Chapter 3: The Battle of the Philippines
"The Battleships had managed to stop the monster, but not kill it." Ryan continued. "Wildcat fighter-planes continued to monitor it's movement as it retreated back out the channel that lead into Mamala bay. It was too far under the water for the fighters to effectively attack it with their machine guns, but by then dive bombers had been launched off the carriers in Pearl."
"Upon arrival the SBDs came screaming down and dropped their payloads right on top of the monster sending up tall columns of water, it just pressed on ignoring the explosions. The bombers continued to harass the creature until it disappeared into the deep waters of the open ocean."
Over the next 48 hrs aircraft continued to patrol the waters around the Hawaiian islands non-stop, just in case there was a second attack. Thankfully another attack never came.
In the harbor we struggled to pick ourselves up. The base was left in shambles. Roughly half of the buildings had been flattened in the attack. The list of buildings destroyed or damaged included hangers, warehouses, barracks, factories, half of the oil storage, and perhaps most notably, Naval Headquarters. Most of the top brass had not been inside it at the time, but we still lost a lot of officers when it fell.
We had lost some good ships too, but the fleet in general fared much better than the base had. The creature had sunk five destroyers, two heavy cruisers, an oil tanker, a troop transport, and two cargo ships. Also, a hospital ship was crippled and a third cruiser was damaged.
There was a silver lining though, no battleships or carriers had even been touched. All our capitol ships were intact, which meant we still had the main punch of our battle-fleet. Still, the outcome of the attack could hardly be described as a victory. The monster had done all that damage to us and we were not certain we had even managed to wound it. It was still moving quite well when it had elected to withdraw.
In the aftermath of the attack I did what I could to help. I returned to the boat that I had commandeered and fished out several more boat-loads of sailors from the oil soaked waters of the harbor. I dropped off the able men on shore and took the wounded to the hospital. For the most part I was calm, but fear crept into the back of my mind as we approached the mouth of the channel. That was where the creature had just vanished. I had a feeling of dread, imagining it's jaws snapping around our tiny vessel as we passed over the spot where it first appeared. My hands felt numb on the wheel and I felt dizzy. I wished I could go around that spot, but there was no way to get to the hospital by water faster. It would take too long to go on foot, the wounded couldn't wait.
I swallowed my fear and pressed forward. We passed over the suspect patch of water without incident. A minute later I got the wounded to the beach nearby the hospital. The boat slid to a stop as the keel pressed into the wet sand. I jumped out and helped a sailor who was too hurt to walk on his own. Together we made our way up the long walkway towards the hospital.
I got him inside and was shocked at the scene I found. There were bodies lined up in all of the corridors. Each one was covered with a white sheet and I felt utter horror in the depths of my heart knowing what that meant. I felt sick, but was able to keep a handle on myself. As I stood there staring, I began to understand that the world wasn't what I thought it was. I was seeing its cruel nature.
Coming out of my stupor, I realized that were were only a handful of actual wounded. They could be seen here and there amongst the bodies. Some had burns, some broken bones or crush injuries, and a few had been hit by friendly fire. I was bitter at the thought that we had only managed to hurt ourselves trying to fight off the creature.
I sat the wounded sailor in a nearby chair and a nurse immediately spotted us and came to examine him. I just stepped aside as she looked him over. Seeing her work on the man made me realize that I had not seen Shauna amongst the hospital staff. I felt a hollowness in my stomach and my skin chilled with cold sweat. The hospital was untouched in the attack, but I had told her to take shelter elsewhere. I feared the worst. I went from room to room dodging people in the hallways looking for her. Finally, on the fourth room I tried, I found her bandaging up a sailor.
Upon seeing her, I felt a weight lift off my chest that I had not realized was there. My anxiety melted away and I felt the urge to rush over and hug her. I realized that it might be improper though. After all, I had literally only known her for a few short hours. She barely knew me. What would she think to have a random sailor sneak up on her from behind and grab her? It would serve me right to have a foot stamped on... or worse.
