Godzilla 2000 (23 page)

Kip aimed at Varan through his HUD and, when the targeting computer signaled that he had a lock, he depressed the trigger.

Dozens of rockets lanced out of their pods and streaked toward Varan, trailing fire. One by one, the rockets struck the creature, detonating upon impact. Clusters of tiny explosions riddled Varan's tortured body. Finally, as the last few projectiles were fired, the creature began to lose altitude.

Though there was no way to be sure, Kip believed that Varan had finally been hurt. It was time to press the attack. As he guided the Raptor into position, Kip calculated their altitude. Man and monster were less than a thousand feet from the ground.

"What's that ahead of us?" Kip demanded over the radio.

Aboard Raptor-Two, Lori checked her navigational maps. They were over Galveston once again. Pier 22 and the Galveston Ship Channel were right below them. Lori could see the Elissa, a tall wooden ship that dated from 1877, moored to the pier.

She tried to discern what Kip was referring to. Then she saw a line of huge fuel tanks on the far shore and a small tanker moored near them.

"It's a tank farm," Lori replied a few seconds later. "Diesel fuel for ships... and it's been evacuated."

"Good," Kip grunted, fighting the control. "I'm going to force Varan down right there."

"What the hell -" Pierce snapped. But Martin grasped Kip's plan immediately.

"The scientists think Varan has sacs filled with flammable hydrogen!" Martin cried. "Kip's going to try to ignite Varan's internal gases."

As Martin spoke, Kip maneuvered the Raptor so that he was behind and above Varan. He switched to the cannons again and opened fire.

The shells ripped into the creature's hide. Kip concentrated the stream of armor-piercing projectiles on just one small section of Varan's torso. The creature suddenly lost altitude, until its soft, unarmored belly was directly over the largest of the fuel tanks in the depot.

Quickly, Kip switched menus and called up the Raptor's Hellfire missiles.

He aimed, not at Varan, but at the fuel tank underneath it. Six missiles leaped from their wing pylons and streaked toward the metal tank.

The fiery explosion lit up the dusk and rocked Raptor-One. A column of fire shot into the sky, completely engulfing Varan. A huge secondary blast followed the first, and more fire leaped into the air. The tremendous explosion could be seen from miles around. The blast shattered windows in downtown Galveston, and knocked down power lines, toppled a radio tower, and capsized the tanker moored to the pier.

In the middle of the conflagration, Varan bellowed in agony. As the fires spread, another tank blew up, sending more smoke into the air.

Hovering over Galveston, the occupants of Raptor-One watched in amazement as Varan rose, phoenix-like, from the destruction. But as it limped into the air, Kip could see that the monster was wounded, perhaps mortally.

Turning, Varan floated toward the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The creature was burning in the sky as its shattered gas pockets leaked hydrogen, which continuously fed the flames.

Cautiously, Kip followed the monster, but he did not attack again. When Varan was miles from the Texas coast, another explosion rocked its body. As the crews of Raptor-One and Raptor-Two watched, Varan dropped out of the sky and into the Gulf, where it vanished beneath the waves.

Dead or alive, Varan was no longer a threat.

G-Force had fought its first battle - and
won
.

Wednesday, June 30, 1999, 1:39 P.M.
Lake Oahe, South Dakota

Slowly, life around Lake Oahe returned to normal.

Though the military still searched the lake for the remains of the monster Rodan, their zeal had ebbed. Two U.S. Marine sonar ships cruised the length of the lake, sounding the bottom, searching for signs of the vanished
kaiju
. Another ship, from the Institute for Undersea Exploration, used remote-control robots to search through the sediment, so far without success.

Even the reporters who covered the Rodan story soon moved on to more pressing duties. After all, it was Godzilla's continuing trek across the heart of America that was capturing the attention of the world.

Godzilla, currently marching through Nevada, was only ninety miles north of Las Vegas. The casinos were taking bets on Whether or not the creature would show up on the Vegas Strip, and there was talk of another Air Force strike against the monster while he was still in a relatively remote region.

