“You take care,” said Yoshi.
Hira cut off the conversation and directed the driver to maneuver toward the tower. The tank slowed and pivoted to the right, turning onto a street headed in the direction of the defense line.
The creature stomped after the tank, vibrating the ground behind them.
Checking the viewer, Hira made out a distorted image. He placed the creature ten meters behind them. It gained on them when they turned the corner. The Kaiju moved slowly, but kept up with giant strides.
“Commanders, this is Major Hira.”
“We hear you,” came a unanimous response.
“Have you gotten the word about trajectory?”
“A closer shot makes more of an impact,” a commander said.
“That’s exactly right.” Hira checked his viewfinder. “We need to plan three volleys as the creature approaches the defensive line. One from a distance, a second from fifty meters, then a third from ten meters or less.”
Nobody responded to the dreadful instructions.
“Did you hear me?” Hira snapped into the communications link.
“We heard,” the same commander said flatly.
“So, the instructions are clear?”
“Ten meters is a suicide mission.”
Hira considered the comment. The only means to slow the creature was to lure it toward the tanks and fire at close range. Everything else was futile. “Abandon your tanks after the last volley,” Major Hira said. “You’ll have better luck fleeing on foot.”
“Understood, sir,” the tank commanders sounded at once.
Hira checked the scope and saw the tower three hundred meters ahead. “Steer toward the left flank to avoid getting hit by friendly fire,” Hira told the driver.
His driver nodded, understanding.
Then, Hira glanced into the viewer to check on the monster and found it right on top of them. “Faster!” Hira yelled.
Panic resonated through the cabin. The driver worked the controls and the tank jerked ahead. Grinding emanated from underneath, as the engine whined from strain. “Not sure it will hold out,” the driver said, sweating.
Suddenly, jets swooped in from out of the sky and launched rockets at the Kaiju. The creature wailed as ordnance exploded into its side. It shook off the blows and kept after the tank. Harriers buzzed by and circled around for another pass.
Hira exhaled, daunted by the proximity of the beast.
As the Kaiju closed in on them, it let out a vicious roar, sending a shockwave at the tank. The tank vibrated from the soundwave. Hira’s driver pressed the tank harder, then a loud clang registered from the guts of the vehicle. Smoke billowed into the cabin and Hira gagged. But the tank kept pressing ahead, losing only a little steam.
They closed within two hundred yards of the defensive line.
Hira got on the communications link. “Fire!”
All the tank cannons erupted with a volley of 120mm rounds. Then Harriers swooped in for a sortie. Each plane released rockets from pods on both wings, sending them sailing toward the beast.
Rockets exploded as the 120mm rounds dug into the creature’s hide. But the attack had the opposite effect than they’d anticipated. Stomping madly, the creature picked up speed and charged the defensive line.
Another roar pierced through the city, as the Kaiju trounced on top of Hira’s tank.
Metal caved and the roof collapsed. Steel pressed on Hira in the command seat. His arm got wedged in mangled plates. The tank bounced over a curb and collided with a building, then ground to a halt as concrete and steel collapsed on them.
Hira’s driver was crushed from the impact. Blood dripped from his cracked skull. The gunner scrambled about the tank, alive. Fuel spilled from a broken line and ignited. The cabin burst into flames. And Hira could hardly breathe, asphyxiated from lack of oxygen.
Pulling him by the shoulders, the gunner tried to work Hira loose from the twisted metal. A heavy stomp reverberated through the tank. “The creature is above us!” Hira yelled.
The gunner looked toward the hatch in awe. He reached for the twisted lever, but the lid was wedged shut. Another stomp and the tank rolled over. All the occupants were tossed about the compartment. Hira’s arm tore at the socket, popping the shoulder out of joint. He screamed in pain. Then, the Kaiju nosed the tank again, rolling the vehicle onto its side. Hira tumbled around with an arm pinned, straining ligaments.
