Godzilla: Tactical Assault. - Page 16 (2024)

…

Chapter 43: God Save the Queen!

After taking a beating from the Chinese military, Barugon retreated out of Tianjin. He used his breath to freeze the highway behind him, leaving a thick sheet of ice which made the road impassable for the units pursuing him. From that point on, the Chinese could only hit Barugon from the air, but high-level bombing was largely ineffective. Their jets couldn’t get too close to the monster without risking being frozen solid by his ice beam. After the first twenty-four hours, Barugon disappeared into the wilderness of a mountain range. He Shook his pursuers at dusk.

…

On the other side of the world, a British cruise liner named Carmania was carrying a group of vacationers across the Atlantic Ocean from London to New York City. A recently married British couple, Fred and Rosaline, were aboard on their honeymoon. Neither had been to New York before and both of them were a little nervous. The couple were going to have quite a learning curve when it came to Yankee customs. New Yorkers in particular had a bit of a reputation for being rough around the edges. Fred and Rosaline were excited to see the sights though. The shows on Broadway, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Time’s Square, the music halls, the various museums, the shopping, the food, the amusem*nt park at Coney Island, and the Empire State Building. Just seeing the city’s magnificent skyline was something to look forward to.

It was a trip Fred and Rosaline would never forget, not least of all because of what was about to happen during the crossing. Rosaline was standing at the bow of the ship, looking out over the sparkling waves as the liner cut through the water at forty knots. Wind was blowing through her hair. Fred came up behind Rosaline and wrapped his arms around her. She brought a hand up to caress his cheek in silent greeting. Words weren’t necessary for either of them. As they were both getting lost in the moment, Rosaline glimpsed something out in the water ahead of them. A dark object off in the distance bobbing up and down in the ocean. She couldn’t tell what it was, but as the seconds passed, she recognized that it was rapidly getting closer.

As the ship steamed forward, the unidentified object was becoming clearer. It was moving under its own power. The gap between it and the ship was closing fast. It was cutting through the water at least as fast as the Carmania was, meaning that the two were closing in on each other at no less than eighty kph. Fred let Rosaline go and both of them came up to the rails to get a better look at what was approaching. Behind them, officers on the bridge of the Carmania were using their binoculars to see what was coming at the ship too and they didn’t like what they saw. The Carmania’s horn blew twice to warn passengers and crew of impending danger. Fred and Rosaline looked back and didn’t know what to think.

The Carmania changed course so sharply that it tilted the deck ten degrees to port. Passengers and crew alike had to find something to grab onto. After that, members of the crew began to prepare lifeboats just to be safe. Some passengers panicked, not understanding what was going on. As that was happening, Fred and Rosaline looked back out and could finally make out what was approaching them. It was the Kaiju named Battra who had rampaged his way across the Pacific. What the monster was doing swimming midway through the Atlantic was anybody’s guess.

Battra closed to within four-hundred meters of the Carmania but ended up passing right by her. He didn’t seem very interested in the ship. The monster’s wake rocked the liner as he passed, but otherwise he left the vessel in as good condition as he found her. Fred and Rosaline just watched silently as Battra moved onward, rightly feeling lucky to still be alive.

…

Shoeburyness was a coastline town on the east side of England where the Thames River emptied into the English Channel. The town was a small suburb of the larger Southend-on-Sea. The community had a thriving mercantile business, canneries, and sandy beaches. Shoeburyness had been an ideal place to live for most of its history. The bounty of the sea provided the residents with almost everything they needed. That is… up until recently. An odd series of events had taken place over the last couple of days which upended that long-standing convention.

It started several days earlier with the local fishing starting to dry up. No one was quite sure why. A number of dead fish had washed up on the beaches since. What killed them was unclear. One of the specimens was extremely odd and entirely unidentifiable. It looked as though it were a mutation of some sort. A handful of the dead fish, including the unusual one, were shipped over to the University of Oxford for study. Maybe the professors there could provide some answers.

Many Shoeburyness residents believed that the recently opened chemical plant upriver was responsible for scaring off the fish and causing the apparent mutation. The potentially polluted waters hadn’t stopped kids from going to the beach though. George and Henry were two high-school freshmen who couldn’t pass up the chance to see girls suntanning in their swimsuits no matter what the danger might be. As it was though, there were more hazards waiting for them at the beach than just contaminated seawater.

Also ignoring the danger were some upperclassmen who were in the habit of picking on George and Henry. When George saw the bullies, he immediately wanted to turn around, but Henry was more stubborn and insisted that they forge ahead. Henry was motivated by seeing his crush Molly setting up a beach blanket in her two-piece suit out ahead of them. Eventually, George was persuaded by Henry and the two of them walked through the hot sand towards Molly. As they were walking, George noticed something strange nestled amongst some seaweed which had collected around a wooden post at the waterline. Henry was laser-focused on Molly and continued onward alone.

George meanwhile stopped and knelt down to examine what looked like a jellyfish. With all of the strange things washing up on shore lately, he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. George always paid close attention in biology class, and yet, he’d never seen anything like this before. Just in case it was a jellyfish, Geroge didn’t dare touch it, least he be stung. He crouched there thinking. Perhaps it was a deep-sea fish that had come up to the surface? When they came to the top, the change in pressure would distort their bodies, making them unrecognizable. That could explain the near formlessness of this specimen. George noticed something else ominous. There was a small collection of dead crabs in a shallow pool nestled into the rocks right next to the unidentified grey blob. They rolled back and forth lifelessly with the tide.

“What are you looking at there Georgie?” A familiar voice rang out behind him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Henry’s. George turned to see that it was Sebastian. Flanking him were his friends Reginald, Nigel, and Richard. Each of them was smirking at George. “Did you find yourself a new friend there wanker?” Sebastian asked tauntingly as he walked up to inspect George’s discovery for himself. He was entirely unconcerned that it might be dangerous. “I think it might actually be an improvement over Henry.” Sebastian chuckled cruelly. His friends laughed too. George was angry, but he didn’t dare say anything back to Sebastian which might provoke the older boys. “Maybe you should shake hands with your new friend?” Sebastian said, ceasing Geroge’s wrist and forcing it downward towards the grey blob.

Somehow, Sebastian had detected that George was afraid of it. He pushed his hand closer to the supposed jellyfish inch by inch. Though George struggled to avoid it, Sebastian was twice as big and easily overpowered him. Reginald, Nigel, and Richard just laughed, seeing how afraid George was.

“Stop it!” George pleaded, getting upset and red in the face.

“You’re such a wuss.” Sebastian mocked George, letting him go. “Afraid of a little sting...” He reached down to put his finger on the grey glob himself.

“Don’t do that!” George warned him. Sebastian didn’t listen and put his fingertip directly onto it.

“See…?” Sebastian said smugly. “No problem. If you only touch the top, they can’t hurt you. It’s just the tenacles you need to watch out for, you knob.” He declared confidently, assuming what he was touching was just a jellyfish. Sebastian’s finger began to sink into the glob as he poked at it. Almost immediately, as if it was a spring-loaded trap, the mass of moosh shot up onto the rest of Sebastian’s hand. He instantly cried out in pain, giving everyone nearby a sudden fright.

Nigel, Reginald, and Richard quickly recovered and started laughing, assuming that Sebastian was just playing a prank on them. Only, Sebastian wasn’t laughing. George, who was the only person who could see the look on his face, knew that Sebastian wasn’t messing around. His eyes looked panicked and desperate. His face was turning beet red. Sebastian was frantically trying to pull his hand away, but the muck stubbornly refused to let him go.

“Oh God, help me!!!” Sebastian screamed out in terror. His friends finally realized that he wasn’t playing around and came to his aid. Along with George, they grabbed on to him and pulled. With the strength of four boys combined, they were able to get Sebastian’s hand free, or at least most of it. When the boys got a good look at it, they could see that Sebastian’s hand had very nearly been melted down to the bone. What flesh remained was bubbling and giving off steam. It was a bloody, visceral mess. Sebastian’s friends backed away frightened and horrified. The whole beach was coming over to see what had happened.

Sebastian fell over and passed out from the pain. While he was being attended to, George looked over to see what had become of the grey mass which had caused all of the trouble. It was gone though. Whatever it was, perhaps it had returned back out to sea.

…

In the Sierra Mountains of California, the situation with the asteroid was only getting stranger. It turned out Dr. Murai’s assistant hadn’t been imagining things. The chunk of space rock had indeed grown in diameter since landing. Dr. Murai was at a loss to explain why though. The heat and magnetism had also grown stronger.

