Chapter 3: The Battle of the Philippines.

"The Battleships had managed to stop the monster, but not kill it." Admiral Ryan continued. "Wildcat fighter planes monitored its movement as the creature retreated back out of the channel that led into Mamala Bay. The monster was too far under the water for the fighters to effectively attack it with their machine guns, but by then, dive bombers had been launched off the carriers in Pearl."

"Upon their arrival, Dauntless dive bombers came screaming down and dropped their payloads right on top of the monster. The resulting explosions sent up tall columns of displaced water. The creature just pressed on ignoring the explosions though. The bombers continued to harass the monster until it disappeared into the deep waters of the open ocean."

Over the next forty-eight hours, aircraft continuously patrolled the area around the Hawaiian Islands non-stop just in case there was a second attack. Thankfully another raid never came.

In the harbor, we struggled to pick ourselves up. The base was left in shambles. Roughly half of the structures had been flattened in the monster's attack. The list of buildings damaged or destroyed included hangers, warehouses, barracks, factories, half of the base's oil storage, and perhaps most notably, Naval Headquarters. Most of the top brass had not been inside at the time, but we still lost a lot of officers when it fell.

We had lost some good ships too, but the fleet in general fared much better than the base. The creature had sunk five destroyers, two heavy cruisers, an oil tanker, a troop transport, and two cargo ships. Also, a hospital ship was crippled, and a third cruiser was damaged. There was a silver lining though, no battleships or carriers had even been touched. All our capitol ships were intact, which meant we still had the main punch of our battle-fleet. Still, the outcome of the attack could hardly be described as a victory. The monster had done all that damage to us, and we were not certain we had even managed to wound it in return. The creature was still moving quite well when it had elected to withdraw.

In the aftermath of the attack, I did what I could to help. I returned to the boat that I'd commandeered and went to fish out several more boatloads of sailors from the oil-soaked waters of the harbor. I dropped off the able men on shore and took the wounded to the hospital. For the most part, I was calm, but fear crept into the back of my mind as we approached the mouth of the channel. That was where the creature had just vanished. I had a feeling of dread, imagining its jaws snapping around our tiny vessel as we passed over the spot where it first appeared. My hands felt numb on the wheel, and I grew dizzy. I wished I could go around that spot, but there was no way to get to the hospital by water faster. It would take too long to go on foot, and the wounded couldn't wait.

I swallowed my fear and pressed forward. We passed over the suspect patch of water without incident. A minute later, I arrived with the wounded on the beach nearby the hospital. The boat slid to a stop as the keel pressed into the wet sand. I jumped out and helped a sailor who was too hurt to walk on his own. Together we made our way up the long walkway towards the hospital.

I got him inside and was shocked at the scene I found there. Bodies were lined up in all of the corridors. Each one was covered with a white sheet, and I felt utter horror in the depths of my heart, knowing what that meant. I felt sick but was able to keep a handle on myself. As I stood there staring, I began to understand that the world wasn't what I thought it was. I was seeing the true and cruel nature of it.

Coming out of my stupor, I realized that there were only a handful of actual wounded. They could be seen here and there amongst the bodies. Some had burns, some broken bones or crush injuries, and a few had been hit by friendly fire. I felt bitter at the thought that we had only managed to hurt ourselves trying to fight off the creature.

I sat the wounded sailor in a nearby chair and a nurse immediately spotted us and came to examine him. I just stepped aside as she looked him over. Seeing her work on the man made me realize that I had not seen Shauna amongst the hospital staff. I felt a hollowness in my stomach and my skin chilled with cold sweat. The hospital was untouched in the attack, but I had told her to take shelter elsewhere. I feared the worst. I went from room to room dodging people in the hallways looking for Shauna. Finally, on the fourth room I tried, I found her bandaging up a sailor.

Upon seeing Shauna, I felt a weight lift off my chest that I had not realized was there. My anxiety melted away and I felt the urge to rush over and hug her. I realized that would be improper though. After all, I had literally only known her for a few short hours. She barely knew me. What would she think to have a random sailor sneak up on her from behind and grab her? It would serve me right to have a foot stamped on... or worse.

In any case, I could see that she was very busy with her work and thought it would be best if I just left her to it. It was better to stay out of her way. What she was doing was important. The key thing was she was safe, and I knew it. That was good enough. As I thought to leave, she turned and saw me standing there staring at her. I looked down, not knowing what to say.

