Chapter 7: Consolidation and patrols.
Landing Beach Omega:
As Captain Nakano and Ueda walked off the gangplank and towards the beach, both felt the stinging cold hitting them hard. Though Ueda had spent some time in the northwestern part of Hokkaido, he felt that he would rather be back in Northern Hokkaido observing the Russians instead of here working with them. Despite that he followed his superior officer to one of the large prefabricated buildings set up to function as a command center.
Inside, the generals waited anxiously while attempting to keep warm. The generators providing the heat for the complex barely compensated for the extreme cold, even when operating at full power. They kept busy with reading the recent reports of the battlefield and though they were pleased with the situation mostly, the first news of the casualties sobered them to the task of the situation at hand. Although General Brezarin had been through battles where the Red Army suffered horrendous casualties on the first day alone, the butcher's bill affected him as well though he carefully hid his thoughts as he observed the others. Reynolds took a deep breath as he read the casualty list for a moment before turning to Kitagawa but the Japanese general was busy with his own thoughts.
The silence ended when one of the doors opened and the captain of the Gotengo and his XO walked in. Kitagawa stood up and exchanged salutes with the two men before returning back to his seat, "First I want to thank you and your crews on behalf for everyone here for the courage you all have shown thus far". Both men nodded glumly and Kitagawa instantly understood why, "If it makes you feel any better, the sacrifice your men gave will help us achieve our primary goal". He then turned to business, "As for now, please give your report".
Nakano took a deep breath as he turned to the rest of the generals, "When we fled the scene, we managed to observe that the lost airship managed to somehow inflict harsh damage on Godzilla". He then took a pointer and aimed it at the large screen displaying Godzilla's body in profile, "The vessel struck at Godzilla's mid-waist section near his dorsal fins and when it fired all of its weapons at the hole it made, the damage was enough to actually slow Godzilla down".
This caught the attention of everyone in the room as the captain's words sank in. Seeing the looks in their eyes, Nakano continued his debriefing, "As you can see, we had to close in to point blank range in order to penetrate the monster's hide and to pull it off exposed our troops to enormous danger".
That chilled the room even more as each general thought about the potential butcher's bill that would result when they engaged the monster again. Finally, Kitagawa asked the question everyone had on their minds, "How much damage do you believe you inflicted on Godzilla".
The Gotengo's captain shook his head and replied, "From what we saw, we did inflict a good amount of damage considering the circumstances". He paused before continuing, "We must have attacked a vital part of the monster's body if he stumbled away from us". Kitagawa nodded before dismissing the two guests and turning to his colleagues. Both men hurried out into the door and back into the frigid cold towards their ship.
The room remained silent as the generals attempted to come to grips with the information the captain of the Gotengo told them. It remained silent for a few moments before Kitagawa told them all, "Since now we have a pretty good idea on what we're facing against, anyone want to contribute their thoughts now".
Reynolds spoke first, "After hearing what they had to say, I have to wonder if we can really prevail against the monster". He paused before continuing before anyone, especially Brezarin could jump in on him, "I'm still in but we all have to consider all future decisions from here on in since I'm sure we don't want another enormous butcher's bill here".
Though all understood what he meant, some snickered at his comments and the Russian general said first, "Has your capitalistic sentimentality affected you as a solider". Reynolds was about to respond but the Russian, "This is a war so what the hell do you expect huh"? He then turned to them all and said, "The sooner we finish this, the lower the casualties". Brezarin then turned to Kitagawa and said, "You out of all people should understand what I mean here that despite the casualties suffered thus far, we have to press ahead and finish what we started as soon as possible".
The British and French commanders turned to the Russian in silent shock since they really could not afford to disagree yet their forces were somewhat smaller than that of the Americans, Russians, and Japanese and therefore could not absorb the high level of casualties and remain an effective fighting force. They turned to Reynolds who gritted his teeth for a moment before yelling back, "I'm more than ready to suffer these types of casualties but and to live with it if you so wish".
