Godzilla 2000: New Era, PART 16 · 4:53am Feb 4th, 2022
PART 15
Proofed by Lance-Omikron
Guest Writing by Dr1ft3r0I a.k.a C0yot3721
Hina and illustrations by FallenAngel5414
Ami by EvoWizard
Additional illustrations by LordShrekzilla and Zeroviks
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“Sergeant Hopkins.”
Looking up, Sergeant Gabriel Hopkins-Wylder’s scarred face looked up towards two fresher ones. Colonel Sho Kuroki, a stocky built and tall man whose deep brown eyes looked down from a brow capped in slicked-back dark hair. In Sho’s company was someone of much lower rank, though equal experience. The very short but powerfully-built form was contrasted with a friendly expression etched onto her face with practice, her inky black hair framing that face. Captain Mei Shinjo contrasted with her old friend in every way imaginable. Sho was downright towering in stature at just over 2 meters tall, Mei was just slightly over a half meter shorter and not even coming up to his shoulder. Sho’s face was angular and blocky, Mei’s was rounded and smooth. Sho constantly bore an expression of passivity or possibly sternness, Mei kept a small smile as her default expression. Even their jobs contrasted on opposite ends of G-Force’s military force. Kuroki was always in the sky as the much-idolized and equally harrowing role as the Super-X3’s pilot, whereas Shinjo was always on the ground as the mentor and instructor as the go-to for the fresher faces to the force.
Any onlooker would never have guessed they were cousins.
But their old instructor wasn’t one such person, and even Hopkins’ typically gruff visage softened upon seeing familiarity as they walked in on him. The Mysterian hybrid was seated in the armory surrounded by and maintaining several of the base’s infantry weapons. His black veins contrasted with his grayscale skin and both looked to their condition to figure out how their former instructor was. Much to their relief, they weren’t inflamed or swollen to indicate stress; something both were eager to see.
“Captain, Colonel,” Hopkins answered, standing up and saluting them both, leaving the M32 grenade launcher on the table between them. Shinjo kept up her smile and Sho even cracked a smirk as they returned the gesture.
“As you were Sergeant,” Colonel Kuroki nodded, still passively feeling awkward in the back of his mind for outranking the older man, even with an age gap of only fifteen years. Side effect of having to pilot the sole remaining super-weapon, he supposed.
Immediately, Hopkins sat back down and got to work inspecting the grenade launcher like they hadn’t even stopped him.
Shinjo put her hands on her hips, pursing her lip as she looked at the other weapons on the table, clear signs her old compatriot was gearing up for something big, “You expecting trouble tonight too, Sergeant Hopkins?”
The cousins watched the man who helped them through Basic Training just nod his head to the side.
“Respectfully Captain, there’s an alien craft all but parked on our doorstep, this is out of our wheelhouse. Aso and Pentecost had listened to CCI and Katagiri’s hardlining demand to kill Godzilla, and plenty of G-Force didn’t object,” He frowned sternly and shook his head. Personal views aside, as he’d been in Kyoto in 1993 and was even on guard duty for the most placid being he’d ever known.
Not everyone else could have been so lucky, a vast majority of G-Force was Japanese after all leaving him an odd-man-out as is. A lot of troopers had lost family, friends, or homes over the years following 1984. He didn’t agree with the needless cause for alarm at the new Godzilla, but he could understand it came from more than just blind paranoia.
“The operation at Amami was a huge diversion of resources,” Kuroki crossed his arms and frowned, “And I don’t like the look of any of this. I get a scramble order and five heart-attacks piloting the X3 into the fray and after the fact, the very man who told me to scramble and leave as fast as says he didn’t do it.”
“And we both know, Commander Aso isn’t a liar. Which just means even more craziness to be concerned with,” Hopkins grunted whilst continuing his work, “Amami was a mistake for more than a few reasons, he told me so himself just before sending me to fetch the egghead gang together. Katagiri was involved, naturally.”
“Naturally,” Shinjo groaned as she put her palm to her face, “We had enough dodgy things afoot with just CCI sticking their mitts into everything.”
