Day 181
Now that I spent some time with the beast, I can write a proper log entry. To start off with, it is not quite Godzilla. Although I got pretty close.
Size-wise, we are looking at something between forty and fifty metres in length. Eight metres in height. She is quadrupedal, more like the lizards I made her from than the inspiration. The spikes on her back are thinner and a little prehensile. I did not test her armour belt because I hate shooting at my own fleet, but it looks suitably thick. Dark, metallic scales cover her entire body.
The only weapon she came with was a breath attack, not atomic breath but some odd mixture of fire and lightning. The radioactive materials all went into a fission reactor powering the entire monster. I am currently building a dozen super cannons, the same type I originally made for Hydra. They will slot in neatly underneath some of this one's scales and spikes.
Thinking about it, it feels kind of lazy to keep calling her 'Godzilla' in my head. She visibly is not, despite the similarities. I have half a mind to name her that anyway, but no. Especially because she is female; I thankfully only had to ask, she is as intelligent as the rest of us. The form of her mouth makes speaking any human tongue basically impossible, but she can communicate via morse code. Which is apparently a cypher I can instinctively comprehend.
I think I will call her Reaper, for that is her purpose. At least I did not get punished for my hubris by creating something that will not listen to orders; Reaper is as loyal as the rest, if with a sense of superiority over anyone not me. Well, she is the fifty metres long doom lizard; a little pride is expected.
Everyone else was excited about meeting the new girl, too. Ariel came out of the baths to say hello, Hannah brought some morsels to feed Reaper, even Frostbite made an appearance to study the fruits of my labour. She seemed impressed, if less so by the clear lack of reverence on Reaper's part.
We had a bit of an impromptu celebration yesterday, today we went to work; I mentioned the cannons before, but she needs more than that. Frostbite and I workshopped whatever Reaper will need to be self-sufficient; she definitely has the space and we need to make sure it works. She will be on her own once I send her out. Anti-Air guns were an important consideration, same as some excavator drones and a workshop to make new ammunition or fuel. Frostbite also convinced me to add a repair bath. I am not sure how that can repair Reaper from the inside, but my Abyss-nudges tell me it just works.
What is this, Skyrim?
Well, at least the weirdness works in my favour here. Reaper can keep herself sustained, repair herself, and protect herself from any threat at sea and in the air. Except I forgot submarines. Only to remember those are less relevant right after writing this. Reaper's main purpose is to fight on land, where there are no submarines. Even at sea she can dive on her own.
But I think I will still add some mines and depth charges to be safe. My stockpiles are good again, so I do not mind spending some more. I can also use the time it takes to equip Reaper to improve comms; holding up a connection from here to Japan is still a far-off dream, but at least I can keep in contact with her for longer. Theoretically, I could let Ionia and Orion ride with her to install relays on the ocean floor. That is too much of a risk right now, though; I have no idea what is going on outside of my and Frostbite's territory.
In a perfect world, I would expand my sphere of influence by installing a teleporter at every relay station and forward base. That way I could immediately react to any threat anywhere. Practically, teleporters are damn expensive and I can not afford making that many. Ignore how many resources I am still pouring into my doom lizard, I am well aware of the hypocrisy there.
Anyway, it will be a while until Reaper is fully equipped and stocked up. I will not send her out without completely filled loading bays.
Day 184
Having Reaper around Haven continues to be a little odd. She mostly just lazes around in the sun, though her massive form attracts escorts like moths to flame. The odd image of destroyers and cruisers cuddling up to the doom lizard aside, I also learned that she is not just a chimera; she is classified as a Colossus Demon. The Abyss works quick on this, though I agree it is aptly chosen.
I also found where her tentacles are. Can not have an Abyssal beast without some, right? At first I figured it would be her spikes, but no, Reaper has them in the roof of her mouth. I found out when she opened wide to eat a rock, just because she could. The pseudopods shot out and dragged it into her maw. Nasty way to go, that.
Another thing I am pretty happy about is that she does not guzzle fuel like my own engines do. Her fission reactor takes most of that off the regular engines. Maybe I should look into getting one for myself, but I am hesitant on that. Two reasons for it, really: first is that I do not like the risk of it melting down from damage if I ever get under fire. Second is that if I do not have the ability to go out without sacrificing tons of fuel, I am not tempted to do so. I like staying at home anyway, so it works out.