"Mark...?" She asked with a little crack in her voice.

"I just thought I outta make sure that… you know, that you were ok..." She didn't say anything back, but a second later, I felt the force of something hit my chest. Before I knew what was what, her arms were around me and squeezing tightly.

"Oh Mark, I'm glad that you are alright. This is all so horrible!" I felt a tear hit my hand. I realized that she was weeping. "They've been bringing in the dead for the last forty-five minutes." She went on. "I've been doing my best, but I was not ready for all this."

"We lost many good men today." I replied. "I don't think any of us were ready."

"Why did this happen?" She asked, sinking her head into my chest.

"I... I don't know." I lied. In my heart, I knew that it was our fault. After the attack was over, Marcus had come to the realization that the monster must have followed them back from their mission. 'We had made it angry, and it came to lash out at us.' He thought bitterly. "What is important, is what we do now." I told Shauna. She looked up at me. "Just do what you can for whoever you can." She smiled with tears still in her eyes and nodded. My reassurance seemed to have reinvigorated her resolve. My own was faltering.

Not knowing what else to do with myself, I stayed and helped her the best I could with the wounded. I was not that good on the medical end of things, but I seemed to bolster Shauna's efforts, and on occasion, my strength helped to hold a patient down or lift them up. I certainly didn't save any lives that day, but I did manage to be useful. It felt good to be useful. It was a small penance for my guilt and my conscious demanded that I try to atone.

I would like to say I did it simply out of sheer duty and moral obligation, but the truth of the matter was I wanted to stay close to Shauna as much as anything. Just as I made her feel better, she was in turn making me feel more secure too. And security was worth its weight in gold just then.

An hour passed as we worked away, and before long, I had blood on my hands. I had never had another person's blood on my hands before. I felt a little sick again but kept it together. I rushed over to the sink and washed my hands, scrubbing them hard to get the blood off. When I was done, I could still see some red under my nails. I couldn't seem to get it out, so I left it be. A part of me thought that maybe it was fitting that it should be there. I had been taking solace, telling myself that I had not been in control of the situation and that it had not been my fault, but in the back of my mind, I still harbored guilt.

As I stared down at my hands, wrestling with my feelings, a sailor entered the hospital and caught my attention. It was Joe. I had given him up for dead when the Houston was ripped open and sank. He saw me too and immediately started walking towards me. I met him halfway and gave him a big brawny hug.

"I thought you were a goner for sure, you bastard." I pulled back. "Were you on the Houston? How did you get away from the monster?"

"No, I wasn't aboard. I didn't make it back last night." He replied. I spotted a rather obvious hickey on the side of his neck and put the pieces together.

"Well, I'm glad you're alright." I smiled at him. "Have you seen any of the other guys?"

"No." He hesitated and looked disheartened. "I hate to be the one to tell you, but it looks like almost everyone went down with the ship. The captain too."

I felt yet another harsh sting of guilt. Good men, better men than me and Joe, had died in the line of duty. He and I had only escaped due to our recklessness while responsible men had perished in our place. The injustice of it was inescapable and harrowing. We deserved to be punished for our actions, but with the skipper gone it seemed unlikely that he'd be reporting our transgressions to anyone higher in the chain of command. If we chose to, we could have walked away Scott-free, but my conscious could not tolerate the thought of that.

"Who do we report to now?" I asked Joe.

"I don't even know." He answered. "HQ is in pieces, the barracks is smashed, and all the officers I've seen are scrambling around with problems of their own right now. I think for tonight at least, we're on our own."

"There are empty cots in the basement." Shauna cut in, joining the conversation. She had been listening in and had understood our most immediate problem. There really wasn't anywhere else for us to go.

"We couldn't do that." I began to protest. "You might still need the space."

"If we do, we can always bump you guys, but the stream of wounded has slowed to a trickle and the cots down there aren't meant for patients anyway. That's where the medical staff go when they need rest." She reassured me.

"We really don't have much of a choice Mark." Joe pointed out.

"Okay, very well." I surrendered. "Thank you, Shauna."

A short while later, Joe and I were both laying in cots on opposite sides of the small room in the basement. There wasn't much to the place. It felt like a utility room, but cleaner. Not that I was going to complain. It was a quiet place, and it was far away from the smell of blood, and that's just what I needed.

