Chapter 8: Dinner invitation
It was a long way from Hellas, but still close to Hades all the same, the Charon sailed towards the New York harbor area, nothing was out of the ordinary for everyone, save for the early snow in November. The forecast was clear, a long blizzard was coming with the snowflakes being petals of an unrelenting storm of terror and fear.
So far no one batted an eye at the Charon, as far as the eyes can see, it was simply another freighter hauling its loads from somewhere-who-knows-where. The ship came to the Upper New York Bay with all intent and purposes to dock at the harbor, until it suddenly came to a stop in the middle and dropping its anchor, simply staying there for no apparent reasons, for the time being.
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November 3rd, 2026
Lemnos Island, 03:30 Hours
Their arrival had been rather abrupt, it was after all a sudden call for relocation and regrouping. Orders from the very top of Orion Sword prompting Stuka to swim his way to Lemnos Island with Girain following him very closely. Shiryu and Chikiryu were rotated out to the US for the time being, which left her being the sole GDI unit in the area to keep an eye on Stuka. But for her, she felt deep down she could trust him.
The two arrived on the southern tip of Lemnos and waded ashore on a small satellite island of Lemnos where Stuka found various Orion Sword troops and operators from their recent deployment. The Orion Sword fleet was mooring nearby apparently to provide security and support for the troops there.
He went to his normal procedure and locked down his prosthetic legs and simply stood still and begin to transmit his data wirelessly to the fleet's encrypted server farm. Girain noticed how the other Orion Sword operatives were walking around cautiously, trying their best not to get distracted by her presence while others were taking photos of her using their phones or mobile devices. "I suppose that I'm the honored guest?" Girain asked Stuka dryly, to which he nodded gently. "Affirmative, Mr. Grey instructed that I am to escort you to the rendezvous for communication."
"Really now? Sounds like a dinner invitation." She remarked sarcastically only to hear a buzz sound with a caller ID on her HUD, it appeared to be Mr. Grey due to the Orion Sword symbol with a number six superimposed on the logo. She then mentally tapped the answer button and saw Grey conducting a video call to her from his headquarters. He was out of his helmet for once in a while with the elder Caucasian man with seven feet tall stature and Herculean physique apparently busy with shaving his beard.
"Expecting a restaurant?" He asked her sarcastically, apparently taking a moment to play with her sense of humor. "Humor me, know any place that cater to both?" She asked him back giving him a soft chuckle hearing her rather casual manner. "Truly, wisdom can only bring with it humor. I wish but for the time being that will have to wait. We have a mole in our ranks, as you may have figured out. I have an idea who, but yet to have evidence against him." He stated calmly to her which Girain sat down gently, minding her body and the numerous Orion Sword humans around her.
"So you want me to smoke out the mole?" She asked him looking back at Stuka who was still transmitting his data to Orion Sword. Most of which were the knowledge they learned from the Scion of Atlantis so far. "More like cooperation and coordination. No alliances last forever but it's best that we make the most of it no matter how brief. Do you know where did the Lizard Slayers that pestered us the other day come from?"
He saw Girain cocking her head to the side gently while scratching her chin curiously, "Do tell." She retorted, to which he sighed out and began to elaborate while also washing his chin with his hands. "New York." He bluntly replied causing her to nearly shot up. "New York? You think someone in the DoD is trying to off all of us?" She asked hastily, only to see Grey shook his head gently. "No, not quite. The DoD had no records of purchases for these. They already shot down acquisition for these prototypes roughly 15 years ago due to cost overrun."
"Hypothetically, perhaps someone sold it to Jonah to empty their hangar and obtain some forms of compensation for the project's failure?" Stuka asked dryly, prompting Grey to nod to the Rex Unit's rationalization. "Indeed, under the table, out of sight and of mind. Amoral, but still a venture. We found who made it, Natla Technology Inc. Perhaps you've heard of the name in recent news?"
Mr. Grey would then forward to Girain the images of Jacqueline Natla, the CEO of the company who had what appeared to be a rather otherworldly appearance. A snow white albino hair and pretty gem like blue eye color, narrow cheekbones and chin while her skin complex was odd.
Too odd, Girain could tell a person can be Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American by their look alone. But the tanned skin complex of Natla was anything but normal, she appeared to be an odd mix of skin tones ranging from heavy sun tanned brown to Caucasian white. From the looks of her alone Girain can tell she was definitely not human.