Perhaps the most worrying thing though was the fact that the asteroid had developed an eerie orange glow. The space rock was now constantly pulsating with some strange and unexplainable energy. That was a new feature and it had Dr. Murai worried that the asteroid might suddenly explode. He had most of his team pull back around the bend of the mountain as a precaution.

Figuring out exactly what was going on was difficult for Dr. Murai. The only thing he could think of was that the asteroid might contain a new and unique type of element within it. Best described as a ‘rogue’ element. Something extremely volatile and unpredictable that could cause all of the unusual occurrences. Time would tell. Dr. Murai couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen though. He wasn’t in the habit of listening to his baser instincts. He’d always relied more-so on scientific-method, but he couldn’t ignore the animal inside whispering to him that he was in danger.

…

In the Pacific, Marcus and Brock were reading through the troubling reports on the USS Independence. Battra being sighted in the Atlantic was pretty newsworthy. Like everyone else, Marcus and Brock were at a loss to explain what he was doing there. It was so far away from his last known position. Battra either swam around or dug a hole right under the Americas, because he sure hadn’t crossed over the landmass anywhere, and he hadn’t used the Panama Canal either.

By far though, the most troubling news was that Godzilla had been sighted moving eastward through the Pacific. His destination was unclear, but he was much further east than he had ever gone before, and he showed no signs of slowing down or stopping. Marcus got a very bad feeling in his stomach. This was trouble, and of the ‘major’ variety. Everybody was already starting to worry that he might be heading for the United States. That fear was spreading rapidly. The general public wasn’t aware, as they were being kept out of the loop, but key decision makers in the government and military, the heaviest of hitters, were getting very nervous. Wheels were starting to turn, and plans were being set in motion. After everything that had happened in Japan, the U.S. government wanted no part of Godzilla landing on American soil.

The Archimedes fleet was already heading back at flank speed in pursuit, but they were not in a position to intercept Godzilla. He was faster than they were, and he had a head start on them. Long range aircraft were keeping tabs on Godzilla. He was swimming along the surface, which made spotting him very easy.

…

Back in Shoeburyness, George was sitting down with his family to watch some telly. George was still pretty shaken up by what he had seen earlier in the day. Though it wasn’t really his fault, he somehow felt responsible for what had happened to Sebastian. He would never forget the look on Sebastian’s face, nor his tore up hand, not for the rest of his life. Sebastian had been rushed to the hospital in shock. George’s former bully would live, though he’d likely never be the same again. There was talk of his hand having to be amputated at the wrist to prevent any infection from spreading. While they weren’t friends, George couldn’t help but feel for Sebastian. One small mistake was going to affect him for the rest of his life.

George stared at the flicking television screen but wasn’t really watching it. He was lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly, something did catch his attention. The news was on, and the top story was about a collision at sea that had taken place earlier that day. A freighter had rammed into an oil tanker while trying to avoid a separate collision with what they thought was a submarine surfacing. The hasty maneuvering had resulted in an accident that caused an enormous amount of oil to spill into the ocean off the coast of Bradwell. The curious thing about the incident was no oil had actually reached the nearby beaches at Bradwell. Everyone involved expected an ecological disaster. As if by some miracle, that didn’t happen.

As for what caused the accident to begin with, nobody was quite sure. Some people thought it was a submarine. Others thought that it was a whale. Video surfaced of the incident, which the news played for everyone to see. There was definitely something big moving underneath the water. As to what it was, nobody knew for sure. The video just wasn’t conclusive. It simply showed a dark mass moving through the sea. Some thought it might be a kaiju. The lead suspect was Varan. He was the only monster that appeared in Europe who wasn’t presently accounted for. Perhaps he was resurfacing again? George just watched the video replay over and over again. Whatever the creature was, it lifted the tanker up briefly as it passed under it. A whale wouldn’t be strong enough to do that. George knew that it had to be a monster.

…

The aircraft carrier HMS Albion and her escorts were sailing in the North Sea heading south. They had been dispatched to investigate the collision between the oiler and freighter. Captain O’Conner was in command. He was skeptical that they were facing an actual kaiju threat. The object in the water that had been caught on film was smaller than most known Kaiju. Still, the mission gave him the excuse to get out on the open ocean and he loved to sail. He also loved to be in command.

What ‘did’ have Captain O’Conner concerned was the sighting of Battra in the Atlantic. A sizable portion of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet was being dispatched to blockade the monster from entering British waters, while his own task force was on the other side of the island chasing shadows. He wanted to be where the action was.

O’Conner received word that he should be expecting two VIPs to help him assess the threat they were investigating. The message was cryptic as to who and when. As it turned out though, he wouldn’t have to wait too long to get an answer. A Westland scout helicopter approached the task group from the mainland and requested permission to land on the carrier. Permission was immediately granted. After the chopper had landed, two men with baggage came aboard the Albion. They were taken to the captain’s ready room where Captain O’Conner discovered they were none other than Dr. Orsini and Reinhart of the Archimedes Organization. The two men both looked very tired. It turned out they had literally flown from the other side of the world to be there.

When it was theorized that an aquatic kaiju was involved with the sinking of the tanker, Dr. Orsini was interested in helping. When it was theorized that Varan was involved, Reinhart insisted in being involved too. He hadn’t let go of his grudge yet. His plan was to request the Maser units be deployed in England as soon as he’d confirmed Varan’s involvement. Reinhart wanted to use the machines he created to kill the monster he despised. That had always been his intent in creating them. Admiral Malek, however, wasn’t willing to commit the Masers without good solid proof. Such as it was, the admiral was more concerned with Godzilla’s movements towards the United States. The Masers had been recalled to the west coast. It would take a lot of persuasion to get Malek to move them elsewhere, but Reinhart was ready to make that fight when the time came.

“So, Dr. Orsini, you think there’s a connection between the monster out at sea and the incident on the beach at Showburyness?” Captain O’Conner asked. “If so, I don’t see how.”

“I don’t think so captain, your professors at Oxford do.” Dr. Orsini replied. “I haven’t seen the evidence for myself. I’ve just been in contact with the gentlemen over there and that’s what they are telling me. I’m simply relaying the information to you. A sample taken from the beach matches residue taken from the hull of the tanker. There’s definitely some kind of connection. The testing is ongoing, but they have made some frightening discoveries. Are you aware that no traces of oil have been found despite that oil tanker being ripped wide open?”

“I’ve read the preliminary reports.” Captain O’Conner replied flatly.

“Pretty strange, right?” Dr. Orsini observed. “How would you explain that?”

“I don’t know.” Captain O’Conner answered. “Technical stuff is not my strong suit. But you seem to know. How about you enlighten me, Doctor.”

“Many water samples were taken from that area.” Dr. Orsini began. “And many interesting things have been discovered over the course of the last week. A new form of life has been detected.” He paused and turned to Reinhart, as if he’d just remembered something important. “Sorry Reinhart, it seems like you made the trip for nothing. I didn’t have time to tell you yet, but it’s not Varan.” He said sympathetically. Reinhart said nothing, but his face revealed his disappointment. “Whatever it is, it’s something radically different from anything else living on this planet.” Orsini turned his attention back to Captain O’Conner. “Your scientists thought it was some kind of mutation, and it may be, but I have my doubts. There is a chemical plant in that area which is dumping toxic waste directly into the water there, but from my perspective, that’s not the problem. It isn’t helping the situation, but it’s not the outright cause of it. Do you have a projector by any chance? I have a film with me sent over by the Oxford boys. It might be better just to see for yourself.”

“Ok, let’s set it up then.” O’Conner agreed.

…

A half-hour later, Dr. Orsini had the projector ready, and Captain O’Conner had collected a number of his officers to watch the film along with them. He flicked off the lights and started the film. The footage opened inside of a laboratory. There were vials sitting on a table in front of the camera.

“What you are looking at are water samples at Oxford collected from Showburyness.” Dr. Orsini noted, pointing to the vials on screen. “Please observe the dark particulates. These are not just contaminants in the water. Observe that they are in fact moving.” The camera zoomed in on them.

“They just look like tadpoles to me Doc.” One of the officers noted. “No different from the ones found in ponds back home.”

“Really… can your tadpoles do this?” Dr. Orsini directed his attention back to the screen. An Oxford professor in the film was taking two sample tubes and combined them together in one petri dish. The two supposed tadpoles started to move towards one another through the filthy water until they touched. As they did, the two specimens merged together instantaneously, forming a single larger organism.

“What the hell…?” Captain O’Conner leaned forward in his chair. “Was that some kind of parlor trick doctor? Or a special effect?”

