldier
- G-Force Personnel
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- Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 3:37 pm
Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
Well your MechaGodzilla is built using stolen and not fully understood technology. And often the first model is buggy even in stable technology. If you view the historical records of stolen tech, it takes awhile to really get it right. Plus Kaiju by their nature violate the laws of physics, seeing them do surprising things is par for the course. And Rodan is faster then anything else. If he has room to manoeuvre and time to formulate a strategy he could beat almost anybody. He was unbeatable on certain levels in Melee because he could fly to hard to reach spots and just overwhelm you with thrown objects. Get a heavy building or rock moving at speed and the damage could be horrific.
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Ashram52
- Interpol Agent
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Re: Godzilla: Tactical Assault.
…
You have a point. Don’t underestimate Rodan.
You have a point. Don’t underestimate Rodan.
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