Captain Edwards sat at his desk, waiting for a message to join in a teleconference. His report over the Kilaak transmission, the encounter in space with the sludgy creature that attacked the Mogera, and the ship that had gone passed them had, and finally the appearance of Battra had, unsurprisingly, garnered significant interest from the UN Security Council.
The mecha was outside, being scrubbed and repaired. The first twenty-four hours since its return, it had been swarmed by SCKR staff. Residue from the monster was collected from the Mogera, and a couple of people had been sent to follow Battra into the jungle. Every analyst who seemed to know anything about the Kilaaks after their first attack had questions for him. The transmission he had heard was recorded, and he repeatedly advised them to go back to it. Every other detail he could think of had been recorded by this point. But when more bureaucrats wanted to hear about it, he apparently had no choice but to humor them.
There was a "ping" from his computer, and in moments, the teleconference began. It started off fairly innocuous. He repeated his account of the kaiju encounter, and of the message.
"A few words, over and over." He said. "You should have the recording."
From the other end of the feed, he could hear the message again. The words "Stah-varr Kilaak. Stosh-des Ghidorah" repeated a few times.
"Captain Edwards," an unfamiliar man in the garb of the United States Army said, "You were with NASA the first time the Kilaaks attacked."
Edwards nodded, choking back an exasperated sigh.
"When they came last time, with the monster Ghidorah, it was NASA who first detected them entering the solar system."
Edwards could not guarantee that his eyes would not roll. This was basic information. Given his status, this wasn't news to him.
"Are you aware of any similarities between that message and this one?"
"I'm sorry, sir, could you please clarify?"
"Content of the message, tone, when it was received? We are trying to gauge how far the Kilaak fleet is from Earth, Captain Edwards."
"Sir, I was a member of NASA at the time, and I was aware of the first communications with the extraterrestrials, but I don't have that data offhand," Edwards replied. "NASA could provide you with more specific data regarding our first encounter with the Kilaaks. As for this one, we received it when we did in part because of our location. As you should be aware, we were assisting the Tsuburaya Outer World Research Facility, which is the centerpiece of the monitoring program established after the first Kilaak incursion. The station has only been fully operational for a short period of time, and, using the Mogera's own advanced deep-space capabilities, which we have also only been able to fully utilize recently, we were able to assist them in calibrating their communications network."
"Do you believe the Kilaak transmission was primarily directed at the Mogera, or the Tsuburaya?" another person asked. This was an older woman, speaking with a vaguely eastern-European accent.
"Presumably, it was just meant for the Earth," Edwards said. "I don't believe that the extraterrestrials particularly care who from our planet received it first, so long as they announced their presence."
"Why would they let us know they were coming?" This was the American military official again.
"I don't know if I'm qualified to answer that," Edwards said. "I'm a pilot by trade, not a military analyst. Anything I could say, I'd just be repeating what I've read. Theories before were about how we hadn't encountered an extraterrestrial race before the Kilaaks appeared. Presumably they either knew this somehow, or just assumed it, and hoped the shock of first contact would catch us so off-guard that they could overwhelm us. Or maybe it's an arrogance thing, I honestly do not know."
The questions were no more insightful for the next hour. Edwards recounted the full encounter, exactly as he had reported it upon returning to Earth and the UNSCKR facility. He was looking forward to the end of this inane meeting, when the eastern European woman piped up with what he was assured would be the last question.
"Captain Edwards, the message specifically referenced Ghidorah."
Edwards nodded.
"Did any of the objects you observed actually resemble Ghidorah?"
"They did not," he answered. "The one that actually made contact with the Mogera didn't really have a form. It had eyes, big ones, but that's it. No face that I could discern, though direct visuals were obviously limited given our distance from the sun. The ship looked honestly like a flying saucer, the kind you'd see in an old sci-fi movie."
"Not the octagonal shape of the Kilaak ships that appeared over the planet during the previous incursion?"
"I couldn't judge that enough to give you a definitive answer."
The screen briefly went blank, and Edwards assumed the feed had been cut off. When it came back, there was an image of a monster.
"And you didn't observe this creature?"
