Godzilla 2000: New Era, PART 12 · 2:43am Jan 1st, 2022
PART 11
Proofed by Lance-Omikron
Hina and illustrations by FallenAngel5414
Ami by EvoWizard
Additional illustrations by LordShrekzilla and Zeroviks
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“Is there any word from Admiral Tachibana?” Commander Aso grunted as he walked to the ready room at G-Force headquarters with a small army of aides and subordinates behind him, Stacker Pentecost and Mitsuo Katagiri flanking him.
“He was recalled from shore defense as Osaka as per your request after the event at Amami island. Logs state Admiral Tachibana arrived here at the Tokyo base three hours before we did,” one officer noted, busily scrolling through logs on her PDA.
“So where the hell is he?!” Aso barked, rubbing at his forehead.
“We’re working off a skeleton crew here Commander, and on a base multiple square kilometers in size,” she replied with a bit of panic, “The communications black out is making things very difficult.”
“And it’s staying until we find out who the hell hacked out comm-lines to give the scramble order to Captain Kuroki and the Super-X3!” Aso replied, trying to reign in some of his frustration and avoid snapping.
They’d just gotten back here and it seemed G-Force was in pandemonium. The scare of someone hacking his communications, down to even getting a hold of his specific rallying orders to call in their biggest superweapon, had forced them back to analog options. Person to person authorization, short-wave radiolines, even doing census lists to see who was on base both when the hack happened and right now. Add in still being shaken by the words with Hina, who naturally had vanished just as fast as she’d appeared to the point Takaki Aso was half convinced he was being haunted; and Aso wanted to be assured he’d have the council of one of his most experienced and senior right-hands at his side.
Stacker Pentecost pulled up a PDA tablet hooked to a communication’s chain stretching out to sea.
“Bollocks…” Pentecost quietly swore under his breath, “Word from the survey boat the S.S. Calico, sent out to check the region the UFO came from. Sir, this is important.”
Aso continued down the hall and towards the observation deck with his entourage, “Tell me anything and everything, Pentecost.”
“Survey operation confirmed, the UFO was deposited on a volcanic area of the seafloor within the Devil’s Triangle. Multiple shipwrecks around where it clearly had been. They found it was right with volcanic vents and ports with visible lava flows. Skeletons of unknown entities found not matching any known species around the outside.”
“Aliens at the bottom of the ocean, if only this were a James Cameron film,” Aso shook his head, “And yet I sense that isn’t the worst of things on the long list of bad things today?”
“No sir…” Pentecost eyed the PDA and frowned at the message, reading the text aloud, “Large marine entity was on location, absorbing radiation and heat from the volcanism. Possible Shobijin sighting involved as well. Entity only glimpsed but sonar traces indicate length exceeding 200 meters.”
Aso cursed fate for letting him be right again, “Godzilla…”
“What would the shobijin have to do with this?” Katagiri with a frown whilst checking the message himself, “The prior Godzilla tried to kill the first Mothra twice.”
“They might seem to know something we don’t,” Pentecost huffed whilst readying himself, as they stepped onto the observation deck, “Godzilla is moving. We’re tracking him the best we can but he’s gone off all long-range sonar.”
Manning some of the instruments, a battery of dishes and communications devices of both human and alien making, an aged man puzzled. He wore a clean officer’s uniform, but one more fit as a laboratory coat that military garb he disliked. A telltale red scarf he wore around his neck was key to many longtime members of G-Force as to who this was even before he turned around to reveal chalky gray skin and black eyes surrounded with dark veins. Biologist 023, once leader of the Mysterian Refugees and now a science officer for G-Force, shook his head at Aso’s approach.
Takaki didn’t even bother to ask for good news.
“Commander. The ship has yet to send out any signals to initiate communications. I have not attempted to initiate contact yet, as per your request and my own logic,” 023 noted calmly with a near robotic stoicism. Even all these years later Aso could hardly believe the very emotional and energetic Miki Saegusa was his daughter. And what a time for her to be abroad in America visiting Dr. Aoki.
“Well 023, what do the Mysterian archives have to say?”
“My people’s flight from Planet X almost four centuries ago was hasty. History logs and documents were not the priority to take with us when King Ghidorah attacked,” 023 shook his head, “In the limited database of other alien species we kept and logged in our travels, we never encountered this species.”