Though both Joe and I were exhausted, we sat there awake staring up at the ceiling. I was still on edge, stirring from the day's events. I had been playing what happened in the back of my mind over and over again, trying to make sense of it. I looked over and could tell Joe was doing the same. My guilt had been bothering me for hours and I needed to get it off my chest. I knew I would not be able to sleep until I talked about it with someone, and Joe was the only person I could discuss it with.

"Listen Joe, what happened today... I think that thing followed us back from the mission." I began.

"How do you figure?" Joe asked, somewhat defensively. I think he suspected the same thing I did but didn't want to admit it to himself.

"You remember the damage the Houston took from the depth-charge during the mission? It caused an oil leak, right?" I continued undeterred. "I think the monster followed the trail of oil."

"How could it do that?" Joe countered. "The amount of oil would have been so minuscule that there would not be enough for anything to actually see."

"No, there wouldn't be. But maybe the creature can smell things in the water like a shark?" I reasoned. "Did you see how it behaved when it first attacked?"

"I was not there to see the first few minutes." Joe replied.

"Yeah, well I was." I continued. "It bypassed other ships along the way and went straight for the Houston." I looked over at Joe. He seemed pale. I think my argument had begun to persuade him. He sat there silently. "Listen Joe, I'm planning to turn myself in tomorrow for going AWOL. I can't hold on to this much guilt."

"I understand, I'll go with you." He replied quietly.

"I didn't mean that you should too." I sat up, surprised. I had not expected that from him.

"I know, but we are men, aren't we?" Joe smirked. "That means we own up to what we do and take our lashes for it. I wouldn't let you go it alone."

"Thanks Joe." I lay back into the cot and rested until I fell asleep.

…

The next morning, I woke up and found that Shauna had crawled into the cot with me. I was a little shocked that she had been able to do so without me knowing. Either she was a ninety-pound ninja, or I had just been that tired. Either way, it was nice to have her there. She was warm and comforting. I didn't want to move and disturb her, but there was little way around it. The cot was pressed up against the wall on one side and she was blocking my escape from the other.

For a time, I stared at her. Her hand was on my chest, as if it were trying to feel my heartbeat. Her red hair had been taken out from her nursing bun. The long locks stretched further down her shoulders than I would have guessed possible. Despite the long hours she had worked, she still smelled rather nice. As though she could hear my waking thoughts, she started to stir.

"Good morning." She looked at me with a pleasant smile. "Thanks for sharing your cot with me. That felt like it was the longest shift ever." She got out of the cot and walked over to the nearby sink. She splashed some water on her face and wiped it off with a towel. I watched as she neatly put her hair back up again. "Hey, come over here." She looked back to me in the mirror. I obeyed, joining her at the sink. "This has been driving me crazy since last night." She took my hands and put them under the faucet. "I would have done this earlier, but you looked like you needed the rest." She took a special brush and proceeded to scrub underneath my nails to get the particulates of blood out from under them. Her hands were gentle, but the brush was a bit abrasive. I did not complain though, it was clearly necessary. As she cleaned my hands, I almost felt absolved. "There, all finished." She remarked, pleased with herself.

"Ah, thanks." I blushed.

"I have to go back up and check on a few things upstairs." She began to leave. "I suspect you have business of your own to attend to."

"Yes, that's right." I replied. "Thanks for everything, I don't know how to repay you."

"Dinner sometime this week would be a great start." She said from the doorway. "You'll find my number on a strip of paper hidden in your hat. Reach out to me once you've gotten all your business sorted out." She had gotten halfway down the hallway before I could even sort out a response. Upon inspection, she had indeed left a note in my hat with a number as well as an address to find her.

"Way to go buddy, there's hope for you yet." Joe commented, his eyes still closed from pretending to be asleep.

"Don't read too much into it." I frowned at him for listening in.

"Relax Marcus, I was still awake when she came in. I know nothing happened." He smirked. "Still, I'd say she's taken quite the liking to you. You must have done something special to earn her affection."

"Yeah, I suppose so." I smiled.

After that, Joe and I got up and wasted little time. We learned, in light of HQ being smashed into kindling, that command had put down temporary roots in the recruitment administration building. We reported in and were referred to the makeshift office of Commander Jon Franklin for our orders. Upon arrival at his door, we were met by a slew of men waiting in line to speak with him. There was little other choice but to wait outside for an hour while the stream of sailors entered and exited in somewhat rapid secession.