Searching for a carcass of a dead Pteranodon was an uninteresting sideshow for the back pages. But at dawn on Thursday, July 1, that sideshow took center stage once again.

As one of the Marine detachments was getting ready to launch their sonar vessel, the waters of Lake Oahe began to churn and bubble. One of the Marines pointed, and soon everyone was watching. The first lieutenant grabbed his video camera and pointed it at the frothing, churning turmoil.

Cackling wildly, Rodan burst from the lake. With each 175-foot wing flapping wildly, the bird monster took to the air. The force of the winds generated by Rodan struck the Marine detachment, blowing the men offs the dock and nearly capsizing their vessel.

As they watched helplessly, most of them from the cold waters of the lake, Rodan circled once overhead. Then, with a burst of speed, the creature flew off in the direction of Rapid City.

* * *

As a precaution against Rodan's unlikely resurrection, a battery of Patriot missile installations had been placed around Lake Oahe. The moment the creature took to the air, sophisticated targeting radar began tracking it.

Inside the Patriot missile control vehicles, U.S. Army technicians watched the approach of the monster. The order was sent out to all missile batteries to fire at will.

In seconds, the boxlike missile launchers aimed at the sky, and twenty Patriot anti-aircraft missiles arced upward. Inside the mobile command center, the technicians watched the missiles streak toward their target. First one, then another struck home against Rodan's belly. They were followed by four more, which exploded on, or near, the still-moving target.

The radar screens were lit up with repeated detonations, which should have obliterated Rodan. But, unknown to the military, Rodan's underbelly was protected by a thick, bony armor that withstood the first few blasts. Rodan dispatched the rest of the missiles with its beam of destructive fire.

Now, confused and enraged, the creature dived toward the earth once again. It was searching the ground for prey - for something to lash out against. Suddenly, Rodan spotted a huge, snakelike object moving through the hills of South Dakota.

With an echoing cackle, Rodan dived headfirst toward its target.

* * *

Slowly, the train carrying a thousand head of cattle to the Chicago stockyards wound its way through the South Dakota hills. Near a town called Cherry Creek, the freight train slowed down as it moved onto a high bridge that was suspended over a deep gorge. At the bottom of the gorge flowed the Cheyenne River. The bridge consisted of a steel framework with a single track running along the top.

When fourteen of the twenty-two railroad cars had moved onto the steel bridge, Rodan struck.

With a wild, cackling screech, the gigantic mutant
Pteranodon
twisted in the sky and struck with its hind legs.

Clutching the stock cars packed with live cattle in its mammoth claws, Rodan literally carried away nine freight cars - along with a huge section of the steel bridge. The front three cars, including two locomotives, were thrown into the gorge. Their crews died screaming as the engines crashed into the shallow Cheyenne River.

Some of the remaining freight cars continued on through sheer momentum until they reached the shattered section of the bridge. Then they, too, plunged into the gorge, pulling the rest of the train down with them. Cattle howled in fear and panic as the cars carried them to an early grave.

In the caboose, two railroad workers witnessed Rodan's attack. When they saw the remains of the train being dragged to certain doom, they rushed out the back door.

The first man leaped immediately, jumping onto the tracks. He landed hard on the wooden ties, shattering his collarbone.

The second man hesitated - and was lost.

As the man on the tracks looked on helplessly, the caboose tumbled over the edge of the demolished bridge and disappeared into the gorge.

The second man still gripped the railing on the back of the caboose, too afraid to jump. He plunged with the train to his death.

Rodan, still clutching the stock cars packed with pathetic, bleating cattle, circled the sky until it found a suitable landing place. Finally, it spotted a line of low hills rising in the distance.

Wheeling in the air, Rodan turned and headed for the mountains. As it banked, a single stock car broke loose and plunged thousands of feet to the earth below.

* * *

Four hours after the attack on the cattle train, klaxons blared once again at G-Force headquarters at Nellis.

The team assembled in the command center to find Colonel Krupp filling in for General Taggart, who had gone to Washington.

