"This is a hell of a way to spend Christmas."
Yamagata looked over to the source of the comment. Lieutenant Mike "Gov" McGovern scowled as he stared out the Excalibur's windows at the blue expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.
"I couldn't agree with you more, Gov."
Yamagata eased the control stick right. The black, oblong aircraft with swept wings, a V-shaped tail and a sloped nose turned south and began another racetrack search pattern. Just like all the other ones he'd done over the past three hours, he found no sign of Gigan.
No one had seen the monster since it destroyed the Lincoln carrier group two days ago. Yamagata figured one of the many aircraft and ships searching for Gigan would have spotted it by now, or it would have come ashore to wreck one city after another. If he learned anything about kaiju, it was when they got a wild hair up their scaly asses, they didn't just commit one attack and vanish. They went on a rampage. Especially in the case of Gigan. Every time that ugly bastard showed up, some alien race was controlling it.
Dread grew within Yamagata. Bad enough another giant monster threatened the US, but they also had to worry about an alien invasion.
This would not be a fun Christmas. He could feel it.
They flew back and forth over the Atlantic for another two hours, with nothing to show for it, when they were recalled. Another Excalibur, codename Beastmaster Two, would continue the search. Yamagata felt that Lieutenant Ty "Blade" Sharpe and his crew would have the same luck they did. Meaning none.
Yamagata flew south for 150 miles before turning west toward the Florida coast. The skyline of Jacksonville soon came into view.
"Look at that." McGovern pointed to I-10 leading out of the city.
A line of vehicles stretched for miles. None of them moved. The same scene was repeated on I-95 heading north. From what Yamagata had seen on the news, every major highway in every big city along the Eastern Seaboard looked that way. The Lincoln carrier group had been sunk about 60 miles off the coast of Norfolk. Many people feared Gigan would attack their city next and wanted to get the hell out of there. All they ended up doing was creating nightmarish traffic jams. Tens of thousands had already abandoned their vehicles and struck out on foot. It made Yamagata think of World War II documentaries he'd seen of civilians fleeing from the German and Japanese armies.
"It looks like a lot of people are going to have a suckass Christmas," he said.
The Excalibur continued west until it reached Eglin Air Force Base, where the 1st Joint Special Combat Squadron had forward deployed. Yamagata parked the aircraft on the tarmac, got out and did a few stretches. Nearly six hours in an ejection seat, even one as comfortable as the Mk16, still left him feeling stiff.
McGovern climbed down the access ladder and also stretched. Right behind him came a dark-haired man with a small but firm build. Staff Sergeant Andy Caputo, the Excalibur's sensor and systems specialist.
"You can stretch all you want," he said. "Me, I'm gonna hit the latrine."
"That was going to be my next stop, Sergeant," Yamagata.
The trio made a beeline for the maintenance division headquarters, the closest building with a latrine. Once they took care of business there, they walked to the mess hall. Yamagata opened the glass door and saw a tall burly man in a green and gray pixel Airman Battle Uniform approaching them.
"Sirs." Master Sergeant Luis Hernandez, Air Force Security Forces, saluted.
"Master Sergeant." Yamagata returned the salute, as did McGovern. "How are you today?"
"I'd be better if you gentlemen would find Gigan and blow that ugly SOB to hell."
"So would we all," replied McGovern.
Hernandez grunted. "Damn thing shit all over my Christmas plans. I was actually gonna get to spend time with my kids. Now my ex is probably gonna tell 'em I'm the worst dad in the world."
"What, she doesn't understand there's a giant monster lurking somewhere off the East Coast?" said Caputo.
"My ex-wife isn't the understanding type."
"I hate to say it, Sarge," said Yamagata, "but you're in the same boat as millions of other people. Gigan's ruined Christmas for just about everyone."
"No doubt about that, Sir. Just do me a favor. When you see that cocksucking alien freak, put a missile in it for me."
"Trust me, we're going to put a lot of missiles in it."
Hernandez smiled. "That's what I want to here. Good hunting."
The big master sergeant exited the building while Yamagata, McGovern and Caputo headed into the mess. Being mid-afternoon there were a handful of people in there. The cooks had left out trays of sandwiches and bowls of potato chips. The trio loaded up their plates, got their drinks and sat at a table near the front of the mess. A TV attached to the wall was tuned to the FOX News Channel. Yamagata just took bite out of his roast beef and cheddar sandwich when a gorgeous blonde reporter appeared on screen. The graphic beneath her read, EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, VALPARAISO, FL.
