Chapter 5: The Dog Fight Above Hokkaido; a Second Rodan Appears
Wednesday March 24th, 2:02 p.m.
G-Force Base outside of Kyoto
The lad Michael sat before a computer in the one dormitory of the base with his monitor flanked by incalculable amounts of papers, folders and documents. As of now, the team was hot on the job, working frantically to get their work done and to try and come to some new conclusions about the Rodan. They had been sent information only a few minutes ago by the JSDF, who had attained it nearly immediately after the kaiju had flown off from Sergeant Major Shogo Kawakita's attack. Every member of G-Force was in some way tasking over the Rodan, working desperately to find some kind of new data on it for their research and to possibly aid the Japanese Government and all branches of its military. By now Michael was typing at amazing speeds on Microsoft Word for his computer, putting in writing a start-off report for the work he was completing and from the information that had been given to him. The lad's fingers were almost starting to callus from his rapid typing, and in the process he made quite a few spelling errors, though nothing spell-check couldn't fix up by the time he was finished.
"Hey I'm done with my stuff, anyone else got anything finished yet, or anything particularly interesting or significant?" Eric asked aloud as he entered the room where Michael and Takao were. Takao spun around in his chair and faced Eric.
"Yeah, from all the stuff I had to make do with I found that the Rodan's hide is as strong as ever. It managed to withstand barrages of missiles and Type 74 tank shells without a single scratch on it. And the dang thing took the assault for nearly 3 minutes straight so it seems. Then add to the fact that it managed to break out of a rock mountain with just a lil help kinda says straight out this Rodan has some great strength" the Japanese man affirmed. Eric nodded.
"Good, how 'bout you kid?" he inquired then as both he and Takao looked at the boy.
"Well, more stuff that shows that this is quite the monster. It's able to fly at speeds of near Mach two point five, has a wing-span of nearly one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty meters, and then stands at about sixty-six meters, somewhere near two-hundred and twenty feet tall" Michael answered, not turning to look at them but instead setting up for his report to print out. Upon hearing what the boy said, Eric's expression slightly distorted with uncertainty.
"What? You're joking right?" the man stated. Michael's body froze for a second, and soon the child slowly turned in his chair, eyeing Eric questionably
"Why would I?" he shot back. Eric took a pause as Takao looked up at him seemingly curious.
"Because…the Rodan that attacked in the later fifties was only one hundred and sixty-four feet tall, and his wing span was just about one hundred and twenty meters. Then his top speed was only near mach one point five. Those stats for this new Rodan are completely different from the old one..." young man explicated. As an aura of perplexity and slight disbelief began to fill the room, Takao's eyes began to widen.
"Then…that would mean, this Rodan might be…" he began to say in an almost worried tone, before Amy and Akira suddenly dashed into the doorway.
"Hey guys, come quick, we just got some new photos of the Rodan, completely clear" Amy declared.
"Yeah, and I got some other crazy stuff, you guys aren't gonna believe this…" Akira appended to the proclamation. With that Takao, Michael and Eric began to follow behind the two, running down the hallways as Eric murmured something.
"Why do I have a feeling we will..." Soon the group came to another dormitory, with a large plasma-screen monitor on the one wall, with a large picture of the Rodan flying in the air, revealing a good deal of its body. Michael's eyes widened.
"Holy cow! That thing looks nasty!" the lad exclaimed. Akira gave a smug look as he walked over to it.
"That's nothin' though, the main thing is that it's completely different in appearance from the old Rodan. Look, the color of its body is now a sepia instead of a henna, it has a crown of horns on its head, a longer beak and obviously sharper and bigger talons" the large man spoke as he pointed all around the picture.
"Hey you're right! And I managed to find that its wingspan is much bigger than the old one, and that it's taller too" Michael then added.
"Man, the thing's all around dissimilar from the one in the fifties. What's goin' on?" he inquired. Amy seemed to know something, and looked almost reluctant to assert it.