“To be fair, we wouldn’t have a tool in the battles we’ve fought over the last decade without them,” Kuroki shrugged, feeling like playing Devil’s Advocate to a group he was largely neutral on anyways, “R&D like theirs doesn’t come without a lot of paranoia or intrigue into what’s needed.”
“And ten bucks goes they’ve already tried hailing the UFO on their own to try and get their hands on that nifty cannon the craft’s got that you talked about,” Shinjo quipped as she elbowed Kuroki’s leg due to their height difference, “Not feeling jealous you’re not flying the biggest gun in town anymore are you?”
Her cousin was unfazed, “It was a sight to see, that blast. Par for the course with this newcomer in town.”
Gabriel paused and looked at the UFO outside, hovering as it faced the sun, “That sort of thing is exactly what’s got me in here loading up every weapon I can find. I don’t want any more surprises out of that thing and so far, I’m not getting my wish.”
“No one has a clue on what to do in regards to that thing, especially with the rumors going around about what happened on the highway. Shapeshifting aliens now? You can guess why I got the flamethrower out earlier,” Hopkins replied, finishing his inspection of the grenade launcher right in front of his company, “Keeps me calm. Try it, you two are way more nervous than you let on.”
“More and more guns, cycle never ends,” Kuroki frowned as he nevertheless started inspecting a rifle, if only to hold something and keep his hands steady, checking it for being unloaded before doing much else, “These things wouldn’t do a thing to kaiju or that UFO, I saw it tank a hit from Godzilla’s breath attack. Mark my words, CCI will be drooling to get at that kind of tech.”
“As if we needed more, I’m not a fan of what comes with it,” Shinjo frowned whilst helping clear a flamethrower nozzle, “Make enough big toys and they stop becoming weapons and start becoming fascinations unless you're careful. Mark my words then, the next big ship CCI cooks up will be called the Yamato. Might even fly if they can get stuff off that UFO.”
“You sound assured,” her cousin raised his eyebrow and Hopkins similarly perked up slightly to listen in.
The short Captain raised her shoulders and rolled her eyes.
“While you're having two are attending officer meetings and formal meet-ups, I’m the one directing the rookies. Kids joining up now were in grade school when Kuroki here remotely piloted the Super-X2 back in ‘89, or were some of those gawking youths dumbstruck with awe when Mechagodzilla or MOGUERA were first revealed. Sometimes a few get hooked up in the culture of it all and look for more things to be impressed with along the same lines,” Shinjo frowned plainly with an exhale, “Pop quiz, what was the last big group out of Japan who had a ton of arms build-up with a lot of very big guns?”
“On some level, I get why,” Hopkins interjected, “I’ve been in this rodeo since before you two signed up. Ever since that second one woke up in ‘84, we have done everything humanly possible to try and get rid of the second Godzilla. When it first showed up, it nearly caused World War 3 twice over. People look for security, looking to the future for development and to the past for nostalgia. Even with everything CCI cooked up it didn’t stick, and now with those Full Metals and all the other tech they brought to the table, Junior is in the crosshairs as well.”
“You still believe this Godzilla is a benevolent force?” Shinjo asked, taking a seat opposite him and inspecting a handgun on the table and working at it, “That... ‘Junior’ from Kyoto?”
Hopkins shrugged, “With as much as I got on my mind right now, maybe I just like a smidge of hopeful optimism before my head bursts.”
Kuroki frowned, in thought but letting his cousin continue the discussion, “That hardly sounds assured.”
He let his shoulders sag after finishing loading the launcher and checking the sights, “I only believe in what I can see and verify for myself.”
“Honestly, I’d buy it,” Kuroki interjected back into the discussion, thinking back to how the confrontation at Amami had gone, “I was the first one to see the new Godzilla after all, seems fitting I’d bump into it twice more now. Once at the cliffs and then Amami. When I’d flown in thinking things had gone to Hell there, I half expected the entire island to be on fire. After seeing what this new Godzilla could do and knowing what he shrugged off…”
He shook his head, “Some of the rookies practically idolize my ship, and I do mean idolizing it in a literal sense, thinking it weathered the storm with the old guts and steel alone. But just getting clipped by that Godzilla once tore an entire launcher system out and I didn’t do more than slow him down. Burn the island nothing, if he’d wanted it Amami Oshima would have been a leveled pile of glass by the time I reached it.”
