Chapter 6: Operation Flashpoint

Three signatures were converging on the Joint Task Force, two surface and one submerged, the submerged veered off from the main group and head out to attack the outer perimeter patrol. The other two were heading full speed towards the island and the GDI fleet protected by Chikiryu.

Shiryu was the first to pick up the odd signature on his sonar with the GDI Virginia-class submarine, the Poseidon, picking up the sonar signature of a massive submersible vessel. "Conn sonar, new contact bearing 182, speed 50 knots. No IFF responses, assume hostile." The sonar operator onboard called out, prompting the captain to order his vessel into battle station. "All hands battle station, I repeat battle station. Load torpedo tube 1 and 4." His crew passed around "Aye captains" and its variants in response as they rushed to battlestation.

Shiryu swam around facing the direction of the sonar contact when suddenly he saw a massive saucer shaped vessel cruising at his direction firing torpedoes at his chest. The torps slammed in and exploded, sending him flying backwards against some underwater mountains. The Poseidon positioned herself facing down the enemy before firing her first torpedoes at the green Lizard Slayer 2 craft. Her Mk48 torps cruised through the water, homing in on the target and made auto adjustments based on magnetic feed backs before detonating on enemy vessel's backside.

Her crew cheered and celebrated their vessel's marksmanship and precision, but was cut short when they saw the enemy vessel was barely dented, not even a scratch as it began to turn around for a second pass.

"Right full rudder!" The captain ordered, prompting the helmsman to turn the rudder right and the Poseidon careened in that corresponding direction. "Poseidon, get out of here and warn the fleet! I'll handle the threat, over and out!"; "Negative son, either we all go home or nobody goes home. Fleet is scrambling but we gotta buy them time even if it kills us." The captain protested to Shiryu sounding rather calm but sternly urgent.

Shiryu thigh holster swung open, giving him instant access to his laser pistol as he swam out to engage the enemy craft, firing his weapon at the enemy Lizard Slayer craft blowing off some chunks of its armor and starboard fin. The Lizard Slayer then fired off a barrage of torpedoes at Shiryu, causing him to perform underwater acrobatic maneuvers to confuse the enemy torpedoes. "Drop countermeasures!" the captain ordered, and the Poseidon deployed her countermeasure devices under water keeping the enemy torpedoes away from Shiryu.

The noisemakers caused the torpedoes magnetic and sonar system to go haywire as two of the 4 torpedoes veered off from Shiryu chasing the noisemakers and detonated harmlessly into the seabed. "Hot damn, you actually kickass, Poseidon can you give me an ammo count?"; "We still have a good six torps ready to go. We also have some TLAMS but they're no good against submersible targets."

"Got it, I'll draw the enemy fire you concentrate on getting those shots count." Shiryu replied before maneuvering himself to a cragged valley under the seabed where the Lizard Slayer shadowed his movements above. It then fired off four torpedoes trying to nail him as fast as possible with Shiryu jugging left and right, weaving through the canyon before breaking upward like an aircraft just as the torpedoes were coming down on him. His movement proved too fast as the torpedoes exploded on the terrain instead, this gave the Poseidon time to return the favor.

She fired her torpedo at the enemy vessel's engine exhaust with the Mk48 being able to find its way towards the target easily, blowing out one of the exhaust ports. The Lizard Slayer attempted to maneuver away from the killzone realizing too late that it was now in the killzone of the Poseidon. But as it was fleeing, Shiryu opened his mouth plates and pulsed his dorsal plates. The cyborg's spine glow his signature blue atomic energy and he fired off the blue atomic breath at the enemy craft's top side. The ray proved powerful enough to put a dent and seriously damaged the vessel's neck to the point of severing the cockpit from the rest of the hull.

"Chiki, come in, I just busted an enemy craft with the Poseidon. Her crew just spent some torps but we got the enemy vessel, you got anything on your end?" He heard static for a moment from his broadcast before receiving Chikiryu's voice's coming through. "Oye pendejo, we're under all out assault here. Whoever those bastardos are, they are seriously well armed! Get your cojones over here and help me now!"