"Well…here's a possible answer…" she began as she changed the screen to a map of mid-Asia to eastern Europe, with several red arrows pointing all over, starting from Japan. "When the Rodans escaped their underground cavern and flew around the Earth, one of them took a route to the Artic and stayed there for two days it seemed, while the other kept on attacking. Then later, one of them seemed to hide up in Hokkaido, while the other one attacked also. So, while the world focused on the attacking ones only, they missed that one was oddly absent for four days" as Amy went on, the arrows that were pointed to northern Japan and the Artic changed to a yellow hue. "One of these areas is where the Rodan emerged, so it might be possible that another will or has come out from the Artic. But this would only imply that…" Everyone in the froze seemed to tense up, and tears of sweat rolled down some of their faces as they became petrified.
"The Rodans now are the originals' offspring…" Takao finished off in a semi-audible tone. Eric's eyes intensified, and he quickly then bolted out of the room.
"I'm gonna go call the Prime Minister, this is serious stuff, even if it's just a guess he should know all of this. We gotta get back to work, God knows what else we haven't discovered yet!" the young man instructed, and the rest of G-Force went off to their jobs as Eric made his way down the hallway.
2:34 p.m.
Skies above Hokkaido
The ten F-4EJ Phantom II Jets soared through the clouds at great speeds of Mach 2. They had left the Hokkaido JSDF base only a few minutes ago, and were on course to intercept the Rodan and attempt to take it out with their mighty rockets and machine guns. Clouds hovered everywhere in the sky, making the entire area like one giant blanket of white almost. But the group flew on, flying through the firmament as they began to near the oncoming Rodan. The leader of the squadron picked up his radio microphone, and pressed the speaker button.
"This Captain Kanryu Takani, Sergeant Major Shogo, the monster has appeared on our radar screens and is flying towards us. It is about five thousand meters from us, do we have permission to attack?" he asked. On the other side of the wire, Kawakita stood in the control center by Misato, holding the speaker there in his hands as he watched the screen before him with a video from the one plane's point of view.
"Yes you do captain, you're in charge of the operation now, fire when ready" the Sergeant Major stated.
"Right sir" Kanryu replied, "Alright men, the object is getting closer. Everyone use your machine guns first, lets try and save our missiles for when we need them"
"Captain, the monster is now three thousand five hundred meters from us" another pilot explained on the radio.
"Yeah, and it's coming at us at speeds higher than ours" one added. Captain Kanryu looked shocked.
"What!? Incredible! There's, there's no way! Darn it, men get your guns ready and fire when I give the order!" Takani yelled. Up ahead of the group then, the Rodan was finally spotted, a large brown object speeding at them creating huge winds that tore apart the clouds upon passing by. "Fire!!" Kanryu shouted. In that instant, ten twenty millimeter guns opened fire at the Rodan, sending streams of bullets flying at the giant kaiju. Almost all either missed the beast or instead stopped their advance before they got to it, but a few salvos struck the Rodan's hide, though merely smashing in upon it and creating small puffs of smoke, not leaving a single mark on its skin. Though even with the futile weaponry, the jets continued firing their machine guns, trying desperately to blindside the soaring monster with the endless amounts of bullets. As it neared, more began to hit it, but even then they either bounced off his skin or broke apart upon it, only making it flinch when large barrages of it struck its face, and still those were barely even flinches anyways. With a loud cry of fury, it picked up speed, soaring at the F-4EJ Phantom II Jets at speeds a bit over Mach 2.5. The planes all continued to fire, but the Rodan came on strong, and Captain Kanryu began to feel very worried. "Everyone, evasive maneuvers!" he cried out on the radio. The flying kaiju soared at them, and all of the jets tried to turn away in time to escape. Nearly everyone did, but there were two that didn't quite dodge in time, and in a display that could boggle any mind, the Rodan passed over them, and with the intense speed from its flying the winds and slipstreams tore apart the jets, steel coatings and all before the two exploded.
"Good Lord! Captain, I just read on my one speed detector that the thing was flying at speeds a little over mach two point five!" one of the pilots affirmed on the radio. The group of now eight flew on, and Kanryu gritted his teeth.
"Darnit!" he spat, "alright men, we'll turn soon and make another pass. Jets one through four, open fire again with the machine guns. Jets five, six and seven, you three and I will start firing off those cluster rockets. Everyone ready!?"
"Aye!" the remaining seven pilots responded, and the jets turned around in mid-air, beginning their advance back at the Rodan as it also changed its course, flying towards the planes.
