Chapter II: Simulation
Kiryu Training Cockpit
August 21, 2002
7:00 AM
Kane Locke adjusted his helmet as the fake cockpit of the Godzilla-sized mech, Kiryu, rose from the ground. His co-pilot Lean Blaze was rubbing his hands together in anticipation for the upcoming battle. King Joe and Benedict Ciavo, ready at their stations, were rather calm.
As the hum of pneumatics slowly lifted the mock-pit into position, Kane broke the silence. "Remember boys, we've been training for three weeks now and this is our final exam. If we win this battle then we're home free, if we lose then we have to work with Crador and his crew all over again."
"I agree, I know they're our teammates and everything but we don't need any damn baby sitters." Lean smiled.
"If only the Commander had told us which kaiju we'd be fighting," Joe said, "I'd be a lot more prepared."
"I think we all would." Kane added on.
The screen in front of them showed some static before coming on in a crystal clear image of New York City. They were in the middle of a canyon of tall skyscrapers and it was daylight with a bit of overcast.
"Maser Cannons are loaded sir!" Benedict Ciavo stated.
"Good, now be cautious men. The kaiju is around here somewhere, and I don't want any surprise attacks!" Kane said to them.
In the mock-pit of Mechagodzilla, Vincent Crador's gloved hands gripped the control sticks on his arm rests. Behind him, Paul Goji and Kaiser Elexus were checking all the equipment at the stations.
"All weapons are loaded and ready for battle sir!" Paul shouted above the humming of the power systems.
The front screen of Mechagodzilla's cockpit snapped on to reveal the same city of New York. Vincent Crador turned the mech's head to look back and forth through the columns of grey, brown, and red buildings.
"There aren't any other kaiju here." Kaiser pointed out.
"I guess the Commander wants us to look around." Vincent said as he started moving forward. The giant screen moved back and forth as the mech's head scanned through the empty streets. A steady breeze went by and the microphones picked up the eerie howl.
"I'm moving into Central Park, there's more space so we can have free range to attack." Vincent announced. The huge mech stomped forward, each time its massive iron feet hit the ground nearby buildings quaked.
"I'm picking up some odd sounds." King Joe said to Kane Locke and Lean Blaze.
"What are they?" Lean asked.
"I think it's stomping…" Joe pushed the headphones up against his ear and listened carefully. "It's definitely another kaiju, walking into Central Park."
"Are you sure it's a monster and not a legion of tanks?" Kane asked.
King Joe listened again but then said, "Yeah, I'm certain."
Kane Locke turned northeast so that Kiryu was facing toward Central Park, well hidden by two blocks of sky scrapers. "Let's give this kaiju a bit of a surprise," he grinned, "Benedict."
"Yes sir?" Benedict Ciavo asked from the weapons station.
"Fire three heat-seekers from missile bays three and four!"
"I'm on it sir." Benedict flipped one of the dozens of switches above his head and then held down the firing trigger of his joy-stick. Two iron doors popped open on Kiryu's back and three black missiles erupted from each launcher.
The six warheads left a line of grey smoke in their trail as they darted over the nearby buildings and streamed toward their target.
"Missiles sir!" Kaiser told Vincent, his own headphones pressed to his ears.
"Missiles? That doesn't make sense." Vincent replied. On the front screen six rockets emerged above the crest of two tall buildings. They all turned and shot toward Mechagodzilla.
"They're heat seekers!" Paul shouted. "I'm getting rid of them!"
"This doesn't make sense." Vincent said to himself as Paul Goji aimed Mechagodzilla's Iris Masers at the incoming missiles. The mech's eyes flashed white blue and finally a perfect strait line of focused energy burst forth and struck each of the missiles. Fire and pieces of metal fell from the sky and into the park.
"What's going on?" Kaiser asked Vincent.
"I don't know. Paul, fire wrist missiles at the buildings where those rockets originated. Don't stop until I tell you to."
Paul did as he was told. Mechagodzilla's arms rose and from the slot on its wrist came a plethora of missiles, each flying forward and exploding around the surface of the buildings.
