With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Captain Reagan watched the burning ma.s.s that was Stalker Four plunge into the Sea of j.a.pan far below.
He saw no parachutes.
CHAPTER 12.
WAR AT SEA.
May 31, 1998, 7:01 A.M.
Somewhere in the Sea of j.a.pan
Less than ten minutes after they first launched their futile attack, the F-15s from Osan Air Base broke off and returned to base. They were low on fuel and out of bombs and ammunition.
Nothing they had launched or shot at G.o.dzilla had seemed to affect the monster. Instead, two F-15s had been lost - one from the second wave and one from the fourth. Their crews were lying at the bottom of the Sea of j.a.pan.
Admiral Willis turned away from the windows.
"It"s time for the j.a.panese Navy to give it a try." he said, his lips tight.
"Sir!" the man on watch called out. "The warships are moving to attack position." Far ahead of the Kongo-Maru, the navy ships were maneuvering for the attack.
"And so will we. Go to hydrofoil," the admiral commanded.
The hydrofoil leaped ahead in the water. As the Kongo-Maru picked up speed, Admiral Willis locked eyes with Buntaro. The muscular j.a.panese smiled thinly and bowed to the admiral.
Soon the hydrofoil was streaking across the Sea of j.a.pan at over seventy miles an hour. Buntaro turned and left the bridge.
Unnoticed by everyone but Lieutenant Takado, Brian followed the harpooner into the bowels of the Kongo-Maru.
The lieutenant hurried after the two, catching up with Brian in a long corridor that led to the bow. "Stop, Brian... please," she cried, grabbing his arm. "You must not do this!"
"I have to do it," Brian insisted, yanking his arm free.
"But you are a reporter, not a soldier!" she argued.
"So I gotta find something to report, then, don"t I?" he said. "Nick"s a science correspondent, he"s got the bridge covered. Yoshi"s a cameraman. But I"m nothing but a sportscaster-wannabe - unless I do something!" he cried "I"ve got to do something!"
Emiko saw the raw fear in Brian"s young face, but she also saw his determination to defeat that fear. She hesitated. Brian turned and ran after the harpooner.
As he rounded the next corner, Brian saw the man climbing up a ladder to an open hatch. Brian followed without hesitation. At the top of the ladder, he poked his head out of the hatchway. Brian was immediately buffeted by the winds that swept across the bow. The Kongo-Maru was skimming across the waves at a tremendous speed, making a long arc that would bring it around behind G.o.dzilla.
"The American airplanes have failed," said Admiral Toyohashi to the officers a.s.sembled on the bridge of the task force flagship, the destroyer Hatsuyuki. He scanned their eager faces, then issued his order to attack. "Prepare to launch G.o.dzilla Countermeasure Plan B!"
"Banzai!" the Officers cried as one, then hurried off to perform their duties. The Hatsuyuki was to lead the attack against G.o.dzilla, and the admiral"s chest swelled with pride at the honor the emperor granted him.
Klaxons blared all over the ship as the crew manned combat positions. The six warships sliced through the water, leaving the support vessels behind.
From the helipad of the Hatsuyuki"s sister ship, the destroyer Kurama, three heavily armed SH-60 Seahawk helicopters lifted into the sky. These five-bladed, twin-engine choppers, outfitted with Vulcan miniguns, missiles, and flare launchers, were meant to confuse G.o.dzilla by launching a barrage of munitions at his face and head.
Admiral Toyohashi knew that if G.o.dzilla could blast a speeding jet out of the sky, he could easily hit one of these ships. Toyohashi hoped that the helicopters" flares would temporary blind - or at least confuse - G.o.dzilla.
As the two destroyers, and the frigates Chikugo, Iwase, Yoshino, and Chitose closed in on the monster, G.o.dzilla turned and faced the approaching vessels.
"Weapons systems ready!" an ensign cried. Admiral Toyohashi nodded. He strode across the bridge and peered through the bulletproof windows.
"Launch the attack!" the admiral commanded.
A second later, the 127mm deck guns, mounted in turrets on the destroyers" bows, opened up. The sound was deafening. Anti-aircraft guns began firing, too, pouring steel-jacketed sh.e.l.ls onto the target.
As hundreds of tons of munitions. .h.i.t his ma.s.sive body, G.o.dzilla lifted his head and howled in rage. His mighty tail thrashed, churning up the ocean in its wake. His eyes flashed angrily, and his lips curled back to reveal his six-foot-long teeth.
