A/N Hey, guys. I'm back with the thirteenth chapter of the Godzilla Meet the Civilians fanfic series. First of all, I want to thank some of you guys for sticking around, and I know I say thank you a lot, but I really do mean it. And second, I feel like I'm trash for not updating because I'm busy with school and this is my final year. In this thirteenth chapter, Will, Bianca, and Sonya reunite with Ford, who had survived the train attack and the military plans a HALO drop in San Francisco to retrieve the missing nuclear warhead that's in the possession of the MUTOs. So, sit back and enjoy this thirteenth chapter. And here we go.
All of Godzilla's properties belong to Warner Bros. Pictures Entertainment and Legendary Pictures. And I only own my OCs.
Oakland, California, May 16th, 2014
In a meeting room, Captain Hampton was briefing the members of the HALO Drop teams about the plan of action to take against the MUTO's.
"Alright listen up! The male delivered the warhead to the center of downtown. That puts 100,000 civilians in the blast radius, and we can't stop it remotely," he declared.
"Analog timer has been installed and the MUTO's are frying electronics within a five mile bubble. It means approaching from ground is not an option. That's why we'll be conducting a HALO insertion. Jumping altitude will be 30,000 feet, just skate to the top and drop. Here… and here," said one of the lead soldiers on the team as he pointed to the bubble on the map to indicate their positions during the drop.
"If you don't hit a skyscraper on the way in you meet at rally point Charlie," the captain explained.
"Doctor, any guesses where to look?" Another soldier asked Doctor Serizawa, who was standing nearby with Doctor Graham.
"Underground. If the MUTO's have spawned, they'll be building a nest," he responded.
"Captain, when you find the warhead, how long to disarm it?" Admiral Stenz asked.
"Sir, without seeing the analog mod I couldn't even guess," the captain of the team responded.
"Sixty-seconds if I can access it, I retrofitted that device myself," Ford said, having just arrived to the briefing.
"Lieutenant Brody. Glad to see you're still alive," said Sonya.
"You too. I'm glad to see that you three are not caught in the evacuation," said Ford.
"Lieutenant Brody is the only E.O.D. tech to survive the train attack," Captain Hampton said.
"Well it sounds like we could use you," the captain of the team said.
"With all due respect, if that doesn't work what's plan B?" another soldier asked, feeling unsure of what would happen if the plan goes wrong.
"The waterfront is located one click downhill. Get the bomb to the pier, onto a boat, and as far away from the city as possible before it detonates," the captain of the team responded.
There was silence for a few seconds, and Captain Hampton broke it.
"Any questions?" He asked.
There was no answer.
"Dismissed," he said again, causing everyone to begin leaving.
"That's it, let's move!" The captain of the team said.
He stopped Ford.
"Lieutenant… They've already been briefed, we have no extraction plan. If you don't walk out, you don't come back at all," he said.
Ford looked at him seriously.
"Sir, I'll do whatever it takes," he said.
"Good luck, Lieutenant Brody. We'll see you once you got the warhead out of the city," I said.
Admiral Stenz watched Ford leave, and then walked outside where Doctor Serizawa was observing the activity going on around him silently. The Admiral walked right beside him, taking a breath.
"This alpha predator of yours doctor. Do you really think he has a chance?" he asked.
Doctor Serizawa was silent for a moment, then responded.
"The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control… And not the other way around," he said.
A few moments later, he nodded his head a few times.
"Let them fight," he said.
The three of us walked outside as some of the soldiers were running around.
"I do hope that Godzilla will save us from extinction," I said hopefully.
"As much as I hate to admit it, but you're right. Godzilla's our only hope for survival," said Sonya.
"Let's hope the plan doesn't fail or this would have all been for nothing," said Bianca.
Miles away from the drop point, the C-17 with Ford and the other members of the HALO drop team screamed through the skies racing towards its destination point as fast as its engines could carry it. From take off to this moment it had been nearly an hour, and the race against time was becoming critical. Sitting a few seats down from Ford was a soldier with a bible, reciting a prayer for the upcoming mission.
"O Lord God, we give thanks for the opportunities that you have given us. Going together as comrades in service of our great nation. We thank you for the time and service that you have given us…" the soldier read out loud.
By this time, Ford had tuned out all outside sound as he looked at a picture of his wife and son. The memories of his days in Janjira came rushing back to him, as did the words of his father when the two of them went back to try and find his old disks.
"They evacuated us so quickly… I don't even, have a picture of her," his father had said.
