I watched the satellite feed of Manila being streamed into the headquarters, a pair of SU-34s loitering high above the city, flying slow and steady in big loops, stripped of most of their armaments and just waiting. A nice, tasty target for our big flying lizardly friend.
The three women sat silently in the command suite. Watching the screens. The pair of Awacs stationed far over the horizon and what their radars saw, the wings of fighters waiting above Mindoro for the go order. A flight of bombers slowly moving closer to Manila from the north to see if provocation would work.
The pieces were in motion… Now we just have to kill this damn dragon. The large, scaly reptile that would play absolute havoc with any attempt to land if it chose. The whole city was being watched closely, but that damn greenish yellow fog that hung over the city obscured large portions of downtown. That was likely where it was, if it was in the city at least… otherwise… who knows where that damn thing is.
A spike of activity? No… that was a reading from the sonar buoys in the bay. I adjusted the satellite, the leviathans seemed to have been spooked. They were moving around with alarming irregularity. It wasn't common to see Leviathans in such large groups. But even more so to see them so agitated after remaining so passive.
I'd had the subs staying far from the bay… it was unlikely to be them. So what could have possibly irritated them so? I watched as the Leviathans started charging towards the mouth of the bay with a single minded intensity. Wait… there was another contact, a sonobuoy outside the harbor itself picked up on something…
It had a signature similar to a leviathan, though it seemed smaller in size. But that… aggressive growl it was picking up… that was similar to a few other leviathans I'd had killed in the Sunda straits, damn massive lizardy things those were.
The camera refocused as a pair of massive leathery wings ripped the fog open from near downtown Manila. The thing beat its mighty wings, quickly gaining altitude and was quickly painted on both AWACS radar screens. Li gasped slightly, the damn thing seemed even larger than last time we'd seen it.
"Time to Slay a king…" I muttered quietly as orders were rapidly being dispersed. The bombers turned away, their services no longer required as the dozens of fighters waiting in the wings banked sharply and opened up their throttles, racing for the city. We can worry about the leviathans later. For now... The dragon.
The dragon gained sufficient altitude and banked east, lazily heading towards the mouth of the bay, roaring a challenge. I frowned, the damn thing was ignoring the pair of SU-34s that raced a few thousand feet above it, trying to draw it further out to sea.
Why wasn't it taking the bait? What else could possibly hold its attention like that? Projections of its path had it going nowhere near surface action group Angel or Demon…
We panned the satellite camera further west. And something… that small levitation. The satellite could only capture the darkened figure of it under the waves. Whatever it was… it could wait. Fighters of strike squadron Rampage began flipping their radars on, easily locking into the distinctive signature of the dragon.
Missiles were let fly, for now only a pair. Eh detached from their fighters for the briefest of seconds before their engines engaged and they flew forward, arching slightly to stay ahead of the dragon's path. One of its heads glanced in the direction of the missiles before roaring lazily. The twin feathers of smoke raced closer and the dragon finally stopped its forward flight. Pulling itself into a hovering position as it puffed itself out.
The pair of R24s slammed into the beast's flank below its right wing, staggering it and causing it to fall into the sea amidst a massive splash. The comms went silent as we waited, the fighters banking away, circling miles outside where the beast fell. Little splotches of black ichor slowly pooled to the surface. I felt the three women in the room slowly creep closer to me, a silent battle between the three as the anticipation ratcheted up.
Suddenly it burst through the water with a wrathful roar. The sea poured off it in rivulets, the water revealing a pair of black scorched craters in its side. Black blood slowly dripped from the wounds, staining the sea black. Even hanging back as they were the sight of the beast re-emerging from the waves was all anyone needed before every fighter rolled over and sent a missile flying towards the beast.
The Dragon roared, several of the missiles exploding from the compression of the air in front of the beast, but not all. More slammed into the beast. But it had been ready, already gaining considerable altitude as the fighters began to cycle away, sending missiles in continuous rolling volleys.