Hopkins nodded slightly, a flattened, contemplative expression on his scared face, “You’re probably not wrong.”
Kuroki paused and eyed both his mentor and cousin, “Just saying… If it is indeed that scamp from Kyoto you always went on about, I’d buy it. I might not be standing here to say that if I didn’t.”
Hopkins listened and rubbed at the back of his head, feeling his age in his joints, “Then for now, with how many unknowns are afoot with the gigantic ET outside; we can only count our blessings on what is known… Junior, if this Godzilla is Junior, isn’t the threat but these.. possible shifters aren't in the clear. Quite frankly, those things and that ship are getting me infinitely more nervous than the kaiju did, and you both know I don’t scare easily.”
Suddenly, a pager attached to Shinjo’s side beeped, the woman groaning in annoyance.
“Kuso, of all the times for these fritzing coms to work again it’s gotta blow my eardrum out” she hissed, standing up. “We can continue this discussion another time. You’ll have to excuse me, barracks wants me back in. Probably to reign in the kids.”
“I have my own scramble orders within the half hour,” Kuroki frowned, eyes darting aside and going very quiet. Both his mentor and cousin picked up on the shift and let the thread hang for the moment.
“Understood Captain, if I may?” Hopkins called out and the cousins perked up, turning around to see him tossing Mei both a large revolver pistol with a box of rounds taped to the side of the handle.
“.44 magnum, bigger punch than the typical stuff we carry,” Gabriel frowned slightly even as Mei, just as he once drilled her to, cleanly loaded the magnum like clockwork.
She put it within a secure leg pocket without complaint, “Most would say this is overkill.”
“Yeah well most would say you should have let yourself get promoted years ago instead of sticking to just being a Captain,” Sergeant Hopkins huffed, “Just in case. I have a feeling we’re gonna need them soon.”
“I like looking after the kids,” Shinjo comically raised her hands and shoulders, “Some of these fresher faces need it.”
“And they listen to you because it’s my mug CCI and G-Force keep putting on the recruitment posters,” Sho chanced a bit of humor and earned an elbow to the hip by his cousin for the allegation of nepotism.
Hopkins couldn’t resist a small smile as he snorted, shaking his head.
“You know, babysitters can stand for better pay. Just remember to send them to the corner next time one seriously suggests we all watch a WW2 film again,” Hopkins deadpanned with his brow lowered.
“Private Nakao just has esteem issues,” Shinjo grumbled with an identically ridiculous expression on her face, “Admiring strong things like old ships is just a coping mechanism. He admires you too, you know.”
Hopkins cocked an eyebrow, “Ah good, so you’re saying I should autograph the boot print I put in his ass?”
Captain Mei Shinjo snorted and shook her head, “They’re naive, just gimme time to iron the kinks out of them… I really do think, warts and all, they’re worth it. After all, what reason do we sign up than to help protect the next generation? Best thing we can do is light their way to help them live the best lives they can. Can’t learn if you’re dead.”
“Well, keep the gun handy so we can be sure we all live to see that.”
Shinjo shot him a smile as she left the armory, the weight of the handgun, virtually a large rifle shrunk into one, on her thigh making her heart race. She had little doubt that she’d need the handgun, but the look in the old veteran’s eyes. The look of someone who’d been enlisted for a few decades by the time she joined up fifteen years ago. The tone in that voice and making sure she walked around armed atypical of being on a base like this… it spoke of expectation borne of experience and intuition. And that of all things scared her.
She wasn’t the only one spooked or uneasy, and her cousin wasn’t busying himself loading or cleaning weapons to let his mind stew.
“You want one too?” Hopkins hummed plainly, a menagerie of weapons before him.
“Don’t know if I’d be allowed to take it inside the cockpit with me,” Sho frowned, deep in contemplation, “Regulations get a bit tighter, even for golden boys like I wound up being.”
“I knew your predecessors,” Hopkins continued on, not looking up from his work, “Captain Haru Akiyama. We met when I was scouted from the US as a trainer and consultant.”
Sho’s brow furrowed and a frown tightened on his lips as he recognized the name, “The Super-X pilot… I never met him myself, you never mentioned you knew him.”