Huge chunks of gravel, brick and metal flew off while explosion upon explosion rocked the sky scrapers.
Kane watched the screen as the buildings in front of him began to tremble. Explosions continued to erupt in front of them, but the crew of Kiryu still couldn't see their origins. He pointed back to Benedict Ciavo. "Ready the Double Maw Maser! These buildings are falling down all around us and we're going to be face to face with this kaiju in any second!"
"Way ahead of you boss!" Benedict said as he began to feed energy to Kiryu's main weapon.
A cloud of smoke and fire erupted in front of the cockpit's screen, leaving the crew blind. Kane Locke pushed forward into the cloud of dust and debris. "Fire Ciavo!" Kane yelled to the Weapon Control man.
The crew in Mechagodzilla watched from their position at Central Park. Now that the buildings before them had been toppled, Paul ceased missile fire. And now they waited for their unknown opponent to make the next move.
From inside the horde of dust and smoke, came a shimmering golden light. What kaiju made a golden light? Vincent thought to himself. But then, he realized what his Commander was doing.
"We're fighting Kane!" He declared.
"What? You mean Kiryu?" Kaiser asked.
"Yeah!" Vincent quickly moved Mechagodzilla to the right as a beam of spiraling jagged electricity arced out at them. But because the crew of Kiryu was blinded in the huge cloud of smoke, it was an easy miss.
"Yeah, that's Kiryu alright." Paul said.
"What do you want us to do sir?" Kaiser asked Vincent.
"Let's give our buddies the surprise of their lives." Vincent grinned.
Kane Locke made the giant mech swing its arms around, trying to push some of this dust off of them. He was almost certain that Benedict had missed the target, or else there would've been some sort of reaction from the other kaiju. Ash was falling all around them as well, some of it sticking to the cameras. King Joe was working as fast as he could to clean out air ducts and wipe off the lenses.
Silence followed, an eerie long silence that seemed to last an eternity. Kane swung Kiryu's head back and forth, looking desperately for the enemy. Suddenly King Joe declared, "Footsteps, I hear footsteps!"
"Switch over command of Kiryu's arms and legs to me sir!" Benedict said to Kane, "I have a feeling that we're going to be getting involved in a close quarter's melee."
"I agree." Kane said. He tapped a few buttons and the functions of Kiryu's legs and arms were sent to Ciavo's station. "If we start to get heavily damaged then give them to Lean Blaze and he'll get us out of here."
"I know." Benedict confirmed.
The stomping in Joe's earpiece was slowly getting louder. On the front screen the image of the opponent was coming toward them and fast. Most of it was still hidden by the thick dust and smoke, but now Kane knew what it was.
"Our opponent is Godzilla!" He said to the crew.
"So much for the anticipation." Lean replied sarcastically.
But when the creature jumped at them and the glistening metal could finally be seen at close range; Kane, Lean, Joe, and Benedict went wide-eyed when it turned out to be Mechagodzilla. Their sister mech landed right in front of theirs and the small circular door on its stomach opened up.
Kane could almost see Vincent Crador's smile through the eyes of MechaG as the violet ray of particles and energy erupted from the Plasma Grenade Cannon. Everyone aboard Kiryu was too shocked to even try to block the attack and the beam hit them at full force.
Kiryu slid back, just barely maintaining its footing. Benedict finally realized that they were still in a fight, but now with their fellow teammates, and made Kiryu charge forward. Mechagodzilla ran as well and the two titans of iron slammed into each other like sumo wrestlers.
Benedict made Kiryu's thick claws tear at the armor of MechaG, but unlike their other kaiju opponents, Mechagodzilla was covered in titanium and iron. It was useless and the two giant behemoths were left to try to topple the other in the rubble of New York.
Monster Island 2
August 21, 2002
7:15 AM
At the base of the huge perimeter walls of Monster Island, were many titanium gates that led into vast underground chambers. Today, one of those large doors was opening. Four gigantic dump trucks emerged from the inside and followed a muddy trail down to the center of the island.