“I’m afraid not.” Dr. Orsini replied. “That actually happened in real-time, live.” The camera pulled back revealing a whole shelf of samples. There were dozens of them. The largest one was the size of a human hand. “The water out there at Showburyness is crawling with these things, whatever they are. At this point, there’s only a few things we know for sure. One, there are a lot more of them out there. Two, there are much bigger specimens than this. Three, these creatures are extremely hazardous to human life. You are aware of the one incident with the boy on the beach, but there have been others. A scientist collecting samples encountered a dolphin-sized specimen while he was diving, and his face was very badly burnt during the incident. He’s alive, but he’s blind in one eye and his own mother wouldn’t recognize him now. There have been a dozen other similar incidents within the last week.”

“Anything else useful you can tell us Doctor?” Captain O’Conner asked, a little unnerved.

“Yes, we also know, strange as it is, that these things consume pollution.” Dr. Orsini answered. “Every subsequent sample of water we have taken from the Showburyness area has come back less contaminated than the previous one. In effect, these things are filtering out the pollutants, but getting bigger as they do so.”

“Isn’t that a good thing though?” One of the officers asked. “If the creatures are cleaning up the ocean, shouldn’t we just let them?”

“Are you some kind of imbecile?” Captain O’Conner scolded his man. “Isn’t it clear, the more pollution they soak up, the bigger they will become. And they can combine together. You saw what just one small creature did to that kid, and we already know that there’s a ship-sized one swimming around.” The men began to pale thinking about it.

“Yes, I think any benefits of letting them carry on would be short-lived.” Dr. Orsini agreed with Captain O’Conner. “All tadpoles become frogs one day. If left unchecked, they might start coming on land to feed their needs.”

“What makes you so sure they’ll come on to land?” Captain O’Conner asked.

“Well for starters, they already have come on to the beaches.” Dr. Orsini pointed out. “But think about it for a moment. What do you suppose will happen when the pollution in the sea runs out? As it is, they’ve nearly swept the area clean around Shoeburyness. The latest seawater samples prove that much. Here’s something else disturbing…” He drew their attention back to the screen.

The Professor in the film was performing another experiment. One of their larger specimens had been left out overnight sitting on a table under a hot lamp. It had completely dried out to the point where it crumbled when he touched it with his instruments. The professor took one of the smaller chipped off pieces and put it into a polluted water vial on a whim. The small fragment sprang back to life as soon as it hit the water. It sprouted a new tail and began to swim around as before.

“What ‘are’ these things?” O’Conner asked, his jaw dropping.

“Maybe they’re from outer space?” One of the younger officers mused.

“Are you dense?” O’Conner began to scold him.

“No, hang on a minute.” Dr. Orsini cut in. “I think maybe he’s on to something there. There was a meteor shower in this area some time ago, right? Maybe a cluster of these things hitched a ride? The little buggers are so radically different from any other life form found on earth. I think it’s worth keeping an open mind.”

“Do they have a name yet?” Reinhart asked, joining the conversation.

“The scientist who discovered them is calling them Hedorah.” Dr. Orsini answered.

…

In the Celtic Sea, two-hundred miles south of Ireland, the British Home Fleet was squaring off against Battra. The monster was without a doubt heading towards England. His heading put him on course to land somewhere near Bristol. Amongst the fleet were relics of the last war, battleships. Despite being rendered obsolete by aircraft carriers, the largest of the old battlewagons were kept in active service specifically to counter any Kaiju threats with their big guns.

Several battleship divisions were committed to the fight. Including HMS Hood, HMS Vanguard, HMS Lion, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS King George the V, HMS Duke of York, HMS Warspite, and HMS Queen Elizabeth. They were escorted by a powerful surface fleet of destroyers, cruisers, and additionally backed up by the carriers HMS Centaur and HMS Bulwark, who had their own separate task forces further away from the action.

The Royal Navy’s aim was simple: Prevent Battra from landing on British soil. The only trouble was, nothing they were doing was even slowing the monster down. Heavy battleship shells and missiles rained down all around Battra and he hardly even seemed to notice them. He didn’t even bother to fight back. That’s how little he thought of their level of threat. Battra’s armored plates simply made him impervious to their assaults. The destroyers came in for a close-range torpedo attack as Battra closed in on the battle line. Battra wasn’t hard to hit, but following the impacts, he just pressed onward unscathed.

One of the destroyers underestimated Battra’s speed and ended up directly in his path at precisely the wrong moment. Battra’s body slammed down hard on the warship and smashed it into two pieces. The magazine ignited and the ship exploded in a gnarly fireball. All aboard were killed. With that, the Royal Navy fell back, retiring from the engagement before Battra had the opportunity to ram into any more of them.

When Battra came within one-hundred miles of the coast, it was the Royal Airforce’s turn to take their shot. Eight squadrons of Closter Meteor NF-11 fighters and Five squadrons of heavy bombers made a run at him. The Closter’s rockets had minimal effect on Battra, and the bombers simply had a hard time hitting him. They managed to displace a lot of seawater with near misses though. Once their ammo was spent, there was little else for them to do but return to base.

Battra continued to power forward until he had nearly reached the coast. The British Army was there waiting for him. With only conventional weapons, they didn’t stand much of a chance of stopping him. They possessed even less firepower than the Navy or the Airforce, but they were ready to fight him on the beaches and in the fields. They wouldn’t just let him pass onto their land without a fight. Their forces comprised of Cobra attack helicopters, which had been purchased from the U.S., Chieftain MBTs, and surface to surface LRMs.

The long barrels of the chieftains adjusted to target Battra as he came in. The LRMs fired off first, managing to hit Battra several times, but not even slowing him down. The attack helicopters flew out and swarmed all around Battra, firing off their rockets, though equally ineffectively. Finally, the monster closed into range of the tanks, which began to volley fire all together. It quickly became clear that nothing they had was going to stop Battra.

Battra arrived at the coast, but instead of crawling onto land, he rammed himself into a cliff face and began to burrow underground like a mole. Whatever he was planning next, he didn’t want anybody to see him do it.

…

Back on the USS Independence, Marcus had just learned some very disturbing news and was rushing to find Brock to tell him about it.

“Have you heard what they are planning to do Brock?” Marcus said, trying to keep his voice down, but it was difficult because he was feeling so anxious.

“No, what?” Brock asked confused, seeing that Marcus was upset.

“Nukes, the President has authorized the use of nuclear weapons against Godzilla.” Marcus replied, looking around to ensure no one else was listening in.

“Really…?” Brock responded astonished. “That’s intense… They are ‘that’ desperate to keep him away from the States?”

“I guess so.” Marcus answered. “What do you think?”

“Well… I don’t know.” Brock replied, taken aback. “Feels like it should be more of a last resort, not the first option. Didn’t doctor… so and so say that trying to nuke Godzilla would be too risky?”

“Dr. Tadokoro from our meeting in Osaka.” Marcus corrected him. “And yes, he did, but the Rodans being killed in Russia has persuaded the politicians that it is a viable option. I don’t have all the details, but their plan is to attack Godzilla while he is in shallow water. Or lure him on to land if they can.”

“Do you think it will work?” Brock asked.

“Anything can happen.” Marcus replied. “The last thing any of us want is for Godzilla to reach the mainland. I have a family to protect there after all. I guess I just wish we could find another way.” He frowned, considering it. “Just look at what is happening in Russia right now. Some would call killing two kaiju a major success for mankind, but the cost was pretty high. The Russians are going to be feeling the consequences of that for decades. With the advancements we are making with practical weapons… I just wish we had more time to develop them.” He lamented.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m almost as worried about this working as much as failing.” Brock added. “If a nuke is used every time a Kaiju pops up… the future could be pretty bleak. We’ll be spreading a lot of radiation far and wide across the globe.”

“Yeah, at this point, it feels a little bit like we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t.” Marcus agreed. “The sad thing is there’s not much we can do about it. We’re just along for the ride. But I’m telling you Brock, I feel it in my bones, they are making a mistake. There will be major consequences for this.”

…

On Canvey Island on the River Thames, a group of youths were leaving a nightclub in the harbor area around 1:00am. The lot of them were drunk, and several of them had decided to try something a little heavier that evening for the first time, LSD. It was making the normally pedestrian walk home a lot more interesting.

As the group came to a stop sign, the lead boy, Trevor, paused and saw a very unusual sight. About three-hundred yards ahead of them, he could see what appeared to be an enormous blob-like creature wrapping its hands around the two smokestacks of an industrial building. The monster was made up of glistening muck, as if it were made out of grey sewage. It shimmered in the moonlight. Though the creature was globulus, Trevor could see distinct arms, legs, a head, and even a tail. The tail was twitching back and forth, which drew his attention to it.

The creature pulled itself up close to the rim of the factory vents and then sat there breathing in the smoke, as though it were taking a long drag from a cigarette. The monster had two enormous red eyes that were oddly slit horizontally. They closed as it continued to inhale the fumes from the smokestacks. The creature really seemed to be enjoying it, as though it was getting a high off of it.