“Knew him, fought with him, laughed with him, drank with him…” Hopkins steeled his voice for a moment, almost seeming to hitch in his tone briefly, “....”
He put down the pistol he was working on polishing to a fine finish and looked at his hands. There was a tremor just barely perceptible there, in his twitching fingers. Gabriel Hopkins had to close his eyes.
“And I carried his casket in my hands when they dug Haru and his crew out of what used to be the Sunshine 60 tower,” the veteran shook his head, “... There’s a very good reason the Super-X2 was remote piloted.”
The very remote pilot of that craft stood before him, his brow shadowing his eyes, “A worthy venture.. But the radiation output messed with remote directions. Slowed response down. The Super-X3 needed a pilot.”
Hopkins sadly chuckled, “Did you know Aso himself wanted to pilot it, him and some of us old timers when it became clear the ‘Old King’ was going through a nuclear meltdown… Ah.. he ran himself and us through the training sim at least a few dozen times.”
He looked up at the young man he once helped train, now the same age he was when Gabriel first got to Japan, “He figured us veterans already had spent much of our lives, and expected whoever had to pilot the thing into the fray to have a few years shaved off anyways. It took a lot of convincing to call it off, especially if most of the more experienced officers went down with the ship if we failed. You and your talent, and an impassioned plea to pilot it swung the bureaucracy’s vote.”
“I…” Sho was at a loss with himself, a rare thing afforded to him ever since he became the last pilot standing for their remaining super weapon, “I didn’t know you lot were the other candidates.”
“You were insistent to take the controls. Something I never got to ask you though,” Hopkins stood up to get on eye level with the man half his age but greater in height, and even so Sho Kuroki seemed to shrink slightly. His stern expression demanded Kuroki’s attention, “Did you all but demand to pilot the X3 because you felt you were the best at it, or because you felt like a failure from the X2 being destroyed? You’re the one entrusted with the most powerful weapon we got, I want to know why you took it, especially after the stunt at Amami.”
In truth Hopkins had little to no authority over Kuroki. If the ace pilot wanted it, he could have pulled rank and stormed out to avoid getting grilled like he was a rookie going through drills under this very man again. Ever since he’d brought himself and his crew back alive from the successful mission in 1995, he’d been one of G-Force’s golden gooses. Frequent voice at press conferences, face on recruitment posters, and given such a heroic status he was at times seemingly only beholden to Pentecost and Aso themselves. A meteoric rise in a mere four years.
All because he miraculously survived radiation exposure during the final meltdown in Haneda Airport. Except, somewhere in the back of his mind, Sho knew that circumstance wasn’t a result of blind, random chance or the ingenuity of CCI’s craft design; much as Katagiri or the techs touted it as being. He’d seen the radiation levels plummet first, he saw the lights and lightning forming across the mists and sky. And he was the very first to lay eyes on the living force that had done all of it.
The very same being he’d fired upon was the entire reason he was where he was, let alone was alive to see it. In truth, he’d known this for years but it was recent events out of his control that propelled him into actions many like Hopkins would contest.
“I... wanted to be a good soldier,” Sho whispered, half expecting Hopkins to slug him right about now. He’d certainly felt the mental gut punch on his own account now, “That’s why I followed orders then… and earlier today.”
Hopkins’ hand cocked back slightly and swung upwards and Sho unconsciously braced. A calloused hand both patted and lightly slapped his shoulder. The scarred face the veteran bore wasn’t stoic, but it wasn’t enraged either. A subtle smile on it was practically the equivalent to beaming in how it expressed so much.
“Being a good soldier is causing you a lot of worry, I can tell. You have a lot of expectations on you.”
Like Pentecost giving him the orders to fire upon the UFO in the X3 within the hour. The superplane was almost fully refitted now, and honestly he should have been at the hangar ten minutes ago. A few minutes ago, he wasn’t sure why he let Mei talk him into accompanying her. Now, he knew she was doing it because she detected something wrong. And he knew why he was finally having cold feet about operating the craft.
He was the best pilot G-Force had, that wasn’t a matter of bragging but grueling practice and testing. He was the one entrusted with the most powerful aircraft ever created by human hands. And he’d, even if only in the back of his mind until now, Sho felt regret for firing upon the being who gave him the life he had now.