Brezarin was about to comment when Kitagawa told them, "Sit down and act like professionals here". His face resembled that of an angry schoolteacher and the two sat down with glum faces while Kitagawa spoke to everyone in the room, "Right now we have to concentrate on establishing a tight circle for if Godzilla leaves here, he could strike anyway and the damage as you all know would be astronomical". He paused before continuing, his voice in a tightly controlled tone, "Despite General Brezarin's persuasive statements about continuing to focus on the main task at hand, we will not attack until all of our bridgeheads are secure". He then finished by stating, "For now all of our forces will be sending out patrols to track the monster and to help our men adjust to this environment", "Once we've established a strong presence, that is when we'll consider engaging the monster directly". His tone left no room for anyone else in the room for argument and when he said, "Dismissed" they all quickly left. Reynolds was the last to leave when Kitagawa signaled him to wait. Once the room became empty, Kitagawa replied to the American, "I'm sorry about Brezarin's behavior, in fact I don't blame you for voicing your concerns".
Reynolds nodded and said, "I guess I'm just a little too old for this". He took a deep breath before saying, "Hell even after Korea, I thought I had seen and read everything about being on the ground during a firefight but now this is starting to take the cake".
He was about to apologize but Kitagawa waved it off by stating, "You're braver in airing the potential costs than most of the other commanders". The Japanese commander paused before stating, "I've been through several firefights against the monster and right now I've been going to every conceivable scenario and almost every time it ends, we end up with numerous casualties and some of them with the mission ending in a disaster".
Reynolds replied to that with his own statement, "Always it seems we're the pawns of the political maneuverings of the world". He as well as every generation had forgotten was that was how the world functioned realistically for as long as humanity lived. The only consolation was that each generation had to relearn the lesson all over again, which gave it a chance, although slim, of breaking that vicious cycle. They sat in silence for a moment and Reynolds took a small breath before turning to the Japanese general, "Want to get something eat, I'm freezing to death". His answer was a hearty laugh, "Once this is all over, we'll all go on a sake binge at Yokosuka and it will be on me".
All over Antarctica's coastline:
Outside in the snow, troops struggled to pull ashore the equipment and heavy vehicles. Often, the vehicles froze in the snow or ran into trouble while attempting to traverse the terrain and it required the assistance of other vehicles as well as large amounts of fuel to defrost and free them. Sometimes, the troops had to abandon some of their machines as they froze in the snow. As for the men themselves, a good portion ended up dealing with frostbite and other diseases and their commanders sent them back to their ships to recover. In fact soon, the field commanders on the ground decided to rotate a number of their troops back and forth between the ships, which angered the transports since they needed the room to transport the numerous materials and equipment onto the beach.
Among the units most eager to arrive were the maser teams, struggling to drive their Type 66 Maser Cannon units onto the beach and inland. They had suffered enormous casualties during the firestorm of Tokyo and after painstaking reformation by the Self-Defense Forces, were extremely eager to settle the score with Godzilla. After moving inland, they formed up with the accompanying tank battalions.
High above the Antarctic, search planes struggled to locate and track Godzilla's movements while everyone watched the status of the weather. They all knew that the best way to start engaging Godzilla was to achieve complete surprise and have an enormous amount of firepower with them on quick notice and airpower was the best way to get that much firepower into the theater of action.
After monitoring the weather conditions, the commanders gave the order to start deploying the patrol units into the interior of the continent to search for the monster. From the beachheads, small battle groups consisting of a dozen tanks, two maser tanks, and about three or for self-propelled artillery pieces surged across the landscape.
Interior of Antarctica
Godzilla struggled to walk through the icy landscape. Though his enhanced internal defensive system made him nearly invulnerable from harm, his nervous system required more time for repairs for the damage he sustained during the battle with the air fleet. Unfortunately for those hunting him, the monster was still dangerous to those that foolishly attempted to attack him. The monster's red eyes burned with the fires of hell as they scanned the landscape in front of him.
For those venturing across the landscape, the journey felt as if they were walking into a virtual black pit. With snow and harsh winds all around, they had virtually no idea of where they were heading and the sounds of the winds sometimes muffled out the sound of almost everything else thereby leaving them vulnerable.
