Chapter 6: Bridgehead firefight.

Landing Beach Omega:

When a battle begins, it always degenerates into chaos of the worst order as everything that could go wrong does go wrong. The question each soldier asks is that how badly a killing zone can really get and whether it was their time to leave this Earth.

In this case, for the veterans of the Korean War at Landing Beach Omega, it was rising to the level of the defense of Pusan. With moderately sized forces in a small bridge head without any air support, the forces battling Godzilla suffered heavy losses and the monster had already advanced through the first three defense lines. Though the troops on the ground had plenty of courage, they had a finite number of troops, limited amount of ammunition, and limited room to maneuver.

As Godzilla continued to march towards the sea, he left behind a burning trail of wreckage and death and the few survivors that managed to escape from their burning vehicles froze to death in the harsh winter climate. The monster continued to randomly fire his atomic ray along the ground, killing some, inflicting damage on the environmental landscape and chilling those in the rear who saw the blue energy on the horizon.

After the commander observed Godzilla slaughtering more of his forces, the ground commander in the area turned to one of the communications officers and yelled out, "Any chance on reinforcements from the other landing zones"?

The communications officer replied, "They've already sent squadrons but they won't make it here in time". Suddenly he grabbed his headset and replied, "Sir I've just received word that the fleet has launched all of its air units and the ETA is five minutes". The ground commander looked up at the cloudy sky, hoping for any sign that the reinforcements were already here and prayed that the news was true.

Backed up by MLRS (multiple rocket launcher systems), self-propelled and towed artillery pieces firing at point blank range, the tanks and troops continued to fire away at Godzilla. The monster retaliated by firing his atomic ray or literally smashing his way through the defenders, his feet and long tail crushing men in their positions and smashing vehicles aside like toys.

Soon the monster pushed the defenders back to their last defense line with the ocean in sight. As he saw this, the commander said to himself, "Prepare for evacuation".

Suddenly, several yellow streaks of light from the sky slammed into the monster, scorching his hide and forcing him back. Everyone turned to find the source and what they saw made their mouths drop in wonder.

For over the horizon flew three huge warships with front drills on the bow and conning towers resembling submarines, their guns aiming straight at Godzilla. Surrounding the three huge aerial warships were scores of fighters, which were busy moving into attack formation as the three ships launched another barrage of weapons at the stunned monster.

The men of the garrison cheered as they saw the air fleet and the three huge aerial battleships continue bombarding the monster and directing his attention away from them. The commanders on the ground were more than eager to engage but the casualties chilled their momentary ardor for combat and a message from the Gotengo added impetus to halt to count their losses and wait for the main force". It read, "Have assumed battle positions and will continue to engage the monster and drive him away from beachhead acknowledge via same protocol". The commander on the ground nodded reluctantly as he surveyed the losses of men and wondered how bad the nightmares would be this time, "Acknowledge message and thank you for the assistance".

Bridge of the Gotengo:

As Captain Nakano watched the unfolding battle before him, he smiled at the sight of Godzilla looking stunned at the arrival of the reinforcements. He whispered, "So how do you like being surprised you bastard". His face changed to concern as Godzilla immediately fired back, narrowly missing the Gotengo, her sisters and the huge air fleet. With that, the commander yelled out, "All ships surround Godzilla and cover the planes".

The three battleships suddenly accelerated to maximum speed with the Gotengo attacking Godzilla head on while the two others attacked him from the sides. If looked at from directly above the battlefield, it resembled a steel triangle with Godzilla in the middle.

Godzilla roared in anger at the sudden increase in resistance and attempted to fire his atomic breath but the pilots and gunners zeroed their weapons on Godzilla's mouth. He instead started to swing his arms and tail around in order to kill a few of his assailants.

Slowly and painfully, the battle started to move inland with the three battleships maintaining formation while the fighters continued their relentless assaults on the monster. Despite the frigid weather and the brutal conditions, the pilots continued with their attacks on Godzilla with some closing in to use machine guns.

Despite the apparent success they were having against the monster, the squadron leaders realized that the savage scale of the fighting ate up ammunition at a voracious rate. Sooner or later, they were going to break under the strain of having squadrons fly back to the three aerial battleships, the aircraft carriers, or the land bases to reload. It proved especially difficult to attempt refueling the planes on the airships since they were in the midst of battle but they had no choice since some of the planes lacked the range to travel back to land bases.

Godzilla continued to swipe at the planes with his assailants but it proved futile for the planes moved fast and their pilots kept their distance from the kajiu. Unfortunately, the firepower did not prove completely effective in keeping Godzilla's mouth shut. For as the firepower started to die down several times for a critical few seconds, Godzilla suddenly opened his mouth and fired his main weapon without charging his back. The blue beam flashed along the sky, igniting several planes that flew too close to the beam.

The rest of the air fleet was stunned and that gave Godzilla time to fire several more shots including one directly at the Gotengo. By the time the air fleet reestablished control, twenty planes fell to the barrage and the Gotengo suffered some damage on her hull. Nakano cursed at the sudden onslaught and radioed to check on the status of the other two ships as the battle still continued.