Though the wheels alone were larger then a man, the vehicles were more like cockroaches when compared to Godzilla and Anguirus. Each one carried a load of iron barrels, each bearing the infamous radioactive insignia. This was Godzilla's breakfast.
While Anguirus munched on the many trees around the island, Godzilla refused to eat anything but nuclear waste. He didn't actually "eat" it, but absorbed the radioactivity in his spines. It was a good and safe way to get rid of some of the world's nuclear waste.
The trucks drove to a clearing where they finally dumped their load onto the grass. Then they quickly sped off while Godzilla was drawn to the scent. The kaiju sniffed the substances and then reached down to pick it up. His pinkish spines glowed bright red as the transparent energy was drained from the titanium barrel.
Kaijuologists were still trying to figure out, after almost fifty years of research, how Godzilla's spines actually worked. Some theories stated that they stored the radioactive energy. Others said that they were harvesters and the radioactivity was stored in an extra set of lungs. Since no one could do a biopsy on Godzilla, the world would never know until the King of Monsters died.
But for now, all the scientists did know about Godzilla and his radioactive properties was that he only ate nuclear waste, and it somehow fueled his deadly heat ray.
Areit was more of a Gigan girl. She had studied Gigan in her first years of being a kaijuologist. It was more like Astrology though, since Gigan spent most of its time flying around the Solar System. That wasn't her kind of thing, to look through a telescope, so she took the job of studying Godzilla and Anguirus on one of the Monster Islands.
Areit was right now at a computer station, monitoring Anguirus's life functions. A team of helicopters had attached the readers to the kaiju's neck, chest, and arm the night before. One had already been attached to the crown of its head to monitor brain activity at the beginning of 2002. As of right now, Anguirus didn't look to be doing so well. Its heart rate was considerably high and its muscles were very tense despite the fact that Anguirus looked rather calm.
"The disease can't be passed onto another kaiju via a kaiju. A bird has to carry it." Areit explained to Greg, who was sitting in his own chair flipping a coin.
"So that's why Godzilla hasn't caught it?" Greg replied.
"I think so. Hundreds of birds go from one island to another, which would explain how it spread from Anguirus to Rodan, Baragon, and Megalon. Maybe Godzilla's Regeneration abilities can resist the disease." Areit said.
"What do you plan on calling it? Bird-Kaiju Flu?" Greg asked.
"I don't know. I'll try to find out some more about it before I think of that." Areit reached for the phone and dialed in a few numbers.
"I'm going to have some breakfast." Greg stood up and went down the hall, leaving Areit in the observation room alone. She held the receiver up to her ear and after a few rings, Dr. Yamane picked up.
"Is their Areit or Greg?" He asked from the other island.
"Areit." She confirmed.
"Good."
"Any new data on the three kaiju?" She asked him.
"Yeah, but you won't like it." Yamane said.
"Oh boy, let's get it over with then."
Yamane said, "It's not a disease?"
"What?" Areit was surprised, "Then what could it possibly be that's affecting all these monsters?"
"Well, I'm still trying to figure that out Areit." On the other line Areit could hear the voices of other workers, "But, Dave and I did some tests on Megalon last night. He doesn't have a sickness or anything; it's like having all the symptoms of flu, but not actually having the flu."
"That's strange. Do you have any idea what could be causing all of this behavior if it isn't a sickness?" She asked.
"I don't have an answer," Yamane said, "Do some more research on Anguirus tonight, that's all I can say." The receiver clicked and Areit hung up.
Outside, Anguirus and Godzilla were kicking around boulders.
Mechagodzilla Cockpit
August 21, 2002
7:20 AM
The massive machine ducked just in time to avoid Kiryu's long tail aimed to swing at Mechagodzilla's head. Then with a quick swipe of its hand, MechaG was firmly grasping Kiryu's ankle.
