Chapter 3
Maritime Assault
Back at Site-G, Vincent and Gordon had reunited with the other survivors.
Vincent was tending to the few wounded individuals while Gordon was tending to one, Doctor Yukie Nakama.
Then a loud rumble could then be heard from above. It sounded like a large truck.
The sounds of footsteps came down the stairs and approached the room the survivors were holding up.
The door opened and severely soldiers and medics entered the room.
The soldier in charge approached Vincent.
"Are you Doctor Vincent Martin?" he asked.
"I am," Vincent answered.
"Are you or anyone here seriously injured?" the soldier asked.
"Some of my men has frostbite and Doctor Nakama has a sprained ankle."
Gordon interjected. "My ass is damn near frozen. Can we get a move on?"
"The same thing was on my mind," Vincent agreed, freezing.
"What, my ass?" Gordon joked.
"No, the cold," Vincent replied.
"That's the plan," the soldier said. "You can follow my men to the transport chopper. You'll be boarding a carrier."
"You've found any other survivors?" asked Vincent.
"We're still looking, sir. You're one of our priority targets right now."
Vincent was disturbed by the statement. He suspected that he was a priority because of his knowledge of Godzilla, but it still felt wrong that he came before other survivors still in the base. 'What if they had died because they weren't found first?' Vincent though.
Then he realized what the situation was. He knew he was needed as soon as possible or else more people could be caught in Godzilla's path.
He and the rest were escorted outside where a large helicopter waited with its blades spinning and ready to go. He boarded it.
The helicopter took off. Now Vincent could see the complete destruction Godzilla had caused. Everything on the surface was flattened. Godzilla had trampled it probably without even noticing it.
On the ride, Vincent was given warm soup and a military MRE (Meal Ready to Eat).
Vincent had noticed how well armed the helicopter was. It had a mounted minigun on the side that could swing around fired be a soldier inside. It also had deployable flares and missile launchers.
The soldiers inside the helicopter kept their eyes on the windows. They seemed nervous and clung to their standard issue rifles.
"You nervous?" Vincent asked the soldier across from him.
The soldier broke his gaze away from the window. He was slightly startled by Vincent.
"You know much about him? Like, what he's capable of?" the soldier asked back.
"I know more than most. He's still quite the mystery."
The soldier returned his gaze to the window. The sun was setting on the vast whiteness of Antarctica.
"He already took out the first unit that got here… friend of mine with in it…"
"I'm sorry… but I think if we all work together, no one else has to die."
"You might be onto somthin'. Plus, that new crazy ass airship they got sure filled me with hope."
"The Gotengo II?"
"Yah, man! Shit's insane!"
Vincent looked out the window and saw the shore. They were almost there.
He also saw what looked like the aftermath of a fight on the ice not far away. Ice was cracked and pushed up. Footprints covered the area. There appeared to be three sets of prints. One was Godzilla's, whose led to and from the scene. Another looked a little like Godzilla's but much smaller. They only led to the scene and couldn't be seen leaving. The third set seemed to have came from nowhere and looked nothing like Godzilla's.
This raised many questions for Vincent. The most obvious looking conclusion was too terrifying for him think about.
Soon after, they were approaching the carrier. It was accompanied by a vast fleet. If they had arrived sooner, they may have stood a chance against the hungry and tired Godzilla.
Vincent's helicopter came to a landing on the carrier's deck.
Vincent stepped out and was immediately approached by another soldier.
"Dr. Martin," the soldier yelled over the chopping of the helicopter blades. "We're working on salvaging your hard drive and other documents from Site-G. We have an office ready for you. Is there anything else you'll need?"
"We had G-cell samples in cryostorage. I need those. We were near a breakthrough. They may be our best chance at an effective counter attack."
Another helicopter just like the one Vincent took landed on the carrier. Out stepped Gordon who helped out Yukie. He saw Vincent and waived.
Then all the soldiers on the deck got a call on their comm radios. A voice declared "All hands use caution on deck. Gotengo is rising. Repeat, all hands use caution. The Gotengo is rising."
Vincent looked around puzzled. He saw that Gordon looked ecstatic as he also looked around.
Vincent noticed that position of all the ships. Their formation circled a huge empty area of ocean.
Then the water began to shift and stir. A massive shadow appeared beneath the surface. It was surfacing.
With a huge splash, the great vessel burst up from the waves. This wasn't like a submarine coming to the surface. This vessel exploded up and out of the water. Then it remained suspended in mid air.
Seawater cascaded off the hull of the ship like a waterfall.
"Holy hell! I never thought I'd see her in action!" Gordon exclaimed.
The falling water revealed the ship to be the Gotengo II.
Gordon, gazing up, nearly lost his balance and would have fallen if a soldier hadn't caught him.