Despite the sudden break, the fighters did not let up on the monster and Godzilla blinked in angry surprise at the resistance. He started to fire short bursts of atomic energy again but the blasts were undirected and barely phased the morale of the fighter pilots as they battered away at the monster's hide. Soon the battle moved even deeper into the icy continent and away from Landing Beach Omega.

Nakano continued to observe the battle on the main screen with mounting apprehension for with all of the firepower the aerial forces assembled; Godzilla withstood the barrages virtually unharmed and full of fight. The commander realized that they needed a plan to stop Godzilla at least temporarily for now but neither he nor the two commanders of the other aerial warships had any ideas on achieving such a goal.

And so it continued for the next few hours with the three airships and the huge air fleet attempting to keep Godzilla boxed in one general location of the continent while the arriving ground troops reinforced the respective beachheads. Sometimes, the direction of a battle would unwittingly switch to another beachhead for a while before the air fleet attempted to switch it back inland.

The landing beaches:

For the garrisons on the respective beachheads, the sight of the battle unnerved them since they knew that they stood little chance should Godzilla turned and headed towards them. When the monster turned away from a potential beachhead target, its troops breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanks for the aerial support.

Soon they had another reason to cheer as the many ships of the international fleet approaching in the grey midst, with the transports already heading towards them. A huge roar went up from the troops while the officers on the ground breathed a huge sigh of relief due to the arrival of reinforcements and the chance for their own units to rest.

The troops on the ships felt no such cheer when they saw the formidable landscape while waiting to disembark from their transports. Many shivered in the harsh cold and some became seasick in the rough seas as the waves slammed against them. While the transports and landing craft steamed towards the icy, treacherous shore, the warships circled off the coast with guns trained inland, ready to fire the moment Godzilla appeared over the horizon.

The moment the landing ramps touched down, troops stormed ashore as if under fire from a human enemy, followed by the tanks and other heavy weaponry needed to stand a chance against Godzilla, if he fought his way through the air fleet. The most welcoming sight was the Japanese Type 66 maser tanks although they did struggle to get ashore.

As Kitagawa watched the battle proceed, he had much to be thankful as it seemed everything was proceeding as planned with only a few casualties. He turned to his fellow commanders who shared the same common sentiment before he issued his orders, "The ground troops of all five beaches are to link up until we form a continuous front", "Meanwhile, the air fleet will continued to engage Godzilla until the operation is completed and then everyone is to break off". He then turned to his staff and replied to them all, "Well, shall we move ashore then". The commanders grumbled at the thought while Brezarin smiled at the sight of seeing the generals struggling to deal with the winter weather.

Meanwhile, the battle between Godzilla and the air fleet continued unremittingly as the flyers struggled to contain Godzilla within their perimeter. Both sides did not let up as the fighters continued to attack Godzilla despite the angry kaiju gradually cutting down their ranks with blats of his atomic breath.

The sight of it was enough to unnerve Nakano to the point that to attempt some of the insane plans he thought out in his mind would be better than the temporary stalemate that would eventually end with Godzilla winning. He immediately got on the line with the captains of the two other battleships and communicated his ideas on scoring the temporary victory that they needed at the moment. After a few more minutes of heavy discussion, Nakano asked them harshly, "Do you have any better ideas on how to proceed"? The captains had a grim look on their faces as they realized that they had no choice and both prepared to commence the move".

After switching off, Nakano turned to look at his stunned bridge crew and yelled at them, "Well what the hell are you looking at me for, can't you see that we're in the middle of a battle". Before anyone could speak up, the captain replied, "So far our tactics have not worked against Godzilla and right now we need to finish this quickly". He sat back in his seat with a stony look on his face as the crew attempted to execute the plan although their faces all spoke their thoughts for them, "This is a suicide mission".

For a few more minutes, the three Gotengo class battleships continued their long range bombardment of the monster as they aimed their bows straight at him. Soon their engines roared to life and to the shock of the fighter pilots, the three ships suddenly closed in on Godzilla with drills turning and guns blazing.

Godzilla's eyes widened in surprised and he started rapidly firing his atomic ray at the three battleships but they continued to bore in on him at maximum speed. Before Godzilla could move out of the way, the bows of the three ships collided with him head on, tearing huge holes within his skin at the impact point. Then suddenly, the bows of the three ships started spinning to enlarge the breaches their drills made while the guns fired at the monster's skin at point blank range.

Godzilla winced in pain as the weapons started to actually inflict damage on him. Though his G-cells instantly healed many of the wounds, the firepower the humans used inflicted damage on him at a faster rate, though the race was still very close. The monster roared in anger and despite the numerous explosions around his eyes, he charged up his back and fired at one of the Gotengo class warships latched on his skin at point blank range.

Though the armor could handle most damage, it certainly could not withstand a full blast of Godzilla's atomic ray at point blank range. The blast slammed into the hull, knocking out the two forward turrets, literally blowing out the hangers, slicing off half of the conning tower and melting the bow off of the warship.