In any case, I could see that she was very busy with her work and thought it would be best if I just left her to it. It was better to stay out of her way. What she was doing was important. The key thing was she was safe and I knew it. That was good enough. As I thought to leave, she turned and saw me standing there staring at her. I looked down not knowing what you say.
"Mark...?" She asked with a little crack in her voice.
"I just thought I outta make sure that, you know, that you were ok..." She didn't say anything back, but a second later I felt the force of something hit my chest. Before I knew what was what, her arms were around me and squeezing tightly.
"Oh Mark, I'm glad that you are alright. This is all so horrible!" I felt a tear hit my hand. "They've been bringing in the dead for the last forty-five minutes. I've been doing my best, but I'm not ready for all this."
"We lost many good men today." I replied. "I don't think any of us were ready."
"Why did this happen?" She asked sinking her head into my chest.
"I... I do not know." I lied. In my heart, I knew that it was our fault. That thing had followed us back from our mission. We had made it angry and it came to lash out at us. "What is important is what we do now." She looked up at me. "Just do what you can for whoever you can." She smiled at me with tears still in her eyes and nodded. My reassurance seemed to have reinvigorated her resolve. My own was faltering.
Not knowing what else to do with myself, I stayed helped her the best I could with the wounded. I was not that much good on the medical end of things, but I seemed to bolster Shauna's efforts and on occasion my strength helped to hold a patient down or lift them up. I certainly didn't save any lives that day, but I did manage to be useful. It felt good to be useful. It was a small penance for my guilt and my conscious demanded that I try to atone.
I would like to say I did it simply out of sheer duty and moral obligation, but the truth of the matter was I wanted to stay close to Shauna as much as anything. Just as I made her feel better, she was in turn making me feel more secure too. And security was worth it's weight in gold just then.
An hour passed as we worked away and before long I had blood on my hands. I had never had another person's blood on my hands before. I felt a little sick again, but kept it together. I rushed over to the sink and washed my hands, scrubbing them hard to get the blood off. When I was done I could still see some red under my nails. I couldn't seem to get it out, so I left it be. I thought maybe it was fitting that it should be there. I had been taking solace telling myself that I had not been in control of the situation and that it had not been my fault, but in the back of my mind I still harbored guilt.
As I stared down at my hands wrestling with my feelings, a sailor entered the hospital and caught my attention. It was Joe. I had given him up for dead when the Houston was ripped open and sank. He saw me too and immediately started walking towards me. I met him halfway and gave him a brawny hug.
"I thought you were a goner for sure, you bastard." I pulled back. "Were you on the Houston? How did you get away from that thing?"
"No, I wasn't aboard. I didn't make it back last night." He replied. I spotted a rather obvious hickey on the side his neck and put the pieces together.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright." I smiled at him. "Have you seen any of the other guys?"
"No." He hesitated and looked disheartened. "I hate to be the one to tell you, but it looks like almost everyone went down with the ship, the Captain too."
I felt yet another harsh sting of guilt. Good men, better men than me and Joe, had died in the line of duty. He and I had only escaped due to our recklessness while responsible men had perished in our place. The injustice of it was inescapable and harrowing. We deserved to be punished for our actions, but with the skipper gone it seemed unlikely that he'd be reporting our transgression anyone higher in the chain of command. If we choose to, we could walk away Scott-free, but my conscious could not tolerate the thought of that.
"Who do we report to now?" I asked Joe.
"I don't even know." He answered. "HQ is in pieces, the barracks is smashed, and all the officers I've seen are scrambling around with their own problems right now. I think for tonight at least we're on our own."
"There are empty cots in the basement." Shauna cut in. She had been listening in and had understood our most immediate problem. There really wasn't anywhere else for us to go.
"We couldn't do that, you might still need the space." I began to protest.
"If we do we can always bump you guys, but the stream of wounded has slowed to a trickle and the cots down there aren't meant for patients anyway. That's where the medical staff go when they need rest." She reassured me.
"We really don't have much of a choice Mark." Joe pointed out.
"Ok, very well." I surrendered. "Thank you Shauna."