When our turn finally came, we entered the office to find Commander Franklin waiting. Commander Franklin seemed like a model career navy man. He was stern and proper, but it was clear that the events of the last twenty-four hours had taken a toll on him. He had bags under his eyes, which indicated that he had not slept since the attack. Commander Franklin invited us to sit while he reviewed our files. As he was reading through them, I attempted to report myself for going AWOL, but the Commander was not in the mood to hear about it. He shut me down immediately and dismissed the infraction outright. It surprised me at the time, but in the scheme of things, I guess I understand it now. The man had much bigger things going on. I could see that he had a long list of names on a clip board and a stack of files on his desk that was over a foot high. I correctly guessed it was all the sailors who had been displaced by the attack.

After shouting me down, Commander Franklin read through our files for a few more moments, and wrote down a couple of notes. Before I knew it, he was transferring both Joe and me to a new post. He made it clear he had no time for common sailor malarkey. His only priority was to reorganize the ranks back into fighting units as quickly as possible. That was his number one directive from his superiors.

Franklin informed the two of us that the carrier USS Enterprise had lost some of its crew who were on shore-leave during the attack. Since we didn't have a ship of our own to return to, and because we could perform the same duties, we were being reassigned to replace them. We were to report to the carrier effective immediately. It was as simple as that. Franklin then informed us that the carrier would be leaving port by that evening.

Orders had come down from the top. They wanted any ships that were capable of leaving Pearl out as soon as possible so they wouldn't be sitting ducks if a second attack came. As such, we were to report directly to the Enterprise. From there, Commander Franklin dismissed us from his office. As we were walking out, the Commander mentioned one last thing, almost as an afterthought. He said that he had received reports of my actions during and after the attack, and that I was being put in for a commendation for it.

With that, Franklin shooed us out of his office so he could move on to the next group of sailors waiting in line. As we got back into the hallway, my head was spinning. In the space of three minutes, everything had changed. I had expected to be escorted to the brig following the meeting. Instead, we were being transferred to the Flagship of the Pacific Fleet. Funny how life works sometimes.

It wasn't all roses though. We were limited by a tight timetable, and I only had a few minutes to write a brief letter to Shauna explaining my reassignment. I also let her know how much I regretted that I would not be able to take her up on her dinner offer. At that point, I would have gladly spent a few days in the brig if it meant I could have stayed to explain it to her in person. I did, however, promise to take her out as soon as I returned to port and that I would write to her frequently in the meantime.

As I put the letter into a mailbox, I just hoped it would be enough and that she'd understand.

…

Following the attack, it didn't take long for word to spread. Newspapers all over the world ran headlines declaring the shocking incident. People did not know what to make of the news. Most of the foreign governments dismissed it as some type of ruse, it sounded too outlandish to be real. People in the States were also understandably skeptical until photos of the monster, captured by a Wildcat's gun-camera during the attack, were made public. The mood of the nation shifted from disbelief to terror as the realization of such a monster's existence sunk in.

On the military side of things, the creature's disappearance was frustrating. He had hit us hard and then vanished before we could hit him back. We proved that naval cannons could hurt the monster, but finding another opportunity to utilize them was proving fruitless. Weeks had gone by without another sighting. The public started to wonder if we had in fact mortally wounded the beast. Newspaper articles ran piece after piece reassuring the common people that they were safe. This was in part due to prodding by good old Uncle Sam. The government wanted to keep people calm and prevent widespread panic.

I knew better than to believe the stories though. I had seen what the monster could do firsthand, and I knew that it was not done. Most of the other sailors on the Enterprise didn't think the creature was dead either, but they had a different attitude about it. The enlisted men started to joke that we had given it such a thrashing that it would never again dare show its face in American waters.

The hubris of those men didn't last long though. Three weeks after the attack at Pearl, the creature reappeared and landed in the Caroline Islands. It wiped out three villages before disappearing back into the Ocean. The bulk of our fleet was still closely patrolling the waters near Hawaii, so we were far out of position to do anything about it.

Within two days, another Japanese cargo vessel was destroyed, followed by a British one the next day. The monster was no longer just hitting shipping within its own territorial waters. It was making its presence felt all over the Pacific and becoming a menace to anything afloat or near a coastline.

