Chapter 12
A Killing Spree Destiny
It was the second week of November, and the boss of the Gotengo Research Center had just flown into the airport. He had emailed Dr. Owens and Lennox that he was coming to the site, and he will be meeting them upon arrival.
For over thirty years, the owner has kept his grandfather's business running since the early nineteen thirties. In nineteen twenty two, Leopold Atragon, and Joseph Monarch were in the navy during World War 1. The men were assigned to help in the Pacific Ocean to test out the new submarine that had been built to withstand any missile attack, and could not be scarred by any rock. Three days into the test, and once the machine was working properly, they were contacted by their general to come back. The ride back was simple, but after a few hours into it, something happened.
One of the men - a new recruit in his late teens - suddenly screamed bloody murder, and jumped back from the porthole. Everyone took notice of the situation, and ran to their stations and looked out the windows. In the darkness of the deep ocean, they couldn't see anything. After a while, one person called out seeing the silhouette of something moving in the darkness. It wasn't long until everyone saw it, then ran to the guns and waited for orders from their captain.
A long moment of silence passed as the searchlights were turned on, and nothing happened. Then the submarine was violently shoved to the side, spinning around upon impact. As the captain tried to take control of the ship, red lights were already flashing. Another violent jolt, pushing them forward. One man was thrown across the hull, slamming his head against the roof, and his neck instantly snapped.
Leopold held on for dear life, and when the craft finally stopped, he opened his eyes to see something move right past them. It was huge. In the beam of the searchlight, the thing had to be at least over two thousand feet long. It had blue-green scales; fins going from its head down to the end of its tail; beige under scales; jagged, sharp teeth; and purple eyes.
When it shot past the submarine, it looked straight into the eyes of Leopold Atragon, and scraped against the side of the hull as well. The sound pierced everyone's eardrums, and then again. Inactivity came next. Suddenly, the image of the serpent charged at them, followed by a roar that caught the crew's attention. The captain ordered for them to fire, and they did. The explosion helped them to see the monster clearly, and needless to say, none of them had ever seen anything like it before. The monster charged again, slamming head first against the submarine, which caused a leak. Giant teeth poked through the walls, stabbing one person, and shaking the craft. Leopold pointed a cannon upward, and with no hesitation, fired whatever he could. After a moment, the beast roared in pain, and pulled away from the submarine.
As the captain steered the craft up to the surface, Leopold watched as the serpent swam away, leaving a cloud of blood behind.
When they returned home, Leopold instantly went to the general and told him about what happened. At first, the general did not believe what he said, but there were enough men on the submarine, including the captain, to convince him. After finally persuading the general, he sent out some troops to the Pacific to search for the creature, but came back finding nothing. Because they did not find anything, they accused the men, including the captain of lying, and were all released from duty.
Atragon and Monarch knew what they had seen, and a thought crossed their mind that there may be more of those creatures out there. They both decided that they should build a research facility to study these creatures, but had disagreement on the decision. While Joseph Monarch wanted to contain the creature, Leopold Atragon wanted to kill it. If there could be more of those monsters out there, who knows what they are capable of. Because of their argument, they went their separate paths.
Years later, both men had set up their own company that is dedicated to find and study the now called Titans. Joseph named the organization after his family name - the symbol was a skeleton of the serpent he had seen - and would continue on to learn about the now long dead father of Godzilla - Dagon. Meanwhile, Leopold Atragon had built the Gotengo Research center. There, they worked on a plan to kill the Titans - they called it Project "Roaring Heaven." They would build a machine, which could only work under water, but Leopold wanted to progress it so the engine could work on land, and in the air. They had finished a prototype, and went back to the Pacific Ocean to find the monster they had witnessed many years ago.
For a while, they had found nothing, but after a few hours the monster had come, attacking the craft at all sides. The machine was only a prototype, so the only weapon it had was the drill at the front. They did everything they could to fight the monster, but it overpowered them, and destroyed the machine, killing everyone on board, and Leopold as well. But Gotengo would not end there.
Leopold's son, Seigmund Atragon would continue Project "Roaring Heaven," and would build more of it, creating different versions of the machine. Throughout the years, they had searched the oceans and killed many Titans. Before it was estimated there were about thirty of them, but now there are seventeen. Except, no matter how many monsters Seigmund had killed, he did not succeed in avenging his father, and would soon die of cancer. Leaving the project in the hands of his son, Kaspar, would go on to make the machine better, faster, stronger, and would use it to kill every single Titan that ever existed on the planet once it was finally finished.
In some cave drawings that were found in the Mariana Trench while testing a prototype, he had learned the name of the monster that killed his grandfather: . . . Manda.
Here they were now, November twelfth, two thousand twenty three. Dr. Owens and Lennox stood outside of the research center at two in the morning, waiting for their boss to show up.