Pressing the attack, the Seahawk helicopters buzzed around G.o.dzilla"s head, firing flares, missiles, and bullets at the creature"s face. G.o.dzilla lifted his arms and blinked his eyes in a vain attempt to ward off the blinding pyrotechnics.
Admiral Toyohashi smiled. We are winning, he told himself. Today Gojira dies!
The monsters ear-shattering roar could be heard over the sound of the guns. As the task force moved within range of G.o.dzilla"s terrible radioactive fire, the ships slipped off into two lines. Each row of ships had a frigate in the lead, followed by a destroyer and another frigate. Admiral Toyohashi"s ship, the Hatsuyuki, took the right flank.
In minutes, G.o.dzilla was surrounded by warships, which kept pounding the creature with tons of high explosives, shrapnel, and armor-piercing sh.e.l.ls.
The Kongo-Maru sped rapidly past the battle, warily circling the monstrous creature and the ships that a.s.saulted it.
Clinging to a hatch, Brian watched as Buntaro prepared the harpoon. The gun itself was precariously mounted on a platform that extended forward well past the tip of the bow. A narrow railed catwalk was the only way to get to the gun.
The harpooner had spotted Brian when he first climbed onto the deck, but ignored the youth and immediately returned to his task. For a few minutes, Buntaro ran back and forth along a narrow catwalk that led to the hydraulic harpoon gun. He adjusted instruments and activated the weapon"s range-finding guidance system.
As the hydrofoil finished circling the battle and approached G.o.dzilla from behind, Buntaro drew a trident-shaped harpoon out of a metal box welded to the hull. Then he tilted the gun upward and carefully slid the harpoon down inside the barrel.
Next, the harpooner pulled one end of a fiber-optic cable out of a winch mounted on the side of the bow. He attached the thin cable to a socket on the harpoon. Then Buntaro shouldered the weapon and peered through the sight.
Brian heard louder explosions. He looked past the tattooed harpooner and could see G.o.dzilla"s back, where blue fire danced and played along the three rows of bony spikes. His tail was flailing, stirring up the sea in the path of the oncoming j.a.panese fleet.
The hydrofoil was getting close to G.o.dzilla now... very, very close.
Admiral Toyohashi watched with admiration as his ships maneuvered around the creature. On the left flank, the frigate Iwase led the way. As the warship drew closer to G.o.dzilla, it launched a half-dozen Mark 68 anti-submarine torpedoes from tubes mounted on its side.
The torpedoes streaked toward their target, leaving a white trail of bubbles in their wake as they shot through the water. In less than a minute, all six torpedoes struck G.o.dzilla"s submerged legs and tail.
The explosions blasted huge geysers of water hundreds of feet into the air. The monster shuddered and howled again, but he remained standing.
G.o.dzilla turned toward the source of the irritant - the frigate Iwase.
Familiar blue lightning arced up G.o.dzilla"s dorsal spines. The monster opened his mouth and a hot jet of radioactive fire spewed forth. Fortunately, the blast that burst from his throat was undirected, but he did manage to scatter the three Seahawk choppers buzzing around his face.
With G.o.dzilla"s vision cleared tor the first time since the sea attack began, the nuclear giant turned and focused his reptilian gaze on the Iwase, which had already sped past. The monster"s spikes lit up with blue flashes, and G.o.dzilla fired his ray once again.
This time his aim was better.
The glowing blast played across the Iwase"s superstructure. Sailors on deck were instantly vaporized. In another second, the steel deck plates began to melt. The forward gun turret exploded first, its munitions ignited by the terrible heat.
Then the ocean was rocked as a second blast tore the whole superstructure off the hull and flung it high into the air. Five more explosions followed, each one sending geysers of fire and smoke into the blue morning sky.
The Iwase"s hull, which was transformed into a funeral pyre for the unfortunate crew, surged ahead for a few moments more. Then the ship capsized and sank, dragging 167 souls to the bottom of the sea.
"Break off the attack!" Admiral Toyohashi cried. His command was instantly radioed to the entire fleet.
But the monster was moving with a sudden speed that belied its immense size. Just as Toyohashi"s destroyer steamed past G.o.dzilla, the creature slammed his mammoth body against the ship.
Admiral Toyohashi and the other bridge officers were thrown from their feet as the ship tilted precariously. Fire alarms were cut off and the bridge lights went out. There was darkness for a moment until the battery-powered emergency lights came on. Now the bridge was illuminated with an eerie red glow.
The admiral struggled to his feet. His head was bleeding from a cut sustained when he hit an electronics console.