By this time, the Japanese had finally had enough. They resolved to send out a major naval task force to hunt the monster down. The fleet was split into two divisions. The first division was led by the carriers Kaga, Akagi, and Shokaku. They were supported by the battleships Hiei, Kongo, Nagato, and Fuso. Additionally, they were further supported by four heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and eighteen destroyers. The second division was led by the carriers Zuikaku, Hiryu, and Soryu. They were supported by the battleships Kiris, Haruna, and Yamashiro. In addition, there were four heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and sixteen destroyers. Together, they represented the cream of the Japanese Imperial Fleet and were spoiling for a fight.

On December 21st, the Japanese fleet descended on the last known location of the monster. They searched for two days and found nothing. On the night of December 23rd, their prey found them. The monster who had now been dubbed 'Anguirus', sunk the carriers Hiryu and Zuikaku, the battleship Kiris, the Heavy Cruisers Myoko and Nachi, the light cruiser Oi, and eight destroyers. It was a staggering defeat to the Japanese navy and a huge blow to their national pride as a whole.

The Second Carrier Division was forced to retreat home by the next morning. Undeterred by their comrade's defeat, the First Carrier Division located and counterattacked Anguirus around noon the next day. The battle by daylight went far better for the Japanese, as they were able to coordinate the attacks of their warplanes and surface ships, however they still lost the cruisers Agano, Haguro, Yahagi, and five more destroyers. On the other side of it, Anguirus had absorbed enough shells, torpedoes, and bombs to sink three whole battleships, and yet, the monster persisted, defying the manmade weapons. His heavy armored plating made him near impervious to most projectiles.

By the end of the day, the Japanese elected to make a strategic withdraw from the area, wishing to avoid being attacked in the dark like the night before. It was unclear if they had managed to inflict any serious damage to the monster, but they had managed to at least make a reasonable fight of it to restore their damaged pride and regain some honor.

The Japanese fleet regrouped and returned to their home ports. Upon arrival, they dug in and waited to see if Anguirus would dare follow them. They had expected a follow-up attack from the monster, similar to how it had followed the U.S. fleet back to Pearl, but this was not the case. Days went by and nothing happened. When it failed to show up after nearly a week, we thought perhaps the Japanese had managed to hurt it, but in retrospect, I think the monster simply could not track them all the way home. When Anguirus' attacks resumed a couple of days later, it was clear that the Japanese had failed to strike a meaningful blow.

This was a terrifying time for anyone living anywhere along the Pacific Rim. No one knew where the next attack would come, or when. It seemed impossible to predict and was impossible to stop. The Dutch East Indies were the next place Anguirus hit. Sea trade in the Pacific slowed to a crawl as the attacks continued. World economics were inching towards a crisis as only the bravest of merchant ships would dare brave the dangerous waters.

Shortly after the attack on the Dutch, the "Hunt for Anguirus" was on. Any power with interests at stake in the Pacific committed forces to the international effort. Ships from the British Far East Fleet, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, and France all began to coordinate in an unprecedented effort to track down and kill Anguirus.

Unfortunately, the coordination didn't seem to help all that much. The Pacific was such a big place. Warships simply could not arrive in time to catch up to the monster following an attack and it seemed to be actively avoiding taking on large naval forces following its encounter with the Japanese fleet. It was at this point that I decided to go to the officer directly above me on the Enterprise and tell him about the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack. I suggested that we might be able to lure the monster to a precise predetermined location to be ambushed if we dispersed a slick of oil for it to follow. As the monster could submerge and evade our warships at sea, leading it onto shore for the attack would be an ideal strategy.

Following the chain of command, the officer above me thought it was worth trying and took the idea all the way up to the captain of the Enterprise. The captain agreed that it was a worthwhile suggestion too and relayed it to the Fleet Admiral. The Admiral, Chester Nimitz, thought it was a brilliant idea and ran with it. He was just as frustrated as anyone with the inability of our forces to pin the monster down. He almost immediately began to draw up plans. He looked to his charts and quickly found several possible staging grounds in the U.S. controlled territory of the Philippines for the operation.

After contacting Washington and getting their approval, he contacted General MacArthur, who was in command of the U.S. Army in the Philippines. The General was receptive to the plan and put his troops to work preparing defenses in the selected area on Luzon, the main island in the Philippines. They cleared out trees along the designated beach, placed obstacles to slow down the monster, built concrete pill boxes, placed heavy shore batteries, moved in mobile artillery pieces, brought in an entire tank division, and laid down a six-acre mine field. It took nearly two weeks to get everything in place.

