Agents of Monarch
By H.R.C. Stanley
Philippe Roache
Date of Birth: 30th July 1948
Nationality: France, Spain, Morocco
Monarch Activation: 5th March 1977
Occupation: Secret Serviceman
Areas of Expertise: Surveillance, special operations
Education: Collège de France
Background:
Born in Morocco to Spanish parents who had moved to North Africa to find work and escape Francoist Spain, he learned Spanish from his parents, and Arabic and French growing up in Morocco. At the age of 17, he moved to France, where he studied various fields of science and eventually served in the French Army, which was mandatory after his family gained its French citizenship. He was soon enough recruited into the ranks of Monarch by Dr Eiji Serizawa and Houston Brooks.
In 1998, Philippe was assigned by Monarch and the French government to help "clean up a mess" the country had made as the result of supposedly nuclear testing in French Polynesia back in the late 1960's. This nuclear bomb test was claimed to have spawned a new giant monster that had matured, over the next 30 years and was wreaking havoc across the ocean. Philippe and his team of secret servicemen were first sent to investigate the sinking of a Japanese fishing vessel. Only one crew member survived, albeit traumatised and heavily irradiated, and so Philippe went to interview him and calmly asked him what he saw. The man replied only the name "Gojira" several times.
Afterwards, Philippe went to Jamaica posing as an insurance agent to get close to the wreckage of a ship that had been pulled ashore by the monster. When the monster came ashore in New York, Philippe and his team set up their operations there, monitoring the creature's movements and the United States military's handling of the situation. Eventually, Philippe abducted scientist Niko "Nick" Tatopoulos, who was studying the creature, and brought him to their base of operations. Nick stressed that the monster, now dubbed "Godzilla" by the American media, had laid eggs somewhere in the city and that they would soon hatch. Along with Nick, Philippe and his team tracked the creature's movements under the city, and eventually found its nest inside Madison Square Garden, where it had laid hundreds of eggs. The eggs soon hatched, and the Baby Godzillas saw the human intruders as prey. Philippe and the others fled from the Baby Godzillas, but the other members of Philippe's team were killed one by one.
Eventually, Philippe and Nick encountered Nick's ex-girlfriend, Audrey Timmonds, and her cameraman, Victor "Animal" Palotti, who had come into the Garden to get footage of Godzilla's nest. Using broadcasting equipment in the building, Audrey broadcast live footage of the Baby Godzillas to all of New York, warning about what would happen if they broke out. Colonel Hicks, the leader of the US military's task force against Godzilla, ordered the Garden to be destroyed and warned Philippe and the others to escape beforehand. Philippe and the others successfully escaped the building before it was destroyed by a missile strike, destroying Godzilla's nest and all of his offspring.
However, all wasn't yet well as the adult Godzilla rose from under the streets and saw the ruins of his nest next to Philippe and the other humans. Enraged, Godzilla chased them across the city. Philippe hijacked a taxi cab and drove away from Godzilla with Nick and the others as passengers, and at the military's urging lured the beast onto the Brooklyn Bridge, where it was entangled in the suspension cables. With Godzilla helpless, the military sent three F-18 Hornets to attack the beast, bombarding it with missiles until it collapsed and died. His mission successful, Philippe bid farewell to his new allies and slipped away in the crowd.
The following year, in 1999, he was called over to Janjira and the Philippines to look over the aftermaths that've occurred there, and assist Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham in establishing a containment facility around the MUTO cocoon laid in the wrecked factory. Several years later, he was then assigned to taking charge of Outpost 68 in Volubilis in his birth country of Morocco, where Titanus Baphomet resided. However, in 2019, Baphomet was awakened by the call of Monster Zero, and broke free from beneath the outpost. Surviving this sudden outbreak, Philippe is currently leading his squad in pursuit of the Titan, who seems to be heading towards the man's city of birth, Casablanca...
To be continued...