Her Hispanic voice came through to him like a hammer hitting his head when he heard that she was under attack, he flabbergasted and then quickly zipped over to her direction on the East side of the island. "Oh God don't worry I'm coming, reinforcements on the way!" Lizard Slayer 1 and 3 were still in the fight and they were marching on the Joint Task Force position on land and sea.

Out at sea, Lizard Slayer 3 was cruising about firing its cannon and missiles on Chikiryu, some rounds hit her armor directly but did not penetrate while the missiles were swatted down from the sky by Chikiryu's atomic breath. A move she learned from Godzilla himself and his mate Gojirin. She instead returned the favor with her 870 MCS-T shotgun firing high power flechette pellets at the hover tank's armor. Predictably she dealt some damage to the tank, blowing off its armor pieces and but the vehicle remain combat effective.

While they were busy fighting, Lizard Slayer 1 was making its landfall on the island, slipping through the defensive net of both the GDI and Orion Sword and began to wreak havoc on the GDI and Orion troops its pilot caught in his sight. The red chicken walker fired off its missile and cannon shells on the desperate infantrymen, sending them flying to their own demise.

Some of the GDI AT sections bravely held the ground, firing off Javelin ATGMs at the enemy mecha walker, the synchronized assault by the ATGMs did their share of damage, popping off some portions of armor on the Lizard Slayer while then the Orion Sword Anti Tank specialists utilized their feared armor piercing rounds in their Barrett M95 rifles and McMillan TAC-338 Lapua Magnum rounds or their Finnish made Sako TRG rifles.

The synchronized sniper firing by Orion Sword picked off some of the antennas, bolts on the hull and damaged the joints of the walker's legs. Causing the mecha unit to limp around trying to blast up the sniper nests with its massive cannon and missile. Shiryu at that moment emerged from the sea and glide on his belly to the sandy shores of the island, causing the Orion Sword operatives to disperse in panic seeing him coming so suddenly and so close to their position.

"Watch it, Corsair! We're danger close here." One of the Orion Sword trooper warned over the radio, "Shut up and get out of here asshole! You traitors mind raped me!" Shiryu shouted back aggressively causing the Orion Sword operatives to cringe and hobble away with a loud bell ringing in their heads.

The enraged Rex Unit quickly aimed his laser pistol at the cockpit of the Lizard Slayer 1 and opened fire, only to have the enemy dashed aside into the densely wooded area of the island. His shots missed and now he had to circle and prowl the enemy mecha unit, thankfully being a giant meant that stealth and subtlety was off the book with how it knocked down trees just by moving around. Shiryu simply continued his shooting and blew off the Lizard Slayer's missile racks leaving it with the cannon to use.

The Lizard Slayer pilot then suddenly slammed into Shiryu's chest and fired his shot blowing the Rex Unit rolling backwards, knocking down more of the island's forest and sliding to a screeching halt towards the ruins. In his wake was a massive trench that the Lizard Slayer set up by planting its legs down on either side of the trench, its cannon was now aiming at Shiryu's chest ready to fire again despite him suffering only minor shock dents.

However as it was charging up ready to fire a vain shot, one of Orion Sword's stealth USS Freedom LCS-Frigate mooring off the coast unveiled a forward facing pod, from which a black and red laser turret was revealed. The weapon charged up its shot and calibrated trajectory while aiming at the enemy mecha unit that was facing down Shiryu. Guided by Orion spotters and JTAC operators on shore, they fired off a high energy laser shot at Lizard Slayer 1.

The shot ripped through the hull of Lizard Slayer 1 and left the mecha nothing but a burning husk as it collapsed to the ground and exploded into a flaming wreck. "Good hit Skadi. Good hit, I see a lot of secondary from here." Said one of the Orion JTACs while Shiryu stood up and shook the dirt and debris off of him. "Yeah… good shot, target confirmed kill." Said Shiryu with a shudder as he looked away from the flame towards where Chikiryu was.