"Fire!!" Takani yelled. Four jets unleashed another 'spray' of bullets upon the Rodan, whatever hitting doing no damage to it once again. The other four shot off rounds of missiles, large ones that sounded like they were exploding even when just being fired. The barrages soared at the Rodan, many breaking apart or exploding in mid-air, many missing, while quite a few still detonated on its hide, some creating large explosions while other making large clouds of smoke. The Rodan squawked angrily, not from pain, but again agitation by the many rockets zipping past it and exploding all around it. The combination of cluster missiles and twenty millimeter machine guns proved fruitless though once more, not stopping its flight at them for a second time. This time it came at them so fast they barely had any time to evade the oncoming, but lucky for the rest of them, the Rodan focused its strength on only two jets, completely destroying them with a powerful swipe from each of its deadly talons. It squawked again, letting the flying steel objects know it was the dominant creature here in the skies.
"Don't go down yet guys, there's still six of us, let's take this God-dang monster out!" Kanryu rallied on in a strong voice. And turning again as the other jets followed.
"How are ya out there Takani?" Sergeant Major Shogo Kawakita suddenly asked over the radio.
"Not the best, but not the worst. We've lost four jets so far, and the machine guns seem to have no effect. So far none of the missiles that hit did any damage, but we'll give it another shot and see if they work now" Captain Kanryu responded.
"Well don't be stupid Kanryu, if it seems to be too much to handle, get yourself and your remaining men outta there and come back to the base" Kawakita explained. The Captain of the jets narrowed his eyes as he moved further with his jet, flying faster now and soaring towards the oncoming Rodan.
"Negative sir, I'll make sure this darn thing goes down, even if I die…" he stated, and then pulled the triggers on his controls, unleashing another bombardment of missiles as the other six jets did also. The same exact thing repeated though, unfortunately. Explosions ripped all around it, many rockets striking its body, but not a single blast in any way damaging the Rodan. "Keep on firing men! Don't stop!!" Kanryu commanded as he pressed on with the assault.
"Right sir!" one of the pilots replied, and the six jets went on with a huge barrage of cluster missiles. As they neared, their accuracy improved, and before long the Rodan was constantly being pelted by the missiles. Large fires erupted into the air all over its body from the endless explosions, and a few bits of skin could actually be seen coming loose or being wrecked a bit.
"I think we're starting to actually do some damage captain!" one of the remaining men exclaimed.
"Good then, continue firing!" Kanryu announced. The Rodan let out a loud cry just then, almost a mix of pain and fury. As it continued being struck though, its eyes narrowed, and even through all the explosions and hits it increased in speed, and flew at the oncoming jet team with greater speed than any of the times before now. Coming at them, it sent its beak clear into one of the jets, shattering it instantly. Pressing on then, it came at the two last planes, closing its maw upon the one. In one second, the jet exploded into nothing, being demolished by the stalwart beak and mouth of the Rodan. As the final one tried to steer away, the Rodan hovered in mid-air, and created a great wind gust with a single flap of its wings. The gale was so strong that it sent the jet flying off, spinning around uncontrollably as the wind carried it away and began to wreck it.
"My God! That thing's incredible!" Captain Takani yelled. Without a second to lose then, the Rodan turned the final three planes, and took off. It soared through the air and clouds, hot on their tail as it sped at speeds unknown to human minds. The planes tried desperately to speed up, but no matter how fast they went, the Rodan incessantly came closer to them. It wasn't long before the Rodan caught up to them, and as only Kanryu's jet managed to fly off, and with one pass over them, its slipstream tore apart the planes and utterly annihilated them. Once the Captain heard the explosions behind him, his heart began to race, and a bead of sweat covered his face as he tried to speed up more.
"Kanryu! Get outta there! You don't stand a chance!" Shogo Kawakita screamed on the radio. It took a moment for the man to register in his head completely what was going on, and what he could do now as death probably approached. Even as his body almost froze in terror, his eyes narrowed, and he braced himself.
"Sorry sir, but I'm making sure that dang creature goes back to hell where it came from…" Captain Takani asserted. Kawakita's eyes bugged out.
