Chapter 6
Before the Storm
"Our best chance is now, Keizer!" Erzherzog exclaimed to his superior.
Erzherzog stood before the Keizer in the throne room. The throne room was large and mostly empty. It was circular with windows around the whole room overseeing the vastness of space and the far side of Earth's moon.
The Keizer, 01, sat in his throne. He was much older than the Erzherzog. His age could be seen in his face. He had seen dozens of wars and invasions. He had the same pale and veiny skin as his subordinate. He wore long, blue robes that could be called a super modern kimono with many extravagant angles to it. He was bald (not even eyebrows) and wore a black visor like Erzherzog's.
"You fail to surprise me with your reckless attitude, Erzherzog," the Keizer replied.
Erzherzog wanted to throw the old Xilian's words back at him. He was able to refrain. "Keizer, why are we still biding our time? The longer we drag this out, the more likely that damned Monster X will ruin out plans!"
"You are not fond of X?" the Keizer questioned.
"What?" Erzherzog was not expecting that question. "Keizer, if I may express myself: I cannot put as much faith as you do in something we found floating around in space. Also, I feel that he's a bad influence on the Gigan."
The Keizer chuckled. "You are a bad influence on him. He's a sentient being, not a tool. If you forget that, he will only be more disobedient."
Erzherzog hated it when the Keizer criticized him and tried to be a mentor. He felt that the old Xilian was insulting his intelligence. "The activation, Keizer, will it begin?"
The Keizer shifted to one side of his throne and pondered. He took a moment. Erzherzog could not stand still while he waited for the Keizer's decision but paced back and forth.
He finally gave Erzherzog the answer he wanted to hear. "I will trust your judgment. The time is now. I will leave preparations to you."
"Excellent, my Keizer! We will be ready to activate the plan tomorrow."
"Zero shall reign," Keizer concluded.
"Zero shall reign!" an excited Erzherzog finished before he left the throne room.
The Keizer got up from his throne. His body was weary. The window supported him as he looked out. Beyond the moon, he thought, was a thriving planet with billions of intelligent beings. The reason him and the Xilians were here weighed heavy on him.
The Xilian race was on the verge of extinction. They were desperate when they left Planet X. Their last battle forced them to escape to an unknown future. The Earth was their only hope. They did not have enough resources to go anywhere else. Either the Keizer's plan succeeded, or the Xilian race would slip into oblivion. Their enormous mothership, name Chi, and the armada within was all they had left.
The problem was the planet's current inhabitants. The Keizer, along with the rest of the Xilians, knew a kinship was not likely and too much hung in the balance for the Xilian race. They needed to take the planet in one fell swoop. Actually, two fell swoops was the plan.
The Keizer planned on doing anything it took to save his people. He knew, and fully expected, that the six billion humans would do the same if their positions were switched. He could not let them retaliate, or all would be lost.
In a matter of hours, their plan would be unleashed.
It was sunset when Glenn stood on the roof of the G-Force base. He was having a cigarette. He would usually have one after dinner.
Dire concerns swirled in his head. Monsters were on the loose in the world and no one knew where they were. A major city was devastated. Tokyo before him looked so peaceful and serine. "Where did they go?" Glenn thought to himself, "What the hell is going on?"
The roof access door opened. It was Vincent. He shielded his eyes from the sun.
"Hi there," Glenn greeted.
"Hey," Vincent, "Glenn, right? You're the leader of that GFA...?"
"GFAAU, yah," Glenn replied with his cigarette in his teeth.
"Ah, sorry," Vincent said, feeling a little awkward. He figured he would ask Glenn something. "So, you're really trained to fight Godzilla?
"That's what they told us at the training camp," Glenn replied. "But it's not surprising that the universe threw us a curveball. I'm almost glad that thing in Dubai vanished. We still have no idea what that was. I wasn't prepared." Glenn smirked. "I guess I'm getting to be a rusty boy scout."
"You're a scout?" Vincent asked?
"Sure am," Glenn replied.
"What rank did you make it to?" Vincent asked. He suspected that he was an Eagle Scout. It was the highest rank a Boy Scout could attain and demonstrates that the scout had strong leadership skills. Only a very few scouts every year reached the rank.
"Eagle," Glenn answered.
"I suspected." Vincent said, "I only made it to Life." The Life Scout rank was the rank just below Eagle. "I didn't really have what it takes to be a very good leader."
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Glenn leaned on the railing, "I've seen other Eagles turn out to be nobodies and kids who quit the scouts before they made Star Rank turn out to be great. The rank doesn't really mean that much."
"That so?" Vincent asked.
"Yep," Glenn said. The two stood silent for a moment. Glenn remembered his day camping with his scout troop. He spoke back up. "But back in my old troop," he cocked a grin at Vincent, "I would have the authority to assign you to latrine duties whenever I wanted."