"Hey, check it out." McGovern pointed. "We're on TV."
"Two days after the sinking of the carrier Lincoln and its escorts, the military is still no closer to finding Gigan," said the reporter. "Base officials have told us while there have been several large sonar contacts from the Florida Keys to the coast of Maryland, none of them turned out to be the monster. Now, I have spoken with General William Griffin the commander of the First Joint Special Combat Squadron, which deals exclusively with attacks by giant monsters. He expects their search for Gigan to yield better results as more service members report for duty. With Christmas tomorrow, many military men and women stateside were on leave for the holidays. They now have to travel from different parts of the country to report to their units, and getting to those units won't be easy as almost every major highway along the East Coast is jammed with people fleeing large cities for fear Gigan may attack."
"Mm-mm." McGovern leaned back and smiled at the TV. "Now that is one hot reporter babe. And lucky her, she's right here at Eglin."
"Lucky her?" Caputo gave him a quizzical look.
"Hell yeah, lucky her, 'cause as soon as I'm done eating, I'm gonna go find her and offer my services as tour guide. Show her our Excaliburs, the control tower, the BOQs." McGovern referred to the Bachelor Officer Quarters. "Or at least, one BOQ in particular." He waggled his eyebrows.
"And what are you going to do when she laughs in your face?" Yamagata asked with a grin.
"C'mon, Ninja." McGovern used Yamagata's call sign. "Don't tell me you don't want to tap that hot ass."
"I'd think very, very hard about how you answer that question," said a female voice behind him. "Your life depends on it."
Yamagata turned around. Nicole stood before him, arms folded, eyes narrowed.
He turned back to McGovern and proclaimed, "Why would I want to be with a network news reporter when I already have the most beautiful, intelligent and wonderful girlfriend in the world?"
Nicole groaned. "Could you be any worse at faking sincerity?"
McGovern and Caputo chuckled as Nicole sat next to Yamagata.
"So I heard you guys had no joy in your search." Nicole swiped a couple of chips from Yamagata's plate.
"The only thing we saw out there was lots of water," said McGovern. "How about you? Your EW people have any luck finding a control signal for Gigan?" He used the acronym for Electronic Warfare.
Nicole shook her head. "We've had the same luck as you guys. It makes me think that maybe whoever's controlling Gigan is lying low for now."
"But why?" Yamagata turned to her. "Why attack the Lincoln carrier group and just go quiet? Why not hit us before our forces can mobilize or before people start evacuating the cities? Then they'd get mass casualties and little chance for a counter-attack. Not doing that doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe they want to hit us big time on Christmas," Caputo suggested. "Maybe they know it's a big holiday for us. They might think an attack on that day would really demoralize us."
"We can spend the rest of the day speculating," said Nicole. "The problem is, who the hell knows how aliens think? What doesn't make sense to us might make perfect sense to them?"
"If it is aliens." McGovern took a quick sip of his coffee. "It could be another country that found a way to control Gigan. Or maybe no one's controlling it. Maybe it got loose from some alien arsenal and is destroying stuff on its own."
"I don't know what scares me more," said Yamagata. "Someone or something controlling Gigan, or that thing acting on its own accord."
Silence hung over the table for several seconds before Nicole finally broke it. "There's just too much we don't know, and we're probably not going to learn anything until we get lucky and find Gigan."
McGovern barked out a short, sardonic laugh. "I don't know if 'lucky' is the word I'd pick if we do come across Gigan."
Nicole looked at him with a slight frown. "You're right. Poor choice of words."
She got to her feet. "Well, I better get something to eat before -"
Klaxons blared throughout the mess hall. A voice blasted from the P/A system.
"ALL PERSONNEL TO ACTION STATIONS! ALL PERSONNEL TO ACTION STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! FIRST JOINT SPECIAL COMBAT SQUADRON CREWS AND SENIOR STAFF REPORT TO ADMIN BUILDING IMMEDIATELY!"
Yamagata tore one last bite out of his sandwich before he rushed for the door. McGovern, Caputo and Nicole were right behind him.
They pounded out of the mess building. Men and women dashed around the base. Humvees sped along the roads, some armed with machine guns or surface-to-air missiles.
When they reached the administration building, they ran into the mission briefing room. Yamagata looked around the horseshoe-shaped auditorium with its stadium-style seats. In the front row he saw the crew from Beastmaster Three getting settled.
