The Ghost of a Machine
A sweltering, blanket of scorching summer wind blew across the barren Kyoto plain, it was the last one that would blow that day, as the sun was subdued under the horizon. Though underneath the earth, there was no sun, no climate to enjoy or be aware of, it was just the stillness of earth that was felt, as thousands of UNGCC workers constructed and utilized their plans. They had been living under ground for the last three years, working on their ultimate weapon, their one desire in life; the outside life was not their concern as they did the devil's labor. All they were worried about was if their creation was going to come to life, if their blood and sweat was enough to give their design existence or would they just have to watch as it dies before them, helplessly.
"All three hundred and five checks are green, sir. Output increasing as it goes. Everything is looking good." The sly voice of one of the technicians read from the clipboard of information as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Commander Aso, who had come out to see the activation of what he had been waiting for three years to be complete.
"That's good. Prepare for the test run as soon as it has passed all of the inspections." His grim voice still smoldered on his lips even on an occasion like this.
"Yes, Sir!" The nervous tech said as the clipboard fumbled out of his hands as his legs bolted under him as the entire structure jerked. The ground grumbled under his feet again as he reached for the fallen clipboard, sending him to the ground. "What the hell was that?"
Aso stood tranquil and collect, his stance stone like a statue, but his eyes told otherwise as they fluttered back and forth through the construct. "Something is coming."
The lights blinked into shadows for a second, as the overhead quivered with tremors, and when they came back on, the emergency flashers were running. The blue swirls of lights twisted on their poles drawing everyone's attention to them, before the sirens came on. A horrifying banshee shriek of whirling noise came from the millions of speakers that lined the walls. For a few seconds the noise was deafening to listen to, but it was soon masked by the more emotive human voice that blared a new message, "All Personnel Evacuate! All Personnel Evacuate!"
The lights, the noises, all of their work meant nothing now as the masses scattered to the elevators and emergency escapes that were placed throughout the underground structure. All of them were convinced that the base was never going to get attacked, that it was so cleverly hidden away, underground in an unfruitful piece of land. All of them were behaving like insects that always thought their hive would never be stepped on.
Only a few hundred yards from the main shaft of the UNGCC base, a lofty silhouette of something massive scored on the night fallen horizon. A tempest of dazzling specks of azure light clouded the enclosed maw of the threatening creature; the only thing visible was the monster's triangular-dragger like teeth that were spaced out evenly through its gums, as its mouth was heated with radiant energy. The air was sliced in half as a lance of pure azure energy waded through it, stemming from the creature's mouth. The sensitive wave of energy dashed across the seemingly soft earth, only to hit against something metal, searing most of the layers away as it blossomed into a mounting wall of fire.
The glow of the fire caressed against the monster's features, following down the ogre's tarred black, bony horn that protruded from its nose as it tipped the night sky. Orange stained eyes hovered under armored eyelids, as two smaller horns jutted above them. The monster's mouth was long and square and lined with several dozen jagged teeth. Its massive neck craned up, keeping its colossal head a good distance from its body. The being's shoulders were topped by oversized blades of sharp bone that jutted from the back of monster like fins. The giant's arms were lengthy and posed with stuffed muscles as they rippled under its flesh, its hands swarmed with four blade-like black claws. Two heavily armored square plates braced its chest, covering most of its unprotected flesh red neck and stomach. The creature rode on thickly encased legs that looked like they could carry double of the weight that they did. Every speck of them were sheathed with armor plating, even its toes that were headed with three black talons. The monster's tail was the thinnest part of its body as it buffered the air gently with the tip of its tail that sported a tuff of woolly brown fur. Its body stood solid and bulky, hued in a deep gray, commanding the strength of its look. Most of its bulk rested under armor plates, protecting every inch of soft flesh that was on the monster's body. Japan finally knew of Bagan's existence.
As the bellow of flourishing flames cooled from the top of the loading bay's massive doors, Bagan's bursting fist pelted through them. Bagan's withdrew its hand from the still hole, in its hunched over state, the creature leaned down even lower, almost pressing its eye against the timid opening that it had placed in the sheltered doors. A hesitant darkness nested under the blanketing refuge of the armored gates, though as Bagan's blunt orange eye peered in, twin flashes of red light flared into Bagan's face, intensifying before they dulled out into two red orbs.