“I thought your people’s explorers charted across multiple systems with warp,” Aso frowned.
“The answer would be then, that these beings are much older than even we were,” 023 corrected, “And somehow, they appeared here on Terra dozens of thousands of years ago at minimum.”
“Well, the ship is smaller than the Mysterian colony vessel, and nobody has stepped outside to greet us yet. So this wouldn’t be a colony ship, if it follows the only frame of reference we have.”
023 nodded slowly and dispassionately, black eyes upon the humans, “It would appear so, Commander. The most probable outcome then, considering its armament, is this is a military vessel.”
“Which is the last thing we’d want in this sort of situation,” Pentecost frowned, a man who knew his history, “The first Romans in Britain and first Spaniards in Mexico were legionnaires and conquistadors. This thing?”
He motioned beyond the observation deck. Hovering above the base, to the gawking awe of the inland Tokyo where G-Force HQ bordered, the UFO continued to hover quietly.
“It could just be the scout for something a lot bigger,” Pentecost frowned.
“A scout ship with that kind of firepower,” Katagiri rubbed his chin, “Why haven’t we tried talking to it ourselves?”
“The communications blackout is to find the weakness in our systems,” Pentecost growled back at CCI’s head, “We’re not going to open the front door to something we don’t even know whilst we have no clue who got in through the back door.”
“Lack of communication is what lead to the Mysterian situation escalating the way it did,” Katagiri curtly replied back, “And CCI ensured G-Force had a communications and internet mainframe that is a peer to none in the world, besides our own back at CCI Headquarters. Japan hosts the two strongest computers on the planet. If anyone was prepared to speak softly but carry a big-stick to these newcomers, it is us.”
Aso frowned, quiet and in thought.
“Sir, it is possible the occupant of the UFO is aware of our station as the apex on the planet, and is waiting for us to make the first address,” Katagiri continued with a nod.
When he referred to them as the ‘apex’ of the planet, he wasn’t just referring to G-Force and CCI; but mankind, mysterians included, in general. Aso knew this and knew the UFO had seen their battle against Godzilla. It had seemingly come to their aid then, and was waiting practically at their front doorstep now. He had many reservations and many things to consider.
“And risk letting it breach right into our network and practically the whole of the internet if it wanted to,” Pentecost scowled.
“The central servers access the most important systems and internet connectivity, it can’t be hacked remotely. We set them up in the height of the Cold War specifically because of that fear,” Katagiri scoffed whilst tapping at his eye, “And to get into the server rooms fifty stories below our feet, you’d need an ocular scan from someone with clearance, impossible to fake remember?”
“And three of the people with clearance are standing right here,” Pentecost griped, motioning to himself, Katagiri, and Aso.
“I am glad I bowed out of the pressures of leadership,” Biologist 023 noted in monotone, arms crossed.
Aso didn’t feel that luxury, no matter how much he wanted it.
“You hoping to snag some of that fancy tech to get the next upgrade, like CCI squeezed out of the Mysterians they kept practically hostage through the 60s?!” Pentecost snapped, looking poised to try and knock a few teeth out of Katagiri’s skull with a fist balled.
Mitsuo Katagiri stepped backwards a single pace, and shot the British man a withering glare to hide his frown. He briefly diverted an eye to Biologist 023 and let his expression lighten briefly in sympathy at seeing the old man actually wince.
“1960s CCI wasn’t me,” Katagiri adjusted his suit’s collar to hide a tiny bow he shot the old mysterian, “Whatever it is inside that craft, I don’t intend to lock its children in a cell until they tell us how their touch screens work.”
023 frowned out of the smallest corners of his lips, but tilted his head ever so slightly to a man who’d studied under him for years. He held no love for CCI, he knew of their lack of oversight and scheming. But, it was inherently something meant to benefit humanity; and in the last half century his people had become part of that picture. He wouldn’t voice support for either side, but he wouldn’t damn Katagiri’s proposal outright.
“The technology that craft has is fantastic. And if it’s a scout we’d best not provoke it or whoever it came from,” Katagiri continued, curtly throwing his voice at Pentecost, “It was here for thousands of years potentially, perhaps it arrived long before humans evolved or civilized and merely wants information as to what’s going on.”
“Information as a carrot on a stick,” Pentecost rebuffed, “Opening communications to it is like pulling open a door without knowing if there’s a loaded cannon behind it. For all we know, it could be a sign of weakness.”
