Chapter 35: The Great Crusade

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Three days until detonation.

It was only a day before when the Great Crusade began. No-one knows who coined the name but it stuck amongst the men and the kaiju. Just as Godzilla entered the ocean through San Francisco bay Mothra and Battra had finally arrived at the staging area at the border of Colombia. On the way over Battra and Mothra noticed the massive armies that humanity had pooled for this invasion. Millions of soldiers had been sent by hundreds of countries to help put an end to Kiryu's reign once and for all. Dozens of reprogramed jaegers slowly trudged along with hundreds of trucks, tanks, cars and countless soldiers on foot. Aircraft whizzed by their wings and the shiny metal glint of warships in the waters caught their eye. Even though just a few weeks ago these soldiers would have shot at them but now they salute. Just at the border of Panama lied a large flat area set aside for the two moths. Battra and Mothra banked and landed next to each other. Battra clacked his pincer as he saw General Wayfield's dark green jaeger step forward. He bowed at the two of them.

"I see you managed to gather a lot of troops, Wayfield. How are they?"

"Many of them were sent by their governments to fight for you. We have soldiers from China, Russia, Germany, France, The United Kingdom as well as us here from the United States. Many other countries sent troops but many of them just got off the boats they were sent here on."

Mothra moves her head to see behind Wayfield's jaeger. Many of the trucks behind him start to dismount their troops. She notices how many of them have different colored uniforms and flags on them.

"Who's in charge here?" Mothra asks. Both Wayfield and Battra turn to her.

"You. After all you are the Queen of the Monsters."

Mothra takes a breath from shock and looks towards her brother. He casts Wayfield an angry glance and steps towards him. He turns his head to face Battra.

"You put her in charge? Of all these troops? Are you mad? She hasn't led an army or commanded anyone a single day in her life! I created an empire! I led thousands of soldiers! I ruled one and a half continents! I am the better leader instead of my housewife of a sister!

Flashes of the crowning ceremony all those years ago pop into her head. He said something very similar to that once Mothra was crowned the next heir to the throne. The jealousy in his eyes, the anger in his figure were all the same. Even though that ceremony was over 65 million years ago it still lingers in her mind.

"You see Battra, that is the reason why we didn't give you this army to lead. Why would we give the most intelligent and destructive kaiju on Earth an army large enough to conquer the Earth with?"

"Because I know what to do with them that's why! You have no idea what you are getting yourselves into. She will be the downfall of our army. We cannot fail. If we fail then I can't defuse the bomb and if I can't defuse the bomb then we are all dead."

"Battra quit making me seem like I am some incompetant waste of oxygen. I know how to lead an army and I know how to issue orders and form battle plans. Godzilla didn't just make me his mate just because I looked nice you know."

"Since when did you learn these things? Godzilla is gone half the time defending your crumbling empire while you wallow in your own tears inside of your nest. Face it Mothra, you aren't emotionally stable enough or militarily gifted enough to lead this attack. You will be the downfall of this whole operation."

A jolt of pain hits her heart after hearing those words. How could he make fun of her grieving the death of her daughter? The color in her wings began to fade.

"How could you say that to me after I chose your life over my daughters? I chose you over the life of one of my only children because I couldn't bear to lose the other ones. You should be thankful Battra because that decision still haunts me to this day. You are, and always will be, in debt to me."

Battra shifts his gaze to the ground. He lowers his head in shame. Wayfield glances over to Mothra.

"We should get moving. Once you and Battra take off, our jaegers will follow you. They will be doing the majority of the leg work with clearing out the missile batteries. Just focus on keeping the enemy jaegers at bay. If everything goes to plan it should take two days to carve a path through Colombia."

Mothra glances again at the soldiers behind him.

"What about all these soldiers and their machines? Aren't they coming too?"