Like an out of control furnace, Bagan's head rushed to the dark mantle of the darkness of the night as it released its frustration and anger with a grinding, bellow, powerful enough to swing its forceful head to the side. Its mass rumbled with loose azure hued energy that collected at the points of its shoulder blades and nasal horn. Three beads of wild, powerful energy laced around the tips, the collected electricity roosted on their summits as Bagan concentrated. In a madden dash, Bagan's vastness shuddered with the blowing energy as the three globs of energy launched from their spots, soaring deep into the gloom of nightfall. Bagan's eyes narrowed with unevenness, as its lips crooked. It was a fearful quietness, as time itself was waiting for what would happen next.
The bloated, swollen grayish white clouds that were pasted against the inky sky, parted around the buzzing triangular shaped energy masses as they were vacuumed down to the earth. The two outer orbs collided with the remaining plate of armor that sheltered the loading bay, as the last one bullseyed its target, slipping into the hole that Bagan had punched out.
As the air was superheated by the budding clouds of fierce fire, swiping over the top of the base, tearing away every bit of shelter that it once provided, inside the stronghold was a different story. The two explosions outside seemed dulled by the fiery that was unleashed underground, mounds of metal and dirt turned over as it was burnt to cinders. The hard, stone like soil that laid above the foundation cracked and crumbled as the underneath was melted away into a dripping liquid as rupturing force was sent through every corridor, followed by a devastating surge of fire.
Bagan's mouth drooled with savoring saliva as it announced its pride to the world, letting it chime over the empty field; its head craned high to the heavens. Like standing in front of a campfire, Bagan halted against the swelling mushroom cloud, its tail brandishing the monster's enjoyment as it lumbered from side to side. A thick glob of clammy saliva trickled from the lip of Bagan, splashing against the ground, but coming back with a wisp of stream as it splattered. The ladder of fire soon collapsed into darkness, only leaving the shimmering orange cinders crested against the ground. And as the inferno ended, Bagan turned away and returned the way it came.
"It's a true shame." The words almost came out as a chuckle, dark and inhuman as they came from the creased, age ravaged face of Dr. Shouri.
"We just lost one of our most important research facilities and as well as a very valuable weapon." Aso tenderly spoke, his head bowed in shame.
"It is a step back in the war, we can't forget that we will have losses in a war as big as this one." The words came out big from a man like Dr. Shouri, as he was an undersized, humped back man. His long silver hair, matching the length of his elongated mustache and goatee, both nearly reaching his chest, added to his mystery. In his right hand, he held a red crane, carved from some type of fine wood, which he twirled in his palm as he spoke. His pastel white lab coat seemed to swallow his undersized frame. The doctor's light blue button down shirt held tight against his stomach, and his gray slacks were nearly too long and large for his tiny, brittle legs. Though, it was Dr. Shouri's left arm that him made him an interesting character. From under the white cuff of his lab coat, a tripod of metal fingers, shaping into an almost crane like form, clicked together. No one had ever asked about his arm, though it was just assumed that a robotics genius would be a little different than everyone else.
"It's a step back that we couldn't afford. We just lost 80 of our fighting force in one strike. We are left with conventional weapons, since our one and only G-weapon was in the research base that was just wiped out. We loss three years of research and money, without even being able to use it. It's more than a loss of a weapon; it's a loss of pride and strength. UNGCC had suffered big set backs in the past and it seemed as if we could never advance in this drag out war, but this time, the tide was going to turn. It was an all or nothing chance, every kaiju would be targeted in destroyed in this campaign, but now we are back to were we started." The Commander's words were his everything, everything that he had lived for and all of it burned behind him.
"This war will never end, not until one side is completely wiped out." Dr. Shouri laughed, the bubbling noise echoed against the thick plated walls of the heavily reinforced V-Tol that carried them towards their destination, UNGCC central.