He saw that despite being able to deal some damages to the third LS, Chikiryu was apparently playing with her prey like a sadistic cat. Assisting her was the whole GDI's Fleet Naval and Air assets with their carrier borne F-35s and F-18s taking off and fired off their guided weapons on the enemy giant hover tank. Other GDI vessels like the Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers and Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers firing off their Harpoon ASMs from miles away and streak towards the Lizard Slayer's hull from multiple angles, the missiles slammed into the hover tank's sides and damaged its hover engines, leaving the vehicle dead in the water.

This gave Chikiryu the moment to stomp on its top and aim down its cockpit at point blank range, she can see the little human pilot squirming and squealing inside begging to be spared, only to be blasted into oblivion by her flechette pellets. She reloaded her pump action Remington 870 MCS-T, and fired another shot at the hover tank and another blowing its hull apart until the vehicle was nothing but slags and wrecked portions falling off.

Shiryu shuddered at the sight of Chikiryu's aggressive tendencies and felt a reminder that she was the dominant one in their relationship. So too the Orion Sword operators who either shrugged at the mildest and visibly disturbed at worst. "This is Overlord, give me a SitRep over." General Grady chimed in on the line having watched everything from his command post onboard the USS ARGO.

"Shiryu, here, all clear so far, we took some casualties on land but hostile forces are neutralized. Losses are being counted."; "Santa Muerte here, the bastardo got their asses whop but where did they get these things? They dented Rexy and my armor!" Chikiryu grumbled aggressively on the coms network making the Orion Sword operators cringed and shuddered while General Grady didn't seem at all fazed by her comments. "I hear you Santa Muerte, over. Set up security, make sure nothing else kick our asses."

Lenox himself back in his base with Joe were watching with growing concerns however. Knowing that if the enemies somehow obtained vehicles and mecha units that can damage and dent a Rex Unit in combat as have been shown, it is only a matter of time before scratches and dents become fatal wounds or fatalities.

"Overlord, have Corsair and Senorita Santa Muerte gather up pieces and salvage those remains. I think our Orion Sword specialists can figure out their origin." Grey suggested to Grady over the coms watching intensely with Joe as the two squinted their eyes watching as the two Rex Units on the surface were busy pulling together the burning husks of the Lizard Slayers by the edge of the ruins allowing Orion Sword to inspect the remains while the GDI were busy gathering their dead and wounded to make a headcount of how many were lost. So far, they counted 25 wounded, another 10 were dead, more to come.

[hr]

Deep down in the dark caverns underground Stuka and Girain felt the battle waged over their head and were cautious at moving any further until told otherwise. So far they had secured all the keys and unlocked the gate. But were cautious not to move any further along until they had a report from the surface.

Girain left behind some chemlights on the ground marking the routes they have explored already and with Stuka dialing the radio channels, hearing various static laced sounds while struggling to call anyone on the line, until Mr. Grey's voice penetrated the static and converse with them. "Athena, Stuka, we just sustained an enemy assault on the Task Force's position. From the looks of it, it's probably Jonah and his crew again. This time they got three, I repeat, three mecha units that can take on Corsair and Santa Muerte. We got 'em though, just don't celebrate just yet, it ain't over till the Fat Lady sings."

Hearing this both Girain and Stuka gasped in shock and and rumbled in anxiousness as Girain was the first to ask her question. "What about Shiryu? Is he alright? What's the extent of the damage?" She asked him with an audibly concerned and urgent voice. "Dent armor, slightly scratched but still operational. Overall I'd say he's still pretty functional but I doubt this is the end of it."

"Sir, if Unit Corsair and Santa Muerte can be damaged or at least dented by these hostiles, we may have to deploy the others to give us additional back up." Stuka asked concernedly but in the process accidentally disturbed Girain even more and perhaps frightened her more than the monster they've slain and the booby traps they've waded through so far. "Affirmative Stuka. I hear you. Although I might have to do some cleaning soon around the premises, I smell a rat." Said Grey with Stuka nodding in agreement, "Affirmative sir, we'll continue the operation from here. We'll keep you posted." Said Stuka before he then looked at the opened gate and took point for Girain.