It was fortunate we'd loaded the fighters down with every over the horizon missile we could strap to them. As long as the damn thing could get close… it disappeared from the camera, the lens shifted, refocusing as the beast raced towards the nearest pair of fighters. Its flanks crackling with a pale light. Just how fast had it gotten? Had it been hiding that speed all along? Then what it did next…
A massive storm of lightning raced away from the dragon in all directions, pulsing and reaching for the fighters. Some had their electronics fried, the flight controls locking up. Others had their fuel or weapons explode, and some… the closest just vaporized under the sheer power of it. A dozen fighters, spread across eight miles of sky, either vanished or sent hurtling to the ground as the beast roared in triumph.
I felt a hand on my arm. Regina's lips were pursed, worried. A silent conversation passed between us.
The landings?
Not until that thing is dead…
How?
Maybe the P-700s?
Are those ships in range?
There's an Oscar, which should be a hundred ish miles northwest.
She pursued her lips, nodding slightly. Li looked confusedly between us as I reached for a keyboard, sending Leshenko a priority message. I sent it off and we waited as the battle continued as another squadron was sacrificed on the altar to bring the beast down.
Within a minute new radar contacts appeared, rising from sea level nearly to the stratosphere, eight in total. And before this anti ship missile arrived, they'd have to get the dragon back down to sea level. No easy feat, even injured as the beast seems.
That wasn't to say it was shrugging off the missiles unharmed. Blood practically poured from the sky as it raced and wheeled about, sending goblets of pure lightning arcing through the sky at whichever fighter it drew close to.
Damn thing was like king ghidorah… maybe if it had another head, lost the front legs, and its hide was gold instead of a sickly yellow… it was most of the way there. Fuck it.
Ghidorah roared, wings flapping laboriously to keep it aloft as its heads squabbled in a small interlude between volleys. I narrowed my eyes watching as Ghidorah banked hard and started racing for Corregidor, dropping altitude like a rock. Ignoring the pestering flies trailing behind it. The occasional missile caught up, but most did not, exploding when they had no chance of catching up.
The sea around the island was red and frothy, disemboweled leviathans floating to the surface. God… what could have done that? Ghidorah widely circled the island, roaring at the sea. That was when they came. Eight lances of steel, having finished dropping down and now skimming a few dozen feet above the sea, each searching looking, for something… anything.
One of the missiles found something. It was about the size of a small cruiser, strangely it wasn't on the water, but about fifty feet above. But there wasn't anything else out here, it rallied the other P-700s racing in, the pack smelled blood. Ghidorah reacted at the last minute, its heads snapping towards the missiles, launching arching rays of electricity at it. Three disappeared in snaps of light… the other five however…
Funny thing about the P-700. It was meant to hit an American carrier. Repurposed… albeit somewhat jankily now it was slamming into the side of a living creature. Each missile dug in several feet into the thick muscled side of Ghidorah before exploding, the simulations blasts sending it screeching into the sea.
The satellite was beginning to lose sight, having traveled well over Manila by now. But as Ghidorah slammed into the sea, everyone began to fall back. A bluish glow under one of the leviathans caught our gazes in the command center. It moved directly to where Ghidorah fell.
I cursed softly. The feed cut, quickly patched in were footage of the sukhois, but it was barely any better, only showing the frontal arch of the aircraft instead of the wide panorama from above. A few quick images of Ghidorah being lifted out of the water by… something, then a swift cut to another further perspective.
Dragging Ghidorah onto Corregidor by its limp neck, a massive monster. Large jagged spines covered its back, from the base of its head to its long tail. Covered in dark, blackened scales the new monster dropped Ghidorah's limp head. It picked up its foot and slammed it down on Ghidorah's skull, crushing it.
He reared back, arms slightly to either side as he leaned into the rumbling roar that filled Manila bay. I slowly leaned back in my seat. Tapping the desk. Staring at a creature that very much shouldn't exist. Leviathans… Those were basically just oversized sea life. Ghidorah… he was some monster created by the virus, likely some final tier evolution. But this guy…
"What is that?" Siska murmured. Staring at the screen as the monster reared back, absolutely destroying the corpse of Ghidorah. A single name came to mind, it fit of course… They were the same. This one was just smaller… prepubescent version. Which… would be to my detriment to discover how screwed we were now.
"Godzilla."