"No. To bring the infantry with us will just slow us down. They will follow us but at their own pace. Their goal is to sweep the country clean and to cut off any escape route Kiryu or his minions might try to get to. The jets will constantly criss-cross the country and the area ahead of us to help us scan. The ships are moving towards the brazilian coast to help bombard the shore and to help launch planes deeper into the continent. I'm sure Godzilla will appreciate the help."

"I see. Battra, you said that when we destroy a missile platform that it's going to explode?"

"Yes. It should explode with the force of a small hydrogen bomb."

Wayfield and Mothra gasp at this revelation.

"A HYDROGEN BOMB?! So you're telling me that we will be setting off hydrogen bombs the entire time we destroy one of these things?"

"Did I stutter?"

"But Battra, the environmental damage...how many of these things are there?" Mothra's limbs shake as she asks. Battra looks up and makes eye contact with his glowing red eyes.

"Hundreds. I designed it that way because I wanted the blast to kill whoever was brave enough to destroy it. Each missile battery is placed in a spot to maximize the spread of radioactive fallout across the surrounding area. Some are even placed to force the fallout into the air to spread to other continents. What's funny is that there are a lot of these batteries designed to only explode. If I can't have this world then no-one could."

A silence fills the area. Mothra shifts her gaze to Wayfield. He activates one of his swords and grabs Battra. He holds the blade up against his head. The edge vibrating just enough to cause a small wound to open.

"YOU SICK, TWISTED LITTLE BASTARD! GIVE ME ONE REASON...ONE REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T GUT YOU LIKE A FISH RIGHT NOW! GODZILLA ISN'T HERE TO STOP ME SO GET TALKING!"

"Hey! Easy now! If I die we all die you understand jarhead? I did what I did to ensure that my empire would never fall."

"YEAH BUT OUR WORLD WILL FALL! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT WILL SEEP INTO THE EARTH BATTRA? YOU WILL RENDER SOUTH AMERICA UNINHABITABLE FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS! YOU VILE CREATURE!"

Wayfield throws Battra to the ground. Everyone stops what they are doing to watch the event unfold. Battra stands up and brushes the rubble off of himself. Lighting begins to shoot from his body into the ground. His eyes begin to glow violently red. Wayfield transforms his jaeger's other arm into a plasma cannon. Just before the two can destroy one another Mothra jumps in between them.

"Stop it! Both of you! That's an order! Battra! You need to calm your temper and tame your lust for power, and you Wayfield! You need to put away your weapons and stop harming Battra! This bickering is slowing us down."

"Don't you understand? Once we get through this hell-hole and finally get to fight Kiryu for the fate of the planet there won't be a planet left to save! We'll be lucky if the fallout stays in South America!"

"Well what do you want me to do about it, huh? I don't like this any more than you do but if this is the only way to destroy these defenses then so be it!. You yourself said that we have the authority to do any action required to ensure Kiryu's destruction. Now get up you two and get a move on."

Battra and Wayfield both get up. Mothra flairs her wings and takes off into the sky. Battra soon follows. Wayfield looks at the small jaeger force behind him and gives them the green light to move. The Great Crusade has begun.

The first defense turret was spotted less than 20 miles from the staging area. Even though dense trees and rock formations covered the structure it was still distinguishable from the green foliage. The gun metal grey base along with the 6 barrel box that rotated was easily spotted. Even though these defenses are equipped with weapons that can turn Mothra into a fine red mist they were not designed to kill her. Because of this flaw Battra and Mothra were easily able to fly fast enough to dodge the deadly anti-kaiju missiles it fired. But how to destroy it?

Battra was the first one to destroy one. While still flying around it he was able to bore a hole deep enough with his prism beams to damage the stability of the core. He knew the countdown had started when orange and yellow ribbons of energy were beginning to fire out of the hole and hit the ground. Battra and Mothra quickly flew as far away as possible. Once they reached the safety of the staging area they turned around to watch the show unfold.