"You fool Kanryu!!! Get your sorry butt outta there!" the Sergeant Major shouted. Kanryu then began to turn his jet, until he was on course with the Rodan, and had a little time to fire before they'd come to each other. He eyed it fiercely, and gripped the gun control sticks tightly. He pulled the triggers, and sent a final wave of cluster missiles at the Rodan. Another time over, many missed or exploded before it hit it, and even the several that did no longer had an effect on it, not battering it with enough force without the help from many other salvos. The jet and the Rodan clashed, and with one attack of its talon, the final F-4EJ Phantom II Jet was shattered, and so Captain Kanryu Takani was dead…
At the communications center, everyone seemed grim, and as the room grew silent after watching the screen for the camera on Kanryu's jet fade out, Kawakita seethed. Trembling and gritting his teeth, he threw down the speaker, nearly breaking it into pieces as a roar of rage emitted from his mouth…
Back with the Rodan, the terrible flying kaiju flapped its wings, keeping itself in the air as it endlessly let out cries and squawks of dominance from the destruction of all the jets. The calls echoed throughout the skies of Hokkaido, all the way down to the soil to let everyone know that it was the most powerful thing in the skies.
As so transpired though, another brown object was speeding through the air, making its way very quickly to the other Rodan. Before long it slowed down, and stopped before it. The creature was another Rodan, the same size, but a little different in color, and with a shorter beak and lesser, smaller horns on its head. The other Rodan seemed surprised by the appearance of the other, and seemed even more taken aback when it saw all the wounds on its body. The other Rodan began to squawk and chirp almost, almost speaking to the other Rodan in their own kaiju tongue. After a few moments it stopped, and the other Rodan nodded, and also squawked a bit. With then both of them let out loud cries of vehemence, and both fly off together, oddly heading west, closer to the where the first Rodan came out from, away from the rest of Japan, and out to the Pacific Ocean…
3:04 p.m.
Japanese Prime Minister Office in Sapporo
The Prime Minister in Japan sat at his desk at one of his many office locations, this one in Sapporo. Sitting before a tabled unkempt by documents, video tapes and papers, he held his phone to his ear as he listened to Eric from G-Force. An expression of seriousness, and great concern covered up his face, showing how worried he was on the situation with the Rodans.
"And we've also learned that they are probably the offspring from the original Rodans that attacked in the mid-fifties, or at least it's a good possibility" Eric went on, scrambling through his notes to see if he could find any more news to tell the Prime Minster, "oh yes, it seems that these ones are much faster too. Not only are they superior in size and strength probably to the original Rodans, but they fly at almost double their speed" The Prime Minister's eyes widened a little.
"Are you to say that these things are flying faster than Mach two point five?" he asked. On the other side of the phone, Eric nodded.
"Yes, this is a very dire matter we have on our hands sir. I highly suggest we find a way to discuss this all and try to work together to solve this problem. There's surely a way, we just need to find it" the young man explicated.
"Okay then, how about this. I'll round up all my men, including other politicians and leaders of the military up here in Hokkaido, and we can have a meeting here in my office in Sapporo. Lets try and get this done as soon as possible, so why don't you guys make sure to get here at noon tomorrow, and we can hold the summit sometime at twelve thirty or so" the Prime Minister clarified. As he was speaking, Eric was swiftly writing down the information on everything, making sure he couldn't forget any instructions.
"Gotcha, we'll see you tomorrow then sir" he replied. The Prime Minister nodded.
"Goodbye Eric" the man responded back, and then hung up the phone. He sat silently then, gazing down at his desk before suddenly standing up and shooting a stare at one of the men in his room. "Kenichiro" the Prime Minister spoke. Instantly the other man jumped a bit, obviously startled by the abrupt speaking.
"Yes sir, what is it?" he asked.
"I want a large table set up in here by tonight, fifteen chairs around it with a few pitchers of water for tomorrow. I want a projector and the screen up on the window behind my desk, and find all information we have concerning the Rodans and file them. There's going to be a meeting being held in here tomorrow, and I want it impeccable" the Prime Minister commanded. The worker nodded.
"Right away sir!" Kenichiro answered, and instantly got on a phone and called someone, sending out the orders the Prime Minister had stated. With another sigh the Prime Minister then sat down in his chair, and opened up a cabinet in his desk before taking out a shot glass and a bottle of vodka.
"I need a drink…"