"Did we find Gigan?" he asked a slim, narrow-faced man with short dark hair.
"We must've," answered Captain Glenn "Burner" Ashby, USAF, the pilot of Beastmaster Three. "Why else would they hit the panic button?"
Yamagata just sat down when a stout man with receding blond hair walked onto the stage.
"Ten-hut!" shouted Nicole.
Everyone in the room came to attention as Major General William Griffin walked to the center of the stage.
"As you were." He waved everyone back to their seats, then turned to a female Navy petty officer with a computer set up in the corner of the room. "Are we connected to Beastmaster Two?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Put them on screen."
One of the HD screens to the left flickered to life. It showed a lean black man with a round face and a flight helmet with the word "Blade" inscribed on it. Next to him was a boyish, fair-skinned man with a helmet that read "Menace." Behind them sat a third man of average height and weight.
"Mike Hotel One to Beastmaster Two," said Griffin. "Do you read?"
"Beastmaster Two reads five-by-five," replied Lieutenant Ty "Blade" Sharpe, US Navy.
"All right," Griffin turned back to the men and women in the audience. "This is going to be a quick briefing, so pay attention, because I don't have time to repeat myself."
Yamagata and the others got out their iPads as a computer generated map of Florida appeared on the main screen.
"Approximately twenty-five minutes ago," Griffin began, "we lost all contact with the Coast Guard cutter Gallatin fifty miles off the coast of Brunswick, Georgia."
A red X appeared on the map.
Griffin continued. "Ten minutes later, the submarine USS Pasadena engaged a large underwater contact eight miles south of Gallatin's last known position. Shortly after, we lost contact with the Pasadena as well."
"Gigan, Sir?" asked Yamagata.
"It would seem so. We have a Navy P-3 Orion on station tracking it. The contact's last known position was here." Griffin pointed to the map. The letters S-10, for contact designation Sierra 10, appeared off the coast of the Florida/Georgia border. "The destroyer USS Nitze and two Coast Guard cutters are on an intercept course to Sierra Ten. We're also scrambling Air Force, Navy and Marine aircraft to converge on the target area. That includes the First JSCS. Beastmasters One and Three will rendezvous with Beastmaster Two over Cumberland Island, then proceed to this point here." A small green circled appeared on the screen. "Twenty miles off the coast of Jacksonville. This is where we expect Sierra Ten to be when you arrive. The Nitze will coordinate all combat operations."
"What if this thing comes ashore?" asked Lieutenant Ashby. "Do we have anything to take it on?"
"The Florida National Guard has a few Strykers and HIMARS mobile rocket launchers stationed around Jacksonville. Getting more there has been tough with the roads and highways clogged with civilian traffic. The closest armored support we have is at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and they still have personnel en route from all over the country. The last I heard, it might not be until tomorrow that they start to move out."
"Tomorrow's going to be too late," said Yamagata. "So I guess it's up to us to stop Gigan."
"Affirmative, Major." Griffin nodded to him, then turned to Nicole. "Captain Fox."
"Yes, Sir."
"If Gigan's on the move, whoever or whatever is controlling it has to be putting out some kind of signal. We have Rivet Joint en route to the area." Griffin referred to the USAF's standard signal intelligence aircraft. "Coordinate with them. If there's a controlling signal for Gigan, we should be able to detect it and hopefully trace it to the source."
"Yes, Sir."
"Excalibur crews, your flight plans should be downloaded to your iPads. We'll feed you the latest intel on Sierra Ten as soon as it becomes available. Good luck and good hunting. Dismissed."
Everyone rose. Yamagata turned to Nicole and mouthed, "I love you."
She smiled and did the same. Worry showed in her eyes.
Yamagata put it out of his mind. He hustled out of the briefing room with the other Excalibur crew members. Humvees waited outside the admin building to drive them to the runway and their aircraft.
After rushing through the pre-flight checklist, the tower cleared Yamagata's Excalibur for takeoff.
"Let's go kill us a kaiju and try to salvage some kind of Christmas." McGovern stuck out his fist.
"I'm down with that, Gov." Yamagata gave him a fist bump.
"Fist bump in spirit from the back, Sirs," said Caputo.
Both Yamagata and McGovern gave him thumbs up. Yamagata then throttled up. The Excalibur's engines whined as the jet rolled down the runway faster and faster. Soon it was airborne, winging its way east, to fight one of the most powerful monsters the human race had ever known.
TO BE CONTINUED