The two had a laugh.
The visions were blurry and faint as they wisped through Gigan's mind. The vast conflagration haunted him. He was not certain if these visions were memories or not. But he was certain of one thing, they were getting clearer each time he saw them. He saw a little bit more each time he tried to access the vision in his head.
He relaxed. The cybernetic parts of his systems slowed down while his organic muscles relaxed. The red light in his eye dimmed lower and lower still until it was almost black.
Gigan stood in the silent blackness of his own mind. He focused intently to see the vision again. He saw the flames. Whenever he brought forth the images, or they came forth to him, strong emotions accompanied them. The feeling was almost alien to Gigan. It had not been in his basic programing. It came from the organic parts of his brain. The emotion he was experiencing was despair, a great feeling of sadness over loss. As the endless valley of trees burned, Gigan had noticed what he had not been able to before.
There was screaming. The screams came from some kind of alien creatures.
"Hey, wake up," said a faint voice from far away.
Gigan tried to focus harder to un-blur his vision.
"Gigan!" yelled the voice of the Erzherzog.
In a snap, the red light of his eye shot back on. Gigan lunged forward with a screeching cry.
The Erzherzog's hair was blown back, his visor had been knocked away, and his eyes were wide with surprise. His eyes were blue; a trait seen in no other Xilian. That is why he often whore his visor.
Not even the second in command of the Xilian Empire could get used to a monster like Gigan lunging forth and screaming in his face. "That," he said as he fixed his hair, "was uncalled for."
"Why do you wake me?!" Gigan asked with a fiery rage.
"Drop the attitude and I'll tell you!" the Erzherzog held his open hand up ready to activate the electric shocks with his hand gesture. Gigan backed away while hissing a low screechy growl. The last time he got shocked, it fried some of his circuits. "Good boy," the Erzherzog continued. "The reason I'm here is to let you know our attack is imminent."
"Good luck with that. Do tell me how it goes," Gigan retorted.
"Cut the crap! We're sending you down. You're opening!" he smiled.
"I'm flattered, but I am not invincible. The humans are surly on high alert. How can we take a planet with an advanced race living on it?" Gigan asked. "You're weak excuse for an empire is nothing compared to what the Nebulans had, assuming what X told me of their decline is true."
"We're not using our ships," the Erzherzog's grin grew. "We're using Earth's own army of kaiju."
"'Army?" Gigan was surprised. "How do they have more than one? How is the planet not a wasteland?"
"Apparently they've all been asleep for a very long time. So you won't be alone. You'll have a team of… oh what was it," the Erzherzog thought for a second, "yes, eight other kaiju."
"Fine," Gigan agreed, not really having a choice.
"Great!" the Erzherzog was delighted as he held one finger up. "One more thing!"
Gigan made an audible sigh.
"You will be receiving aid from us in the form of this." The Erzherzog summoned a hose down from the ceiling high above. It had frightening metallic teeth on it. It looked like a demented worm as it snaked down towards Gigan. It lunged into Gigan and sunk its teeth into his left arm.
"What the hell is it doing?" Gigan asked.
"Think of it as… a little kick start."
A strange substance flowed through the hose. It was a clear light blue. It seemed to be acidic; the hose appeared to be smoking as the fluid ran through it. The substance plunged into Gigan's arm. It felt like it was singeing his skin. He screeched as it scorched his veins.
Visions of his dreams flashed before him, emotions and all. But as the substance filled his systems, the visions were drowned. They were gone. Normally Gigan would always feel the visions haunting him. They were always faintly present. He quickly realized that this substance made the pain of his forgotten past dissipate.
The burn eventually turned into numbness. He was comfortably numb, heaven compared to the hell of his usual state of being. While it felt numb, it also felt exhilarating. A rush of excitement raced through his whole body.
The Erzherzog left Gigan in his high.
He walked down a shiny metallic hall and into a room with several platforms on the ground. He stood on one and put his fist to his chest. With a flash of light, he was gone from the room.
An instant later, he was in another similar room. He walked out into a different hallway. Ahead of him was a grand decorated door. It was the Keizer's quarters and office. Usually if any Xilian beneath the Keizer in rank (all of them) was invited to his quarters, they entered with the utmost respect and solemness for the Keizer who was the closest to Zero: the center of Xilian culture and beliefs.
The Erzherzog walked in like he owned the place.
"Is all ready?" the Keizer asked as he gazed out into his view of the stars.
The Erzherzog clapped his hands and rubbed them together as if he were ready to do some work. "It most certainly is, my Keizer! The Gigan is 'juiced up' and shall be in full gear once we put him down on the planet. The transmitters that will be controlling the monsters are ready as well."
The Erzherzog grew a devilish grin on his face.
The Keizer could feel his grin behind him. He always knew that the Erzherzog was not the most stable minded of Xilians, but he knew that he could get the job done every time due to his peculiar nature.