"I should have known that there would be more of you guys lying around." Girain remarked sarcastically with a sigh as she walked behind Stuka. "We were developed simultaneously, ten Rex Units equally divided into two Fireteams. Command structure is WIP." He remarked dully to her before the two reached a massive chasm with what appeared to be yellow bioluminescent plant life in the coral reefs below. This suggested that they may have wandered to a Hollow Earth entry point or in close proximity to one.

Stuka glanced over his shoulder at Girain, seeing that she was keeping her sword in its scabbard and her shield hung on her back. "Are you ready?" He asked to which she nodded to him. "Affirmative, let's get this done." The two would then wade into the underwater chasm before submerging themselves underwater and swam into what appeared to be a cistern and underground water canal system.

All of the structure were made of stone with hieroglyphic carvings and depictions of the Godzillian fighting Ghidorah in the forms of the Hydra with the Godzillian in question apparently wore some types of armor suit with sword and shield in hand harnessing the thunder and lighting of Ghidorah and threw it back at him. "Rick, Sam, you guys see this?" Girain asked as she swam slowly allowing the two MONARCH specialists to observe the finding. "Yeah we're seeing it, and believing it, aren't we?" Stanton remarked sarcastically before whistled when he saw one depiction showing Atlantis in its golden age.

"Sam, just how feasible is the structural design of Atlantis? Is it possible to replicate it now?" Rick asked nervously as his teeth began to gnash upon each other uncontrollably as Girain and Stuka swam further down the cistern. "If we have Venetian architects, then yes." Coleman quipped prompting Stanton to chuckle lightly along. But the most interesting thing he noticed was how the shape of the aqueduct was designed in a Hexagonal shape with the dimension being for a full grown Godzilla to swim through.

Further down were various corals and bioluminescent plant life that glow and illuminate the path ahead organically for them while Stuka slowed down to observe the strange prehistoric plant life grown and took up residents with so little light. Some of the marine life there, scarce in number were apparently bioluminescent as well. His presence also help light up the place even more with his dorsal plates pulsing with nuclear energy, flashing blue and shine his way forward for Girain to follow. "Unit Athena, I think we are close to the hypothetical tomb, there are natural lights above us." He pointed upward and gestured for her to surface with him.

As they surfaced however, they saw that the place was like the tomb in Vilcabamba had a massive entryway for them. A double door made from bronze possibly dating back to the bronze age stood firm before them flanked by two enormous centaur statues. Oddly enough, Girain spotted what appeared to be a snake scale on the wet stone ground. She picked the scale up to scan, her HUD ran diagnostics and preliminary forensic testing with laser scans. That was when her data entries kicked in showing a 45% match to Ghidorah. She blunk in concern and dropped the scale from her hand in fear as she walked with Stuka.

"Is the snake scale concerning you?" Stuka asked her bluntly. "Yes," She nodded and began. "It was 45% match with Ghidorah based on MONARCH archive entry." Her reply left Stuka with some apprehension in mind as he nodded to her before pushing the doors open and walked into the tomb with her. "I'll watch our backs. We may have to leave soon." He knelt down by the ante chamber of the tomb and trained his G36KT on the doorway in case something or someone to come at them. His additional weapon was a shoulder autocannon that quickly flipped on with its double barrels scanning for targets.

Girain nodded to him and went further into the tomb where she found the Godzillian remains, a heavily decomposed and bare bone corpse lying inside a heavily ornate crypt made of stone, it appeared that the Godzillian made his own proverbial bed before lying in it. Girain found that beside the worn Hoplite armor and heavily disheveled helmet that seen battle scars, this Godzilla was a warrior judging by the scar on his left eye.

On the wall, however, was the real treasure, Girain took a look at the wall painting and saw depictions of a city with towering structures and pyramids standing on hilltops overlooking a massive harbor and drydock where massive fleets were constructed. Around it were three Godzillas standing as noble guardians. Its people flourish in imagery depicting them spreading far and wide to distant lands. Then came the cataclysm, a disaster from the sky, fire rain down on the city with a massive meteorite crashing into the city, from that same meteorite came the three heads of Ghidorah.