Once the Army was ready, the Navy enacted the plan. They started by sending an oil tanker, escorted by destroyers, to Anguirus' last known position. The destroyers dropped a barrage of depth charges and the tanker opened up its oil valves, allowing a large oil slick to trail the ships. They wasted no time getting out of the area as fast as possible in case the monster was actually in the immediate vicinity. As they retreated, they carefully watched the waters behind them to see if they had elicited a reaction. Through their binoculars, the sailors saw nothing and wondered if they had just wasted their time and ammunition.

A few days later, the small task group reached the Philippine coast and the tanker shut off its valves. On the shore, ground troops pumped out oil from lines that had been placed on the beach. The current in the water connected the trail of oil to the one in the ocean. With their job complete, the warships withdrew.

Admiral Nimitz had the main strength of our fleet hidden away lying in wait for the monster. The warships were positioned in the west, just around the northernmost tip of Luzon nearby the city of Santa Ana. The battle-zone was located on the other side of the tip in the east. After Anguirus made landfall, the fleet could easily swing around the coast and prevent it from escaping back into the sea.

The Army's forces on the shore were dug in and ready. The Airforce had created a makeshift airbase nearby to the south and was on standby. The Navy was poised to strike. The only question now was would Anguirus actually show up, and if so, when? The tension was thick in the air. There was an uneasiness that grew with every passing hour. The evening came and passed uneventfully. Everyone was starting to think it had all been for nothing.

Word went out the next morning that there was an unidentified sonar ping reported by one of our submarines patrolling the edge of our defense perimeter. All commercial shipping had been advised to avoid the area and all of our vessels were accounted for. The submarine went silent ten minutes later and everyone was put on full alert. For most of us, it could only mean one thing, Anguirus was on his way.

And indeed, the monster was. A half hour later, a PT boat sent to investigate reported that Anguirus could be seen on the surface and was moving directly towards the landing zone. The plan was seemingly working. Scout planes were launched from the carriers to better track Anguirus' movements. The fleet began to get underway. The monster would make landfall just as the fleet was coming around the edge of the island.

About twenty-five minutes later, the scout planes reported being able to see the wake of Anguirus near the surface as he approached Luzon. They were ordered to keep their distance and to avoid getting the attention of the monster. Fifteen minutes later, Anguirus had arrived off the coastal waters of Luzon. He proceeded forward, advancing towards the landing zone. He was close enough at that point that troops from the shore could see a form begin to emerge from the waves. Guns were leveled to their predetermined attack ranges. The plan was to let the monster get just off the beach before opening up on it with one massive artillery barrage.

The monster finally made landfall and the Army troops realized what they were up against, a living mountain of teeth, armor, and spikes. Anguirus stopped just after stepping off the beach, as if it sensed something was amiss. It eyed the trees that had been cut down around it to clear the attack zone and looked upward towards the camouflaged gun positions. Anguirus opened his mouth and roared a warning that split the sky like thunder. It shook the resolve of many of the men entrenched along the defensive line. In the command bunker beyond the front line, the windows rattled and the blood of everyone inside ran cold.

Anguirus advanced forward and wandered into the attack zone. The field commander within the bunker sent out the order to commence firing, but only half the artillery opened up initially. Many of the gun crews were still too stunned by what they were seeing to react. After the first barrage shook them back to reality, the rest joined in, squad by squad. The shells arced in, and, for the most part, hit Anguirus on his spiked carapace. Some of the shells bounced right off and others detonated immediately on impact. The monster continued to advance just the same, undeterred. Before long, he had entered the mine field and began to set off explosion after explosion. Clouds of sand burst up into the air and then rained back down on the beach. Anguirus continued through the mine field until he came to the obstacles that were meant to slow him down, and they did, but only for about forty seconds. He crushed them like they were made out of thin aluminum and then moved onward. Anguirus got closer and closer to the defense line until it was in range of the tank corps, which opened up on him. Their shells mostly hit Anguirus in the neck and legs, which were less armored than his back, but the weaponry still had no discernible effect on him.