Frustrated, the creature couldn’t get to the meaty crew. It bellowed an irate squeal, then stepped on the tank with its full weight. The gunner cried out in fear, a desperate shriek, as the armor-plating bent and creaked inward.
The gunner dropped to the deck, peering upward in fear. Terrorized.
Hira couldn’t scramble to a safe pocket in the cabin. The turret and roof caved in, pressing on his chest. Pinned down, he gasped for air, as oxygen left his lungs. Squirming to free himself with futility, Hira kicked and choked while desperately trying to replenish his oxygen supply. His lungs and throat began to burn.
He couldn’t breathe. Reverberations jostled on the street as the creature boomed away. The pressing ceased before the roof crushed his chest. Hira slowly suffocated, as flames inside the tank began to scorch the crew.
Charred flesh wafted through the cabin, and the gunner’s screams resounded the final sensations before Hira slipped into a horrible death.
Nineteen
Penton stared at television monitors in the command center on MCAS Futenma. A screen relayed the battle scene in Tokyo from a satellite, and another broadcasted video feed from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Admiral Keyes narrated the latest intelligence to senior officers patched into a video conference.
The ghastly scene was more horrific than Penton had anticipated. A path of destruction led from the harbor into the city with a trail of flames in its wake. Harriers soared through the sky combating the massive creature, while a row of tanks lined up in front of Tokyo Tower, firing in futility at the angry beast. General Yoshi participated in the conference, and he didn’t reflect any optimism.
Yoshi muttered that the creature couldn’t be stopped. He claimed it was hell bent on revenge. They had encountered it during ancient times and as recently as the mid-nineteen sixties. Zamera was the name the people had given to the creature. A joint-task force blew it into the ocean depths, and now it had arisen and sought to destroy all of Japan for attacking it.
Penton surmised the defense forces couldn’t slow the creature down, never mind stop it, or destroy the monster. He wondered what the next step might be, and expected it would be drastic.
“We’re not making any headway against the creature,” Admiral Keyes agreed.
“You cannot harm it with conventional weapons,” Yoshi insisted.
“The creature hasn’t faced all that we have, though.”
“Zamera won’t be slowed by any of it.”
Keyes appeared in the corner of a screen, shaking his head. “What are you suggesting?”
“This is going to take similar measures as used in 1965.”
“We’ve got peace treaties calling for total abolishment of nuclear weapons,” Keyes reminded him. “Not only are they unauthorized to use, we aren’t even supposed to have any in the area.”
Even Penton knew that the United Nations had recently enacted a treaty in which all members agreed not to use nuclear weapons and to take them all off-line altogether. He pondered what Yoshi was suggesting.
“Your words betray you,” General Yoshi admonished.
“Even if your suspicions were correct…” Keyes replied. “Nuclear fallout, even from a small missile, would cause more harm than the monster.”
“We need to divert the creature,” Yoshi said. “Lead it away from the city toward the coast… direct it north toward Chiba Prefecture.”
“How we going to do that?” Admiral Keyes crossed his arms.
“We’ve got a general plan, but we need to determine a way to execute.”
Keyes rai
sed his eyebrows. “There might be something we can do, but I’ll need to have a better understanding of your plan for a diversion. Let’s talk directly and try to work out a solution.”
The images wavered, and then the battle scene came back on the screen. Penton watched the creature take all the firepower the joint defense force had and press forward unscathed. Admiral Keyes was no longer in the upper left corner of the screen. Communications with Fleet Command severed, entirely.
“They only tell us what we need to know,” Colonel Tomkins said after a moment.
“Right you are,” a couple officers muttered, laughing.
“We’re like mushrooms,” said a major.
“What?” Lieutenant Colonel Brady snapped.
“We grow best in the dark…” The major chuckled.
Brady shook his head. “This isn’t the time to take things lightly. I get the sense they’re really talking about using nukes in a densely populated civilian city.”