Ford was lucky. He had a picture of his wife and son, both powerful reasons for him to fight and continue on despite what it was he was getting into. Below him in the city awaited three giant monsters, each of which could squash him like a bug with absolutely zero effort if they bothered to acknowledge his existence.
Finally, the warning alarm blared and the red lights within the plane began flashing. It was the signal that they were arriving at the drop point, and that the doors would soon open for them to engage.
Ford stood up and immediately placed on his oxygen mask, checking and double checking his gear to prepare for the drop ahead. Standing on a line, the soldiers all turned to the right to fix and fasten the backpack gear of their neighbor in preparation for the ejection of the parachute once they reached a low enough altitude. The door slowly opened, and the soldiers all took their places within the plane's belly as they waited for the signal to jump. Ford fixed his goggles into place, breathing evenly and steadily as he waited for that most fateful of moments.
Three alarm calls went out, and that was it.
Ford and the others all rushed forward leaping out of the plane into a spread eagle position as they began their 30,000 foot descent to Earth. The moment he hit terminal velocity, Ford's ears stopped hearing anything except for the sound of his own breathing inside his mask as well as the wind flying by his ears. All other outside sound was cut out, and it was an otherwise quiet and heart pounding trip as the layer of clouds below him began to grow larger and larger. They covered the land from horizon to horizon, making it impossible to see the actual Earth beneath him.
As they descended into the layer, they noticed flashes of lightning around them which made most of them nervous. Breaking through the first layer into a calmer break between layers, they reveled in the lack of lightning as they entered the second cloud layer and finally broke through and saw the world below. The city of San Francisco had been turned into a sea of fire in the wake of Godzilla's battle with the MUTO their current height, it was hard to see anything except for the flames and a few skyscrapers, but slowly, bit by bit, Ford began to make out two moving shapes beneath him.
One of the shapes became instantly obvious as the male MUTO with his wings spread and his legs flailing about frantically as the other shape beneath him was slightly obscured. However, it didn't take long for Ford to recognize it as Godzilla. The male was pouncing about on Godzilla's back jabbing him with his claws as the larger creature tried to turn and grab him, but it was no use. Finally though the male broke away as Ford entered his final stretch before the parachute deployment, and Gojira roared in silence as Ford pulled the chord.
The chute flew out and opened in full, catching Ford against it and pulling him up briefly before he began a rapid though steady descent towards the Earth below.
All around him were buildings which were unstable and primed to fall. Ford looked ahead to see what was left of the 555 building as it began to crumble and finally collapse from around its midsection. As it fell, it was right in Ford's path and so he had to divert his trajectory in order to avoid being crushed to death by hundreds, if not thousands of tons of building. The 555 went down, crashing into the ground and leveling all beneath it as Ford looked on and redirected himself back on target with his landing point. His struggles were not over though.
Soon enough Ford felt a mighty wave of wind behind him strike him in the back. He and his chute were pushed forward as the tremendous body of the male suddenly swooped past him. Ford was thrown to the side and his chute nearly collapsed, as the two were tossed aside in the wake of the MUTO's passing. As Ford managed to gain control of his chute, he saw that the male had streaked by in a charge at Godzilla who appeared from around the corner of another large skyscraper. The male's arms were both thrust forward into Godzilla's neck and shoulder, pushing him off balance and sending him falling to the ground with a tremendous thud which shook the Earth as the MUTO continued on his way to circle around and find another new angle of attack.
It amazed Ford that they had been going at it for so long. Neither one of them held a true advantage. The MUTO's size, speed, and ability to fly were a boon to it while Godzilla's size, toughness, and tenacity were a boon to him. They'd been fighting for an hour, whereas most humans could only fight one another unprofessionally for a few minutes before exhaustion set in and one of them had to drop. These monsters were really something, but his admiration for them was short lived as he saw Godzilla rising and beginning to walk in his direction. The massive reptile took no notice of him or his chute, and Ford made a frantic last ditch effort to divert his path down a nearby side street as Godzilla just barely missed catching him on his way back down the road.
Finally, Ford touched ground. He ditched the chute as fast as he could and threw the goggles away as he readied his weapon and watched Godzilla's tail disappear around the corner of the building down a street. Ford jogged through the street for a moment or two before he found his comrades, who had also more or less descended safely to reach the rendezvous point.
"Get to position! Get to position!" The captain of the team called.
"I saw Team One move to the East. Two of our team members didn't make it. I heard bits and pieces on the radio and, snipers on the rooftop are moving into position," said another.
"Here we go, I'm picking up the nuke," said another soldier with a tracking device.
"Which way?" The captain asked.
"One click up the hill," the soldier with the tracking device responded.