"Pull and topple it!" Vincent yelled to Paul. But before Paul Goji could finish his attack Kiryu's two fists came slamming down over their skull. The cockpit was thrust forward like a car crash. The safety straps almost seemed to tear as Mechagodzilla's head hit the ground.
Vincent quickly got back into the action; he took the controls away from Paul and flipped on Mechagodzilla's boosters. Blue fire and air erupted from the rockets on the mech's back, thrusting the huge machine forward. Its head slammed into Kiryu's chest, nearly toppling the other monster.
Vincent swung Mechagodzilla's feet forward and the huge war-machine stood up, now facing Kiryu who was still trying to recover. Vincent returned the controls to Paul who charged forward.
"Is anything damaged Kaiser?" Vincent yelled over the clang of Mechagodzilla delivering a bone-breaking uppercut to Kiryu's jaw.
"The left Iris Maser is off-line but I'm fixing it!" Kaiser responded. Mechagodzilla's iron fingers wrapped around Kiryu's neck. The other hand came up right in front of Kiryu's gapping mouth.
"I'm going to fire three missiles right down their throat!" Paul announced.
"We're at point blank Paul! We'll receive damage too!" Vincent yelled.
"Vincent!" Paul said back, "Prepare the boosters for retreat! On 0, get us out of here!"
"This better work!" Vincent turned and gripped the switch to turn on the engines.
"3," Paul counted, "2, 1…"
"FIRE!" Kane screamed to Benedict. From Kiryu's open maw shot the golden maser which engulfed MechaG's fully exposed fist. Sparks erupted from the missile bay and one of them must've gone off because a powerful explosion rocked both mechas away from each other.
Mechagodzilla screeched metallically from the attack. It shook its arm to try and put out the fires. Its hand had been blown off and now there was all but a smoldering hole in its charred arm.
"Press forward!" Kane yelled, "Show no mercy!"
Benedict activated the rocket boosters and spun the giant mech around with both legs extended. One foot kicked into Mechagodzilla's head, the next slammed into its chest, the next hit its shoulder and the final kick collided with full force at Mechagodzilla's torso and finally knocked it over. But as the machine fell to the ground, its engines kicked in and thrust it forward, just barely missing Kiryu.
Kane spun his ship around just in time to see Mechagodzilla make a U-Turn to avoid hitting a building and fly like a bullet toward them. Paul fired the maser which was poorly aimed and missed. Vincent's plan had worked and he successfully slammed into Kiryu who was thrown backward.
Mechagodzilla stood erect and returned to its feet as Kiryu slid across the piles of rubble. MechaG's yellow eyes suddenly glowed blue as the Iris Maser started charging. Kiryu was only starting to get up and Kane still had the head turned away so he couldn't see the inevitable strike.
But in a stroke of luck, the left eye suddenly went yellow and only one Iris Maser fired. It struck into Kiryu's spine, but without the other beam it wasn't enough to force the mech back to the ground.
Kane got Kiryu up and Paul quickly fired the Maser Cannon. MechaG's rocket's thrust the monster out of the way and instead the maser hit a skyscraper behind MG. The building's base exploded and it gave way, leaning over onto the other nearby structures which were dragged down into a heap of brown smoke.
Mechagodzilla came down to its feet, raising a bit of a dust cloud upon its landing. Both metal kaiju stood still, the only movement from either was the swaying of Kiryu's long tail. Then, Mechagodzilla's eyes began to shine bright blue.
Benedict activated the Oral Maser and Kiryu's jaw snapped open to reveal the sunshine like glow of its charging. Both machines fired their beams at the exact same moment, but Kiryu's hit Mechagodzilla's stomach while Mechagodzilla's stabbed into Kiryu's chest. The two giant machines were blown off their feet and slammed into the ground, rippling the pavement around them.
Saudi Arabia
August 21, 2002
When Akira Tanaka regained consciousness the first thing he felt was a sharp pain in his chest. He grimaced and lifted his arm to feel the wound. It was bandaged.
"How're you doing sir?" A voice said.
"Well…I think I have a bullet in my rib." He answered, recognizing the voice as one of his troops named Jeffrey.