“They want to lure the creature away from the city,” Colonel Tomkins interjected. “Then, we’ll fire a small nuke at the beast in the countryside.”
“A small nuke?” Brady repeated, skeptically.
The colonel leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. Penton figured the man would relish a cigar about now. “There’s a submarine in the Sea of Japan…” Colonel Tomkins told them.
“And?” said Lieutenant Colonel Brady, insisting.
“Well, I suspect the submarine has nuclear capacity.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a hunch,” Colonel Tomkins said.
“A hunch?” Brady shook his head in dismay.
“Yup.” Colonel Tomkins leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. He glanced around at everyone. “And I bet I know what it is…”
“A Tomahawk armed with a W80 warhead,” a major said.
Colonel Tomkins nodded. “A Tomahawk armed with a W80 warhead.”
“Big enough to take out a creature that size,” Lieutenant Colonel Brady said. “But not so big that the nuclear fallout cannot be contained.”
“Or at least minimalized,” Colonel Tomkins reasoned.
Their words hung in the air for a moment, as though the gravity of the situation had dawned on everyone at once. Actually putting a nuclear weapon to use for the third time in history was an ominous proposition. Worse, the situation involved the exact same countries as the last two times.
Penton’s throat grew dry as he contemplated the prospect. He stepped out of the room to find a water fountain. Mutterings filtered from the conference room into the hallway.
None of the Brass had a clue what would happen next.
Twenty
Kate dove toward the beast and launched her rockets. The creature stood with a foot on top of a tank, crushing it like a tin can. Flames billowed out the sides, and the chance of survivors was minimal.
Another pilot from her squadron followed suit. Then, the others flew toward the monster and released several rockets. Her fighter thrust upward, and she caught sight of the explosions out of the corner of her eye. Rockets pounded into the creature’s chest and side but seemed to have minimal effect on it.
The beast let out a menacing roar then stomped toward the defensive line.
Flying around to make another pass, Kate noticed the tanks sitting idle while the creature moved closer and closer to them.
She patched into the communications link. “This is Captain Able. Why aren’t the tanks firing at the creature?”
“We’ve just learned from General Yoshi… you have to fire at close range in order to impact the monster’s armor. We recommend that you do the same.”
“Who is this?” Kate said, trying to confirm the order.
“Sorry, this is Commander James. I’m here with Admiral Keyes.”
“Just so we’re clear. You want us to fire at close range.”
“Captain Able, this is Admiral Keyes… We want you to get as close to the creature’s belly as possible, and fire away.”
“Understood, but the tactic can put my pilots at risk.”
“This is a desperate situation,” Keyes said. “We know you’ll do your best.”
Kate instructed her squadron with the new orders, then flew toward the creature, increasing speed the closer she got to him. When she reached the beast, she fired two rockets at its belly, and pulled up hard.
The jet rumbled as it shot straight into the air. She looked down and saw explosions lighting up the night. A yowling shriek of pain wailed from the creature below.
Her comrades followed suit, but didn’t get as close to the creature when firing their rockets. Circling around for another pass, Kate saw their rockets didn’t have the same impact as hers.
The beast swatted at the planes in futility. Another angry roar emanated from the creature. It hissed, and then trundled at the tanks.
Kate made a wide pass, then instructed her squadron to increase altitude. They flew high into the air, while Kate ascertained the creature’s approach toward the defensive line. She factored its speed and distance.
They circled around and approached the creature head on.
“Release CBUs,” Kate ordered.
“Aye, ma’am,” two of the pilots said.
Three planes dropped their bombs and flew high into the sky. All the bombs snapped open, like jaws on a giant fish, and hundreds of small missiles rained down on the beast, carpet-bombing the hell out of him.
Projectiles dropped from the sky with sharp needle-like points stemming from the nose of each miniature bomb. They whizzed through the air and penetrated the beast’s thick armor, causing it to howl in agony.