A short while later Joe and I were laying in cots on opposite sides of the small room in the basement. There wasn't much to the place. It felt like a utility room, but cleaner. Not that I was going to complain, it was a quiet and away from the smell of blood and that's just what I needed.
Though both of us were exhausted, we sat there awake staring up at the ceiling. I was still on edge, stirring from the day's events. I had been playing what happened back in my mind over and over again trying to make sense of them. I looked over and could tell Joe was doing the same. My guilt had been bothering me for hours and I needed to get it off my chest. I knew I would not be able to sleep until I talked about it with someone and Joe was the only person I could talk to about it.
"Listen Joe, what happened today... I think that thing followed us back from the mission." I started.
"How do you figure?" Joe asked somewhat defensively. I think he suspected the same thing I did, but didn't want to admit it to himself.
"You remember the damage the Houston took from the depth charge on the mission? It caused oil to leak, right?" I continued undeterred. "I think it followed the trail of oil."
"Well how could it do that?" Joe countered. "The amount of oil would have been so minuscule that there would not be a enough for anything to actually see."
"No, but maybe the creature can smell things in the water like a shark." I reasoned. "Did you see how it behaved when it first attacked?"
"I was not there to see the first few minutes." He replied.
"Yeah, well I was." I continued. "It bypassed other ships along the way and went straight for the Houston." I looked over at Joe. He seemed pale. I think my argument had begun to persuade him. He sat there silently. "Listen Joe, I'm planning to turn myself in tomorrow for going AWOL. I can't hold on to this much guilt."
"I understand, I'll go with you." He replied.
"I didn't mean that you should too." I sat up surprised. I had not expected that from him.
"I know, but we are men aren't we?" He smirked. "That means we own up to what we did and take our lashes. I wouldn't let you go it alone."
"Thanks Joe." I lay back into the cot and rested until I fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up and found that Shauna had crawled into the cot with me. I was a little shocked that she had been able to do so without me knowing. Either she was a 90 pound ninja or I had just been that tired. Either way it was nice to have her there. She was warm and comforting. I didn't want to move and disturb her, but there was little way around it. The cot was pressed up against the wall on one side and she was blocking my escape from the other.
For a time I stared at her. Her hand was on my chest as if it were trying to feel for my heartbeat. Her red hair had been taken out from her nursing bun, it stretched further down her shoulders that I would have guess possible. Despite the long hours she had worked, she smelled rather nice. As thought she could hear my waking thoughts she started to stir.
"Good morning." She looked at with me with smile. "Thanks for sharing your cot with me. That felt like it was the longest shift ever." She got out of the cot and walked over to the nearby sink. She splashed some water on her face and wiped off the water with a towel. I only watched as she neatly put her hair back up again. "Hey, come over here." She looked back to me in the mirror. I obeyed, joining her at the sink. "This has been driving me crazy since last night." She took my hands and put them under the facet. "I would have done this earlier, but you looked like you needed the rest." She took a special brush and proceeded to scrub underneath my nails to get the particles of blood out from under them. Her hands were gentile, but the brush was a bit abrasive. I did not complain though, it was clearly necessary. As she cleaned my hands I almost felt absolved. "There, all finished."
"Ah, thanks." I blushed.
"I have to go back up and check on a few things upstairs." She began to leave. "I suspect you have business of your own to attend to."
"Yeah, that's right." I replied "Hey, thanks for everything, I don't know how to repay you."
"Dinner sometime this week would be a great start." She said from the doorway. "You'll find my number hidden in your hat. Reach out to me once you've gotten all your business all sorted out." She had gotten halfway down the hallway before I could even sort out a response. Upon inspection she had indeed left a note in my hat with a number and address to find her.
"Way to go buddy, there's hope for you yet." Joe commented, his eyes still close from pretending to be asleep.
"Don't read too much into it." I frowned at him for listening in.
"Relax, I was still awake when she came in. I know nothing happened." He smirked. "Still, I'd say she's taken quite the liking to you. You must have done something special to earn her affection."
"Yeah, I suppose so." I smiled.