"We got that out a while ago." The soldier was at his bed-side sipping a can of soda.
"Jeffrey, what happened?" Tanaka groaned. "Did we win the battle?"
"Sort of…" Jeffrey said, "The terrorist group that attacked the city was Tyrannis. There were just too many of them and we were forced to pull back to the highway leading out of the city. General Smith had no other choice but to rain missiles down over the city or risk losing the oil plants."
"So, what's the situation with Qatif?" Tanaka asked.
"The city was pretty much destroyed, but the refineries are still intact." Jeffrey replied.
"I guess that's good news." Tanaka tried to lean up but the pain returned in his rib cage, "Was I shot?" He asked as he gripped the bandages.
"Yeah, just a little after the battle first started. Your boys with you were lucky to get you out of there alive."
"So where are we now?" Tanaka asked.
"The Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, we'll be safe here until we get an order from command." Jeff explained.
The doors to the room suddenly burst open. It was General Alexander Smith who wore a friendly smile, "I heard you talking! Glad to see you're awake!"
"It's good to see you too Echo Kid." Tanaka returned the grin. "So how long have I been out?" Tanaka asked Jeffrey.
"About three weeks I think."
"I just got the word from headquarters." Smith interrupted.
"The word for what?" Tanaka asked.
"This look familiar?" He threw a photograph onto Tanaka's blanket. It was of a corpse, a man with a long wrangled beard and rather large sideburns.
"That's the Tyrannis leader!" Jeff realized.
"Yeah, the cleaning crew found him in the rubble of Qatif, my boys must've caught him inside one of the buildings!" Smith smiled.
"Wait, wait…" Tanaka held up his hand, "Tyrannis is the most fearsome Terrorist group out there, and they've just lost their leader."
"Yeah, the group is in disarray without him, after their horrible defeat at Qatif they've retreated into the desert where we have about ten Armored Divisions from Canada and America following them toward Iraq." Smith said.
"So what does this all mean for us?" Tanaka asked.
"I just got the message from headquarters that because their leader is dead, we've accomplished out mission. We're going home!"
Command Station of G-Force HQ
August 21, 2002
7:30 AM
David Masters watched from behind two seated men, who were busy helping to run the simulation of Mechagodzilla and Kiryu's battle. The many screens in the control room were fed from various cameras in the simulators. Some showed what was happening outside the two mighty machines, while others displayed the inside of each cockpit where the crews were struggling to overcome their opponent.
"Kiryu's just knocked down another building." One of the men in front of him told.
"That'll bring down their score." Masters said. While Kiryu and her crew were lasting longer then they did in most training sessions, they were still doing a rather poor job. Property damage around the CGI New York was immense, and most of it had been caused by Kiryu. If either crew had been smart, they would've taken the battle out into Central Park by now.
"Increase smoke intensity around those fallen buildings." One of the men pointed out the section.
"I'm on it." The other worker stated, beginning to type furiously at his keyboard.
Kane in Kiryu's cockpit was yelling commands to Benedict Ciavo, "They're going to fire the Plasma Grenade! Block it!"
The room shook from the impact of Mechagodzilla's attack.
"Damn it Ciavo! Work faster or I'm taking control away from you!"
Meanwhile in Mechagodzilla's cockpit Vincent was urging Paul to press on the attack, "Perfect hit! Now use MG's fist!"
Mechagodzilla's iron hand curled into a ball and began to wail on Kiryu who cried out in agony. The other arm's hand had been destroyed earlier in the battle so Mechagodzilla just elbowed Kiryu in the gut. King Joe was jumping from one monitor to another at his station, trying desperately to keep Kiryu from being torn apart.
"We're winning!" Vincent observed, "Keep it up!"
Commander Masters watched as Mechagodzilla forced Kiryu into a corner of buildings. The battle looked like it was over, with each impact from Mechagodzilla's attacks the Kiryu cockpit sprayed sparks from various electrical consoles.