"Is anybody seeing this? It's our history, and we call these myths." Girain stated astonished by the wall painting and proceeded to take photos of each and everyone of them, forwarding them to Stuka and Overlord on the USS ARGO before looking at the crypt's resident. The Godzillian was apparently clutching at something, another piece of the Scion, similar to the one she and Stuka already found in Peru.

The albino cyborg picked the Scion fragment up and handed it to Stuka who then inspected it carefully, seeing the glow it had and he knew that it had something to do with the piece they were carrying. His left thigh compartment flipped open revealing the first Scion piece and picked it up. As he hovered the two pieces over one another, he saw them collapsed on to each other with electric sparks flying out of the fusion of the two pieces.

The fusion of the pieces caused the Scion to send them into a spiraling vision, same as before but this time they saw with better clarity than the last, they saw the slender visage of a woman on top of a pyramid. Her wrists were chained up along with her ankles, suspended with the Qualopec and Tihoucan standing in front of her spouting off accusations and outrage. "For what you've done, you will be condemned to exile and entombed in ice for eternity!" Tihoucan shouted before what appeared to be a pod sealed up the prisoner inside. The vision was soon gone leaving them to contemplate and piece it together by themselves.

"You saw that Stuka? Did you make out anything of that prisoner they were punishing?" Girain asked Stuka confused and shook her head trying to throw off feelings of suspicion. "Negative, force fed imagery was over too soon. I could not make out the details." He replied blankly. The two would then exited the tomb to find their way back up to the surface, however, as they went out of the crypt's entrance, Girain noticed the water rippled.

She could tell that someone or something else beside them was prowling nearby but not sure what. As she and Stuka waded into the water and began to swim away, she noticed that current around them apparently had a divergent from when they first entered the area. "Stuka, I don't think that hole was there when we first came in." Girain noted, pointing him to the odd gaping hole on the wall with rough circular edges around it. "I hear you. This wasn't around when we originally traverse through. My sonar picked up something large prowling the area. Possible predator in the region."

His words were proven portent when Girain's own sonar picked up the very same signature. The creature prowled the water, seemingly gigantic but instead of having a single head, her sonar and his picked up its multiple heads, seven of them in fact. Seeing this alone was enough to alert Girain and Stuka to get out of the area faster, Stuka slipped out of the massive hole first followed by Girain. But as they left crypt, the hunter soon revealed itself to them and it was a sight to behold; with seven serpentine heads, scales black as night under the sea floor and eyes red as glowing crimson gems, the Hydra lurched forward with its forearms trying to snap at Girain.

She flinched and swam away from it with Stuka breaking off trying to distract the Hydra, he opened his mouth plate and fired off a blue atomic ray at the Hydra's chest. His shot was unfortunately dodged by the serpentine creature that avoided his attack by swimming upward and weaved its heads out to confuse his aiming. Girain quickly fired her Absolute Zero Cannon at the beast, hitting it in the chest and made pushed it aside before it can pounce on Stuka.

"Thanks for the help, let me try popping off its heads." Stuka remarked before switching his shoulder mounted autocannon on and synchronized his targeting software with the cannon. With 3 heads chosen, he opened fire on the Hydra with the bullets traveling at lower velocity underwater and slammed into the Hydra's faces, blowing off bits and portions of its flesh. "Targets confirmed hit, stand by for BDA." He stated blankly only to see the Hydra's damaged heads lurching at him ferociously.

They snapped and bite, some of the head managed to catch him by his prosthetic legs and right wrist, he saw them being too close for comfort, and opted to fire off his atomic breath, blowing back the Hydra and destroyed 4 of the heads. But much to his horror, the monster did not waver after being blown back, it instead wiggle with the long serpentine necks began to flail around having flesh cocoons developed on its charred wounds. Like Ghidorah, the heads began to regenerate but instead of precisely one per neck, they split and multiply like the old saying "One head cut off, two more shall its place".

Even Lenox and Joe were stunted by the development, the mutation and literal mythical characteristics were too obvious to ignore, seeing a bad engagement, Lenox grabbed hold of the headset built into his helmet and chimed in on Stuka and Girain. "Athena, Stuka, get out of there, you can't handle that thing on your own!"; "No need to ask twice, just get us some support! Any support!" Girain replied before grabbing Stuka by his arm and pulled him along, wading ashore to the island with the Hydra hot on their tails.