"Well beside the fact that she just got married and merged a tech company in New York not a lot to go on. You know her?" Girain asked Grey cautiously only to hear him hum in thought, "I guess not." She sighed out before Grey chimed in on the coms, "I do know her to be an ambitious woman, someone who spearheaded bleeding edge R&D department with particular focus on artifacts and archaeology."
Hearing this prompted Stuka and Girain to look at each other's face before something hit them like a hammer on their heads, it began to make sense now albeit gradually. "She's behind Jonah hounding us!" They gasped out in unison, it was the same conclusion that Mr. Grey had come to as well by the sight of his calm and motionless expression. "Last I heard she was on a honeymoon to Greece. Coincidence? Not one bit." He nonchalantly added, this was becoming a clear stark revelation for all of them as Girain stroke her chin thinking. "You want to knock on her door in New York?"
Grey nodded to Girain, "Precisely. She might be on vacation, but there's plenty of skeletons that one can't get rid of in a short amount of time. I can dispatch my Orion Sword elements to raid her mansion, we'll find something." Girain then added her own to the discussion by bringing up a holographic battle plan showing the area of New York and highlighted the address of Natla's mansion, she saw from satellite images that the mansion appeared to be an old Georgian style mansion with a heavily wooded path up to the mansion.
The estate sat on a hilltop overlooking a Marina bay with a personal dock for private yachts and boats. From the looks of the electrical outlines captured from spy satellites, Stuka and Girain could see that the estate had a massive sprawling underground area beside the basement, there could be numerous other operations going on inside the building that they may not be aware of. "I'd wager that she had sentry turrets beside the usual works. You?" Girain glanced at Stuka, "I'd wager that she would pay for PMCs instead of the regular security contractors."
"Either way, we'd have to expect her to pull every tricks in the book. Do you think the GDI can tolerate boots on the ground on US soil?" Hearing Grey's question gave Girain a moment in thought as she tapped her chin and hummed, her train of thought ran through the possibilities. Grady would tolerate a deployment, provided he has a political cover to break some rules. The other being a need for someone native the New York area that she knew. "I think I know someone who can…"
[hr]
November 2nd, 2026 (Local Time)
Fort Hamilton, New York 20:50 Hours
It was dead at night, the cantina had been cleaned out, the bar was full with alcohol for troops to sip and relax, enjoy themselves for the time being. But bedtime was coming soon so most of them were just relaxing in the lounge area, reading magazines, army approved materials, playing on their Xbox or just reading the letters from their loved ones.
Among these men was one human in particular that Girain had come to know, a Caucasian man with a thick beard on his chin with brown eyes with a standard crew cut on his otherwise bushy as a lion's mane brown ginger head. Nicolas Williams, Sgt. First Class, 29, 75th Army Ranger Regiment 3rd Battalion.
One of those was a selfie he took while sitting on Girain's hand dated 5 years prior. Nicolas appeared to have a triumphant and winning smile on his face while wearing his Rangers combat fatigue; an MICH with a kevlar desert camouflage pixel layer, a standard issued BDU with ACU and combat vest over his uniform with his M4A1 brandished on one hand.
He smirked at the picture, seeing it as fond memories he can always come back to during downtimes, until suddenly his phone rung with an unknown number calling. He recognized it as Girain's private phone number embedded into her system and picked up the phone to answer her. "Hey big girl, what's up?" He asked jubilantly, excited to hear the voice of the GDI's in-house celebrity of sorts.
"Hey Nic, how's New York, did you guys have a family reunion or something?" She asked him casually while Nic chuckled lightly glancing over the shoulder at the window seeing the Brooklyn Bridge and the city's skyscrapers shrouded in snow and clouds. "It's a cold day in hell for that, but we'll have it soon. How have you been? Awfully quiet lately like some communication blackout or something. Lemme guess they're trying to put you on par with Shiryu and his girlfriend Black Ops deployment ability right?"
He heard her chuckled back slightly as well but at the same time he also heard that she was walking indicated by the loud thudding and footsteps she had in the background. "Yeah well you wouldn't believe half of the things that I went into lately to begin with. Anyway, long story short, we got a manhunt Ops in New York. The Aesir Estate on the southwestern hill of town. You know it?"
Nicolas blunk in a moment of confusion and haze, he went out of the lounge for some fresh air and walked out to a portside area where he looked at the far side of town where the Aesir Estate was, the mansion built on a hilltop overlooking the lower Hudson River bay. "Heck yeah I do. Always want a piece of real estate there, anyone in particular?"; "Yeah, CEO Jacqueline Natla of Natla Tech, the one that just got married to the Winter guy. You guys will be pulling security, Orion Sword is doing the door kicking."