"All right, we found the warhead. Let's go! Up the hill, this direction!" The captain of the team ordered.
Together the team took off up the hill towards where the nuke had been located. As Ford jogged along he heard a loud and low grumble from ahead, and he could only hope that was his imagination playing tricks on him. But if life had taught him anything, it was that a mother is never far from her children whenever possible. If what he heard was what he thought, they were in for a very, very rough mission.
As they group progressed, they stopped a few hundred feet away from the source of the signal which had begun to get staticky. Ford knew then and there that it had to be the female. The closer they got, the less reliable the tracker was despite its internal shielding. They all took up cover behind a few cars in the streets as they assessed the situation. The Captain looked to Ford, two fingers pointed at his eyes before pointing them down the road. Ford knew it was a sign to take a look, so he carefully turned around and looked through the shattered windows of the car to see what was going on.
From behind the broken glass, Ford saw a massive claw moving forward before falling to the ground. Along with it was a low and guttural clicking sound which he hadn't heard from the male before during his close encounter on the train. As he looked up, the female's face came into view before she let out an obnoxiously loud and mournful call towards the sky. Ford and the others covered their ears to protect their hearing from the blast of sound, and watched as the female set the last of her eggs into the nest she'd built in the ground beneath her. It was almost sickening to see and hear the sounds of the egg sac on her belly contracting and squishing the eggs into the nest, but the soldiers all swallowed their disgust as the sound of debris hitting the ground behind them caught their attention.
It was their worst nightmare.
Godzilla's tail was floating just above the roofline of the homes and buildings along the street in this section of Chinatown, and it whipped past them overhead with a whooshing noise as the massive creature turned his attention towards the female MUTO. Godzilla knelt down and leaned forward, taking a closer look at what he'd found. Ford backed up into the car in awe of seeing Godzilla this close. At the airport, he'd been a fair distance away but this was a whole new experience. The other soldiers were in a similar state, frozen and dumbstruck by what was looming before them. Godzilla began to lean back, and the soldiers all raced to cover their ears as an Earth shattering roar pierced the heavens and made the Earth tremble beneath their feet.
As Godzilla's roar concluded, the soldiers all turned around, ears still covered, as the female reared up to lock her gaze on Godzilla. She began to rise to her full height, stomping the ground with her two massive front claws as she roared in defiance of the massive reptile and walked forward. Her claw struck the corner of a building on her way sending debris down towards Ford and another soldier who jumped out of harms way just in time to watch the female step over them on her way to engage Godzilla. With the female out of position, the Captain called for them all to get moving. This was their chance to reach the nuke and disarm it before anything bad could happen. They readied their weapons and began running up the hill towards the nest, stopping at the edge as they heard a massive "THUNK" behind them.
Ford turned just in time to see Godzilla biting the female's shoulder and shoving her back into the city beyond the skyscrapers blocking his view. That part of the mission was on Godzilla now, and Ford's primary focus was now on reaching that nuke and disarming it to prevent catastrophe from killing him, his fellow soldiers, and most importantly his family.
"Sarge, take a look at this!" one of the soldiers called out.
"We got to get moving. Do we have a signal yet?" The captain asked.
"We got it… It's down there," the soldier with the tracker said.
The soldiers all took a breath and descended into the nest together. As they came upon a fallen chunk of building with a door in tact, they braced themselves in front of it and broke it down.
"Go! Move, move!" The captain called.
The soldiers all rushed forward as they laid eyes on the nuke. It was suspended in the air, supported by several strands of goop with the female's eggs lined along it. The eggs glowed and flashed as the developing young began absorbing radiation from within the nuke. Given that only around 5% of a nuke's energy upon detonation was radiation while the rest was thermal and concussive force, they young would have to absorb it all now while it was in such a state they could do so with. If the nuke were to go off, there'd be nothing to protect them against the thermal and concussive force left over even if most of the nuke's radiation had been absorbed.
Ford looked on and examined the horde of eggs spread all along the ceiling and floors of the cave area the female had dug for her young, disgusted and fascinated all at the same time. His father's scientific curiosity was rubbing off on him, that was for sure, but he had to banish all such thoughts from his head as he was called back to reality by the Captain calling to his men to open the nuke's access chamber to its detonation timer.
"How much time do we got left?" The captain asked.
"We have 27 minutes!" another soldier responded.
"Let's get this thing down!" The Captain said.
And that is gonna end of the thirteenth chapter for now. So, what did you guys think? Was it cheesy? The next chapter will be the final chapter of the first arc and the second arc will begin soon. So you guys know what to do. Drop those reviews, favourite, and follow.