“Man, are you guys seeing this too?” Trevor asked his friends. The others were too stoned or drunk to notice. “Hey, he’s tripping out too!” He laughed, pointing at the creature.

As Trevor continued to watch, he noticed two hunches bubbling up on the creature’s back. They were growing larger with each passing moment. Trever wasn’t sure what was going on. He soon became aware of the monster’s breathing and became fixated on it. The sound of slow breaths in and out was almost hypnotic. Finally, it dawned on Trevor that the muck monster wasn’t breathing the toxic fumes back out again. It must have been storing up the smoke inside itself. Why it would want to do that, Trevor couldn’t even begin to guess.

The rest of Trevor’s mates moved on ahead without him, still unaware of the monster in front of them. Trevor held his ground though. It was at about that time that the monster’s stench began to waft down towards them. The odor was a mixture of hot garbage and sewage, only worse than either of them. The stink was extremely offensive to the senses. It was even enough to gain the attention of Trevor’s intoxicated friends. The smell was so pungent that their eyes actually burned. It was an experience none of them would soon forget. One boy was so strongly affected by it that he stopped in his tracks and vomited right there on the spot.

With that, the group of boys all looked up and finally took notice of the monster. They started shouting in shock and surprise. The Smog monster didn’t pay them any mind. It was too engrossed in what it was doing to care. It had nearly filled up the pouches on its back and was intent on finishing that before doing anything else. However, before the monster could complete its task, it was interrupted by a disturbance nearby. A rumbling in the earth which felt like an earthquake.

Three-hundred yards away, a pillar of billowing soil began to shoot up into the night’s sky from the ground. The sludge monster took notice and backed its face away from the smokestacks, concerned. The wall of displaced dirt continued to move forward, leaving a dusty trail behind it. A moment later, a dark figure crawled out from the ground. It was Battra. He had travelled underground all the way from the opposite coast to be there seemingly to harsh the Smog monster’s buzz.

The sludge monster immediately recognized Battra as a threat and let out a croaky wet roar. Battra wasted little time. Once he had located his target, his head lit up with dancing strands of pulsing yellow energy. They built up until Battra finally unleashed a powerful barrage of his prism beams. The violet rays streaked across the night’s sky until they struck the smog monster, putting on quite the light show for the drugged-out teenagers. Once the rays impacted, sparks flew off of the smog monster’s body, adding to the spectacle.

Any enjoyment the adolescents had was short lived though. Battra’s beams did a lot of damage to the new monster, and even blew off segments of its flesh. Black fragments rained down onto the boys, and those who were hit by them began to shriek in pain. The chunks of sludge were badly burning their skin. Trevor was spared and clear-headed enough to know that he had to get away from the fight. Though it shamed him, his injured buddies would have to fend for themselves.

Battra’s beams burst one of the sacks on the smog monster’s back, releasing the stored-up pollution in a billowing black cloud. The monstrous blob had a sort of outer film to its skin. The thicker and more solid exterior layer helped keep in the interior moister and allowed it to maintain a solid form. Battra’s beams ripped open that outer layer in several places, allowing the more fluid innards to flow out like it was bleeding. But that wasn’t the only damage Battra did. In the locations were the beams lingered the longest, there were physical dry spots were the sludge had been scorched and entirely dehydrated. They crumbled away and fell to the ground.

The sludge monster was stunned for a moment before regrouping and retaliating. On its skin, there were numerous small bulbus pustules. The boil-like protrusions erupted and shot out, rocketing out squirts of semi-solid body fluid towards Battra. Battra saw the attack coming and bent forward to protect his eyes. Chunks of the smog monster landed all over the top of Battra’s head. The sludge boiled against Battra’s armor plates, sending up steam as it tried to eat its way through, but the plates were simply too sturdy. The slurry proved to be pretty useless as it stewed away.

Battra counter-attacked with his horn beam and the smog monster jumped to get out of the way. After the first assault, it knew it didn’t want to take another hit from Battra’s prism beams. The area around the sludge monster exploded and caught fire as Battra tried to correct his aim mid-attack, spreading out the damage. The smog monster retreated away from the flames. It was clearly not a fan of fire. It liked the smoke well enough, but the intense heat was drying its body out. Battra saw an opportunity and used his prism beams to create a wall of flames to surround his opponent and pen him in.

The Smog monster appeared to be trapped. No matter which way it went, it was met by a wall of fire. Not content to just let the blaze finish his opponent off slowly, Battra fired more beams directly at his confined adversary. More chunks of the sludge monster were blown away, pouring more toxic slop into the harbor area. Anyone with any sense took shelter indoors as the muck began to rain down.

Just when it looked like it was all over for the smog monster, it sprang forward, leaping out from the ring of fire like a gigantic bullfrog. It came crashing down onto a warehouse, collapsing the structure under its weight. Once it had located Battra, it used the stored-up fumes within its second pouch to lay down a smoke screen. As the area filled with smog, the sludge monster took the opportunity to retreat towards the river. Battra couldn’t locate it through the dark haze, but once he figured out his enemy was trying to get away, he charged through the smoke in pursuit.

By that point, it was already too late to stop the smog monster though. It had reached the river and was already sinking into the water. As an extra precaution, the muck monster released pollutants from its body. Much like a squid using ink, it was muddying the water behind it. That way if Battra pursued him any further, he wouldn’t be able to easily reacquire him in the river.

The plan worked perfectly. When Battra reached the edge of the Thames, he couldn’t tell which direction the smog monster had gone. He beamed the murky water in frustration. Just like that, the battle was over.

…

Following the battle, left over pieces of the sludge monster were taken to Oxford University for study. Dr. Orsini, Reinhart, and even Captain O’Conner came to the lab to get firsthand confirmation of what they had found. Everyone assumed the giant monster was related to the smaller Hedorah specimens that had been discovered in the ocean, but it had not actually been verified yet.

“Well professor?” Dr. Orsini asked, approaching Professor Cook as he was looking into a microscope. “Anything new?”

“Yes, the samples are identical.” Professor Cook reported. “The monster that appeared on Canvey Island is indeed a larger version of Hedorah.”

“To think it could get so big.” Captain O’Conner noted grimly.

“There’s more.” Professor Cook went on. “Observe…” He took a dried-out sample of Hedorah’s sludge and put it into a tube of polluted water. The chunk just sank down to the bottom of the ampule. Nothing happened. It did not spring to life as other samples had done in the past. “It seems to me that these battle-damaged samples are not like the other dehydrated specimens we examined earlier. Battra’s heat ray destroys whatever it is about them that allows them to regenerate.”

“So Battra could actually kill Hedorah for good?” Reinhart asked optimistically.

“Under the right circ*mstances, I believe so.” Professor Cook confirmed. “Hedorah is a creature made primarily out of a special metallic mineral. Even if I couldn’t see it under the microscope, the monster glints in the moonlight and he sparked during the fight with Battra. Whatever this new mineral is, it is likely the key element to Hedorah’s survival. As long as it endures, the creature, or I should rather say, creatures, can’t be killed. The sludge portions of their bodies will regenerate as long as there are toxins to consume and moister to keep them from drying out. However, Battra’s prism beams are strong enough to neutralize this one vital element.”

“Why does Battra care about any of this?” Reinhart asked astutely. “He swam all the way across the planet just to be here to fight this one monster. What makes it so special to him?”

“Well, if Battra really is the guardian of the Earth’s lifeforce, wouldn’t it make sense for it to go after the one thing that is the single biggest threat to the planet’s natural environment?” Dr. Orsini replied. “If left unchecked, these Hedorah will grow to the point of being unstoppable and eventually ruin the whole planet. They’re worse than any other kaiju we’ve encountered so far.”

“Huh… I guess when you put it like that, it makes a lot of sense.” Reinhart agreed. “Well, if these Hedorah love moister and pollution, it’s small wonder they are sticking around Britain. The gloomy wet weather is a staple here, and the levels of pollution are just as good as anybody else’s.”

“How does Hedorah burn its victims?” Captain O’Conner asked, shifting the subject slightly. “Causalities at Canvey Island were relatively light considering all that happened, but the damage Hedorah can cause just by touching people is astounding.”

“Take a look for yourself.” Professor Cook invited him to look into his microscope. “You see the yellow streaks? That’s sulfuric acid. Very potent stuff. Any metals the sludge came into contact with were corroded too.”

“How does this larger monstrous entity work exactly?” Reinhart asked. “It showed intelligence during its battle with Battra, but it is made up of millions, perhaps billions of smaller organisms?”

“Perhaps it has a type of hive mind?” Dr. Orsini suggested.