Joe and I wasted little time from there. We learned in light of HQ being smashed into kindling that command had put down temporary roots in the recruitment administration building. We reported in and were referred to the makeshift office of Commander Jon Franklin for our orders. Upon arrival at his door we were met there by a slew of men waiting in line to speak to him. There was little other choice but to wait outside for an hour while the steam of sailors entered and exited in somewhat rapid secession.
When our turn finally came we entered the office to find the Commander waiting. Commander Franklin seemed like the standard career navy man. He was stern and proper, but it was clear that the events of the last twenty-four hrs had taken there toll on him. He had bags under his eyes, which indicated that he had not sleep since the attack.
He invited us to sit while he reviewed our files. As he was reading through them, I attempted to report myself for going AWOL, but the Commander was not in the mood to hear about it. He shut me down immediately and dismissed the infraction outright. It surprised me at the time, but in the scheme of things I guess I understand it now. The man had much bigger things going on. I could see that he had a long list of names on a clip board and a stack of files on his desk that was over a foot high. I correctly guessed it was all the sailors who had been displaced by the attack.
After shouting me down he read through our files for a few more moments, wrote down a couple of notes, and before I knew it he was transferring both Joe and I to a new post. He made it clear he had no time for common sailor malarkey. His only priority was to reorganize the ranks back into fighting units as quickly as possible.
He informed the two of us that the carrier USS Enterprise had lost some of it's crewmen who were on shore-leave during he attack and since we didn't have a ship of our own to return, and because we could preform the same duties, that we'd be reassigned to replace them effective immediately. It was as simple as that. He then informed us that the carrier would be leaving port by that evening.
Orders had come down from the top. They wanted any ships capable of leaving Pearl out as soon as possible so they wouldn't be sitting ducks if a second attack came. As such, We were to report to the Enterprise immediately. From there Commander Franklin dismissed us from his office. As we were walking out the Commander mentioned one last thing, almost as an afterthought. He said that he had received reports of my actions during and after the attack and that I would being put in for a commendation for it.
With that, he shooed us out of his office so he could move on to the next group of sailors in line. As we got back into the hallway my head was spinning. In the space of three minutes everything had changed. I had been expecting to be escorted to the brig, instead we were being transferred to Flagship of the Pacific Fleet. Funny how life works out sometimes.
It wasn't all roses though. We were on an tight timetable and I only had enough time to write a brief letter to Shauna explaining my reassignment. I also let her know how much I regretted that I would not be able to take her up on her dinner offer. At that point I would have gladly spent a few days in the brig if it meant I could have stayed to explain it to her in person. I did however promise to take her out as so as I returned to port and that I would write her frequently in the meantime.
As I put in the letter into the post I just hoped it would be enough and that she'd understand.
Following the attack, it didn't take too long for word to spread. Papers all over the world ran headlines declaring the shocking incident. People did not know what to make of the news. Most of the foreign powers dismissed it as some type of ruse, it sounded too outlandish to be real. People in the States were also understandably skeptical until photos taken by plane of the monster during the attack were made public. The mood of the nation shifted from disbelief to terror as the realization of such a monster's existence sunk in.
On the military side of things, the creature's disappearance was frustrating. He had hit us hard and then vanished before we could hit him back. We proved that naval cannons could hurt it, but finding another opportunity to utilize them was proving fruitless. Weeks had gone by without another sighting. The public started to wonder if we had in fact mortally wounded the beast. Newspaper articles ran piece after piece reassuring the common people they were safe. This was in part due to prodding by good old Uncle Sam to help keep people calm and prevent a panic.
I knew better than to believe the stories though. I had seen what it could do first hand and I knew that it was not done. Most of the other sailors on the Enterprise didn't think it was dead either, but they had a different attitude about it. The enlisted men started to joke that we had given it such a thrashing that it would never again dare show it's face in our waters.
The hubris of those men didn't last long though. Three weeks after the attack at Pearl the creature reappeared and landed in the Caroline Islands. It wiped out three villages before disappearing back into the Ocean. Our fleet was still closely patrolling the waters near Pearl, so we were far out of position to do anything about it.