Not surprisingly, the chances for an unintended collision with the monster were enormous and they would occur soon for two of the battle groups were on a collision course with the monster himself. Godzilla had the advantage as he knew what was coming while the two groups wandered around aimlessly and almost out of touch with their colleagues or superiors.
The crews struggled in this insane situation when they started to pick up the noise of huge footsteps. Realizing what was about to happen, the commanders immediately directed their units into improvised battle formations with their crews vainly searching the landscape for any sign of the target. Unfortunately, that target struck first with a blast of his atomic ray, killing a maser tank and three tanks.
The other tanks started firing in all directions but the virtual blindness made their shots go wide. The only chance for a good shot was the sight of blue fins but by then, the monster murdered a good portion of the units already. Despite that, the tanks and masers fired away, the beams crisscrossing across the landscape.
Godzilla roared in annoyance at the resistance and started to advance on the battle groups, his feet and tail shaking the landscape in front of him. Shells and energy fire impacted on him head on but the damage was negligent while the damage the kaiju caused was brutally permanent.
Once they ascertained the general location of Godzilla, the two battle groups attempted to maneuver around him but Godzilla was much faster, smashing several more vehicles with his enormous tail while burning the rest with his atomic breath. Soon the monster cut them down until only stragglers remained. They attempted to escape while summoning help from nearby units.
Landing beach Omega:
When the commanders received word of contact with the monster, they immediately headed towards the improvised command center where they could get a better picture. Soon, the squadron leaders also listened in on their own radios as the sudden pitched battle got underway. As they heard the sounds of battle, Kitagawa turned to one of his officers and asked, "Status of any units nearby". The officer pointed to several units on the map, which were marked in the standard format seen on maps, and the distance between them and the monster, represented by a large G.
The XO immediately replied when he saw the distance on the map, "Order those units to head there at best speed and save as many as you can". He then turned to Kitagawa and replied grimly, "Looks like Godzilla has partially healed from the damage the air fleet inflicted on him".
Kitagawa nodded and said to his long-time comrade, "We may have to move quickly before the monster completely heals". He then turned to his fellow generals and saw the same look and thoughts on their faces. Kitagawa then turned to one of the other officers and replied, "Get me the latest weather reports as soon as possible".
The others immediately understood the meaning of Kitagawa's words and they followed the Japanese general, as he left the command center before heading back to their units.
Interior of Antarctica:
Godzilla continued to rain merciless death and destruction upon his foes as they retreated. The artillery vehicles were in the lead while the tanks covered the rear with their turrets firing backward against Godzilla. The kajiu easily brushed them aside as he continued on his march, exchanging long range fire with his attackers.
The landscape shook with the sounds of war and soon the explosions exploded around the glaciers, creating instant landslides and blocking the escape paths. With the battles moving at an exceptionally fast pace, those that had their paths blocked turned around and closed to attack Godzilla at point-blank range. The others wanted to help but their commanders realized that the trapped units were buying time for them to escape.
Smoke from the resulting battle became so thick that the humans could not see anything in front of him and Godzilla's red eyes could barely pierce the enormous white mist. That gave the military forces time to clear out and when the smoke finally cleared, Godzilla's prey escaped from his grasp. The monster roared in anger and fired a long blast of radioactive energy into the night sky, nearly turning it into daylight for a moment before it receded back into endless night. Godzilla then turned around and headed back into the mist to await the main attack.
Soon the survivors made their way back into the beachheads and the casualties shocked the others to say the least. As he saw wounded making their way into their lines, Kitagawa turned grimly to Hakauyate and said, "Summon all squadron leaders here for an important meeting and order all units to stand down for now". Hakauyate instinctively knew what his superior officer meant and he hurried out the door as Kitagawa turned back to watch the landscape in front of him, his mind already working on what to say to his men".
No Notes this time. Sorry:
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.
Next chapter: Title: Let's Go. Summary: After several delays and after the result of the small-unit firefights, the international force considers whether to launch the all out attack to destroy Godzilla.