“Weird…” Captain O’Conner noted.

“Reinhart, have you had any luck convincing the brass to send us some Masers?” Dr. Orsini asked. “If Battra’s rays work against Hedorah, then the Maser’s beams should too.” Captain O’Conner looked very interested in what the answer would be.

“No, they won’t send them.” Reinhart answered with frustration in his voice. “I spoke with Admiral Malek directly. The higher-ups won’t dare move the Masers from the west coast with Godzilla on his way to the States. I agree though, they would be the perfect weapon against Hedorah.”

“It looks like we are on our own with what we got then.” Captain O’Conner observed grimly.

…

The next evening, an oil platform was attacked and badly damaged off the eastern coast of Britain. It seemed as though Hedorah needed a little extra fuel to help him regenerate. The facility was half sunk in the water before he was done with it, and the undersea pipeline had been cut. By sunrise, Hedorah had consumed all of the oil that remained in the well and then disappeared.

The HMS Albion was soon on the scene and one of her escorts sent divers down to investigate the damage. Meanwhile, Albion’s aircraft were scouring the area looking for any signs of Hedorah. There were none to be found. Sonar buoys that were dropped came up empty and search aircraft had no sightings to report. Hedorah appeared to be long gone, where he went, nobody knew for sure.

…

An hour later in Gravesend, England, the city was just going to work. Evelyn and her roommate Rachel were carpooling together to get to the bakery they worked for. It was a very overcast and foggy morning. Everybody was using their headlights to get around. There was a streetlight out ahead of Evelyn and Rachel, which had slowed traffic to a crawl. The two women were talking to pass the time.

Suddenly a thump distracted the two women from their conversation. They sat there for a moment confused. Each of them looked out their windows to see if something had hit the side of the car. Eventually, they realized that the noise came from the roof. Evelyn leaned forward, trying to see what it was. Before she could, a dark ooze started to run down the front windshield. Both Women screamed in shock. Evelyn took her foot off the break and tried to drive forward, only the car didn’t move. Rachel screamed for her to go, freaking out, but Evelyn pointed out she was already trying to. She floored the gas pedal in desperation. The women could both hear the engine revving and the tires squealing below them, but they still weren’t moving.

Rachel tried to bail out her door, but it wouldn’t open. The black goop was running down the side window now too, holding the door shut. The car started to move at that point, only it was moving backwards. Evelyn looked through the rearview mirror and could see a black mass with two huge red eyes in the near distance behind them. They were trapped and being pulled towards it. They could see a mess of other cars being pulled in as well. Each of them was snagged by a black tentacle-like appendage, just as they must have been. Below the monster’s body was a cluster of automobiles that were already being enveloped by it.

A man passing by saw Evelyn and Rachel’s plight and rushed to their aid. Salvation looked to be close at hand. The man pulled at the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. The black ooze was still holding it closed. The man pulled out a wrench from his tool belt and started to hammer away at the side window. The glass shattered on the third attempt and the man reached in a hand towards Evelyn. The two nearly touched before the entire car was quickly pulled away.

Evelyn and Rachel’s car hit the black mass with a sloppy thud. Little by little, the light coming in from the windows vanished as their car was consumed. The two women were losing their minds, but there was nothing they could do. It was already too late for them. Their fate was sealed as the car entirely disappeared beneath the pile of toxic sludge.

Hedorah happily liquidated all of the cars under him, callously killing all of their occupants in the process. His eyes shifted around, looking for another target, but they found something troubling heading his way. There was a column of tanks driving up the street towards him. The British military were prepared for him this time. They had been lying in wait all up and down the River Thames, correctly deducing that Hedorah would reappear there in one of the industrial zones. Moreover, there were numerous aircraft quickly converging on the area as well.

The line of tanks began to fan out and take up positions. From further away, missiles were already inbound. Before the tanks could fire off a shot, the rockets were already impacting all around Hedorah. The tanks joined in, and bits of Hedorah blew off, spread for miles around. Clumps that landed nearby immediately began to migrate back to Hedorah’s main body to reattach themselves. The shells and rockets weren’t totally ineffective, but they were not doing enough lasting damage to Hedorah to make a difference in the long run. They’d run out of ammo long before Hedorah’s ability to regenerate was depleted.

The next phase of the attack began. Gloster Meteor fighters dropped Napalm bombs onto and all around Hedorah. The resulting firestorm did do some damage to the monster’s skin, though it was mostly superficial. Still, Hedorah didn’t enjoy the fire-shower all that much. He voiced his displeasure with his croaky, gurgling roar. Adding literal fuel to the fire were heavy bombers with canisters of concentrated oxygen. Professor Cook suggested clean air might weaken the monster since he thrived in pollution. Failing that, it was feeding the napalm, making it burn more fiercely.

Cobra attack helicopters came in at close range to add their firepower to the fight, aiming to keep Hedorah contained in the attack area. The smog monster absorbed everything the military had to offer and just kept on going. It soon became clear their strategy wasn’t working. If the British had Masers on hand, they might have had the firepower necessary to bring Hedorah to his knees, but they didn’t. Hedorah was damaged though. He’d lost a significant amount of moister being blown to bits and having to put himself back together again. He also had surface dry patches from the napalm. Hedorah moved back towards the river, intending to rehydrate himself in the water.

“How is this giant turd so bloody strong?!” The ground commander of the British forces exclaimed, angerly throwing his hat to the ground.

As Hedorah got close to the foggy banks of the Thames, a beam of energy shot out from the water. It hit Hedorah in the face and knocked him over from the impact. Battra emerged from the river. He had used the mist to sneak up on his enemy undetected. He’d been laying there in wait to ambush him. Hedorah got back up, and when the two monsters squared off for the second time, it was obvious that Hedorah had gotten a lot bigger since their first encounter. He was now slightly bigger than Battra. That didn’t bother Battra at all though. He continued to advance on Hedorah, who was still a little stunned by the surprise attack.

What Hedorah did next was something no one was expecting. There was a flash of red light and before anyone knew what was happening Hedorah had completely changed shape. He’d transformed himself into what roughly looked like a manta ray. Only, he wasn’t planning on swimming. Hedorah released a grey mist from his underbelly and began to lift into the air. The smog monster took to the sky and began to live up to his moniker. Everywhere he flew, he spread a lethal toxin into the sky. He passed close above a grove of trees, and their leaves withered and fell away. All vegetation wilted in Hedorah’s wake.

But that was far from the limit of what Hedorah’s new weapon could do. He passed over a group of onlookers who had been watching the battle from the far side of the river. Every single one of them fell to the ground. The lucky ones died right away, overwhelmed by the effects of the poison. The unfortunate ones survived just long enough to suffer as their lungs started to break down. They slowly suffocated drowning in their own blood gasping for air. All the while, they were in agony as every inch of their skin was eaten away by acid.

Buildings weren’t safe either. The exposed metal frame of a skyscraper under construction began to break down and then collapsed under its own weight as Hedorah’s acid mist ate through vital bolts holding them together. The crane lifting the girders also fell over right along with it.

Hedorah banked around and came back over Battra, spraying him down with his mist. Battra was seemingly unaffected by the toxic vapor. Like Mothra, Battra did not breathe like most animals. He respirated through spiracles in his abdomen. And like Mothra, who endured a gas attack by the French military without breaking a sweat, Battra’s spiracles must have been able to filter out the harmful particulates from the air. Battra fired up at Hedorah with his prism beams, causing some damage to Hedorah in his flying form.

Undeterred, Hedorah came around again, this time dropping clumps of muck on top of Battra’s head which burned against his armor as it had before. Battra’s armor held up without any issue, but the resulting smoke obscured his vision. Targeting Hedorah accurately became virtually impossible. Battra was also limited by his armor plating. They lacked flexibility. He couldn’t bend his neck far enough back to hit Hedorah when he was flying directly above him. Hedorah could drop as much sludge on him as he pleased, though it would only do minimal damage.

Hedorah had another trick up his sleeve though. On his next pass, his head started to turn bright red, and he unleashed a concentrated red beam from his right eye. The beam was powerful enough to damage Battra’s armored plates, though only enough to leave marks in them, not enough to fully punch through. Still, it was the most impactful attack Hedorah had landed thus far. It gave him the confidence to swoop in and attach himself to the armored larva.

Then Hedorah lifted Battra up and took him high into the sky. Once the monsters were soaring above the city and positioned over a gas refinery, Hedorah let Battra go, dropping him right on top of it. The facility went up in a powerful explosion when Battra landed on it. Hedorah saw another opportunity as the smoke rose up to him. He came down and landed on Battra again, only this time Hedorah planned to smother him with his body. Hedorah inhaled the smoke while his body started to melt around Battra’s. He had to cover every inch of him for this to work.