Within two days another Japanese cargo ship was destroyed, followed by a British one the next day. The monster was no longer just hitting shipping within it's own territorial waters. It was making it's presence felt all over the Pacific and becoming a menace to anything afloat or near a coastline.
By this time, the Japanese had enough. They sent out a a major naval task force to hunt it down. The task force was split into two divisions. The first division was lead by the carriers Kaga, Akagi, and Shokaku. They were supported by the battleships Hiei, Kongo, Nagato, and Fuso. Additionally they were further supported by 4 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and eighteen destroyers. The second division was lead by the carriers Zuikaku, Hiryu, and Soryu. They were supported by the battleships Kiris, Haruna, and Yamashiro. In addition, there were 4 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, and sixteen destroyers. Together they were the cream of the Japanese Imperial Fleet and were spoiling for a fight.
On December 21st the Japanese fleet descended on the last known location of the monster. They searched for two days and found nothing. On the night of December 23rd their prey found them. The monster who had been dubbed Angirus sunk the carriers Hiryu and Zuikaku, the battleship Kiris, the Heavy Cruisers Myoko and Nachi, the light cruiser Oi, and 8 destroyers. It was a was a staggering defeat to the Japanese navy and a huge blow to their national honor as a whole.
The 2nd carrier division was forced to retreat home by the next morning. Undeterred by their comrades defeat, the 1st carrier division located and counterattacked Angirus around noon the next day. The battle by daylight went far better for the Japanese, as they were able to coordinate their warplanes and surface ships, however they still lost the cruisers Agano, Haguro, Yahagi, and five more destroyers. On the other side of it Angirus had absorbed enough shells, torpedoes and bombs to sink three battleships.
By the end of the day, the Japanese elected to make a strategic withdraw from the area, wishing to avoid being attacked in the dark like the night before. It was unclear if they had managed to inflict any serious damage to the monster, but they had managed to at least make a fight of it to restore their damaged pride.
The Japanese fleet regrouped and returned to their home ports. On arrival they dug in and waited to see if Angirus would dare follow them. They had expected a follow up attack from the monster similar to how it had followed our fleet back to Pearl, but this was not the case. Days went by and nothing happened. When it failed to show up after nearly a week we thought perhaps the Japanese had managed to hurt it, but in retrospect I think it simply could not track them all the way home. When Angirus's attacks resumed a couple of days later, it was clear that the Japanese had failed to strike a meaningful blow.
This was a terrifying time for anyone living anywhere along the Pacific Rim. No one knew where the next attack would come, or when. It seemed impossible to predict and was impossible to stop. The Dutch East Indies were the next place it hit. Sea trade in the Pacific slowed to a crawl as the attacks continued. World economics were inching closer and closer to the edge of crisis as only the bravest of merchant ships would brave the dangerous waters.
Shortly after the attack on the Dutch the "Hunt for Angirus" was on. Any power with an agenda at stake in the Pacific committed forces to the international effort. Ships from British Far East Fleet, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, and France all began to coordinate in an unprecedented effort to track down and kill Angirus.
Unfortunately, the coordinating didn't seem to help all that much. Our ships simply could not arrive in time to catch up to the monster following an attack and it seemed to be avoiding taking on large naval forces following its encounter with the Japanese fleet. It was at this point that I decided to go to my c.o. and tell him about the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack. I suggested that we might be able lure the monster to a precise predetermined location to be ambushed if we left a slick of oil for it to follow. And as it could submerge and evade us at will at sea, leading it to shore it would be ideal.
My c.o. thought it was worth a try and took it to the Captain. The Captain agreed that it was a worth while idea too and relayed it too the Admiral. The Admiral, Chester Nimitz, thought it was a brilliant idea and ran with it. He was just as frustrated as anyone with the inability of our forces to pin down the monster. He almost immediately began to draw up plans. He looked to his charts and quickly found several possible staging grounds in the U.S. controlled Philippines for the operation.