The photo was somewhat blurry, but the monster wasn't one he had seen before, and he answered as such. It had a beak, a single eye, sickle-shaped arms. There was a lot to take in. But it was still new to him. The screen flashed back to the Security Council representatives.
"Captain Edwards, this monster entered Earth atmosphere shortly before you returned with the Mogera and this Battra creature that accompanied you. In fact, it has already been recorded in conflict with two terrestrial kaiju. It landed in Rodan's territory, and engaged him. Nothing less than the arrival of Godzilla seemed to drive it away."
"It wasn't there when the Mogera was attacked, I'm sorry." Edwards said. "Where is it now?"
"It left the planet again after engaging the two monsters," the woman from the Security Council replied. "We have been unable to locate an energy signature from it since then."
"Captain Edwards," the American officer piped back up. "How soon will your mech be operational and capable of space-travel again?"
"I…" Edwards was suddenly worried. "A few more days, at least. We need to double-check life-support systems, and there were some concerns over the power core-"
"Those are days we don't have. We're seeing an awful lot of new kaiju coming from outer space all of the sudden, and I shouldn't have to spell out why that's a concern. Captain Edwards, how quickly could you learn to fly the Kiryu?"
Edwards' eyes widened. He knew the basics of the larger machine. It was the final result of the famous "Mechagodzilla" initiative, one of the first projects when the UNSCKR was founded. But it was built for combat, a way to drive off kaiju that got too close to population centers.
"Captain, we're going to need to be vigilant. The aliens are coming back, more monsters are appearing. And you've got some first-hand experience with them now. This is our roundabout way of saying that you're joining the crew. The Mechagodzilla fleet is being deployed to guard the planet in the next twenty-four hours, and you'll be taking a position of leadership."
"I've never even been inside a Mechagodzilla," Edwards protested. "I'm flattered, I really am, but I feel like I'd be a liability."
"You've piloted the Mogera, in space, during a kaiju encounter. Captain Edwards, nobody in the Mecha program can say that. The Kiryu specifically is going back into space, and we need you on it."
"Sir, with all due respect, I-"
"Captain," the European woman said, "This is not a choice. You'll be briefed on the Kiryu's controls over the next few days, and you'll be joining the crew as they seek out the greater Kilaak fleet as soon as possible."
Battra stirred, waking Mothra. The dark monster chirped, fluttered her red-and-black wings, and lifted into the air. Mothra cocked her head and chirped back. Her sister hovered above her, then took off.
Moments later, Mothra could see what Battra was seeing. Her sister raced low over the water, then began to rise. Battra rose higher, feeling the heat from the atmosphere as she flew out into low orbit. She scanned the planet below, and dove.
Battra raced back towards the earth, her destination across an ocean from where she had met her sister. To a massive rain forest, one the humans would call the "Amazon." To one of the things she had pursued from the outer edges of the solar system days before. She keyed in on it, raced towards it from the top of the sky. The ground around the ship was scorched. The remains of trees littered the ground. Battra stopped close to the ground, her wings beating to keep her in one place. The circular ship started to glow. It began a light blue, then deepened into purple.
Thousands of miles away, sitting on her mesa, Mothra alerted. She temporarily broke her connection to her sister, and began searching for something else. Someone else. And when she saw them, she passed along everything she could. The sight of the object from outer space glowing, the damaged ground, and to the best of her ability, the very location of the encounter.
In the Amazon, Battra remained in the air, circling the glowing, grounded ship. The purple light pulsed, and then concentrated on one side. It shrank down into two circles, and the ship started to move. It expanded first, with more mass seemingly appearing from nowhere. Battra let out a loud cry, but it didn't react. As it grew, it contorted, and limbs began to form. Battra was vaguely aware that the ground beneath it was unstable.
Orga?
The word, as much as a word could have meaning to a giant monster, came to Battra's mind, spoken by a familiar, high-pitched harmony.
Is this one called Orga?
The voices were not speaking directly to Battra, but in the psychic channel open between her and Mothra, they were loud and clear.
Mistress, it is time. We have revealed ourselves to one human already. They must know.
Battra shook, and refocused on the scene beneath her. What had been a craft was quickly changing its form into that of a grotesque creature. The purple light now emanated from its eyes and a massive mouth. Its arms were long enough that its hands nearly scraped the ground.