Mechagodzilla brought its fist back for one final blow, meant to knock Kiryu right out of the battle. The iron fist struck forward, but in a surprise turn of events, Kiryu's hand came up and grabbed hold of MG's fist.
"Nice work Benedict!" Kane yelled, "Continue the attack!"
Kiryu's jet packs came on and the giant mech was lifted into the air. Mechagodzilla's eyes followed it upward and once Kiryu finally had the high ground, Benedict rained the Oral Maser down onto the enemy.
"Back up!" Vincent shouted to his crew, "Kaiser, make sure no fires break out!"
As Mechagodzilla began to step back, Benedict pushed Kiryu to hover after it, continuing to unleash the jagged bolts of the golden maser beam. Mechagodzilla was now nearing one of the last standing nearby structures. The flying mech turned downward and nosedived right into the vulnerable armor of Mechagodzilla.
The machine was tossed, but its back slammed into the building causing it to fall face first into the ground. Kiryu's feet touched down onto the rubble strewn streets. Its jaw opened and the Oral Maser flashed over the base of the weakened building. Explosions followed and it began to topple over, right onto the two mechas.
But while MechaG was still lying on the ground, Kiryu's engines kicked in and carried it back out of harm's way. The skyscraper crashed onto Mechagodzilla, a cloud of brown smoke erupted and obscured the scene.
Kiryu just sat, its crew waiting for the possible end of the training match. The men of Kiryu were silent, but Commander Masters now listened to the MG men who were already putting their plan into motion.
Kiryu Cockpit
August 21, 2002
7:35 AM
Kane, Lean, Benedict, and Joe waited silently. The only noise came from the humming of their computers and the occasional sound of falling rubble outside. A cloud of dust and smoke obscured the scene of Mechagodzilla's burial, but everyone knew that their opponent wasn't dead…yet.
Benedict's sweaty palms gripped the control sticks. He watched his screen, the Oral Maser charged and ready to fire in case Mechagodzilla emerged from its grave.
But it wasn't Mechagodzilla who burst forth, but a barrage of missiles each darting for Kiryu. They all hit and Kiryu roared in pain. Not a second after the attack, ripping the building's wall away came Mechagodzilla. But the once glistening metal monster was now stained in gravel and dust, giving it a brown overtone.
"Fire!" Kane yelled to Benedict.
The Oral Maser erupted from Kiryu's maw and struck right under Mechagodzilla's jaw, forcing its head to bend back in a most uncomfortable position. Kane Locke turned to Benedict and yelled, "Start loading the Absolute Zero Cannon! We're going to finish them off!"
"I'm still trying to fix all the problems caused by the last attack!" King Joe said to the pilot.
"Finish them off!" Kane repeated.
"Sir," Lean said, "drawing our energy to Absolute Zero might leave us standing helpless."
"Look!" Kane pointed to the screen, "Mechagodzilla's neck has been cracked! It's the perfect time to deploy it!"
"Energy draw at fifty percent sir!" Benedict stated.
"Make it go faster Ciavo!" Kane shouted.
"I would if I could." Benedict stated.
On the display screen, Mechagodzilla's head was moving back and forth, Vincent Crador trying to lodge it back into place. It must've worked because the metallic growl of the monster ensued after it stopped.
"Kane!" Lean yelled, "We'll be destroyed!"
Kane said nothing, only wearing a stony face. Mechagodzilla's two eyes shined bright blue as the Iris Maser charged.
"Energy draw at ninety percent!" Benedict confirmed.
"Fire as soon as it reaches one hundred!" Kane said. He then pressed a few keys at his station, activating the gears to open the three chest plates. In the center of the opening was the Absolute Zero Cannon, shinning polar white and getting brighter by the second.
Mechagodzilla's crew must've realized what was going on because the Iris Maser burst forth, but instead of being aimed at Kiryu's head, it was flying toward the Absolute Zero Cannon.
Kane thought for sure they had lost, but at the last possible moment, just before the two blue masers struck true, the cannon erupted! The spiraling cannonball of freezing energy easily broke apart the Iris Maser and flew toward Mechagodzilla's face.