After contacting Washington and getting their approval he contacted General MacArthur, who was in command of the army in the Philippines. The General was receptive to the plan and put his troops to work preparing defenses in the selected area on Luzon, the main island in the Philippines. They cleared out trees along the beach, placed obstacles to slow down the monster, built concrete pill boxes, placed shore batteries, moved in mobile artillery pieces, brought in a entire tank division, and laid down a six acre mine field. It took nearly two weeks to get everything in place.
Once the army was ready the navy enacted the plan. They started by send a oil tanker escorted by destroyers to Angirus's last know position. The destroyers dropped a barrage of depth charges and the tanker opened up its oil valves allowing a large slick to trail the ships. They wasted no time on getting out of area as fast as possible in case the monster was actually in the immediate area. As they retreated they carefully watched the waters behind them to see if they had elicited a reaction. Through their binoculars the sailors saw nothing and wondered if they had just wasted their time and risked all for nothing.
A few days later the ships reached the Philippine coast and the tanker shut off its valves. On the shore troops pumped out oil from lines that had been placed on the beach. The current in the water connected the trail of oil to the one in the ocean. With their job complete the ships withdrew.
Admiral Nimitz had the strength of our fleet hidden away, lying in wait for the monster. The warships were positioned in the west, just around the northern most tip of Luzon nearby the city of Santa Ana. The battle-zone was located on the other side of the tip in the east. When Angirus made landfall the fleet could easily swing around the coast and prevent it from escaping back into the sea.
The army's forces on the shore were dug in and ready, the air force had created a makeshift base nearby to the south and was on standby, and the fleet was posed to strike. The only question left was would Angirus actually show up, and if so, when? The tension was thick thin in the air. There was an uneasiness that grew with every passing hour. The evening came and passed uneventfully. Everyone was starting to think it had all been for nothing.
Word went out the next morning the there was an unidentified sonar ping reported by one of the submarines on patrol on the edge of our defense perimeter. All commercial shipping had be advised to avoid the area and all of our vessels were accounted for. The submarine went silent ten minutes later and everyone was put on full alert.
For most of us, it could only mean one thing: Angirus was on his way. And indeed he was, minutes later it was reported by a PT boat sent to investigate that he was moving directly to the landing zone. The plan was working. Scout planes were launched from the carriers to better track it's movements and the fleet got underway. The monster would make landfall just as the fleet was coming around the edge of the island.
An hour passed and the scout planes reported being able to see the wake of Angirus near the surface as he approached the island. They were ordered to keep their distance and to avoid the getting the attention of the monster. Thirty minutes later Angirus had arrived off the coastal waters of Luzon. He proceeded forward, advancing towards the landing zone. He was close enough at that point that troops from the shore could see a form begin to emerge from the waves. Guns were leveled to their predetermined attack ranges. The plan was to let the monster get just off the beach before opening up on it with one massive artillery barrage.
The monster finally made landfall and the troops realized what they were up against, a living mountain of teeth, armor, and spikes. Angirus stopped just after stepping off the beach as if it sensed something was amiss. It eyed the trees that had been cut down around it to clear the attack zone and looked upward towards the camouflaged gun positions. It opened its mouth and roared a warning that split the sky like thunder. It shook the resolve of many of the men entrenched along the defensive line. In the command bunker beyond the line the windows rattled and the blood of everyone inside ran cold.
Angirus advanced forward and wandered into the attack zone. The general sent out the order to commence firing, but only half the guns opened up initially. Many of the guns crews were still too stunned by what they were seeing to react. After the first barrage shook them back to reality the rest joined in squad by squad. The shells arched in and for the most part hit Angirus on his spiked carapace. Some of the shells bounced right off and others detonated immediately on impact. The monster continued to advance just the same. Before long it had entered the mine field and began to set off explosion after explosion. It continued through the mine field until it came to the obstacles that were meant to slow it down, and they did, but only for about 10 seconds. It crushed them like they were made out of thin aluminum and moved onward. It got closer and closer to the defensive line until it was in range of the tanks, which opened up on him. Their shells mostly hit the neck and legs of Angirus, which were less armored than his back, but still had no discernible effect on him.