"Full speed ahead!" he cried. "Take us out of here!"
"Sir!" the first officer cried. "The engines are damaged and the hull is breached. We are taking on water."
Outside, G.o.dzilla grappled with the destroyer like a giant sumo wrestler. The creature used his clawed fists to batter whole sections of the superstructure flat. On the bridge, over the sound of the guns, terrified screams could be heard.
As the Hatsuyuki shuddered under the pummeling, the radioman cried out. "Admiral! The other ships are moving to our a.s.sistance."
"No!" the admiral replied. There will be no more loss of life, he decided. "Tell them to break off the attack and get as far away from the creature as possible."
The radioman nodded and sent out the command. The destroyer shuddered again, and the fire alarms blared. G.o.dzilla"s roar echoed throughout the doomed ship.
"Damage report!" the admiral cried.
"Fire below deck!" the first officer said as he gripped the controls.
Admiral Toyohashi stumbled to the bulletproof windows. He looked up at G.o.dzilla. At that moment, the creature stepped back from the Hatsuyuki and stared down at the crippled ship with a predatory gaze. Blue lightning flashed, and G.o.dzilla opened its mouth.
It"s karma, Admiral Toyohashi thought. We can do no more.
Brian watched as the Hatsuyuki exploded. The ship was lifted out of the water by the blast, and then split into two pieces. The stern sank instantly. The front half of the ship turned over on its side. Brian could see sailors leaping off the Hatsuyuki"s deck and into the Sea of j.a.pan.
His enemy defeated, G.o.dzilla turned away from the wreckage. With a triumphant howl, he continued forward.
Following the admiral"s final command, the rest of the j.a.panese fleet was giving G.o.dzilla a wide berth. We should try to rescue some of the survivors! Brian thought when he realized that the other ships were nowhere near the men in the water. But the Kongo-Maru did not alter its course. It still approached G.o.dzilla from behind.
In the air above its head, the Seahawk helicopters continued to fire flares and munitions into G.o.dzilla"s eyes in an attempt to cover the fleet"s retreat.
Suddenly, the Kongo-Maru turned. Brian lost his precarious grip on the hatch and almost fell into the Sea of j.a.pan when the hydrofoil jinked to one side, then another, in an attempt to get past G.o.dzilla"s thrashing tail.
A smell burned Brian"s nose. It was a combination of cordite, gunpowder, ozone, and wet fish. They were close enough to G.o.dzilla to smell the beast, Brian realized. Fortunately, the creature seemed oblivious to the Kongo-Maru"s rapid approach.
On the catwalk, Buntaro pointed the harpoon at the back of G.o.dzilla"s neck - a target almost two hundred feet above the waves. Brian grabbed the railing and climbed onto the catwalk, too. He slowly edged his way toward the harpoon station.
I want to see this, he thought with determination. I want to have something to report - that"s my job.
Two hundred feet above the ocean, one of the Seahawk helicopters got too close to G.o.dzilla.
The monster flailed its arm and backhanded the aircraft. The Seahawk"s tail rotor was ripped loose, and the pilot lost all control. The helicopter flipped over G.o.dzilla"s shoulder and slammed into a row of dorsal spines. Then the Seahawk, its main engines still turning the five-bladed rotors, bounced and rolled down G.o.dzilla"s broad back.
The Kongo-Maru, which had just dodged G.o.dzilla"s thrashing tail, streaked right into the path of the falling helicopter. Brian watched in horror as the mangled machine dropped toward the very deck he was standing on. Time seemed to slow down.
"Buntaro! Look out!" Brian cried over the noise and chaos. The harpooner, who was preparing to shoot, took his eyes away from the scope on the harpoon gun. He saw the rotors spinning toward him.
And he froze.
Brian hit the deck just as the helicopter crashed into the sea off their starboard bow. The fuselage missed the Kongo-Maru by mere inches. But the rotors did the damage. As Brian watched helplessly, five whirling blades cut through the deck, shattered the catwalk, and struck the paralyzed harpooner.
Buntaro disappeared in a red mist.
The whole vessel shuddered. Then the rotors caught for an instant. The helicopter"s fuselage slammed against the hull as the ship dragged the shattered remains for a few yards before the twisted wreckage finally broke loose.
Still clinging to the deck, Brian could smell kerosene. Fuel from the helicopter was splattered all over the bow. He also saw blood and bits of cloth - all that remained of Buntaro.
Then he looked up. The hydrofoil was almost past G.o.dzilla"s tail. He knew what he had to do.