On the bridge of the stricken warship, the crew attempted to save their ship while its weapons stations continued to battle the monster with the ship's remaining weapons. Soon another blast unleashed more damage on the bridge, shorting out controls and starting small fires. As the commander watched the disastrous situation unfolding before him, he yelled out, "Detach ourselves from the monster right now".

The ship attempted to reverse engines but before it could get clear, Godzilla reached out with his hand and tore with his claws into the ship's hull, spilling out unfortunate crew into the icy tundra. He then soon grabbed the hull with his left hand and started to eventually squeeze the life out of it.

As the struggle continued, the Gotengo and her remaining sister detached themselves from Godzilla's body and attempted to rally to their sister's aid but Godzilla was hell-bent on killing the foe right in front of him. Already, crews attempted to jump from the aerial warship and into the tundra. Most fell to their deaths and many of those that survived froze to death within minutes. Back on the ship, realizing all was lost, the weapons officers armed the self destruct sequence in the hope that the resulting explosion would provide enough force to create a hole in Godzilla's skin that the others could exploit.

Godzilla continued to crush the huge circular warships between his claws and had just about smashed it into a wrecked cylinder when suddenly its engines lit up and it slammed into the kaiju once again. Before Godzilla could react, an enormous explosion engulfed the whole ship along with the monster as the ship ignited its ammunition and scuttle charges.

Despite the intensity of the blast, everyone spotted the target point of the blast and Captain Nakano did not wait long before yelling out, "All units fire around the location of the blast and don't let up". The Gotengo roared to life as she fired her forward weapons at the blast area and soon her remaining sister and the fighters soon joined in with their own savage barrage.

Godzilla reeled backwards from the sudden explosion and did not see the oncoming barrage, which surprised him even more as the munitions detonated around the area where the destroyed warship's bow had been lodged into his skin. The monster roared in pain as the military forces hammered in from all sides with concentrated fire at specified points around the breach in his skin. He continued to fire his atomic breath randomly but soon the pain started to affect his nervous system, which despite the awesome powers of the G-cells, still needed more time to repair itself than that of the other organs. The kaiju's eyes flared as he fired a long atomic blast around him in a circle, killing a good number of fighters while creating lots of dust in the icy landscape.

As the two Gotengo class warships attempted to regain stability, the crews of both vessels could barely see anything in the sudden kick up of dust. Many of the crew on both ships wondered whether the dust was just temporary camouflage and once it cleared, the monster would be right on top of them. Once the dust cleared, they saw something quiet different.

Godzilla staggered back into the mist of the Antarctic, his roars and movements somewhat weakened as the monster maintained his footing. His tail moved at random as the monster continued to march away from them. Only his eyes displayed the fight still left in him.

The air fleet clearly wanted to pursue, clearly observing that they must have done much better than they thought, but their commanders had other ideas for even though they all performed well, the butcher's bill stunned them and they both agreed that they needed time to rest and get replacements. Once they gained some rest period, they would be back and next time, they would play for keeps. With a heavy heart but a clear conscience, Nakano yelled out the order, "All planes are to return to their bases at once". The tone in his voice left no room for argument and everyone grimly agreed with his orders as the air fleet roared back towards their bases with the two airships not far behind, their guns trained on the retreating monster as they flew back towards the beaches. Meanwhile as the ships flew over the wreckage of their destroyed sister, their crews looked out the window and, as part of the tradition of the service in all nations throughout history, they gave a military salute to their fallen comrades.

The beaches:

Although there had been enormous chaos when the doors of the transport ships first touched the ground, by the time the air fleet roared back towards the coast, it had mostly been sorted out although chaos still reigned as supply depots were hastily formed, tanks and vehicles struggled to traverse the landscape and local commanders sorted out the jumbled up troops into their formal units. None of the experiences the old veterans could really have prepared them for the troubles they endured in Antarctica. Offshore, the ships struggled in the steadily rough seas around the continent as they maintained naval cover over the beachheads.

At first the troops on the ground feared the worst when they spotted the air fleet heading away from the interior of the continent but once the Gotengo sent a message down to the ground commanders, they relaxed a little and attempted to finish the unloading before Godzilla attempted another breakout.

Once the two airships landed in the water, tankers and other replenishment ships moored in alongside while small launches transported Nakano, Ueda and their staff where to the beaches. After arriving, military police escorted them in APCs to a makeshift commander center where the generals and admirals awaited them.

Next chapter (Chapter 7: Updates and Scouting): First there will be a large meeting between the command and then patrols will be launched in order to ascertain the situation inland and to choose a good battlefield spot to launch the all out assault on Godzilla. The reason I did not attempt to do a meeting now is because I consider this chapter mainly an all out battle one.

Notes:

If you want to know the reason why I somehow allowed the air fleet to triumph at first is since the engagement is supposed to be only the start, no the main attack since that will come later in the story. And I made sure to attempt to avoid having Deus Ex Machina come into play here when the air fleet managed to temporarily injure Godzilla for the moment (in fact one of the three airships is inadvertently sacrificed to temporarily pry open Godzilla's skin.

Question: As always, how am I doing with the battles and the portrayal of Godzilla?

As always, please read and review. I'm very desperate for more reviews here.