To understand the meltdown of a fusion reactor is to think of the reactor as a micro-sized star. Hydrogen is fused into helium inside of the immense heat of the reactor. This produces immense heat that can be used to boil water into steam and spin a turbine to create electricity. This entire setup is not possible without an incredibly strong magnetic field. Disrupting that field will result in burning plasma escaping into the air around it. As the plasma escapes, it cools off enough to transform back into a gas. This hydrogen gas is extremely flammable and volatile when it comes in contact with air. Battra's prism beams were strong enough to melt through the outer plating of the reactor shield and destroy the magnetic field. Battra and Mothra watched from the staging point as a small yellow light began to glow brighter and brighter in the distance. Then, with a flash bright enough to be seen from outer space, the reactor explodes.

Instead of forming a mushroom cloud, the explosion looks more like a half-sphere of glowing orange and yellow lights. The shockwave hit them but it was the immense heat that they felt first. Mothra cringed as she felt the blast of heat immediately slam into her. Both her and Battra threw their wings in front of them to shield them from the blast. Wind rushed past their faces. After only a few seconds the blinding light dissipated but what they saw was worse.

Fire. The entire jungle they had entered in was scorched and in flames. The ground was a mix of black scorched earth or burning trees. Mothra noticed how some animals were caught in the blast and were slowly burning on the ground below. Ash began to fall from the sky. Mothra noticed how some clumps of ash were burning.

"Why is the ash burning Battra?"

"That is the fallout I was talking about. The difference between nuclear reactors and fusion reactors is the lack of radioactive elements. Simple hydrogen and helium are not radioactive. This fallout however is chunks of debris that are burning. This burning debris can spread for thousands of miles across the globe. But look around, you remember the lush jungle that lied in front of us? It will never return. The climate is damaged. I wouldn't be surprised if a desert formed due to the lack of water and organic matter."

Battra shook his wings. Flakes of ash fluttered off of them. He turned to Mothra and the two took off. This time Wayfield and his men followed them into the fray. Even though this explosion was destructive, it was nothing compared to what was going on in Brazil.

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Godzilla made landfall in Brazil just shortly after the first fusion reactor was destroyed. Chinese, Russian, and United States destroyers were pounding the coastline with artillery. Jaegers were emerging from the ruined coastal city of Salvador and firing their plasma cannons at the ships. Fighter jets and various bombers were doing everything they could to draw their fire.

Until Godzilla arrived.

The jaegers watched as the warships began to move up and down. Then, with a small tsunami, Godzilla crawled onto the shore and immediately decked a jaeger in the face. Godzilla felt it's faceplate crumple and he grinned. More fun was soon to come for him. A screech from the sky announced the arrival of yet another friendly face. Rodan dove from the sky and latched onto a jaeger. He used his talons to rip it's upper body clean off. He discarded the torso and Godzilla finished it off with a mighty stomp. But there was still one more friend left to join the fight. With a loud vibrating roar Rax landed to Godzilla's right and charged up his electromagnetic pulse attack. The trio watched as three jaegers in front of him powered off and crashed to the ground. The trio stood side-by-side. Once all enemies of each other but now allies.

Godzilla raises his tail and brings both of his fists in front of him. His dorsal plates pulsing. Rodan brings one of his wings in front of his face like a matador holds his cape. The other wing he extends in front of him. Rax raises both of his wings and slams his front legs onto the ground. The reddish-orange light pulsing in his eyes and limbs. All three of them, striking their battle poses, became the image that newspapers and articles show across the world. Godzilla in the center, Rodan to his left and Rax to his right. Nothing could stop them now.

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Author's note: The Final battle begins. This is part 1 of a three part finale. It has been a long journey my friends and the end is in sight. See y'all soon.

Random: Finally got around to watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and I took a lot of influence from that show for the final stances that Godzilla, Rodan, and Rax were doing. I think of it as their signature pose. I also took in a lot of influence for how fighting is done in that show so it's going to be a blast to write the final fights. Get ready because it's going to be very entertaining.