Katagiri scowled as he motioned to the maser tanks being moved out of their hangers and kept on the roads. They weren’t directly aiming at the craft, but it was obvious they’d been ordered to be made visible. The call for swift repairs to the Super-X3 hadn’t gone unnoticed either, “So you’d rather continue calling up troops to point guns at it and see where that gets us?”
“You ignorant, smug little-” Pentecost growled and loomed closer.
“Pompous, trigger-happy-” Katagiri stood up to him.
Aso saw how these two represented G-Force and CCI so perfectly, the supposedly equal partners in the war to regain and preserve human dominion. Pentecost was trying to be cautious against a force they had no context for and at a time they had every right to be wary of given recent events. Katagiri was trying to avoid misunderstanding and conflict with an unknown party that could spiral out of control. Mitsuo saw his rival as a rash and dangerous warhawk. Stacker glared back at the man who was a scheming conniver in his eyes.
Biologist 023 was observant, and still silent.
Commander Aso raised a hand and instantly, everyone else fell to silence.
“... We still don’t know where Admiral Tachibana is. The search across the base and Tokyo is ongoing. Dr. Shinoda is still outbound but promised some heavy words with me upon his return. Admiral Tachibana has been my trusted advisor for years since we were in the Self-Defense Force, and I promised Dr. Shinoda my ear for his considerations when we brought him onboard in exchange for his help. Help that proved reliable and he has earned his right to the decision making table. I will wait a few hours for their council before making a choice. We have many unknowns that are worrying, quite worrying,” the commander steepled his fingers together behind his back.
He stepped towards the UFO, his back to his trusted scientific advisor, the head of G-Force’s main technologic developer, and his intended successor. The midday sun, edging into late afternoon, bore down on him with weight. It would start getting dark in a few hours, but the bright sun did let him make some observations.
“It’s been rotating slowly,” Aso noted, seeing how the UFO was sticking straight up but was at a different angle than he’d seen it prior.
“I’ve been monitoring that. It’s the only movement it’s made since it arrived here,” Biologist 023 interjected, “If I might make a speculation?”
“023, at this point anything is valued…”
“I have seen similar movements time and time again. They were visible on the solar panels when the Mysterian ship passed by a star we needed to recharge from,” 023 pulled out his watch, an old Rolex watch he got as a gift from Miki, “It’s been following the sun since this morning. Sundown is in four hours.”
“Four hours,” Aso sighed, “Godzilla is on the move and we don’t know where it is, only where it is going. It will be right here to the heart of Tokyo and Japan chasing this thing if we can follow it half right. We don’t know where Admiral Tachibana is, other than he must be found and the communications hack looked into. And we don’t know what this thing wants or is doing, other than in four hours we might get our answer.”
He took in a long, deep breath, never having felt heavier in his life as he hung his head and closed his eyes. It only lasted for a moment, for he knew his troops were watching, Head raised and chest puffed out, Commander Aso put on a brave face to look all the part of the sagely, calm, competent commander he was needed to be. Hina’s warnings however, and the memories from 1954 and 1984, were strong in his mind but hidden behind his eyes.
“Make no communications with the craft. No matter what. Get the Super-X3 readied as fast as possible. Be prepared, but don’t fire anything unless all Hell breaks loose. Hopefully it won’t in four hours…”
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Within the UFO itself, various systems flickered and pulsed. Not mechanical but organic, an integrated mesh of the latter to perfectly emulate the former. It wasn’t truly a craft or vehicle, even the hull was alive in some definitions of how a human would comprehend life. Some, but not all. Computation was done in billions of calculations in increments of a second. Cause, effect. Action, reaction. Simulation, conclusion, solution.
Biomass acquisition was proceeding rapidly, the assimilated and acquiring usable mass from their food stores had ballooned the mass count well past the starting point without raising too much attention. Drone count had octopled since making landfall in the first fifteen hours and had quintupled once again since.
Assessment. Planet suitable for utilization, minimal terraforming necessary. Native lifeforms, insufficient for preservation. Native sentient life, Homo sapiens sapiens, limited mental capacity, unadaptable body structure, requires limited terraforming just to survive across most of range. Ill suited for use. Calorie hungry brain spurs destructive and wasteful activity.
