Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral

by Matthew Dennion

  Natsuo and Tomo stared at him, waiting for his orders.

  “The call is yours, sir,” Natsuo said. “Whatever you decide to do, though, Captain, I suggest we do it quickly.”

  “Fine,” Daichi grunted. “Tell the crew what’s going on and pass out what weapons we do have aboard. There’s no point in keeping them in the dark at this point. They’ll know something is badly wrong as soon as we give the order to abandon the nets.”

  Daichi paused, taking a breath before continuing. It hurt him to give up the fish, but he could see no other option. “Tell them to drop the nets. Tomo, get down to the engines and make sure we get all the speed out of them that we can. Natsuo, set a course away from whatever that thing, maximum speed.”

  Tomo and Natsuo hurried to carry out his orders while Daichi moved to watch the chaos that began on the ship’s deck as soon as Natsuo started barking orders through the loudspeakers.

  The crew outside looked absolutely terrified as they cut loose the nets they had been reeling up. He could see in their faces, even from where he was looking out the window of the small control room of the ship. The fear in those expressions only grew as Natsuo ordered the men to pass out the weapons from the ship’s weapon lockers.

  Daichi’s attention became focused on the horizon beyond the Hiroaka’s forward deck. He picked up a nearby pair of binoculars and raised them to his eyes. Out there in the distance, he could see the something massive cutting through the waves towards the ship. Daichi felt sick as the full scale of its size sunk in. The thing was many, many times the size of the Hiroaka.

  Natsuo was spinning the wheel around madly, turning the Hiroaka away from the approaching contact. Daichi could already see that even with the engines straining at full power, it wasn’t going to be enough.

  Some of the sailors on the deck who had already been given small arms opened fire at the massive creature streaking towards the ship. Shotguns thundered and pistols cracked rapid succession. Daichi had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at how futile their shots seemed given the size of the thing coming at them.

  In the last instant before the creature plowed into the Hiroaka, it rose partially up out of the waves. Its head was horned. A great horn protruded from each side of its skull, and a third larger one rose from the middle of its forehead. Its body was covered in thick scales that reminded Daichi of the scales of python, all yellow and black. It gave a roar that left everyone aboard the Hiroaka screaming in pain and clutching their ears before the creature dropped its head back into the water. The window in front of Daichi blew out. Shards of glass exploded, burying them in his flesh. Blood spurted in splashes of bright red from one piece ripped open the side of his neck. Daichi stumbled backwards to collapse onto the floor.

  The monster struck the Hiroaka at a speed well over twenty knots. The hull of the fishing vessel folded inward with the squeals of rending metal. The impact was so great that the Hiroaka was lifted from the surface of the ocean and sent toppling over onto its side before it completely broke apart as the monster plowed through it, tearing it to pieces.

  ****

  General Akio watched the floor indicator of the elevator slowly clicking upwards. He felt as if he were slicked with sweat despite the cool of the air conditioning that kept the building at a comfortable sixty-eight degrees, no matter how hot the summer day grew outside. The fingers of his right hand clutched the handle of the armored briefcase he carried. Akio was not looking forward to his meeting with Director Daisuke. Daisuke was one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. He owned this entire building, and the full wealth and power of the Rao Corporation was his to command. The job had fallen to Akio to be the one to deliver the news to him that monsters were real, and they were on their way to this very city. Akio could only pray that Diasuke wasn’t the sort who took out the anger wrought by the message upon the messenger. It was not as if Akio had no power of his own. He was a general. Still, there were other means that men such as Daisuke could extract their vengeance if they felt they needed to do so to keep their honor intact.

  The elevator doors opened onto the top floor of the Rao building. Akio steeled himself and plunged through them into the vast waiting area beyond. At the far end of the room, a lone secretary sat at an antique and luxurious desk. Her long black hair was pulled tightly atop her head into a bun. She wore thick, though stylish, glasses. She looked up from her work to greet him with a smile as Akio marched towards her. The two of them were not alone. Two well-dressed and clearly armed security personnel stood not far behind her desk, guarding the entrance to Daisuke’s office.

  “Good afternoon, General Akio,” the sectary purred. “Mr. Daisuke is expecting you. You may enter whenever you are ready.”