The Ranger coughed and nearly hurled out upon hearing how blunt and nonchalant Girain's mentioning of Orion Sword was. As far as he can see it, they were traitors to the US, USSOCOM and JSOC; the mere mentioning of Orion Sword being a participant in a sensitive and delicate op was obviously going to throw him off. "You kidding me? Them? Those bastards backstabbed us girl, did you have memory wipe or something?" He flabbergasted and blurted out confusingly trying to see if this was an out of season April's Fools joke.
"Not kidding Nic, I know it's out of the left field but I've been through some ops lately, both got jumped by Jonah's men equipped with high tech battle walkers MADE by Natla. Me and Orion Sword."; "So we want her head on a fine platter? Alright happy to play the part." Nicolas calmed down momentarily before making his awareness of the walking in the background known to Girain. "Hey uh are you walking somewhere?"; "Yes I am, currently in MEDCOM's turf now, on patrol, something's up, anyway I gotta go now, Grady's handling the politic parts so no worries." Before Nicolas can asked her for more, she hung up hastily leaving him completely overwhelmed with the info dump, he looked back at the phone's surface and blink.
Over by Girain's place somewhere in the Aegean Sea between Hellas and Anatolia, the two were patrolling one of the islands in the areas, Delos, seismic activities in the area suggest that something gigantic has just arrived in the region. Sonar readings on Girain and Stuka's HUDs also showed that feint signs of a colossal terrestrial being was prowling the area.
Deep under the surface, a charcoal black colossus was prowling the water way, swimming around the area of Delos. "Do you think it's Godzilla looking for us?" Stuka asked Girain with his G36KT in hand ready to open fire if necessary to defend himself and Girain. "Could be. Still, there could be other Titans. Positive ID first before firing." Girain instructed to Stuka and he nodded to her. She began to grow frustrated however, gritting her teeth as the signal continue to drop and spike on the sonar. Stuka noticed her twitching grew and knew that something did not bode well for either of them. "You seem to be irritated, something's wrong?" He asked politely while still sounding dull.
"I need a closer look." Girain remarked to him before wading into the water of the Aegean Sea and dive into the abyss to commence her search for the sonar signature she had been detecting. Shocked to see her sudden and rash action, Stuka almost immediately jumped into the Aegean Sea and began to swim after her in an attempt to prevent her from doing anything rash. "Wait! Unit Athena, I caution you against taking rash actions!" Stuka hastily warned her with his voice sounding much more urgent than before.
As he caught up to her however, he saw that the sonar signature that they've been monitoring had become much bigger and more recognizable. He felt an ominous and foreboding presence in the dark murky water of the Aegean Sea. That was when he saw a flickering blue light, followed by a row of pulsing atomic blue light scaring away sharks and other fishes of the Aegean Sea.
"He's here…" He uttered grimacing at the sight. "I know, but for what?" Girain remarked as Godzilla slowly lurched forward from the shadow, still pulsing his dorsal plates as a deterrent against hostile aggressions. Girain noticed that he was aiming at her in particular as he swam up to her and begin to slow down, he moved his head around looking up and down at her body before sniffing and nuzzling his snout against hers lovingly.
"Why is he displaying affection towards you Unit Athena?" Stuka asked confusingly before seeing Godzilla wrapping his arms around Girain and pressed her against the rock and begin to lick her chest. "I kinda helped him with raising Jr. So yeah, he and I are sorta in a relationship but not as much as Gojirin." Girain grunted and purred out synthetically in between her words as Godzilla was casually making out with her and pressed her down on her back and laid on top of her before pulsing his dorsal plates, as if to warn Stuka away from her. "I think he's jealous." Stuka remarked curiously prompting Girain to nod and tapped on his neck and pointed to the surface gesturing him to surface with her.
He nodded and began to let her go allowing room to maneuver as the trio surfaced, with Godzilla maintaining an intimate distance with Girain, as she waded towards the coast of Delos, Godzilla then proceeded to follow her and turned her around to face him. He then pressed her against the rocky cove before nuzzling her again this time with even more intense and passionate love making while Stuka was trying to break through his tail's swinging and swiping to rescue Girain from the King's grip.