Remington looked up at the sky to see the blood moon staring down at them. " . . . Sometimes I wonder whether I should even try to live. Haven't you ever noticed that our world continues to slowly die every year? How the wars never end? How our problems never stop coming? You know, I always thought we were the problems. Us humans make our lives, and everyone else's worse. But now . . . this. I never thought my life would end up in this position. Studying monsters, working for a company that wants to kill them. They say another world war would kill us all, but in these times . . . it is nature itself that will lead us to our end."
" . . . I thought the same thing," Owens said. "In a way, it is the nuclear bomb that will kill us all, but at the same time it will save us. In nineteen fifty four, we used that bomb, and killed Godzilla's father. Some people would see him as the hero for killing the MUTOs, and Ghidorah. But he doesn't care about us. He doesn't care about this planet. The only thing he cares about is building his own kingdom, turning our world into his own, like the others. That's why I took this job. Monarch won't protect us, they'll just sit back and watch as the earth burns and say it's beautiful. The Pan Pacific Defense Corps is not strong enough, and their own creations will also lead us to our end. But Gotengo has an idea, a plan to stop those monsters. They are willing to protect us, and Atragon will fight the Titans head on. Once you see that machine . . . you will see the end of war."
Headlights suddenly showed in their faces as a black car pulled up. It sat there on the curb for a moment, then the backseat door opened, and out stepped a tall man. He was in his late fifties; had long white hair; wore black gloves; black pants and a red shirt; tall boots; black trench coat; his right eye had a long, gnarly scar, with an eyepatch over it. He stared at the scientists as the car drove away.
"Mr. Atragon," Remington said, offering his hand.
Kaspar looked at it, and noticed that he was wearing a glove as well. He then said in a heavy German accent: " . . . When you want to greet someone," he took off his own glove, " . . . you had better do it properly." He offered his hand.
Remington knew what he meant, and took off his own glove and shook hands with Kaspar Atragon.
The boss nodded. "Nice to meet you once again in person, Dr. Lennox, and you as well, Dr. Owens."
Frederick shook hands with him. "It is always a pleasure to meet the grandson of the man who made this company face to face."
"If my grandfather was here today, I would show him all the work I put so much effort into killing the Titans. Now . . . show me Roaring Heaven."
The three men walked inside as dark clouds began to loom into the sky.
"How was your flight, boss?" Remington asked.
"Lovely, I will say," Atragon responded. "The attendants were very kind, and the trip was as smooth as the clouds above us. How has the work been going on the engine?"
"We ran into a few complications," Frederick replied. "We have over a hundred men working almost day and night on the machine. They're just adjusting the wiring on it, but overall, it's complete. But we're not entirely certain that it will fly."
Kaspar turned to him. "Dr. Owens, it will fly, and it will kill every last Titan . . . starting with Ghidorah, because I hear they are very active these past few months."
"The Kings have been sighted in Canada, Japan, and Australia, and killed the Titan that lived there."
"What was its name?"
"Malakai, the sandworm. But sir, we haven't gotten the time to test the machine."
"We will, Dr. Owens, and we shall test it on King Ghidorah."
"But they have not been sighted for quite a while now," Lennox said.
"But who's to say they will not return? Come. Take me to my grandfather's dream."
The doctors lead Kaspar Atragon through the halls, all the other co-workers gasping upon seeing their boss. They went to an elevator, and Frederick pressed the button on the very bottom, and the lift descended at a rapid pace.
"I have received the emails you have sent me about the cave drawings," Kaspar said.
"Judging by those drawings," Remington said, "we think there are more of these Titans that live in deep space."
"And you believe we should make more of my machine?"
"Yes. We do not know of these monster's abilities, so we may need more of this to fight back."
"Then, the more Roaring Heavens we have . . . the closer to the Promised Land we will get."
The elevator stopped, and the men stepped out. They found themselves in a large hangar, dimly lit by the lights on the ceiling. Kaspar Atragon walked over to the railing, and stared in awe at the sight of the engine. It was massive. Men were working all around it, sparks flying every few seconds.
The machine was painted brown, with red windows around it; there was a large fin under the hull; at the very front was a large, thin drill, with saws on the left and right side of it.
A smile grew on Kaspar's face as he said: " . . . It's . . . beautiful."
"The control room is at the very top of the machine," Owens said. "The entire hull is made of metal. We have estimated this thing to be as big as the empire state building."
" . . . It's not an object . . . it's a savior."
Kaspar walked down a flight of stairs, looking the machine up and down.
"He sure is worked up about his engine," Frederick said.
"It took years for this to be built," Lennox said. "Years of failure, years of redesign, years of hard work, and now it's done. Here it is now . . . the machine that will save us all."
" . . . My grandfather put his life into this," Kaspar said, " . . . it shall be named after our family." He turned to the men and said: " . . . This is our next step into a new age. A decade without war, without fighting . . . without Titans. All of those monsters will die to this, and we will no longer run from them again. The people will hear the engine roar . . . they will no longer fear what is greater than them . . . they will look up and find salvation flying towards them . . . they will see their hero soaring above their heads, and its name is . . . Atragon."