The other two fighters swooped in and fired more rockets.
Explosions burst all over the monster, as the fighters cut to the sides of the creature, with one pulling to the right and the other veering off to the left. The beast roared, but the blasts didn’t harm it a bit. Neither fighter had gotten in as close as Kate, but they had fired at closer proximity than previous attempts.
She shook her head, discouraged. The creature was impervious to serious harm.
Carpet-bombing had wounded the creature, but didn’t slow it down. Kate pressed the communications link. “We’ve got to get in tighter before firing.”
“Roger, but that pass was a hell of a lot closer than before,” said Captain Wecker.
“Not close enough,” Kate replied. “Pull in close like I just did.”
“You’re a daredevil, Able,” Wecker said.
“Just get in there and do some damage.”
“We’re coming around and will double-team its chest.” This from Lieutenant Baker, meaning him and Merrill would come around together.
Kate pulled her joystick to the right and flew around to come in behind them. A double-punch, she hoped to topple the creature. Maybe if the thing falls over, it won’t be able to get up, she thought.
The jets powered in directly at the creature’s chest. Moving in tight, they hadn’t released their rockets yet. Another moment and they were still closing in fast. Kate trailed behind them, far enough away to avoid their jet blasts. Finally, Merrill fired his rockets and pulled left. The ordnance exploded, wafting out toward his wingtip.
The creature squealed and batted at Merrill’s plane. But the beast swatted air.
Baker pressed forward, accelerating toward the creature.
“Fire!” Kate yelled at him.
His rocket motors ignited and burst from the pods. Baker dumped his entire load at the beast. Rockets pounded into the creature’s chest, erupting in explosions and billowing flames.
The creature flailed from the blasts. Flames undulated beneath the creature’s thick scales. It howled from the burning pain.
Baker cut right and hit the throttle. His fighter shot forward just as the beast raised an enormous claw. His jet plowed into the beast’s paw and exploded on impact. The collision barely shifted the creature’s stance.
Kate flew in
behind Baker, as tears blurred her vision. She moved in close and fired all her rockets, then opened fire with the GAU-12 Equalizer, riddling the beast with 25 mm rounds. And then she pulled hard, upward.
Her jet pointed nose to the clouds. Kate shifted in her seat, as the cockpit moved from horizontal with the ground to a vertical position.
The engines thundered as she increased speed. Swatting with both arms, the creature thrashed at her exhaust fumes, useless to impede her extrication. Kate marked its claws in the corners of her eyes, keeping track of its movements to ensure she didn’t suffer a repeat of Baker’s plight.
Then, she heard a clunk on the nose of her plane, and her fighter spun out of control.
Kate couldn’t get the Harrier to level off.
The control stick locked up on her, and a jet engine fizzled out. Merely a short distance from the ground, her plane would surely crash.
“Mayday, Mayday!” Kate broadcasted widely. “I’m going down.”
****
Maki had stood frozen until the creature passed by the window. Then, she ran up to the glass and watched it slink down the road, each step thundering into the ground, cracking pavement, as its giant tail whipped back and forth.
The creature stood as tall as the buildings, but somehow moved its enormous body with ease. She watched the beast suddenly look down. A tank whipped in front of it and the creature picked up its pace. An explosion erupted from the street; the creature yowled in pain.
“They’re attacking the Kaiju,” Maki said to her mother.
“I think they’ve been fighting it most of the day. Probably the reason for the distress call.”
Another roar and the creature stopped in its tracks.
“He’s got them,” Maki said. “I just know it.”
Then planes flew out of the clouds and zipped toward the creature. Maki noted the strange-looking planes with markings like she’d seen on television.
“The Americans have come to help,” Mother said.
They pressed against the glass and watched a battle unfold. Fighters swooped toward the creature and fired rockets. Explosions echoed through the corridor of tall office buildings. Maki’s ears rang from the loud noise.
Pacific Rising Page 12