"What are you doing here?" She asked Godzilla, mumbling and groaning under his love making as he gave her a moment of pause and stared intently into her beautiful blue sapphire optics. "I was looking for you, I sensed something pulsing, calling to me even. I followed my scent and found you unscathed." He then pressed another kiss on her mouth, forcing his rough leathery tongue into her mouth playing with her synthetic one, she felt tickle and oddly intensely aroused by Godzilla love making. She didn't like it at the moment though as she pressed her hands on his chest and push him back slightly. "Thank you Godzilla but, let's leave the love fest for some other times. Anyway, Stuka and I are busy with the Atlantis thing, we found a second piece of the Scion, still looking for the third."
Godzilla lurched forward and pecked her head gently before rubbing his snout against her forehead and wrapped both hands around her to hug her into his chest, giving a tender embrace. "It's dangerous, so let me go with you, it's better than just leave you on your own." Godzilla rumbled under his breath and licked Girain's metal body, "Alright, I guess I can let you come along. But no rumbling inside the human bases, I need those." Said Girain with a purr and he nodded to her tenderly before letting go.
"Athena come in, we got a bogey in your area heading towards Athens. Speed is 200 knots. Definitely not Mothra over." A GDI radar technician warned her on the coms line. Girain hearing this quickly tapped on her right ear and looked into the sky around her to search for targets. "Direction?"; "Sat intel confirmed it took off from Al Udeid Air Base, we lost contact with the base roughly 3 hours ago."
Disturbed by this, Stuka chimed in on the line and asked for confirmation on the status of CENTCOM's Forward HQ. "Say again GDI radar tech, any idea what happened to it?" Stuka asked bluntly but the radar technician was hesitant to disclose as the Rex Unit and his MFS Unit can be heard humming in the background. "Just tell us what happened." She stated bluntly to which the radar technician sighed out and filled her in, "Alright, we lost contact three hours ago when something massive woke up underground. Probably a Titan, last we got out of the base was a Theater wide alert."
Right at the last statement Girain saw a figure flying in the sky with leather wings flapping about sending gusts of winds over the trio of Godzillians and sent more debris flying around them. But it wasn't Rodan the Fire Demon, no, this thing appeared to be a hybrid. It had a four legged body of a mammal, namely a lion, leathery wings like Rodan with a human face and lion mane. "Bogey sighted and recorded, Orion Central can you run a cross reference check on that Titan?" Stuka forwarded the 5 seconds of video to Orion Sword HQ.
Wallace Barringer himself was on the mobile field HQ of Orion Sword watched the clip and quickly scrambled to find MONARCH database for something that matches with the Titan that Stuka had just sighted. But the moment he noticed Girain taking a head start chasing the Titan, "Stuka, intercept that damn thing!" Barringer shouted over the coms network, his voice filled with urgency. Stuka obeyed obediently and quickly give chase by jumping into the Aegean Sea, causing a colossal splash of water as he swam towards Athens with Girain.
It didn't take the aerial monster long to fly towards Athens and have its wings cause a massive gale blowing over the city lifting vehicles and debris flying. Buildings and houses were reduced to dust and hovels while the monster flew around, circling over the Aegean coast of the port of Piraeus before landing on the city's more modern areas and began to trample buildings and ripping up hotel buildings.
"Any NATO/GDI units in the area, prioritize civilian evacuation, I'll handle the Titan's rampage." Girain's instructed over the coms network, followed by confirmation from the humans as they hastily try to throw together effective barricades only to be blown off whenever they try. "Ma'am, we can't get the civies out of here. That thing is going to throw all of our plans into jeopardy unless you take it out. I'd say you should go gloves off with it." One of the human commanders on the coms called to Girain while huffing out exhaustively at the amount of debris flying around in the area clogging up his views.
"Affirmative I hear you. Let's hope that I won't wreck the entire Akropolis in the process." She grumbled and sighed out as she surfaced at the port of Piraeus with Godzilla and Stuka. The Hellenes were even more terrified at the presence of the King himself as they stampede and trampled one another towards safety of the Attican countryside. The Manticore landed on the Akropolis, leveling the entire ancient ruin of Athens in one go and send shockwave across the land, leveling more and more city blocks and ancient sites of Piraeus.
The King roared intimidatingly at the Manticore challenging the sphinx to a fight with him and the Manticore replied in earnest roaring a ghastly inhuman growl at Godzilla, Girain and Stuka. The trio of Godzillian steel themselves for what was to come as the Sphinx batted its wings and leap into the air, flying down at them, Godzilla charged up his atomic breath and fired a bright blue blast at the Manticore's face only to have it dodged and weaved around his shot, before pummeling its face into his chest and throw him back, causing his shot to take an erect pattern.