Within moments, Battra completely disappeared underneath Hedorah’s oozing mass. The men of the British army looked on in horror. They watched and waited to see what would happen next. It wasn’t looking good for Battra. Every passing second made it look more and more likely that he would be suffocated by Hedorah’s toxic muck. Drowning in filth would be a bad way to go. Before long, a whole minute rolled by without relief.

Just when it looked like all hope was lost, Battra emerged from under the ground a hundred yards away from Hedorah. He had dug his way out of the deathtrap. Battra blasted away at Hedorah, who still had his back turned to him and was blissfully unaware that his plan had failed. Hedorah croaked and quickly took back to the sky to regain his advantage. Only Battra wasn’t going to play that game anymore.

Lightning energy coursed all through Battra’s body like he was preparing a particularly powerful blast with his prism beams. Only, instead of unleashing the energy, he absorbed it and used it to instantly transform himself into his adult form which negated any advantage Hedorah had flying. Battra’s imago form was a mixture of beauty and terror. His wings were black with aggressive streaks of red and yellow patterns painted onto them. His body was still covered in armor, only now it had enlarged spikes growing out of them. The single horn on Battra’s head in his larval form was replaced by an entire crown of horns. Even the front of Battra’s wings had horns growing out of them. Like Mothra’s adult form, Battra had six legs protruding from his underbelly, only his were about twice as large. In his adult form, Battra had become much meaner and more mobile.

Hedorah had not yet noticed the change in Battra, but he was about to find out about it. As Hedorah turned back towards the ground, he couldn’t find Battra where he left him. Battra had maneuvered right along with Hedorah and was about to give him a nasty surprise. Battra opened up with his prism beams, which had only grown more powerful now that he’d reached his imago stage. Hedorah’s eyes widened as he took a hit to the back. One of the beams blasted right through his body in a thin spot, punching a hole clean through him.

Hedorah maneuvered wildly, hoping to escape any more shots like that. Battra climbed higher to avoid flying directly through Hedorah’s acid trail. It couldn’t hurt his armor, but it did irritate his eyes. Hedorah managed to turn around to face Battra, but one look at his newly transformed enemy in a more powerful form was enough to convince him it was time to retreat again. Hedorah turned right back around and dived into the Thames.

Battra pursued, but in his adult form, he couldn’t swim anymore. He blasted the water, following Hedorah for as long as he could before he lost him in deeper water.

…

Following Hedorah’s attack on Gravesend, it was clear that the city had suffered significant collateral damage during the battle. Aside from the people who were literally melted by direct contact with Hedorah’s acid mist, thousands of others were affected by indirect contact with it. There were numerous deaths, but many, many more people were hospitalized with inflamed respiratory tracks.

The real level of threat Hedorah posed had finally become clear to everyone. He could contaminate huge swaths of land in a very short amount of time. The whole city of Gravesend was affected to some degree. Playground equipment was ruined, most of the city lost power due to the metal of electrical towers being eaten away and toppling over, many vehicles were corroded to the point of being useless, including tanks on the ground which took part in the ambush. Trees and other forms of vegetation were also dying. Gravesend was almost uninhabitable. The name took on an ominous new meaning.

In the nearby pastureland, livestock was killed in the hundreds and crops were ruined. Even stone buildings showed some signs of weathering. It was like acid rain, only much more potent. Historic statues and the headstones in graveyards were eroding. It seemed even the dead couldn’t rest in peace with Hedorah around.

Rescue workers in Gravesend were affected by residual acid mist long after Hedorah was gone, adding to the disaster. A science team, kitted-out with gas masks took measurements hours after the attack, and there was still an average of twenty-eight-hundred PPMs of sulfuric acid in the air of Gravesend. The mildest effects were burning of the eyes and throat. The worst was death. Getting people out of their homes and clear of the area was the biggest challenge. Military-grade gas masks were employed to facilitate the process.

Given the level of threat Hedorah presented, the Prime Minister of England ordered all none-essential industrial production to halt. Restrictions were placed on automobile travel as well. Anything that produced smoke or dumped chemicals was immediately shut down.

…

Within a week, mass produced masks were available to the citizens of London. It suddenly became very fashionable to constantly be carrying one. The fact that each of Hedorah’s proceeding attacks had gotten a little closer to London each time was not lost on anybody. Everyone assumed it was just a matter of time before the monster appeared there too.

Reinhart, Dr. Orsini, and Professor Cook all came to London for a meeting to discuss Hedorah. Professor Cook gave a lecture describing Hedorah’s biology in great detail to British MPs, generals, other scientists, and even representatives of the Royal Family. He talked them through all of his findings and research up until that point. He reviewed the characteristics of Hedorah’s three primary forms so far. The aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial. Each of them was more destructive than the last. The question on everybody’s mind was, what form would it take next and how much more hazardous would it be? It was a chilling question considering the damage Hedorah’s flying form had caused. Professor Cook couldn’t even begin to speculate on that, so he moved on to solutions.

In his lab, he had conducted several experiments using electrodes to dry out small Hedorah samples. An electrical attack showed promise. The British military corps of engineers thought that they could build huge electrode towers to dry Hedorah out, but it would take weeks to get them ready, and luring the monster to the exact spot where they were to be built might prove difficult.

The idea of using Mazers came up next, but Reinhart was unhappy to report he still couldn’t persuade anyone with authority to get units on site. The American government did sign an agreement to lease the design to the British so they could build their own machines for defense, but that would not do the British much good in the short term. However, the British Army had a secret weapon of their own that they had been developing for some time. It seemed like it was finally the right moment to debut it. It could be just the thing to finally turn the tide of the fight in their favor.

The British traded their new weapon design with the U.S. in exchange for their Maser blueprints. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Both countries could expand their anti-kaiju arsenals and boost an ally at the same time. The next time Hedorah appeared, the British would have their superweapon ready and waiting for him.

…

After the meeting, Dr. Orsini and Reinhart toured London to take in the sights. Each of them was amused to discover that the other had never been there before, despite the fact that they both hailed from Europe themselves. They quickly figured out the bus routes and visited tourist hot spots like the House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Piccadilly circus, Trafalgar square, and the British museum.

After all of that, the pair found themselves walking through the shops of the Whitechapel district. It was nearly sundown by that point and Dr. Orsini was wondering why Reinhart had brought him to that particular place. It didn’t seem any more interesting as the rest of the things they had seen earlier, but the name seemed familiar to him. Reinhart had the map though and Dr. Orsini figured he knew what he was doing. They ate dinner at a local pub and then moved on.

By the time they got back into the street, it was already dark outside. Some of London’s traditional fog had rolled in and there was a bit of a chill in the night air. Dr. Orsini thought it was kind of spooky. Funny how a place could look so different in the dark. It was at that point where Reinhart’s plan became clear.

“Isn’t this where Jack the Ripper did his murders?” Reinhart asked, trying to suppress a smirk.

As soon as Reinhart said that, it all came rushing back to Dr. Orsini. He had read all about it years ago in school. The world-famous serial killer had committed his savage killings right there in Whitechapel. When he thought about it, the neighborhood wasn’t a far cry from what it must have looked like all those years ago. There were still cobblestone streets, old style streetlamps, and buildings that looked like they must have stood there for over a hundred years.

“Yeah… I’m sure of it now.” Reinhart went on mischievously. “In 1888 he viciously killed five women, and some think that he may have been involved in dozens of others. He was an extraordinarily brutal chap, famous for removing body parts. In a letter he wrote to Scotland Yard, he claimed to have cannibalized one of his victim’s kidneys. He addressed the letter ‘From Hell’.”

The thought of it turned Dr. Orsini’s stomach. Reinhart could see that he was getting to the good doctor and was amused by it, so he pressed on.

“They never caught him you know.” Reinhart pointed out, intentionally trying to unnerve him more.

“Yeah, but that was like eighty years ago.” Dr. Orsini reasoned, quickly recovering his composure. “Even if the killer was in his twenties at the time, he’d be well over a hundred years old by now. I’d say it’s the local riffraff that lives here now that you should be more concerned about Reinhart.” He said, eyeing a disreputable looking passer-by. I don’t think this is a safe place to be at night. Let’s get a taxi out of here, shall we?”

Just then, the pair of them noticed a creepy mural painted onto the side of a building done up to be the dark visage of the titular killer himself. The eyes of the painting staring down menacingly at any passerby.

“Ok.” Reinhart agreed. “Realizing Dr. Orsini had a point about the neighborhood and getting a little creeped out himself. “There’s one more place I want to go anyways.”