Rereading that last sentence gives me a weird feeling. When did I start to think of Haven as home?
It is true that I do not have any other place anymore, but it still managed to transition from a shelter I needed to a place I like to be. It has been over half a year since I woke up on this beach. Maybe it is the girls living here with me, or that I managed to make it homely over time.
Day 186
It occurred to me that I actually need directions for Reaper. That is a bit of a problem because I still have no clear idea where I am. Frostbite was no real help when I asked her about it, though she agreed to send out some scouting parties.
Speaking of her, my fellow Princess is done establishing herself. She built up her forces again and trained them, put stockpiles for sunny days together, and bartered for more tech from me to improve her fleet. She told me she plans to expand now, find if there are other Princesses in the area. Her plan is to establish outposts across the Pacific, assuming no other has yet claimed a given area. Specifically, she had the same idea as I about the teleporter connection and comms relays.
We shared a little laugh when I told her that. Great minds do think alike. Though I could only wince after tallying up the costs for the teleporters alone. That will be a project for several years. I do not dislike the idea, though. Need to think about it some more.
Day 187
Today may have seen another mistake, but I can not say for sure just yet.
I mentioned our talks about expanding Frostbite's domain yesterday. We returned to them today, but that is not the potential mistake. No, it is that Frostbite caught onto me getting extra resources from somewhere. She said she ran some numbers and wondered why I said nothing about expanding my own territory; all the deposits will eventually run dry after all.
When she asked me point blank to buy whatever technology allows me to stretch my resources like I am clearly doing, I just put my cards on the table. Meaning, I told her about the resource generation ability. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. That single gasped "What?!" was probably the least composed I have ever seen her. I guess it makes sense, too.
Either way, I told her quite clearly that nobody else knows. We have known each other for a while now, long enough that I would tentatively call her my friend. I trust her with this, though I would never have brought it up on my own. Same reason my fleet does not know. Maybe Ionia or Orion put two and two together, but neither of them said anything. Frostbite was pretty cool about it and agreed not to say a word to anyone else. We both know how unprecedented and important my ability is.
At the same time we reaffirmed our relationship as partners. She is perfectly happy running security for me while I focus on driving forward technological development. Trading tech with her will give me some extra resources to work with, even once my mines run dry. I do not really want to expand further, my current territory is big enough; not to mention that I prepared it well enough.
I actually offered Frostbite to use my setup of factories for mass production, provided she brings her own resources to fuel them. I may have gotten a little carried away when I gave the order to Orion, but I do have facilities made for the majority of Abyssal ship types. Nothing has happened yet because Frostbite's fleet is still at capacity for her territory, but she agreed to make use of my dormant facilities once the time comes. I considered taking a little tax for using them, but decided against it. No sense gouging a friend.
Day 190
Reaper is fully equipped. I also managed to figure out where we are thanks to Frostbite. Turns out my ally made her base on a place called Wake Island; never heard about it before then, but the Internet told me where it is. Haven lies a decent bit away, but that did not stop me from charting Reaper's route to Japan. We are roughly halfway between them and Hawaii.
I gave them the chance to leave me alone and they did not. As they say, 'fuck around and find out'.
On a related note, these ten days of preparation were probably for the best. Else I may have actually painted a big, red 'Fuck You' on Reaper's flank to tell the Japanese exactly what I think of their recent stunt. It sounded funny at first, but in the end is a bit too childish for what is going to happen.
There is something ironic about the fact Reaper's maiden voyage carries her further than all of my other girls taken together. She took the fact with grace, though; it is difficult to gauge how a doom lizard feels, but her communications were always succinct and to the point. When it was time for her to head out, she simply sent "Your will be done, my Princess" and sallied forth.
It felt odd watching her go. A part of me worries that I will never see her again; with how persistent and imaginative I know humans are, chances are incredibly high that they will find a way to defeat Reaper. Alas, she will probably not be happy to be called back now; retribution was the purpose of her birth. Abyssals find that a lot more important than humans would.
At the same time, I have the feeling that she will be content even if she falls.
I do not feel like writing any more today.
Day 192
Frostbite started her expansion program, but that is not why I am writing a log today. Reaper got her first taste of combat. And I may have slightly misjudged her specs. Slightly. Very slightly.