"Godzilla!" Girain and Stuka exclaimed in unison and ran for him only to be knocked by the Manticore as it pounced on Girain's back, kicking her forward before pouncing on Stuka, forcing him down on his back. As it tried to viciously claw at him using its claws and teeth, the Rex Unit quickly activated his shoulder cannon and focus fire on the monster's human face and let loose a hail of lead. It blew the monster staggering back and loosen its grip on him before giving him a chance to kick it off of him. "Athena, on your tail." He alerted her, prompting Girain to perform a tail swipe at the monster throwing it flying out at sea.
As Godzilla rose back from the brief tumbling, he saw the Manticore flying back at them this time aiming for Girain and Stuka first and foremost, the King was not going to let his subjects be endangered and quickly put himself in front of the Manticore as it was flying at Girain. He grabbed the monster by its face, slamming it across the piers of Piraeus and wrestle it to the ground, pinning it with both hands keeping it pinned in place.
The Manticore did not tolerate being interfered by the King, it snapped and bite him on his neck, trying to bleed him out as much as possible. The force of its bite however could only tickle Godzilla causing him to stagger backwards a bit giving the Manticore room to fly off again. But this time, Godzilla focused on a leading shot, firing his pulsing atomic breath ahead of the Manticore, hitting it directly in the human face, blowing it out of the sky.
As the monster crash on the ground, the monster slammed its face hard and send out a shockwave blowing debris into the sea and other directions. The result was predictably dust and debris covered the refugees and fleeing civilians of Athens, who were now being rocked by Godzilla's footsteps and the heat and dust akin to a volcano blast causing them to cower and clamor for help from the GDI.
"Is it dead?" Stukas asked cautiously now able to train his weapon on the Manticore as he and Girain fanned out and prowled the beast with Godzilla in the middle moving closer to it to check the monster himself. But as he got closer, the Manticore rose up, head butting his chin only to have him grabbing it by the throat and slam it around repeatedly. "There's your answer." Girain remarked sarcastically as Godzilla pounded the Manticore using what remains of marble stone buildings to blunt and further damaged its face. "Stuka, terminate it will you?" Stuka nodded to Girain's request and took a well placed shot at the Manticore's head, pulling the trigger and with a single shot, blew its brains out leaving Godzilla to glance over his shoulder at Girain and Stuka.
The King sighed out, tired from the battle and let go of the monster's remains and stepped back away from the corpse before sitting down propping himself against the coastal rocks and coves of the Aegean Sea. "Are you alright Stuka? You look pretty mess up." Girain asked him concernedly before kneeling down in front of Stuka inspecting his Rex Unit armor, there were dents, claw marks, scratches, holes and torn parts revealing his charcoal black Godzilla scale underneath.
Stuka was heaving steadily as he felt Girain's palm placed on his left chest where his heartbeat seem to pick up its pace at her touch. The dull and stilted Rex Unit looked up at Girain's face and simply gave his remark in the usual robotic tone. "BDS show that I suffered roughly 25% damage to my armor. I might need repair and maintenance in Orion Sword central, thank you for your concern." Girain nodded but can't seem to stand up and walk away from Stuka, she looked on, scanning his damaged armor and noting whatever little bits of flesh wounds he had. "Unit Athena, considering the circumstances and your cooperation as of late…" He paused for a moment to compose himself causing Girain to grow more curious to what he was saying, "Yes Stuka?" She asked him cautiously, "...Orion Sword has authorized your entry to our base. We'll depart shortly."
She gasped out stunted and appear to have a double take not sure if it was real, the way it sounded seems somewhat plausible on ground of trust but it was still too good to be true. "For real? You're not lying about this, are you?" She asked him urgently while Godzilla was looking at them curious and concern by her reaction. "It is clarified, Orion Sword command Mr. Grey and Joe Marshall have agreed to permit your entry and provide maintenance, technical support. However we must screen you for recording devices and transmission of our base's whereabouts."
Girain nodded understandingly to Stuka and sighed out feeling rather conflicted by what she was offered but must also comply with. She glanced over at Godzilla then back at the ruined city of Athens as well as the GDI forces on the ground helping facilitating the evacuation and housing of Greek refugees after their captial's destruction.
"Alright, I agree to the terms, understandable enough for Orion Sword." hearing her acceptance, albeit reluctant and heavy hearted, Stuka proceeded to hug her tenderly and rubbed his head against her chest. "Thank you for acceptance Unit Athena. Orion Sword is honored to host you for the time being." Girain if she could, she would have smiled back at Stuka, for the time being she pet and stroke him gently while the humans were busy sorting out the mess of Athens.