…

They quickly found a taxi that took them to London Tower Bridge. Reinhart had gotten them special VIP passes to enter the towers to get a good look at the city at night. Professor Cook told him that it was an exceptional sight, mandatory for any visitor to London. Professor Cook wasn’t wrong. The twinkling lights of the city set against the dark backdrop of night were breathtaking to behold from the walkway between towers. They could see for miles from their vantage point.

Any further enjoyment they might have gotten out of the view was quickly quashed when Dr. Orsini noticed something disturbing off in the distance. At first, it was hard to distinguish what it was against the backdrop of the night sky. There was a shadowy silhouette, just slightly dimmer than the darkness surrounding it. Still, it blended in with the shadows, only becoming visible when the lights of the city caught it just right. Gradually the dark shroud took form, mineral deposits on its surface shimmering in the light.

Eventually, two big red glowing eyes became visible and there was no doubt what they were looking at. Hedorah had at last arrived in London. He was walking in the River Thames. This version of Hedorah was different than the previous ones. It was no longer hunched over but instead stood upright. He was notably bigger than any of his previous forms, standing at about sixty meters in height. That made him the tallest Kaiju on record, even larger than Godzilla. Hedorah had never looked more menacing.

Reinhart and Dr. Orsini were directly in the monster’s path standing on London Tower Bridge. They quickly recognized that they needed to get out of the way. The two men ran to the elevator and went directly back down to the ground floor. As they dashed for the lobby door, they noticed people rushing to get inside through the windows. Hedorah had taken his flying form and passed right over the Tower Bridge. Reinhart reached the door at the same time as a group of tourists, who were desperate to escape. Reinhart was forced to watch as they were doused in the smog monster’s deadly acid mist. The toxin had only grown more potent in its final form. Each of the victims had the flesh melted right off their bones until only their skeletons remained. Reinhart was only spared by a thin layer of glass that kept the vapor out.

The Tower bridge itself didn’t escape serious damage though. The metal wires and frame were badly corroded, resulting in whole sections of the bridge weakening and collapsing into the water. Reinhart and Dr. Orsini remained relatively safe inside the stone tower, but anyone who survived Hedorah’s flyover in their cars on the spans of the bridge fell through into the river as the metal frames gave out. Reinhart and Orsini were spared but stranded in the middle of the river.

The British military was quick to respond to Hedorah’s arrival. They’d detected the monster’s approach in advance and already had fighters on the scene. They knew they couldn’t beat Hedorah. Their only goal was simply to get him out of the sky so he wouldn’t spread his deadly acid mist all across London as he had done in Gravesend. The fighters hammered Hedorah with close up torrents of rocket strikes just as he passed the Parliament building. Some of the attacking fighters drifted into Hedorah’s acid trail and practically disintegrated mid-air. Only small fragments of the planes found their way to the ground. The sacrifice wasn’t made in vain though, for Hedorah did land after one rocket attack blew off a sizeable portion of his left wing, destabilizing his flight.

Hedorah whorled around to re-collect the lost tissue. He came to a rest on the ground and absorbed it back in. Then he reformed into his final stage and punished the remaining fighters with his crimson eye beam. Hedorah was frighteningly accurate with his shots, nailing aircraft after aircraft in quick succession. Within moments, the attack force was decimated.

At that point, Hedorah found himself within a couple hundred yards of Buckingham Palace. The Royal family was hastily being evacuated in a helicopter. Hedorah was attracted by the sound of the chopper’s spinning blades and moved to investigate. At the front of the palace grounds, the Royal Guards held their posts with fanatical devotion to duty and honor. Even as the monster closed within a breath of them, they stood their ground with weapons ready in a remarkable display of bravery. It was a moving demonstration of human resilience in the face of insurmountable odds.

The Guards and the Royal family were both spared from a terrible fate through the intervention of Battra. He arrived and blasted Hedorah in the side of the head with his prism beams, drawing his attention away from the palace and its occupants. Hedorah did not appreciate the interference and shot up boiling spurts of acidic goop at Battra. Battra easily dodged them. In his adult form, he was nearly as fast and nimble as Mothra. He had the same dragonfly-like reflexes, but his armor slowed him down just slightly. His ability to dodge was still outstanding though, only limited by his body’s ability to respond.

Undeterred, Hedorah fired off even more hazardous ooze at Battra, only this time, he used so much of it that Battra could not dodge out of the way. Any space in the sky Battra might retreat to was also filled up with Hedorah’s acidic body fluid. Battra simply couldn’t avoid being hit, even with his heightened senses. Both of Battra’s wings and his body caught sloshes of dark goop. His wings were damaged, but only slightly. The sludge couldn’t quite eat through the outer layer which protected them. Battra’s body armor had no issues enduring the effects whatsoever. Hedorah had missed Battra’s eyes, which were the only part of him that might have been vulnerable to the attack.

Battra made Hedorah pay dearly for his botched assault. He unleashed a series of powerful attacks with his prism beams, raining down punishment all over his body, inflicting severe damage. Hedorah croaked in pain and retaliated with his crimson eyebeam. Battra dodged, but Hedorah followed him with the ray until he connected, sending off sparks. By that point though, he couldn’t sustain the attack for very much longer. He’d used up so much energy while missing. Battra’s armor was dinged, but not punctured.

Hedorah realized that the only way he could use his crimson beam effectively would be to fire it from an angle where Battra couldn’t see it coming. He needed to get in behind him. Hedorah quickly shifted back into his flying form and took to the sky. He engaged Battra in a dog fight, each of them jockeying for position and using their beams against each other. For a while, it was a fairly even contest, though Hedorah was taking a heavier level attrition as the battle went on. Battra could damage him at will, while Hedorah struggled to land a meaningful blow. He just couldn’t get past Battra’s armor, and he couldn’t outmaneuver him either. Battra simply had the advantage in the air.

As Battra settled in above Hedorah, firing off more beams, the smog monster changed tactics again. He expanded his body like a parachute and flew up into Battra. Hedorah wrapped around Battra and forced both of them to crash into the ground. Hedorah was unbothered by the impact, his gelatinous body absorbing the collision with ease. Battra on the other hand, not being made up of goop, was stunned by the jolt.

Hedorah’s body was splashed over a two-hundred-meter radius from where they landed, but he immediately began to pull himself back together. His body reformed while Battra was still recovering. Hedorah eyed Battra menacingly, intending to smother him with his body. This time, Battra would not be able to burrow his way out as he had done before. This was how Hedorah intended to win.

What Hedorah might have accomplished however would remain a mystery. Before he could do anything else, he was hit from behind by a blue beam which froze the majority of his left arm. The tip of the appendage broke off and fell to the ground, frozen solid. The mass of flesh could not return to the main body. Hedorah shrieked in horror. He turned and saw a huge weapon system with a Mazer-like dish at the top of it, only it was much bigger. It fired again and hit him in the face, causing Hedorah’s left eye to seal shut. It broke completely away from his face and shattered on the ground.

The British secret weapon had been revealed. It was a cryo-weapon. In essence, a freeze-ray. They simply referred to it as ‘The Freezer’. It was well named and very effective against Hedorah. Being that so much of Hedorah’s body was made up of liquid, he was particularly vulnerable to its effects. The top of Hedorah’s head started to turn red. He was furious and preparing to fire his crimson beam. One good shot would obliterate the Freezer.

Just as Hedorah was ready to unleash his attack, Battra blasted him from the opposite direction, shifting his aim. Hedorah’s red beam narrowly missed its mark, blowing up a building behind the Freezer. What followed next was a beatdown of epic proportions. Hedorah was hammered by Battra’s beams in the back and the Freezer’s rays in the front. Between the two of them, Hedorah was rapidly being whittled away. The smog monster was in real trouble. Nearly half of his body mass had already been either burned away or frozen. If it continued like this for much longer, he’d be blasted down to nothing. Before that could happen, Hedorah changed form and flew up into the sky. The freezer couldn’t adjust its aim that fast, nor could it angle its ray that high into the sky, so Hedorah was immediately clear of it. He wasn’t immediately free from Battra’s pursuit though.

Hedorah was damaged to the point where his body mass had been reduced to a size smaller than what it had been during his initial flying form. He was a shadow of his former self, but Battra felt no pity for him. Battra blasted Hedorah at every opportunity all the way back to the coast, wounding him even further. By the time Hedorah hit the ocean water, there wasn’t much left of him. Just a burnt-out husk. It was unclear if even he could come back from such a savage beating.

Battra circled back to the battlefield in London and began to blast away at all of the frozen chucks of Hedorah, destroying them piece by piece. If they thawed out, they might be able to reform into another smaller version of Hedorah. Battra wasn’t about to take that chance. The British military did nothing to hinder Battra. They couldn’t dispose of the remains any more efficiently than Battra was.