"What the hell is that?" One of the GDI servicemen exclaimed incredulously seeing the massive wyrm monster wading ashore, "I don't know but I don't like to find out! We ain't Hercules!" A nearby Orion Sword operative replied as they began to once again scramble for cover trying to get away from the Hydra as it breath out noxious fumes from its mouth causing the nearby forest to wither and die.

Seeing this, the GDI and Orion Sword troops quickly scrambled to get their NBC suits and gas masks on, "Gas gas gas! We're being gassed by a fucking Hydra!" a GDI Engineer shouted over the coms as he put on his gas mask and NBC insulation suits. The Orion Sword troops had the NBC protection on by default thanks to their high tech combat suits being made from scratch to be insulation suit with a standard issued vest over it. Their ballistic face masks simply drew forth and insulated their faces with easy to put on breathing apparatuses.

"Oh dios mios, what the hell is that puto!?" Chikiryu gasped in shock seeing the towering serpent was that slithering towards her and Shiryu and was prompted to use her shotgun on the monster's face. Her shots pierced the hides of the serpent's heads, blowing bits and chunks of flesh along with some teeth.

But the monster did not relent, it continued slithering, now zig zagging left and right to dodge her shot and once she ran out of pellets and it was lunging at her in close range. "Aww hell no, get away from her!" Shiryu slammed into the side of the Hydra, pushing it away from her only to have its tail wrapping him up in its coils.

"Shiryu!" Girain gasped out in shock seeing her surrogate brother being harmed, she quickly draw her sword and ran towards the monster, instead of slashing it, she shield bashed the Hydra's heads stunning it immediately. Upon landing and causing a minor quake, she then impaled the beast's heart with the electrified blade electrocuting the Hydra before it tail slapped her across her face.

"Athena, I need your shield support." Stuka stated as he unsheathed his tonfa blades and made a sprint across the sandy beach. Seeing him coming Girain nodded and crouch down with her shield held up as a platform for him to step on. He hopped into the air using her shield as a platform and crossed his arms before his chest. His tonfas now became razor sharp wings as he collapse on the Hydra, tearing apart its heads in one fell swoop.

"Now! Focus fire on the Hydra's necks!" Girain ordered everyone to pour everything they had, which they did, opening fire with incendiary, napalm and high explosive rounds on the Hydra's exposed necks. The flame cauterized the wounds preventing the serpent from regenerating its heads, but it remained active and possibly alive. Seeing this, Girain started to realize something from mythologies, the Hydra was killed Herakles using a massive boulder crushing its every fibers to the point of mush. She needed something to crush it, or at least to evaporate it from existence.

That was when she looked at her sword, still crackling with thunderbolts and electricity, she saw that the Hydra was slithering and flailing aimlessly around trying to have its heads regenerated desperately. "I have to end this. Once and for all." She panted out before running straight towards it with her sword still tight in hand. The albino cyborg slammed the blade's tip right into its heart and drove the length of the sword penetrating the serpent's hides and buried deep inside its body's organs. The blade crackled electricity tearing apart the heart and organs of the Hydra leaving it to flail and screech in dead silence. The heads twitch around along with the body before finally falling down dead from being electrocuted and overloaded in the process.

The trio of Rex Units who watched this were awed and stunted by what had transpired, they had no frame of reference to relate to or describe what went down, only camera footage and recorded audio transcripts can tell the tale for them. "Looks like you got that sonuvabitch, nice job Athena, I got some RTBs ready for you guys. Get to the beach and we'll take you to Athens, you guys just earn that vacation." General Grady spoke over the coms with Girain nodding to his words exhaustively while she arched her head to the sky, "Affirmative on that Overlord. Heh, you actually picked Athens for me?" She asked sarcastically, "I can neither confirm nor deny it." He remarked dryly, prompting her to laugh back gently with a low rumble. "Thanks anyway, we'll be there."