  The two guards stopped him as he started for the door.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” one of them said, but Akio knew the man wasn’t sorry. If anything, the gun for hire merc was having the time of his life getting to frisk a full-fledged general. Akio endured the weapons search with nothing more than a frown, though inwardly he imagined putting the two guards into their place. He was young for a general and had risen to his position by killing enemies of the state, not pushing papers with his butt in a chair. Akio seriously believed he could take them both at once.

  “He’s clean,” the smaller of the two guards said.

  The other nodded and gestured towards the office doors. “You may go on in now, sir.”

  The doors opened on their own as General Akio walked to them and on through them into Daisuke’s office. The office was the epitome of the word grandiose. Large tanks of exotic fish lined its walls and scores of American comic books, framed and sealed in protective casings, hung above them. The lighting of the room was dim and twelve foot tall, twenty-four feet wide window behind Daisuke’s desk shaded to block the rays of the sun.

  Director Daisuke sat behind his desk watching him closely as Akio strolled across the long distance towards his desk to ultimately take a seat in the empty chair in front of it.

  “Greetings, General.” Daisuke grinned, flashing too-white teeth.

  “Director,” Akio acknowledged him. “I wish I was here under better circumstances.”

  “Exactly what are the circumstances that bring you here, General?” Daisuke asked.

  “May I?” Akio asked, lifting his briefcase for Daisuke’s approval.

  “But of course,” Daisuke assured him.

  Akio sat the briefcase on Daisuke desk and keyed in the three series of codes needed to open it. With the completion of each sequence, there was the audible snap of a lock opening. When he was done, Akio spun the briefcase around so that Daisuke could see the visual screen that lined its top.

  “What I am about to show you, Director Daisuke, is classified and—”

  “I am aware of the protocols, General. Do get on with it,” Daisuke ordered him.

  “These images were taken yesterday morning,” Akio said as he activated the screen inside the briefcase. It came to life showing a grizzly scene of bodies floating, being bounced about on the waves. The images were rough and shaky as if being shot from a handheld device, close up. The image zoomed out to show a large body of debris that appeared to have once been a ship then altered again to show everything from a viewpoint high above the wreckage to give it scale. From this angle, the rescue boats that were clearly shooting the original set of images could be seen.

  “What am I looking at here, General Aiko?” Daisuke asked, “And more importantly, why?”

  General Akio chose his words carefully. “Director Daisuke, the government has known of your Project Kaiju for some time. The fishing vessel in those images was completely destroyed with all hands aboard just off the coast yesterday morning. All signs point to something massive, moving at high speed, ramming into it.”

  Daisuke leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his lips. “Are you accusing the Daisuke Corporation of being involved in the deaths of these sailors, General?”

  “No, Director, at least not
at this time,” Aiko answered honestly. “However, surely you can see why my superiors would want you questioned about this incident.”

  “Project Kaiju was discontinued when my father passed on, General,” Daisuke said. “We here at the Daisuke Corporation no longer waste resources on the sort of genetic engineering that project involved.”

  General Akio cleared his throat. “As you say, Director, but the Daisuke Corporation remains under contract as an advanced weapons designer for all branches of Japan’s military.”

  “I understand your concern, General Akio, I do.” Daisuke frowned. “But this corporation, as I said, has taken a different path under my direction.”

  “Director Daisuke, the attack on this fishing vessel is not an isolated incident. There have been two more inside of the last forty-eight hours and close to two dozen in the last week. Each such attack has been closer to our nation than the last. All of these attacks seem to be caused by something massive and intelligent that appears to be on direct course for our nation and this very city.”

  Daisuke tilted his head, as if appraising him more intently. “And you believe this city may be in danger?”

  “All evidence points to that, Director Daisuke.” Akio met the director’s eyes. “We were hoping that your corporation might have some knowledge about whatever is behind these attacks so we can be better prepared to stand against whatever it is once it reaches Tokyo.”

  “There is an American carrier group just south of this island, General. May I suggest that your time would be better spent rallying them to our aid than here chasing shadows?”

  “I will be approaching the Americans as soon as I am through here, Director. You can count on that,” Akio said firmly.

  “See that you do,” Daisuke ordered, though he possessed no real power to do so. “Now if you will let yourself out, General, I have work which I need to attend to. Good day.”

  “Good day, Director.” Akio kept himself polite as he rose from his seat and left Daisuke’s office.

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