The Gotengo II resembled its predecessor somewhat except that instead of resembling a submarine, this new airship looked a little bizarre. It had sharper angles and looked more fit to be called an airship. It was black with many angles similar to a stealth bomber for the same reasons as a stealth bomber: radar invisibility. The signature drill on its nose was larger and more menacing than the Gotengo I's.
Vincent was lead to his own private quarters aboard the carrier.
Gordon had questioned why Vincent got his own room and asked why he was so special.
Gordon was guided to his given quarters, but discovered that they were not so private. A few of the other Site-G staff were there. So was the lovely Yukie Nakama.
"Well hi there!" smiled Gordon, "Do we get to share a room?"
Yukie answered with a "Mhm" and a smile.
"Did you see the Gotengo!? This is probably the coolest day of my life!"
"Oh Gordon! You sound like a boy! It's kinda' cute."
"How's your ankle holdin' up?" Gordon asked in a softer tone.
"Much better now, thank you. The doctor was impressed with how you wrapped it."
"I didn't get to be an Eagle Scout without gettin' my first aid merit badge."
"I'm still rather cold though," Yukie said as she began to blush slightly, "Would you lay down with me for a little while?"
"Well I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I denied a lady's request," Gordon replied with a grin.
The raging sea monster tore through the ocean at about fifty knots. He almost always swam near the surface so he could take a quick breath of air when he needed it. The wake his protruding dorsal spine had left behind was far and wide.
A pod of singing blue whales had hurried out of the way as soon as they heard the noisy beast heading their way. Fortunate for the whales, they had evaded the monster, for if they hadn't, one or two of them would have certainly become a meal.
Where the whales were alert and evasive of the force of nature that was Godzilla, a cruise liner with roughly four thousand people on board was not so cautious.
El Relajar, a commercial cruise liner, was on its way to its home dock at the southern shore of Argentina. Many of the passengers were in the buffet eating lunch. Almost everyone else was on deck either enjoying the magnificent view of the vast ocean, or sitting back and enjoying a mixture of warm sunshine and a cool wind.
An English speaking man (Spanish as a second language), and his eight year old daughter stood together at the bow of the ship.
"We should be back in port by the end of the day," the man spoke down to his daughter, "Did you enjoy the trip so far?"
"Yah, it was nice," the small girl said.
"Well, good," the man said happily.
The sound of a chattering, excited crowd slowly began to grow on the port side. Many people walked over to see what the amusement was, including the man and his daughter.
"Mirada, mirada!" many people yelled in Spanish, meaning 'look, look'.
When the man's daughter saw what it was, she gasped in excitement. Two enormous blue whales were gracefully swimming up and down through the surface of the waves.
Unfortunately, the people did not realize that the whales were not gracefully dancing. They were running for their lives.
"Wow!" the man said in surprise, "Now how do you like the trip?" he asked his daughter
"What kind of whales are those?" the girl asked.
"Those are blue whales," the man began, "they're really rare, not many people ever get to see them."
"They're big!" the girl exclaimed.
"Yes they are. They're the biggest animals in the whole world," the man explained just as one of the magnificent giants shot up a spout of water.
Meanwhile, at the bridge, the crew kept track of the various conditions of the ship, weather, sonar, and other factors. Then something different happened, something very out of the everyday routine. The crew member that manned the sonar looked at his screen in a very shocked and confused manner.
"Uh, capitán," the crewman called to his captain in Spanish, "I'm picking up something very strange; a large object."
"Yes, there are some blue whales swimming alongside us," the captain said in Spanish as he looked down at the monitor.
"No," the crewman said as he pointed at the screen, "those are the whales." He pointed to four oval shapes on the left side of the screen. "What is that?" He pointed to another relatively oval shaped blotch four times bigger than the whales. "It's moving!" With every blip of the sonar, the large mass grew closer to the ship.
The captain lifted his head to look outside. He looked in the direction of the mass, nothing. "Could it be some kind of glitch?"
"Maybe, but I seriously doubt it," the crewman said.
"Could it be another whale?" the captain asked, realizing how stupid it sounded. 'What's bigger than a blue whale?' he thought to himself.
"Too big to be a whale," the crewman said, sounding worried as the green blotch blipped closer.
"A submarine?" the captain asked.
"Too big to be any kind of sub I've seen!" the crewman began panic. "It's heading towards us, captain!"
"Brace for impact!"
While everyone was concentrated on the whales, the little girl seemed to be the only one who saw it coming. It was a great spine jutting up out of the water, getting higher, and speeding towards the ship.
The captain's voice came over the speakers.
"All guests and staff! Brace for…"
He didn't even have time to finish before the dorsal spine struck the cruise liner with devastating force. The entire ship jolted violently. Some of the passengers that were leaning against the railing to see the whales were thrown overboard, plunging into the sea below with great impact. Some did not resurface. Others flailed helplessly. The little girl was grabbed by her father while she was halfway over the edge, just about to fall.
The glasses and wine bottles flew off the shelves in the bars, shattering on the ground, or on people's heads. Anything not nailed down was flung about. Everyone on the ship lost their balance.