The monster was getting uncomfortably close to the defense line and men were starting to panic. Angirus was too close for the artillery to effectively target him anymore. The gun crews on the wings of the perimeter were frantically trying to preposition their guns while the men in the center were abandoning their positions. It was then that the hum of plane engines could be heard as the thunder of artillery fire died down.
The air-force had arrived with its bombers. There were dozens of B-17s and B-25s ready to pounce with their payloads. There was a problem however. No one had anticipated Angirus advancing as quickly as he had. He was meant to still be at the beach obstacles at that point. As it was, he was dangerously close to the army's lines, which put them at risk for friendly fire from the bombs.
The flight commander had to quickly decide if he should press the attack or abort. He chose the former and radioed his planes to proceed. Angirus stopped his advance and looked up at the sky full of noisy planes just in time to see the bombs begin to fall. A few painstakingly long seconds later the explosions started as 500 lbs and 1000 lbs bombs hit on and around Angirus. The explosions continued in a deadly line behind, on top of, and finally in front the monster until they started falling into the lines of the army positions. Anyone who remained in that section of the right wing was caught up in the explosions that followed.
Dust, smoke, and debris filled the air as the onslaught continued. A good portion of the battlefield was obscured. The explosions stopped as the planes finished their bombing run and for a time things were still. As the dust began to settle everyone could see that the planes had made some positive impact. Angirus remained largely undamaged, but the force of the bombs had knocked him on his side and he appeared to be having a hard time righting himself. This gave the army units time to regroup.
The reprieve was short lived though. Angirus soon found his footing and shook off the dirt the bombs had covered him in. He set his sights on the field command center and advanced upon it. The command staff evacuated as quickly as they could and with that any control on the battlefield was shattered.
Moments later Angirus smashed the tin building and began to work his way down the line of the right wing, destroying everything in his path as he went. A column of armored cars took off into the mine field to escape and one by one blew up. It looked as though the battle was lost until a single tank at the end of the line leveled its barrel and took careful aim at Angirus's head. It fired one shot that landed just to the left of monster's right eye. The shot had an immediate effect and Angirus stopped his tracks. It brought its paw up to its face and swept it around irritated. The tank let off a second round that was just a little more inside of the first shot, but it seemed like it was enough to convince Angirus that he had lost the initiative and it was better off to retiring from the field.
The fleet arrived just in time to see the monster angrily turn towards the shore and begin to retreat. All the remaining army units, primary in the left wing, rallied and shelled him relentlessly and the fleet deployed to try to cut him off. The battleships and destroyers moved in close to the shore to get their cannons and torpedoes as close as possible to inflict maximum damage.
As quick as the fleet rushed into position, Angirus managed to move faster. He crashed into the water and began to swim out of the danger zone. It soon became clear the fleet was not going to be able to trap him as planned. However, that didn't mean the warships couldn't get some good licks in. It would be several minutes before Angirus would be able to get into deep enough water to completely submerge and we would be able to pour in a lot of firepower in that window. Massive shells from the battleships quickly found the range and swarms of torpedoes were racking Angirus's sides.
Angirus finally managed to get under the reach of the battleship's main cannons, but his ordeal was not over yet. The destroyers dogged him as long as they could with depth charges, and given that he was still in the shallow waters near the shore, he could not dive deep enough to avoid them. Twenty minutes of relentless depth charge attacks finally brought the battle to an end.
Following the immediate battle the fleet continued to track Angirus for days over hundreds of miles until he reached the Mariana Trench. The monster disappeared down into it and beyond our ability to track him.
The other naval powers in the Pacific helped us patrol the area for months afterwards, but there was no sign of Angirus. It seemed like we had actually prevailed. After being hit by what the admiral described as an "Orgy of firepower" it was hoped that he had finally been killed. Angirus had certainly taken an insane amount of punishment in the battle of Luzon and at the very least we had scored an important victory over him.
Like most things in life though, the victory was short lived. We didn't know it yet, but the next trial for humanity was already beginning in northern China.