Potential obstacle #1, mass-scale aggressive native lifeform. Designitation, Godzilla, Gojira. Dwelling place, unknown. Origin, unknown but suspected radiation born mutation of Ceratosauridae theropod dinosaur. Information needed. Simulation of threat assessment, current tracking ability to find craft, lack of detection by scanning equipment, and potential damage considered. Conclusion, extremely high threat of destruction.
Priority, neutralize Godzilla. Solution, acquisition of Dr. Yuji Shinoda’s data on Godzilla movement combined with cellular biology data authored by Dr. Shinoda during employment at Kyoto Institute, now under stewardship of Dr. Mitsuo Katagiri at Crisis Control Intelligence database.
Problem. Both datasets unable to be accessed remotely.
Problem. Mass-Scale aggressive lifeform pursuing craft and attempting to destroy it. Simulations confirm repeated attacks increase the chance of success successively.
Potential obstacle #2. Small-Scale aggressive lifeform aware of drones and successfully destroying five. Designation, Belvera by Homo sapiens sapiens documentation. Threat to collective, moderate. Threat to individual drones, high. Avoidance prioritized.
Potential obstacle #3. Mass-numbered armed sentient lifeforms. Designation, G-Force and Crisis Control Intelligence. Continued presence increasingly high chances of detection and opposition. Simulation of threat assessment, current armament and personnel numbers calculated. Conclusion, threat negligible.
Solution, exploitation of absence. Confrontation between G-Force and Godzilla imminent. Confrontation exploited. Code breaking G-Force communications lines took 0.0032 hours. Godzilla temporarily incapacitated. Power depleted to 12.3%
Estimation. Power restoration from solar energy collection will take an additional hour and a half.
Estimation. Godzilla will recover full pursuit and confrontation capacity in thirty hours. Time allotted, ample.
Problem. G-Force communications offline due to command by leader.
Problem. Infiltration of G-Force headquarters 26% complete, but Second Division alerted to presence.
Problem. Second division armed and locked themselves within vault that cannot be opened.
Problem. Code breaking security vault and main servers for communications grid (Designation, internet and satellite lines) requires access verifications. Verifications only listed under ocular pattern of.
-G-Force Commander Takaki Aso
-G-Force Vice Commander Stacker Pentecost
-CCI Chairman Dr. Mitsuo Katagiri
-G-Force Admiral Taizo Tachibana
Attempts to replication of ocular patterning on the back of Homo sapiens sapiens eye belonging to four VIPs ineffective. Randomized patterns attempted 4,532 instances. Attempts to acquire Tazio Tachibana failed due to interference by Belvera and the Admiral managing to seal himself in the vault.
Threat reassessment. G-Force, CCI, species Homo sapiens sapiens temporarily elevated to moderate threat.
Solution. Extermination protocol 09-13-2000. Likelihood of success, simulation yield 98.3%. Likelihood of acquisition of designation Io Shinoda’s genome prior to extermination, simulation yield 75.3%
Addendum. Acquisition of designation Dr. Asuka Shinoda’s genome. Likelihood of success, simulation yield 84.8%.
Addendum. Termination of drone by Io Shinoda indicates an unforeseen attribute on Shinoda. Radiation abnormal for in-atmospheric presence average detected. Likelihood of success, simulation yield 94.7%.
Parameters… acceptable.
Extinction protocol 09-13-2000 enacted. Six hours until enaction…
Priority. Acquisition of Io Shinoda genome.
Priority. Eradication of moderate threats.
Priority. Acquisition of surviving genomes.
Five hours, fifty nine minutes, and fifty nine seconds until estimated success based on simulations…
The Millennian UFO continued to slowly shift and face the flat expanse to the sun, drinking in its life giving energy to route to both itself and its drones. As several emergency vehicles edged closer and closer from the site of the wrecked truck and closer to G-Force’s base, the countdown clock continued to tick by. It was completely unfazed by the numerous maser tanks, small arms, and other weaponry increasingly pointed at it.
The subject of its priorities was brought closer.
Three of the four persons with the proper clearances were close. Aso was the least physically capable and thus the easiest target. Io Shinoda’s location was being traced and could be followed shortly.
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It was December 31st, 1999. The dawn of the new millennia.
G-Force was mobilized, recalling home to Tokyo and setting to arms for a threat they did not know. The GPN trio and accompanying Yuri Tachibana pulled into the perimeters of the base, wary and wise to the dangers. Commander Aso made his way towards where the arriving Dr. Shinoda and his company were driving in a small entourage of some seven persons. Himself, Dr. Katagiri, and three associates.