There was no time to react, the attack was too quick and Mechagodzilla was struck by the blue orb. It was like the machine had been hit with a golf club, and it was the ball; Mechagodzilla was thrown off its feet and tossed at least six blocks away. The landing wasn't any better; the mech slammed to the ground then continued to roll across smaller structures until finally being stopped at the base of a sky scraper. The metal surface of M.G was now coated with a thin layer of ice and frost.
Kiryu's jet engines kicked in and with a powerful kick from its legs, the machine jumped all the way over to Mechagodzilla. It landed right next to it and just as it did, dozens upon dozens of missiles erupted from their pods before darting down upon Mechagodzilla's skull.
The fallen machine squirmed on the ground as explosions withered its body. Finally, Kiryu's jaw opened and the two electrical prongs in the back of its throat shot the Oral Maser at point blank range into Mechagodzilla's face.
"If that didn't win us the match, then I quit!" Kane announced.
"Don't worry…" The voice of Commander Masters crackled through the speaker at the ceiling, "You did."
NASA Headquarters
August 22, 2002
8:03 PM
Michael Griffin, the Chief of space exploration at NASA leaned back in his leather chair. He spun it around and away from his desk to look out the window of his building.
He stroked his fine hair to make sure it looked neat in the glass's reflection. He then spun back to his desk and picked up the phone. "You can send Harry Buford in now."
He hung up and waited in his office for the man to come. When the door finally opened, Mr. Griffin stood up and eagerly shook the man's hand.
"So you wanted to see me?" Griffin asked as he sat back down and Harry took a seat as well.
Harry Buford was a rather short man who wore rectangular shaped glasses at the tip of his nose. He was an Astronomer who worked for NASA.
"I have some interesting observations that you might want to see sir." Harry handed Griffin a folder full of documents. Some had photos of empty space paper clipped onto them.
"What is this?" Griffin pointed to the folder.
"Well sir," He took the folder, "A satellite orbiting around Earth, SMRT-02, that was assigned to take pictures of deep space, picked up something rather interesting."
"Go on." Griffin sat back in his chair and folded his arms.
"Well, one of the instruments aboard SMRT picked up a large amount of titanium and radiation behind Earth's moon." Griffin kept listening, but both his arms remained crossed, "Just out of nowhere these readings showed up directly behind the moon. They weren't there the day before, we can't explain it sir!"
"Listen," Griffin shushed the other man, "We have a satellite heading for the moon to take surface pictures. It'll arrive next week and I'll be sure that it checks out your findings."
"Thank you Mr. Griffin." Harry said and began to gather up all of his papers.
"You can leave that here son." Griffin said. "I'll call you when we get further developments. You may leave."
The Far Side of the Moon
August 24, 2002
The man-made satellite, UHTY-01, had finally reached its destination after one year of orbiting earth and then traveling to the moon. The rocket that had carried the picture-taker deployed it into orbit around the Earth's lone natural satellite before falling to its crater-packed surface.
Scientists of NASA had labored years to create the three foot long gadget, and were now back at the base cheering. They'd be awaiting the first picture sent back from the satellite in about an hour.
UHTY-01's equipment was designed to map out the moon's surface, specifically the far side that never faced Earth. But before it could start its mission, the Chief of NASA wanted UHTY-01 to take a quick picture of a given coordinate on the far side of the moon.
It was where Harry had said a rather high concentration of Titanium and Radioactivity had been located about a week earlier by SMRT-02. The crew agreed to do it, just because it might lead to some interesting results.
Unfortunetly, those interesting results were much more interesting then the crew could've hoped for. As the satellite moved into position to take the picture, something darted at it from out of nowhere. A heat ray of sapphire engulfed the satellite, completely destroying it in the vacuum of space.
Only one picture was taken, and it was of a blurred black object rushing toward the camera, the surface of the moon in the background. The crew back at NASA was left in awe when the photo was finally sent back to them, well after UHTY had been destroyed…