The Path of Philosophy adorned the Ginkakuji temple grounds with the sight of thousands of Cherry Blossom trees, a sight that brought millions each year to Kyoto to just walk in the cradle of beauty. Against the whitish-pink awning that swelled around the air, an azure shot of crystallized light glinted over the pale trees. Their once beautiful bright white foliage, coiled into a crispy brown as the sweltering heat singed the area around it. The tender shingles of the Ginkakuji temple distorted and blew from the mature structure as the ray of compressed energy fled through the night. The drifting blade of energy escalated over the feeble buildings of Kyoto. Nothing opposed the terrorizing beam, expect for something that stood for the pride of Kyoto. The disk shaped observation deck of Kyoto tower, ruptured into a crumbling fountain of fire and plaster. The once immense tower that was made in the shape of a Japanese candlestick had been extinguished, a new flame vividly burned on top of the stump.
Even as the hours of darkness shuddered from the disbursing outburst that came from Kyoto Tower, t the grinding of boulders spooled from Bagan's parted jaws. Kyoto smoldered with pride, the pride of Bagan as its anguish thundered against the seat of the city. Another screaming joist of radiating energy steered into a grid of low-rise buildings. Blistering waves shocked from the erupting balloon of fire, as buildings were elevated from their foundations from the tempered force that tore through them, dismantling their very structures with flame and force.
Breaths of smoke hazed the already darken city as they flocked from the roasting, wild fires that speckled the streets. Bagan trampled through the dirty concert and plaster buildings, sending droplets of deteriorated concert fleeting before his feet. The nightmarish flames seethed in the kindling that laid behind him, as new ones were formed by its passing. The billows of smoke blurred Bagan's husk, only the sound of its thudding footsteps and mincing snarl where the only clues that monster was still there.
Amidst the sputter and hiss of crackling flames and the pounding stones of Bagan's tread, the sky buzzed with a distant whirl as it whooshed in the heavens. The hum became an earsplitting burst of sound, drowning out the fires and even Bagan's destruction. The canopy haze shifted and expanded even further across the horizon as something drove though under its guise. The splitting burst of sound discharged, mounting to an burning whirl and soon everything was peaceful again, only the sizzle of the unattended fires crackled against the night.
The sky was muffled with fearful whines as the clouds became dense with rain. The score of windows that were left in Bagan's wake were splattered with heavy beads of the dropping rain. The transparent glass became sticky with globing beads. The pour of flicking droplets that spattered over the rubble of Kyoto, soon overwhelmed every dry spot with their oozing liquid. The rain streaked down the windows, leaving behind trails of thick cooper-red. More of the blood colored rain sprayed against the clear windows, before the torrent stopped.
Among the walking billows, a ballistic ball of fire swelled from the middle of the horde of clouds. As the loom of expending fire weaved through the gray clouds, the smoke dragged away from the mass of clouds. Bagan's sorrowful wail came more as fear than pleased cheers that the monster had finally been hurt, it was fear of what had done this to Bagan.
The sprawling smoke that hazed from the husk of Bagan's melting flesh chased after the falling monster as it was pushed from the skies. The ground braced as gravity tugged on its wires as the immense heap of smoldering tissue came closer. Flesh and rock smoothed as one as Bagan's muscled back creased into the earth's soil. As the demonic creature's body sunk in the growing depression that formed the impact, the surround buildings were tossed like hats at graduation, splintering into fragments, like glass.
Bagan's stomach vaulted in the air, the circular wound that pierced its tight flesh, heaved a violent flood of sticky crimson blood. Another storm of pouring rain scattered across the yawning crater. Bagan's tasteless gray colored lips peeled away from its top jaw, twisted into a pathetic snarl. Pain carried a rivet, harvesting under Bagan's natured muscles as its arm reached for the unknown heavens. Bagan's glistening tar-covered claws clacked together as they struggled to seize the clouds or what lied like a ghost behind them.
A hail of cobalt light shimmered over Bagan; the strange shine was bright as fire and as cold as death. As a spearing blade of stellar energy gorged into Bagan's midsection, mining in the already circular wound, seizing its form with its pall of concentrated heat. Bagan's hand seized as bits of flesh broke away and drifted in the radiance of light, the small crumbs of round armor plated skin liquefied into wobbling globs. Bagan's tender, sensitive, burnt orange eyes simmered and gurgled, before their black-oil like inners ruptured from them. Like a wolf's howl, an agonizing, tearful cry wafted away before the sleet of light inflated into a fierce dome of aggressive, wild energy that waltzed with a dress of flames, shaking the world awake with its force. The land underneath sunk into molten slag, transforming stone and soil into a bath of magma.