They had no way of knowing the silent communication going on between the other two remainder were most certainly not human. Nor that the two imposters were in constant communication with the hundreds of drones scattered across the base in a myriad of forms. Hundreds of thousands of genomes, all ready to be put to use. The Millennian living ship continued to hum ominously, the full solar full charge needed for action nearly gained.
Far out at sea, a passing vessel glimpsed a flashing blue light lighting up the ocean depths. It continued at a rapid pace, creating a swell of a wave that caused the boat to rise multiple meters above sea level. The light and swell dropped off suddenly, and the descent into the depths was signaled by a brief breach of a scaly tail erupting from the surface. Godzilla dove straight down, having built up sufficient speed, barreling into the underwater caverns that honeycombed the crust. Dozens of kilometers were bypassed and Tokyo went ignored for somewhere further north.
A new era was about to dawn. The question of who would rule it, was still unanswered…
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So that was Act 2 of New Era. And I gotta say that was a hell of a thrill ride with the chase sequence. Yuki definitely got her time to shine with this one, and I'm definitely excited to see what you got planned for her in Act 3. The Millennians were perturbing to read with how inhuman their mindset was, which again reminds me of The Flood from Halo.
Though I will admit I am getting confused with what's going on with Taizo's end. I feel like there were some parts or info I missed out on. And I'll need some clarification on what's going on.
Other than that, Act 2 was fairly solid overall.
5623133
I am a classic Halo fan so there might have been some flood influence leaking in.
I'll definitely make a note to clarify what's happening with Taizo. Good to know my attempts at setting some good suspense as well as action without having a kaiju present panned out.
Greatly enjoyed your commentary, it was a fantastic motivational force :)
I took a valid criticism from some like Crystal to heart that Yuki didn't have as much to set her apart from the rest of the cast and decided to run with it. Seems to have worked out as I've had a lot of compliments about that roadway sequence.
I like Katagiri and Stacker's discussion a lot, both not just being dumb for the sake of it but actually thinking things through from their perspective. Also the Millennian's running summary of everything is great. Reminds me of the calculations in Leeroy Jenkins.
5633541
Good lord, imagine the billions of lives and minds assimilated... trying to figure out how to best rush the Whelp room in Blackwing Lair on Vanilla rules.
Thanks. I think it's a side effect of too much sci-fi and horror films. I hate when characters act in a way because they dumb and the plot needs them to, so I try to give everyone an extra dozen or two IQ points.
So I used Speechify and when it hit to the bit where the UFO is analyzing. It just funnily works XD.
But, yeah, on to 2000. A new year.
5633665
Oh good the app works! Yeah sometimes text to speech can be hilarious with certain writing
We begin with reality ensuing and Aso having to deal with the understandable fallout from before.
I also like that Aso is proactive in trying his best to figure this out. I also like him wondering if he's actually being haunted, which is funny.
I do also the examination. While everyone reacts realistically, especially to Godzilla, but Pentecost is very reasonable.
And we get the introduction of Miki's father, nice to see him in person. I also like the explanation of why they lost a lot of information. However, I like the logical analysis he did shows Millennian is much older than it seemed.
Of course, the scout ship theory loses a bit of ground given how ancient Millennian is and how long it was sleeping.
I do like Katagiri's counter argument. It's logical, but we know very wrong.
I do like the discussion, as both sides have points. And the damage CCI might have done in the past bring brought up, but Katagiri also not being responsible directly.
I do also like how reasonable Aso is, trusting Shinoda's advice and council.
Also like them figuring our how the Millennian craft is functioning.
I do like Millennian's thought process and how alien everything with them is.
Also do like that Belvera has killed multiple drones offscreen, shows she doing quite a bit.
I also kinda like that for all the humanism show by Aso, Katagiri and others, Millennian only considers humanity a small threat.
And...we learn Millennian does not see humanity or most life as worth their time and intends to wipe them out.
I like the final paragraph, omnious, but also provides a beacon of hope with Junior coming to save the day.
Good chapter, very much a set up chapter, but a good one.
A nice little chapter. It was good to see the internal issues plaguing Aso and the others. As well as the alien threat plotting their deaths. Really helps set up the following actions. Good work buddy.