The look in Godzilla, Junior’s eye when he flew closer at Amami… Sho knew he was projecting onto that massive expanse of amber and red, but he swore he saw recognition first seen in Tokyo almost five years ago. Ridiculous as it was, he felt ashamed.
Sergeant Hopkins helped snap him back to reality with a shake on his shoulder, “You want to not be like the brats with too much of the wrong nostalgia? Don’t hyperfocus on just following orders. A good soldier is a good person first.”
“Even if I’m acting with CCI’s latest gizmo?” Sho groaned with a perked brow.
Gabriel Hopkins picked up Sho’s dropped Super-X3 crew hat, and fitted it back onto his taller compatriot’s head, giving it a good wiggle and tap for snuggness.
“Weapons are just tools like any other. It’s the intent behind them and the people using them that counts most. When the time comes, know when to just act no matter what you’ve got on hand.”
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“About time we finally get to shoot these things!” Riki grinned as the G-Force trooper thumped the hood on the maser tank he helped to crew, “Not too late for us to rename her.”
“For the last time, we are not naming the tank Kongō,” the Sergeant grumbled under her breath as she leaned back against the hull, her cap pulled over her eyes to block out the glare the UFO was giving.
“Ah come ooon, it’s for luck!” Riki grinned as he adjusted his custom uniform cap and plopped it down on the tank’s hood, “The Kongō lasted clear into the end of the war and it took a cheapshot by a submarine to finally go down.”
Sergeant Honda grumbled again, not feeling like having this discussion again for a second time and instead just letting the kids talk this one out.
“It was a war, there’s no such thing as a cheapshot, Riki,” one of the engineers, Koji huffed whilst double checking their wiring, “Not unless you’re getting bound up in that honor-dishonor bull.”
“I’d rather we name it after something that didn’t blow up, especially when we’re inside it,” the gunner, Akane, groaned audibly from the turret. She noticed the hat with a version of the Japanese flag looking back at her from the cockpit window.
It was effectively what one would expect for a Self-Defense Force symbol, a central red sun disk with a set of red rays emanating from it. However, closer inspection showed that rather than the 8 rays and the surrounding golden border of the Ground Self-Defense Force, it had 16 rays and no border. At glance one might not notice the difference, but there was no mistaking it to someone who bothered to keep track that this was an Imperial Army symbol.
“Not sure about that hat there Riki,” Akane frowned, “There’s being a history buff, but some might take issue with it.”
“Ah come on ‘Kane!” Riki grinned, “You know I’m not meaning any harm. It’s about the history of us, not the group.”
“Yeah but didn’t you get that flag badge from the merch of that movie last year on Tojo?” Akane noted, hearing an ensuing groan from about half the crew at the memory of that biopic Riki and some of the others had convinced them to go to.
As interesting as history could have and well done as the film was, it was a blatant biased view of what had happened in the waning years of the war and shortly after. Didn’t stop it from being gobbled up by about as many people as those who called foul, nor from winning more than a few awards.
“Hey, just trying to give us a bit of good luck here trying to invoke some of our nation’s past badasses, real hardliners like Commander Aso!” Riki chuckled.
“Or jinx us with the laundry list of war crimes some of those guys did,” Akane deadpanned. She knew Riki wasn’t being intentionally obtuse. A vast majority of G-Force was recruited from Japan and that had both its own perks and its own issues. A lot were recruited young, which meant more than a few hadn’t gotten the historic insight of others.
To say history education in the country was poor was a gross overstatement, it wasn’t hard to find objection to the narratives some pushed or what was omitted from some textbooks. But to say there wasn’t a problem wouldn’t be correct either. And perhaps the manner of the militarization CCI had been helping propagate, often with nostalgia thrown back at the past in areas it perhaps shouldn’t, it had only fueled the fire. To people like Riki and those like him, the Imperial era of decades prior was a time of cool ships, big guns, and big guts on the part of the people involved. It was easy to get wrapped up in sixty year old nostalgia when the constant weapons development and efforts at boosting morale said much the same thing about their generation.
“... Should I take it off?” Riki whispered after a few awkward glances, his ability to read a room thankfully not totally gone.