The night air flurried with shedding flakes of ash that stayed stimulated with unnatural cinders, ones that seethed with blue flames. The sunken basin crept with a thin layer of the same sapphire energy. The wind hovered with specks of the bizarre energy as the saturate of intense heat raised quietly.
The clouds hushed at the sight as they concealed the culprit and as they cleared, it was gone. Kyoto, clueless to where to put blame, was lulled with the drone of whirling air.
The morning hours had come, though the high-end of UNGCC personal were unaware that eleven hours had already passed since their Kyoto research base had been obliterated. Questions priced themselves on each of their minds, especially Commander Aso.
"The possibilities that G-Weapon-003 survived are non-existent. The explosion that had completely engulfed the Kyoto Weapon Research Base was enough to destroy our newest weapon." Commander Aso's hassled eyes laid upon Dr. Shouri as his face steamed with a thin smirk.
"I think it is quite peculiar, that just a mere fifteen minutes from when the base was wiped out, the same creature that had destroyed it, was killed. Naturally, I don't think there is anything else that could have killed something that large in that little of time." Shouri let out a small, almost innocence chuckle that made faces turn in the boardroom.
"I lean more towards that this a new kaiju that we are dealing with, one that we haven't seen yet. Maybe its reason for attacking this other creature was for dominance, to show that it was the strongest. And only a kaiju would hide in the clouds, a machine wouldn't feel the need to hide. There are plenty of reasons why it wasn't G-Unit 003. One of the most important explanations is, from what is said how sudden the attack occurred, there wouldn't have been sufficient time for a pilot to even get to it." Chinatsu Gondo said, now apart of UNGCC, settled in as their Kaiju specialist, to give them better knowledge of their enemy.
"There's a way." Grimly, Shinjo's frozen vapor escaped his mouth as he raised his head, the whole table could feel his stilled anger. Shinjo was scheduled to be the pilot of the new G-Weapon, after recognition for his heroic efforts against the earth threatening, SpaceGodzilla. Now everything was just a simple musing.
"What our disillusioned friend is weeping, is that I installed an Auto Defense Pilot, in the possible case that the pilot be injured or killed in battle. This program would control the machine and act dependently, following the directives given, until it was called back to base. I proposed that the system be reworked and set in as the primary control, though some thought something with emotion would be better." Dr. Shouri smiled cheaply.
"So, you are permitting us to believe that it could have activated itself?" Professor Fukazawa quizzed with a swift reaction.
"There is more to it than that. The problem is, the Auto Defense System couldn't have started itself, and since it can only be activated after it reads the pilot's life signs fading. There has to be something else that happened during the analysis. Though, I have a feeling that it has already started its hunt."
"Hunt? What do you mean by hunt?" The voice came shadowed behind others that rambled in front of it.
Shouri's ears triggered as they heard the words, "Yes, indeed a primal hunt. We had programmed it with a list of known kaiju and their general locations. This was supposed to be our final trump, found out where the kaiju are and attack them first. That's the first directive in the Defense system."
An infinite weight pulsed on Miki's mind, something that she knew to familiar. Stricken and panicked pulled on Miki's face as she scurried from the still spinning chair and away from the glaring faces. Godzilla had just surface and something was headed for him.
The shoreline of Hokkaido frothed with heavier suds as a swarming oil refinery braced the horizon. The quaking waves prodded more forcefully as they pushed on the island's edges. In unison of the tattering waves, the low playing winds wafted into considerable large gusts of wind that bashed hard against any object that was rooted to the ground, whistling through the pipe like towers of the refinery. The rumble of waves and water flow fizzled as jagged ivory bubbled to the surface. The waves vaulted over themselves as a breaching wall of churned its charcoal gray flesh faltered through it. Its orangish coffee rimmed eyes stared into the oblivion that stood at its incredible height. It's body shapely with straight shoulders, heavy chest and blooming stomach; it's back pasted in three rows of barbed fins, each of the larger ones holding five points. Like a tapping finger, its tail would batter the running waves.
With no more than a small press of its muscles, Godzilla's jaws were liberated from their clamped state, a ghastly shriek tuned from its lips.
In the small cabin of the minuscule helicopter, Miki Saegusa, laid pressed against the glass canopy, cramped in the single passenger seat. Miki had to see him, to see if he was ok, just to lay her eyes on him again. It had been two years since his father melted down in the middle of Haneda and had to take the stress of his father's runaway radiation, completely transforming his frame forever.