She is still in comms range, which is why I even heard about her meeting a subjugation fleet coming the other way. We are talking about the full array of ships; half a dozen battleships and aircraft carriers, making a full dozen together, with at least five escorts per ship. Submarines as well.
Reaper sunk half of the battleships and carriers alongside their escorts before that fleet began to run. She reported minor damage to her armour belt, easily repaired with resources gained from gobbling up the wrecks of her enemies.
So yeah. Not only did she stop a fleet headed my way from ever arriving, she is also an absolute unit in terms of combat power. I apparently created more of a monster than anticipated. Once again I am glad that she follows orders.
Then again, if I could make such a creature, then someone else may be able to do the same. But worrying over that will not help me at all; the frankly ridiculous resource costs to make Reaper should at least serve to detract anyone who can not create material ex nihilo. Hopefully.
Moving on, I also realised that I should be able to keep track of Reaper once she makes landfall. As much as any government may try to censor her arrival, I doubt they will be able to keep quiet about a kaiju rampaging across Japan.
That train of thought brought me onto some silly ideas I may as well share for posterity: theoretically, if I so wished, I could start to report on Abyssal matters over the internet. Start a blog or set up livestreams. Silly nonsense, 'Ask an Abyssal', that sort. Maybe even get one of my girls into streaming, not like anyone would believe her to be an actual Abyssal. It was fun to muse how the entire human species would lose their spaghetti about it, but I decided against all of that. It just does not feel right. Not to mention that it is effort.
On top of that, I also dislike pressuring any of my girls into doing something they do not want. They would do it if I asked, regardless of their own wishes. And lastly, I can live without constantly having to prove that I am telling the truth. My stance is that this war could be avoided, yet nobody but me believes it.
Well, maybe there are some humans here and there. I imagine they are collectively seen as nutjobs.
So no, I am doing what I have done so far. No dreaming of empire, no stupid grasp for glory I do not even want. Some people may want to be some sort of ruling figure, I do not. Sometimes I imagine what I would do if in charge, but I feel we all do that. Things we would do differently, solutions we would provide. Sometimes I even feel I would do something to improve the world. But at the same time, I do not want to believe that everyone in power is a greedy asshole. That way lies a sort of depression I was thankfully never affected by. I rather believe that there are other reasons why the powers that be have trouble making things better.
And by that logic, me being in power would see the same roadblocks in front of me. Which brings us back to effort. I just keep doing what I can and am comfortable with. Who is going to criticise me? Humans?
Is that racist? I think not, we are at war and they attacked me first. My not being happy with them right now is perfectly justified.
And now I reminded myself of Hydra. Good night.
Day 199
Reaper reached the Japanese coast. I know because the Internet is full of reports about her; she made landfall in Chiba Prefecture. From what I read earlier, the JSDF went out in force to stop her. The pictures show only craters, not even wrecks. Like I thought, not a chance that could be kept quiet. There were even a few clips taken from phones that show Reaper bulldozing through a tank formation and eating them one by one. My girl is as resourceful as I hoped she would be.
Shipgirls failed to stop her and are now playing catch-up. The media calls it 'unprecedented', which makes sense. I intentionally did not look at the death toll; I know I will feel bad the moment I check.
The fighting grew less fierce and more frantic once Reaper made landfall because they are still reluctant to bomb their own cities. My girl seems to rampage less for now, she just looks around in interest. There is still a lot of collateral damage, but I asked her not to attack unprovoked for now. I am not being nice there, by the way. I figured it would be easier to keep them on the backfoot if they have to juggle tens of thousands of refugees. Evacuating civilians takes a lot more time and effort for them, not to mention that their deaths would only make the defenders more determined.
No, Reaper's goal is not to do as much damage as possible. My goal is Tokyo Bay, Yokohama in particular. I faintly recalled the IJN shipgirls are stationed there and confirmed this before sending her out. They came after my home base, it is only fair I return the favour.
Although I did not give Reaper orders beyond leveling Yokohama as a whole and to keep casualties down. She was not exactly happy, but accepted my logic when I explained. Going by the reports I read, it worked out for the most part. The defenders are more concerned getting civilians out than the threat contained. Reaper just keeps roaming the countryside toward her goal.
Now if only someone would realise that she can use their own GPS satellites to orient herself. I am not exactly laughing as they get theirs, but I do feel vindicated.