Most of the G-Force team were already frustrated. So far, despite their success against Varan, they had been denied the chance to go up against Godzilla.

There would never be a better time to fight the monster, either. Godzilla was entering a remote area of Utah, where lives and property would not be endangered by an attack.

Still, as he had done for weeks, the president held them back. Kip, Toby, and Pierce all thought General Taggart had traveled to D.C. to convince the timid president to turn G-Force loose. So far, they had heard no news.

As the colonel briefed them, the G-Force team understood that they would never be sent to fight Rodan. The
kaiju
simply flew too fast, and too high, for the Raptors.

Raptor-One and Raptor-Two were built to fight land-bound
kaiju
- no one had suspected such a creature as Rodan could exist.

When Colonel Krupp completed his briefing, Dr. Max. Birchwood took the podium.

"It looks as if the creature has evolved since it first appeared," Dr. Birchwood announced.

On the center monitor, footage of the creature taken by U.S. Marines was projected. The image froze, and the
kaiju
ologist pointed to the creature's chest.

"This bony armor plating has proved to be impervious to Patriot missiles," he informed them.

"This indicates to us that the previous attack may not have harmed Rodan at all. Perhaps what drove the creature into Lake Oahe was pure instinct, a course of action made during, or because of, a particular biological event."

"A biological
event?
" Lori asked. "A hibernation period, maybe?"

Dr. Birchwood shook his head. "No. That's what we thought, until an hour ago, when we got this footage..."

The image on the central monitor changed. It now showed a familiar landmark - Mount Rushmore, with the faces of America's four most revered leaders carved into its cliff face: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The G-Force team all noticed a black silhouette on top of Washington's head.

"Magnify the image," Dr. Birchwood instructed the projectionist. The image expanded until it was plainly visible.

It was Rodan. And the creature seemed to be sitting in a tremendously large nest, made out of twisted railroad track, parts from a shattered bridge, a tour bus, and tons of unidentifiable debris.

"The creature constructed this nest in under twelve hours," Dr. Birchwood said. He paused before he delivered his bombshell.

"I've just examined satellite photographs and real-time images transmitted to us," he said grimly.

"That nest contains an egg."

* * *

Late that same night, General Taggart returned to Nellis in an Air Force jet. Under his arm, he carried orders from the President of the United States. The orders activated G-Force, instructing them to attack Godzilla as soon as possible - preferably while the creature was in a remote region of the country.

As General Taggart climbed down from the cockpit of the F-4 Phantom he'd flown back from Washington, he planned his next move. He decided he would alert Colonel Krupp, Dr. Birchwood, and even Dr. Markham - whose counsel he had come to trust and respect - that the attack had been given the green light.

He would wait until morning to tell the G-Force team that all that they trained for was about to take place.

And may God protect them
, he thought as he crossed the dark airfield.

Sunday, July 11, 1999, 7:23 A.M.
Gunnison County Airport
Gunnison, Colorado

In the end, the attack against Godzilla was delayed for many weeks, mostly because of the actions of the governor of Utah. In a political and constitutional battle, the governor forbade military action within the borders of his state. Editorial writers and television journalists all over the country sided with Governor Constable, and the attack was finally postponed until Godzilla left Utah.

G-Force used the time to hone their skills. But there was dissension within their ranks as well. Lori Angelo did not want to fight Godzilla at all. She told General Taggart that Mothra told her, in her vision, that Godzilla was an ally, not an enemy.

Though Dr. Markham and General Taggart were both inclined to believe her now, the general felt that G-Force should make an attempt to stop Godzilla's trek through America's heartland. It was what they had trained, and sworn, to do.

For the good of the team, Lori was convinced to keep her visions to herself and go along with the attack. She relented. In her heart of hearts, Lori believed that Godzilla was unstoppable, anyway. Nothing that G-Force could do would harm him.

On July 10, the day before the first wave of nuclear missiles was to strike the asteroid swarm in deep space, Godzilla passed through the suburbs of Grand Junction, Colorado, causing massive property damage. Fortunately, few lives were lost, since the military had previously evacuated the area.