Battra wasn’t done after blasting the pieces though. He visited the industrial section of London and destroyed every building he found there, not particularly caring for any human life he might be extinguishing. It was their punishment for feeding Hedorah so readily and allowing him to grow so powerful. From Battra’s perspective, it was a harsh lesson, but a necessary one. It was also a reminder that while Battra had come to humanity’s aid in this one instance, he was still not their friend. Battra repeated the attack all along the riverfront of the Thames, eliminating every possible source of energy for Hedorah to regenerate with.

…

In the Pacific, every operational USN warship that was stationed on the west coast of the United States had been deployed. They were all out searching for Godzilla. It was the single biggest military operation since the end of the last war. Hundreds of Navy ships were involved, along with thousands of aircraft.

The Airforce’s entire fleet of B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers, a force numbering over two-hundred individual aircraft, were also enlisted to take part in the hunt. Their role was very limited and specific. Each of them was allotted a single nuclear bomb. Their job was simple. Once Godzilla was located, they would move in and deliver their payload. Every other craft involved in the operation was strictly there to run the monster down. They would smoke Godzilla out so the bombers could deliver one decisive strike.

The Stratofortress was a design that was way ahead of its time. It could carry seventy-thousand pounds of bombs nearly nine-thousand miles. It had a relatively low operating cost while still being rugged, tough, and reliable. It was, however, a very risky move sending them all out at once armed. Even if the bombers never caught sight of the target or engaged in combat, they were still hauling around two-hundred nuclear warheads. That was a lot of firepower to let off the leash all at once and send into the wild. Just one plane developing a serious mechanical issue had the potential to become a costly disaster and an international incident. There was a lot that could go very wrong, very quickly.

The powers that be decided it was worth the risk though and rolled the dice. Godzilla’s last known position and his relatively linear course helped to narrow down the operational zone for the search. The Navy’s warships formed a picket line that stretched about five hundred miles wide, acting as a barrier to block Godzilla’s path forward. Sonar buoys were deployed in the thousands. Carriers launched their airwings for radar and visual sweeps. Destroyers employed their sonar to search the depths day and night. Other ships simply used dozens of men armed with binoculars to scan the horizon.

The Stratofortress air groups were spread out along the picket line, loitering on standby behind the naval assets. They were put on a constant rotation, ensuring that there were always at least two bombers in every section of the blockade. KC-135 Stratotankers were also circling the area, giving the B-52s an even more extended amount of time to conduct combat operations.

After three straight days of searching, a jet fighter finally sighted Godzilla two hundred miles out from the main defensive line. The pilot radioed in his findings, and it just so happened that one of the B-52s had wandered off its normal patrol course and was already relatively close by. The bomber was between Godzilla and the fleet, around fifty miles away from the sighting. The aircrew quickly got the bearings from the fighter pilot and then set course, closing in at five-hundred miles per hour. They would be on top of Godzilla within six minutes.

“Adjust course to 2-8-0.” The navigator instructed the B-52’s pilot.

“Affirmative, adjusting heading to 2-8-0.” The pilot repeated, eyeing his instruments to ensure the proper course correction. “Prepare to strike.” He radioed back to the bombardier.

“Six minutes to target.” The co-pilot announced to the rest of the crew after figuring out the math.

“I want a confirmation order to attack before we fully commit to this.” The pilot turned and told the co-pilot firmly. The co-pilot nodded in agreement and got on the radio to request a confirmation order from HQ. “Better tell the fighters to clear out too.” The pilot added. “In fact, send a broadband warning signal to any craft in the area. Let’s make sure no friendlies get caught up in the blast if we really do go through with this all the way.” The co-pilot gave the pilot a thumbs up to let him know he understood. He was already talking to the officers at HQ.

For a moment, everything was quiet. The hissing of the radio was all that could be heard inside the bomber over the constant sound of wind whooshing by. The whole crew was tense. The seriousness of the situation was starting to sink in. None of them had expected to be the crew to carry out the actual linchpin strike of the whole operation. The feeling was a mixture of excitement and dread.

“Five minutes to target.” The co-pilot announced while still listening to the voice in his headset.

“I’ve got him on radar targeting.” The electric weapon system officer reported. “Big-old blip on my scope.”

“Thanks Tommy.” The pilot replied. He was starting to feel nervous along with everybody else. The bomber was getting closer to the drop zone by the second and they were still waiting on final authorization. He didn’t want to think what he’d do if they arrived over the target without a definitive order. He didn’t want to make that decision on his own. But could he afford to wait and take the risk of Godzilla disappearing again? His C.O. made it clear from the outset, they needed to seize the opportunity to attack when it presented itself. Still, the pilot couldn’t know if the sighting was legitimate yet or not. The aviator who reported seeing Godzilla could have been mistaken. Just getting jumpy and seeing things.

“Four minutes to target.” The co-pilot announced.

The pilot looked over to him anxiously and the co-pilot shook his head, indicating he was still waiting on an answer. The pilot was starting to sweat. What was taking them so damn long? Pretty soon, he’d have to decide for himself.

“Order has been confirmed.” The co-pilot touched the pilot on the shoulder to ensure he had his attention. “Strike, strike, strike.” He repeated their orders just as he heard them.

A heavy feeling of gravity came over all of the crew. They had been trained for this moment, but none of them had actually dropped a nuclear weapon before. The reality of actual combat came crashing down onto each of them. It was a mixture of thrill, pressure, anxiety, and tension. Each man had to deal with it in his own way. None of them could escape it now.

“Ok boys, this is for real.” The pilot picked up his com and told the rest of the crew. “Just remember your jobs and we’re going to get through this as a team.” He said, figuring the others could use a bit of a pep-talk. No doubt, they were just as unsure of themselves as he was.

“Three minutes to target.” The co-pilot announced. “Should just about be in visual range now.” He took out his binoculars to look out ahead of them. He was quiet for a few moments. “I think I got him.” He finally said. “Looks like he’s on land…?” He noted, surprised.

“Really…?” The pilot replied curiously.

“Yeah, a tiny little island with no trees.” The co-pilot went on. “There’s barely even any grass. “It’s hardly even an island. Just a spit of land surrounded by water. The monster is just sitting there. What is he waiting for?” The co-pilot asked confused. “He’s making himself the perfect target.”

“All the better for us.” The pilot replied. “Best not to look a gift-horse in the mouth.”

“Oh crap, just over one minute to target.” The co-pilot said, realizing that he’d been staring too long.

“Radar targeting set Skipper.” The electric weapon system officer reported.

“Open bomb bay doors.” The pilot ordered.

“Opening doors now Captain.” The Bombardier replied.

“Thirty seconds.” The co-pilot announced.

None of them needed binoculars to see Godzilla now. They were rapidly closing in on his position. The monster was still where he had been, just starting to look up and notice them.

“Looking good.” The bombardier announced. “Steady on course Captain.”

“Fifteen seconds to drop!” The Co-pilot warned, excitement showing through in his voice.

“It’s a good time to put down your visors gentlemen.” The pilot reminded the rest of them. “Remember, don’t look at the flash if you want to continue to have good, healthy eyesight for the rest of your lives. Avoid the temptation to watch. We’ll circle around to have a better look afterwards. Here we go. Five… Four… Three… Two … One… Release!” There was a mechanical clatter as the bomb decoupled from its port and fell from the plane.

“Bomb is away captain!!!” The bombardier shouted excitedly.

The pilot pulled the plane up as stiffly as he could, taking no chances. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect next. It was the scariest moment of his life. For several seconds, nothing happened as the bomb plummeted to the ground. Each passing moment brought higher and higher levels of anxiety until none of them could stand it anymore. Finally, there was a massive explosion beneath them.

“Flash!” The bombardier announced, not that he needed to. The results spoke for themselves. The blinding light, the roar of the explosion, the shaking of the bomber were all obvious signs that the bomb had went off as it was meant to. None of the crew could look back to confirm the kill though. They had to wait a few more moments before they could even think to do that.

Finally, the pilot felt comfortable turning the bomber around to take a look at their handy work. They found a giant mushroom cloud forming, rising up to the heavens even as its hellish work continued. Godzilla was gone, along with the tiny island he had been standing on. The crew wasn’t sure what to make of that. Most of them had expected to see some type of corpse, even if was just bones, but there just wasn’t anything to be found. It didn’t trouble the crew for very long. Soon enough, they all remembered that neither of the Rodans had left any remains either.

With little else to do at that point, the B-52 turned back to return to base and reported the successful attack.

…

At the exact same time in the Sierra Mountain range, the outer shell of the asteroid cracked open, revealing a sinister red light within. There was something inside that was moving and emerging.

…………….