Another jolt was inflicted onto the ship. In the main hall, people fell to the ground once again. The enormous glass chandelier swayed back and forth in a way the bolts that connected it to the ceiling weren't meant to withstand.
At first, everything was calm. The tremors had ceased. People slowly got to their feet. The ceiling above the large chandelier began to crack and crumble as the heavy ornament swung around until the ceiling finally gave in. The huge chandelier chaotically plummeted down four stories before it crashed to the floor of the main deck level, subduing several people in a hellish rain of glass.
On deck, the father and daughter laid on the ground, holding each other tightly. The father opened his eyes and saw that it was now calm and people were getting up.
"Hey," the father said softly to his girl. "It's okay now. Come on, get up."
"What happened?" the girl whimpered.
"I don't know, but it's over now."
The blue whales began to whine aloud, as if in distress. Then all of the great whales were under water. They moved hastily. They wanted to get as far away as possible.
Then nearly everyone on deck saw an enormous dark tail come splashing out of the water. They got a very good look at it too. It was dark grey, and had ridges running along the top. Then it plunged back into the water, splashing the people on deck.
The whales moaned and wined in panic. The people watched and heard. Then an enormous form exploded up from the depths.
The people knew who it was. They might not have thought of him in a while. Some even thought he was dead. But they all remembered his name instantly. The terror, the legend: Godzilla. His ominous form rose high up out of the water. He had something in his mouth; it was hard to tell what it was.
His height seemed to be endless as he continued rising up from the depths. He had now blocked the sun, darkening him further in silhouette. In awe, people stared. In terror, people ran.
The father and daughter fled away from the front of the ship. He carried his little girl in his arms close.
Then, a loud wet crunch came from the Godzilla's jaw, and a large piece of what he had in his mouth came falling down. It was the dead, upper half of a blue whale. The corpse crashed down hard on the bow of the ship, causing it to sink a bit, tilting the ship.
Many people again fell to the ground by the unexpected blow to the ship.
When the father carrying his daughter fell, his girl flew from his grasp. He took a second to recover, and then saw that his daughter was about five feet away from him to his left. He started to stumble to his feet.
Just then, one enormous claw landed on the bow, tilting the ship further. Before the man could grab his daughter, she had slid out of his reach, gliding towards the bow.
"Maria!!" the father yelled.
She glided faster and faster down the ship. She tried to regain footing, but the deck was freshly polished and the floor was now too steep. Then the giant monster dragged his hand away, off the ship. The girl stopped herself and slowly got to her feet.
She was at the bow and saw the great beast before her and slowly looked up. She began to sob fearfully as she saw the monster looking down at her with a raging fires in his eyes.
Godzilla swatted the whale corpse off the bow with a mighty swing of his hand, jolting the ship. The girl stood still, alone and scared. The beast bent down to the little girl at eye level.
Two giant balls of fire stared into little Maria. Godzilla bared his teeth in coiling rage. Little Maria continued to stand helplessly in front of the monster. He slowly parted his jaws. His mouth illuminated with an electric hum, and blue flames leaked out from the gaps in his teeth.
Maria's eyes began to hurt from the mesmerizing light.
Two large quick hands grabbed the girl under the arms. She was dashed away in a matter of seconds, away from the horror. She looked around to see her panicked father holding her tightly.
The monster's attention diverted from the little human. The two giant balls of fire moved up to the top part of this vessel. They saw a room with three glass walls and many more humans staring right back.
The captain stood in silence, not knowing at all what to do or what to think or how to feel. He said something under his voice. Then a wave of blue fire rushed at him.
The bridge exploded in a glorious blaze. Bits of shrapnel rained down on the ship.
The reflection of the fire faded from the monster's eyes, but the fire within burned still. Godzilla unleashed a furious roar. He then raised both claws, then bashed them both down on the ship. The whole ship tilted dramatically. People at the other end were catapulted either into the water, or back down on the ship.
The ship began to sink slowly downwards as the monster watched in satisfaction, although he was not completely satisfied.
Godzilla abruptly turned away and plunged back into the sea.
A moment or two passed and the passengers lowered their guards a bit. The horrifying and most unusual assault had seemed to be over. However it was only almost over.
The little girl screamed "Daddy! He's coming back!!"
Everyone who heard her turned around to see Godzilla's dorsal spines darting for the ship once again. The monster's blade like fin crashed into the side of the ship. His spine tore through the hull and continued through the rest of the ship until it broke through the otherside.
The ship was broken in half.
The two halves slowly sank into the ocean.
Only seven lifeboats drifted away from the site of the catastrophe. In one of the boats were the father and his little girl, holding one another tightly. The girl's eyes were shut, while the father looked down softly.
As for every single other survivor, they gazed in terror (and a bit of relief) at the enormous dorsals swimming away and submerging into the ocean.