"I have faith that you shall deliver this planet to the Xilians, Erzherzog. I only wish you would not be so headstrong while doing it. We haven't even launched our main plan and you are acting as if we have already won."
"I am sorry, my Keizer," the Erzherzog said without sorrow, and with a hint of sarcasm like an adolescent being told to get back to work. "However, we do have an army of monsters at our disposal. The likelihood of us failing is very slim." He still had that grin on his face.
The Keizer sighed at the thought. He had been bearing the weight of the situation for years now.
"I only wish there was another way other than committing mass murder on an intelligent race."
"Intelligent?!" The Erzherzog replied. "They have a beautiful planet rich with minerals and precious, precious water and they waste it while our people die of dehydration. More important than our people is the planet itself. A jewel in middle of an infinite desert is too precious to give to destructive animals. It is better off in our hands."
"Yes, I suppose you are right." The Keizer agreed. He went over to a metallic cabinet under a DNA recognition lock. The Keizer placed his hand upon it and it opened up. He pulled out two fine cups composed of space titanium and a pitcher made of the same material. He poured into the two cups the most precious substance to the Xilians, dihydrogen monoxide: water. He handed a glass to the Erzherzog.
The subordinate looked into his water. The clear fluid was mesmerizing to him as he did not see it often. A lesser ranked, lesser privileged Xilian would go mad, or even kill another for a sip. "I still can't understand why we do not simply kill them all. Why use the plot of replacing their world leaders with puppets?"
"We are not monsters," said the Keizer. "We are, however, desperate. If you had led as many wars as I have in my lifetime, you would know that a peaceful and silent invasion is far more effective. The only reason we are using the monsters is because we need to gain the Earthlings trust fast and get our people down into the planet. They can't last much longer. Our onboard reserves from Mars have been dry for days now," The Keizer looked into his own cup of water. When he said "reserves," he meant the reserves meant for the masses. He had his own reserve. He hated hoarding water to himself, but his people needed their leader at his best. That was the rational he told himself.
The Erzherzog looked at the Keizer seriously. "We shall be heroes, my Keizer. No, legends!" he raised his cup. "Saviors of the Xilian race."
The Keizer rose his own cup. He took off his thin visor and said nothing.
The Erzherzog looked into the Keizer's eyes. "I swear to you, my Keizer, we shall deliver our species to salvation. I swear to you and I swear to Zero that I will do absolutely anything to save our people."
The devotion of his second in command gave him some joy.
"You have work to do, my friend. Zero shall reign," the Keizer said.
"Zero shall reign," replied the Erzherzog.
The Keizer walked back over to his observation window with his water. "Release all Kaiju, Erzherzog!" he commanded.
"With all my pleasure, my Keizer!" the Erzherzog turned around, boots skidding on the sleek floor, and left the Keizer's quarters, devilish grin and all.
A dorsal spine broke the surface of the ocean off the shore of Infant Island. Godzilla emerged and made his way to the beach. His feet met the wet sand and sank deep. He slouched as he walked. His spirit was still broken.
It had been a long time since he had been on a tropical Island. The last time he felt sand between his toes, he was with his son. They would swim offshore and search for food. Godzilla remembered when Minilla caught his first whale. He wrestled with it for a while, but eventually got his prey back to the shore. Minilla would also want to play while swimming with his father, but would usually end up getting smacked in the head for not focusing on hunting. Then again, there were times when Godzilla would give in and play a form of tag with Minilla.
The colorful wings of Mothra appeared from behind a mountain. The moth rested on the top.
"I hope you didn't plan on throwing one of your fits here on my island." she asked.
Godzilla tried to stand tall and strong, but Mothra saw something missing.
"Where is your spirit? Where is the fury in your eyes?"
Godzilla's eyes were cooled, the fire had been extinguished. He was giving up.
"Do you come now to lend your aid or do you still feel as though you owe nothing to this world?"
Godzilla grunted when he felt Mothra prod him with the question. A small rage ignited in his eyes then. The only world worth saving to him was a world with his son.
"If you are not here to fight the storm, then why have you heaved yourself upon my shore?" Mothra was becoming aggravated.
Godzilla wasn't sure himself. He had nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. He wanted peace. That is all he ever wanted.
"You wish for peace while the world gets torn asunder by the fires of war? Well I'm sorry, but I don't know how you can get that. Did you think I was all knowing?"
Godzilla couldn't fight in a war anyway. He barely stood a chance against Monster X.
"Not all is lost for you, Gojira. I can't deliver you peace. That you will have to find yourself. However, I can deliver you to vengeance."
Godzilla's head rose in attention.
"The invaders will come in a massive flying moon. When they come, I will tell you where. There you'll find the demon who slew your son."
That was the answer Godzilla wanted. He would wait and rest until his time came.