The batting blades of the helicopter trembled as a violent wind swamped over the tiny helicopter. Almost toppling the helicopter in mid-flight. The spinning gravity anchored Miki to the glass canopy, as her body was bent forcefully. Her eyes grained against the pull as she tried to glance out the window to see what the disturbance was. Timidly, she gazed over he pilot, only to be blinding by a spark of silver light that flared like a new sun.
Vapor clogged winds seared the oil refinery, as turns of dust and dirt mazed through the gray pillars. Like an ascending ball of light, it floated down surrounded by the hush of cooling flames. The sun was even dwarfed by its immense size, standing at over 140 meters, as it gleamed harmlessly off the towering mass of steel. Its frame laminated with shimmering gray toned, NT-G-X armor plating. Its head was square in shape, with the snout of the machine jetting out, armed with twin rows of steel trapping teeth as they grinned. The creation's slant eyes wrenched with sharpness, as they laid pointy at the ends, dulled in a crimson red. A small slant of metal come from in-between the machine's eyes crowning its head. Its thick neck boasted the head away from the bulging chest of the craft. The robot's chest was smooth and round, forming to large pectoral areas. Against its chest, the machine's shoulders were also spherical and flat and suspended under them were the robot's biceps, large and toned giving a look of immense strength. Hefty rectangular, dull gray boxes that housed a variety of the machine's weapons gloved its forearms. The power cables that gave life to the plasma beam cannons that adorned its arms ran underneath the machine's elbow and into its backpack unit.
It was hulled in a dark green, its form was identical to a pentagon, but blockier, though two thin wings spurted from the side of it, their ends braced with cube figured containers. The bottom was aligned with a chain of four rocket thrusters. Strutting over the left shoulder of the machine, a large rectangle heavy weapons pod reached over it. Like a stabbing spear, a thin rail of sliding metal loomed over the machine's right shoulder, the robot's ultimate weapon; the particle beam cannon.
The robot's stomach was carved slim and glassy, that tapered under the machine's brawny chest. Its vast weight was situated on two bulky, chunky legs; its baring feet were edged with four dart-like toes. A well-formed, but stubby tail came from underneath the bottom of the weapon pack, dished with three rows of tiny square plates.
The steaming air brooked with an electrical hiss that squalled from the machine's unfastened maw, a roar that could only belong to, Shin Mechagodzilla.
Godzilla's sulking eyes cunningly watched over this anomaly that landed in front of him. It knew that it was there for him; Junior could feel it coming for him. The drawing moment was broken as the sizzling, light blue flashes tumbled along Godzilla's skeletal spines. Atomic flames gorged from Godzilla's open jaws, renting over the burly chest. The thick, board beam of fiery energy splintered into thousands of different pieces, sending hauling balls of the once powerful oral beam across the scene of the oil refinery. Setting explosions bumped over the silvery complex as flames mazed through it.
Mechagodzilla's eyes detained with packed energy as two azure hue beams spurted forth. Tender flesh spluttered against the carving energy reeled into Godzilla's eyes. A fountain's worth of scarlet blood spat from the burned flesh as the blood begun to tear across Godzilla's face. The blinded creature wailed in its loneliness as darkness became its new friend.
Swinging from beneath the hefty rectangular, dull gray plasma beam cannons that enveloped the robot's hands, a ten-meter combat knife sprung to the end. Flexing cables rounded Mechagodzilla's arm back, coiling it across its chest, before it let it glide through the air vulgarly like it was wielding a katana.
A mild hush came over the scenery; Godzilla's soured weeps were even plugged. Popping bubbles speckled around Godzilla's throat as a fine line of flesh swept across. Godzilla's mass jarred as its neck tempered and squirted with courses of building blood. Its orangish coffee rimmed eyes depressed back into its skull as Godzilla's tugging weight pulled it backwards, bouncing on the orifice of the ocean, its floating flesh being soaked as the crushing waves buried the dying monster.
The fond sea air cradled the grieving Miki like a supportive mother. Her knees frayed with sand as she dreamt away Godzilla's passing, as a circle of blood cooled on the surface of the deafening water. And in her silence, she swore her vengeance.