The monster was getting uncomfortably close to the defense line and men were starting to panic. Anguirus was too close for the artillery to effectively target him anymore. The gun crews on the wings of the perimeter were frantically trying to reposition the artillery while the troops in the center were beginning to abandon their positions. It was then that the hum of plane engines could be heard as the thunder of artillery fire died down.

The Airforce had arrived with its bombers. There were dozens of B-17s and B-25s ready to pounce on Anguirus with their payloads. There was a problem, however. No one had anticipated the monster advancing as quickly as he had. Anguirus was meant to still be at the beach obstacles at that point of the battle. As it was, he was dangerously close to the Army's lines, which put them at risk for friendly fire from the bombers.

The flight commander within the lead plane had to quickly decide if he should press the attack or abort. He chose the former and radioed his planes to proceed as planned. Anguirus stopped his advance and looked up at the sky full of noisy aircraft just in time to see the first bombs begin to fall. A few painstakingly long seconds later, the explosions started as five-hundred-pound and one-thousand-pound bombs hit directly on and around Anguirus. The explosions followed a predictable pattern, moving in a linear line. The deadly cascade of explosions hit behind, then on top of, and finally in front of Anguirus until they started falling into the Army's positions. Any men who remained in that section of the right wing were caught up in the explosions that followed.

Dust, smoke, and debris filled the air as the onslaught continued. A good portion of the battlefield was obscured. The explosions stopped as the aircraft finished their bombing run. For a time, things were still afterwards. As the dust began to settle, everyone could see that the planes had made some positive impact. Anguirus remained largely undamaged, but the force of the bombs exploding had knocked him on his side and he appeared to be having a hard time righting himself. This gave the Army units precious time to regroup.

The reprieve was short-lived though. Anguirus soon found his footing and shook the dirt off that the bombs had covered him in. He then set his sights on the Field Command Center and advanced upon it. The command staff evacuated the building as quickly as they could. With that, any control on the battlefield was shattered.

Moments later, Anguirus smashed the tin building and began to work his way down the right wing of the defense line, destroying everything in his path as he went. A column of armored cars hastily drove into the mine field to escape. One by one, each blew up. It looked as though the battle was lost, until a single tank at the end of the line leveled its barrel and took careful aim at Anguirus' head. It fired one shot that landed just to the left of the monster's right eye, impacting painfully against the monster's tear duct. The shot had an immediate effect. Anguirus stopped in his tracks. He brought his paw up to his face and swept it around irritated. The tank let off a second round that was just a little more inside of the first shot. Anguirus squinted, ultimately closing his right eye altogether. Between the two painful rounds, it was enough to convince Anguirus that he had lost the initiative, and it was better off retiring from the field.

The Navy arrived offshore just in time to see the monster angrily turn towards the beach and begin to retreat. All the remaining Army units, primarily in the left wing, rallied and shelled Anguirus relentlessly. The fleet deployed, trying to cut the monster off before he could escape. The battleships and destroyers moved in close to the shore to get their cannons and torpedoes as close as possible to inflict maximum damage.

As quick as the fleet was, rushing to get into position, Anguirus managed to move faster. He crashed into the water and began to swim out of the danger zone. It soon became clear the warships were not going to be able to trap him as planned. However, that didn't mean the Navy couldn't get some good licks in. It would be several minutes before Anguirus would be able to get into deep enough water to completely submerge and the fleet would be able to pour in a lot of firepower during that short window. Massive shells from the battleships quickly found the range and swarms of torpedoes were racking against Anguirus' sides.

Anguirus finally managed to get under the reach of the battleship's main cannons, but his ordeal was not over yet. The destroyers dogged the monster as long as they could with depth charges. Given that Anguirus was still in the shallow waters near the shore, he could not dive deep enough to avoid them. Ten minutes of relentless depth charge attacks finally brought the battle to an end.

Following the immediate battle, the U.S. Navy continued to track Anguirus for days over hundreds of miles until he reached the Mariana Trench. The monster disappeared down into the void and beyond our ability to track him.

Other naval powers in the Pacific helped us patrol the area for months afterwards, but there was no sign of Anguirus. It seemed like we had actually prevailed. After being hit by what the admiral described as a "Tempest of Firepower" it was hoped that the monster had finally been killed. Anguirus had certainly taken an insane amount of punishment during the Battle of Luzon, and, at the very least, we had scored an important victory over him.

Like most things in life though, the triumph was short-lived. Though we didn't realize it yet, the next major test humanity would face was already rising in northern China.