Chapter 10

"Sir! Reading additional contacts!" reported one of the bridge crew.

"What?" said Captain Gordon.

"Radar is detecting six unidentified objects approaching from the ocean." Fear crept into the bridge officer's voice. "Each one is approximately 90 meters long."

Though no one said a word for several seconds, Captain Gordon knew exactly what each person was thinking.

"What shall we do, sir?" asked another crewman uncertainly.

Captain Gordon couldn't afford to feel fear. He knew from experience that when a captain despaired, his crew automatically followed suit. The day that happened with him was the day Roland Emmerich issued a heartfelt apology.

"Do not retreat. Stand and fight," ordered Captain Gordon with rock-hard resolve.

Zilla watched the six slowly rising points in the ocean intently. They looked sort of like the small hills on the island he was born on, but ten times as tall and fifty times as wide. And these hills had blue spikes jutting out of the tops.

One of the hills of water erupted, spraying water 100 meters in every direction. As the foaming water fell, a dark shape gradually became visible in its center. Finally, the wave completely descended, revealing the kaiju within. Seawater dripped from its gargantuan body and poured off its back, each trickle as large as Angel Falls.

A square snout poked out of the second hill, twin nostrils the size of the palm trees that dotted that island that they had first hatched on flaring. Sniffing twice, it snorted, sending two clouds of steam billowing into the air like a whale does when breaching. The head and the rest of the sleek body surfaced smoothly.

The third and fourth hills happened much like the first, as the fifth hill cruised toward shore until the rest of the kaiju's body surfaced gradually.

The sixth hill, which had been moving forward more slowly than the others, suddenly accelerated from 30 to 500 kilometers per hour. Just before it hit the shoreline, the hill dipped further into the ocean for a fraction of a second.

Crash.

The water was whipped into foam as a massive streamlined shape launched itself out of the ocean and 150 meters into the air. With a shockwave felt over a mile away, the final Zilla landed on the ground with a boom like a blast of dynamite as its fearsome head bellowed to the sky.

"Fire missiles!" commanded Captain Gordon. The crewmember manning the missile launchers complied, and the whole bridge watched the viewscreen as the volley raced toward the Zilla that had landed on shore.

As Captain Gordon had suspected, it leapt upwards. However, the missiles continued to cruise forward, toward the target that the Zilla had just made vulnerable by dodging: its brother.

The Zilla that the missiles were now facing, though, dove underwater with lightning-fast speed. The six missiles tried to follow, but to no avail; they exploded on the surface of the ocean, throwing up a large amount of foam and steam, but with no damage to any of the seven kaiju.

"Sir! Zilla is attacking from above!" exclaimed one of the bridge officers in obvious panic. Too late, Captain Gordon realized that the sun had suddenly been eclipsed by a muscular body bearing down on them with something resembling terminal velocity.

The Gotengo gave a mighty jolt as 50,000 tons of scales and spikes slammed into it in midair, sending bridge crew flying as far as the sparks that shot out of the control panels. Only Captain Gordon and Ozaki managed to keep some of their dignity.

"Back to your stations!" bellowed the captain. The crewmembers swiftly obeyed. "Fire maser!"

Ozaki toggled from the phaser and thumbed the trigger. Outside of the airship, the spinning drill of the Gotengo glowed orange, then released it in a dazzling beam, which now appeared to be about to send the Zilla that had just tackled them to the place where socks go.

However, the feeling of triumph was replaced without warning with the uncomfortable sensation of vertigo as the nose of the ship inexplicably pivoted upwards just as the maser was firing.

"What just happened?" he asked the navigation officer.

"Radar confirms that another Zilla ran underneath the ship and jumped upwards, throwing off our shot." She paused. "Sir, it rescued its brother. A reptile that has family-preserving instincts… that's incredible!"

Captain Gordon didn't care if it threw on a blond wig and started to sing The Best of Both Worlds. All that mattered was that they found out a way to kill these things somehow or else they could all just go straight to-

The ship lurched to the side again, this time even catching Ozaki at unawares. Then, before anyone could even start to get up, it jerked in the opposite direction, this time even dislodging Captain Gordon from his perch.

"Now what?" Captain Gordon managed to breathe after everyone had scrambled back to their seats.

"Apparently, the other Zillas didn't want to feel left out," remarked the navigation officer sullenly.

This was ridiculous. The Gotengo, an all-purpose warship built specifically for fighting vicious kaiju, that had imprisoned the King of the Monsters himself in ice, and that had played almost as large a role as the said monster in thwarting an alien invasion that had wiped out about a quarter of the world's population, was being tossed around like a toy airplane by seven of the most pathetic "kaiju" in history.

The very thought was enough to get Captain Gordon's blood boiling.

"Fire missiles! Fire phaser! Spin the dang drill and fly forward at full speed! CHARGE!"

The crew, not wanting to be on the receiving end of one of Captain Gordon's infamous punches in his current state, instantly followed each and every one of his instructions.

Missiles flew, the phaser ripped through buildings, and the Gotengo charged at the nearest Zilla, drill rotating menacingly. The Zillas dodged the missiles, which tried to change direction and follow them again, but ended up half the time hitting buildings, each other, and the white oil tanks scattered along the ground. The tanks exploded in enormous crimson balls of flame, which ignited other tanks, starting a domino effect of perpetual destruction, building after building burned, spewing forth smoke that could be seen miles away. The air was filled with mutant iguanas leaping around in every conceivable direction, missiles trying to connect with them, energy beams weaving back and forth in an attempt to hit one of them, the black warship with the whirring drill chasing after them like a cat does a mouse, billowing balls of fire and choking smoke, and the deafening sounds of all of these.

Chaos.

All from just seven kaiju.

And in the middle of all of this, the battle was decided.

Without warning, as the Gotengo was spewing out its constant stream of missiles, an explosion ripped through the right side of the ship, and a chain reaction of explosions continued until they reached the core, where an extra large detonation grounded the ship completely.

And inside the downed Gotengo, Captain Gordon recognized his mistake.

"And I mean it this time," she added sternly. "No risky stunts like that incident with Manda and the underwater volcano. The Gotengo may be usable to an extent, but you must keep in mind at all times that it still isn't fully repaired."

Well, that sure as heck didn't work!

In the heat of the battle, Captain Gordon had forgotten completely that the ship wasn't at full capacity. And as a result, here he was, sitting there unable to do anything because the freakin' 6.37 percent of the Gotengo that wasn't working had decided to manifest itself by failing to open up the missile hatch when the missile fired. So, the missile hit the closed hatch and exploded, which in turn blew up all the other missiles stored inside.

Why was life so cruel?

Well, at least he could count on getting his revenge on the Zillas soon. This was all simply because of a faulty missile hatch.

After all, how could he possibly be blamed for this?