Battra screamed, and fired a bolt of crackling orange energy from her horn. This new creature, this Orga, gave the attack some notice, but was clearly unharmed. It swiped a massive, black arm. Its hands formed grotesque claws. One passed in front Battra, who moved quickly enough to avoid the strike. Orga snarled, then began to move in the opposite direction. Battra tried to blast it again. This one struck its back, which only caused a brief stagger.
Mistress, this is not the only one. We must locate the others quickly. Please let us warn the humans.
Battra shook her head, trying to silence the voices, but did not dare cut off contact with her sister. Another blast still barely registered to the alien creature. Desperate, Battra chased after Orga, and slammed her horn into the back of his head. Orga roared, and swiped his massive hand again. With Battra briefly dazed from the shock of her attack, he was able to connect, swatting her and sending her reeling.
Thousands of miles from Battra's battle, an image of Orga's hideous face flashed in Godzilla's mind. He knew this call, had heard it many times before. Mothra could guide him south, to the exact location of the new monster. But he shook his head and roared, and the image was gone. He heard a high pitched shriek, and felt a powerful gust. Looking up, he knew that Rodan was being assailed with the same summons, and was disregarding it as well.
On Monster Island, Mothra was confronted by her two longtime companions.
"Mistress, the great coalition must be assembled. But we need time. Give the humans a chance to-"
Mothra's antennae flickered, and the two tiny women, her Shobijin, stopped talking.
"Thank you, Mistress Mothra. We know the one."
Orga moved north. He was, on his feet, slow, but powerful. Battra's repeated attempts to hound him became a repeated pattern. She would attack, he would swat her away. Underfoot, trees began to give way to small cities. Orga spent no extended period of time attacking humans, until planes and tanks began to appear, and try vainly to assault him. Those, he destroyed, his twisted hands and feet crushing tanks and knocking aircraft from the sky.
As Orga neared the sea, Battra rammed him again. He stumbled this time. Battra retreated higher into the air, expecting him to lash out. But when she looked, Orga had fallen, and was supporting himself on his hands. The ground under him gave way, opening a large chasm, swallowing him almost entirely. Battra descended, and began to flutter her wings. Powder fell from her wings, and covered the alien creature.
Next to the stunned Orga, another monster appeared from the ground. Battra landed, and watched as Baragon, the burrowing monster who had apparently hollowed out the earth for Orga to tumble into, began kicking dirt back over the alien. He made quick work of it, then looked up at Battra, barked, and ran to the water. Battra chirped, and Baragon stopped, the water lapping at his massive legs.
The ground started to rumble, the loose dirt that Baragon had just replaced already destabilizing again. The burrowing monster snarled, and in the air, Battra's horn glowed. Orga's giant claws popped out from the ground, and it began to pull itself up. Baragon leapt over it, snarled, and began breathing a red flame. One of the clawed hands convulsed, but the other shot out from the ground faster, grabbing him by the neck and violently shoving him away. Orga dug himself up, absorbing blasts from Battra overhead. Baragon recovered, and attacked with his flaming breath again. Orga flailed its arms, forcing its opponents to back away. Its left arm convulsed, and a mound emerged from the shoulder, glowing purple. It faced Baragon, and a purple beam fired from the newly-generated cannon. Baragon was knocked back into the water, and the beam was turned on Battra in the sky. She evaded the attack for a few seconds, until it caught her wing, causing her to spiral and crash into the ground. Orga roared, withdrew back into his body, and curled up. As Battra and Baragon both recovered from the blasts, Orga transformed back into its flying saucer shape, and retreated.
Battra fluttered, and returned to the air. The blast had not seriously damaged her wing, but it took a moment for it to beat normally again. Baragon barked inquisitively. Battra turned to him, hovering high above. Her horn glowed for several seconds. When it dimmed, she turned, raised higher into the air, and flew off. Baragon gave another bark, and started to burrow again, a familiar image of a lush island and his new ally's counterpart, Mothra, practically taking over his sight.
I hope you enjoyed this update! It's obviously been quite a while since I had to put this down, but I decided it would be fun to give it a shot, and I plan on updating once a week or so. Leave a review and let me know what you think!