His answer was on the tip of Akane’s tongue, when everything was shouted out. A deafening, foghorn-like blaring rattled the entire base from top to bottom; louder than any machine in creation had ever been short of an atomic bomb. A wave of shimmering light dashed across the UFO’s surface in increasing speed, before the entire thing started to glow bright in illumination. All while letting out that deafening bellow. It built up louder and louder, brighter and brighter… Before it all came bursting out.
A shockwave cast by an invisible hand of the UFO flattened the structures and trees directly beneath the Millennian craft; gale force winds gushed past and even shivering multi-ton tanks and vehicles back. Pentecost’s ultimatum was to be set forth in two more minutes, they’d known. And they’d known how to cast the local pest population off guard.
Communications links across the base, the few that were working, were deafened. All across G-Force’s ranks, anyone with a radio or so much as a walkie-talkie had to throw it away lest they have their ears blown out; the overloaded machinery sparking and smoking as the electronics inside literally fried themselves. It meant only those in immediate earshot could hear the outcries of surprise as dozens of Millennian Drones that had been hiding inside the buildings, the storage halls, and venerable city beneath the base, came pouring out of the entrances all at once. In many cases, a menagerie of chimeric monsters came bursting out of the ground or windows.
Stacker Pentecost gawked in abject horror as one of the entities came bursting out of the main office building behind him. Two that looked like people emerged first, with a third that more resembled a cancerous mass grafted onto a humanoid skeleton erupting from a shattering window between them. Falling in sync, the trio condensed and practically melted into one another, shedding the tumors appearing on the central form while merging biomass. Shredded clothing fluttered down and the figure flipped around to land feet and paw first. The robust arms and burly frame of jyarumu, one multiple times larger than the individual from the roadways, landed whilst breaking the pavement underfoot. Scraps of uniforms, one from every killed and assimilated individual, fluttered past its frog-like face that spilled chilled mist that wreathed its uncanny eyes.
Dozens more of its ilk joined it and immediately went on the attack, and yet Stacker couldn't take his stupefied stare away from the being before him. Amongst his shock and horror, one additional realization dawned upon Pentecost.
The window one of the drones, the one that had once looked like a person have covered in tumors, had come bursting out from was recognizable by placement and from the broken desk still visible within. Blood dripped from the broken office window of Commander Aso. The jyarumu before his contingent has uncanny eyes, and Pentecost recognized his superior’s gaze staring back at him.
Inside the CCI building, Mitsuo Katagiri’s eyes widened in abject dread. The computer monitors flashed rapidly, displaying hundreds of images and text pages every second in a manner that would be sure to give plenty of epileptics a seizure. Even through the blur of it all, he could tell what was happening. One of the two most advanced computer systems on the planet, with all of the latest and greatest remote defenses and firewalls, was being breached in a matter of seconds. Just like the best and sturdiest skyscrapers built to weather the strongest storms and earthquakes was reduced to chaff under the force of a kaiju, he was witness to the digital version of that.
All of CCI’s network was being copied and torn down. He’d opened a door trying to stop what could be a deadly conflict, only to have it blast the door, the entire front of the proverbial building down the moment he gave it an inch. And given the explosions he could hear outside, there was no way in hell this could be chalked up as a misunderstanding.
Fear was realized as his chest felt crushed in, his life's work made feeble for consumption.
There were giants in the universe that were as uncaring and destructive as the ones on Terra. And he’d just become the next Oppenheimer to enable them.
Images, a name, flashed across the screen and Katagiri lunged at the computers like a man possessed.
Across the world, creations of mankind ceased to obey their masters. Millions of lines of data ripped through in fractions of a second. It spread like a web of interconnected pathways, the internet and all connected networks synced together like a neutral network of a living thing. And the one, the many, doing it was just as good as pulling apart the mind. They’d done it before, world by world, eon by eon, to countless species. This world’s unnaturally intelligent, yet horridly inefficient species was hardly any more noteworthy than the sixtieth world full of electrokinetic fauna.
Their history, especially the most recent, was testament to that inefficiency. Weapons without a true foe. Armament in a dominion free of natural predators. This species was it’s own worst enemy. It was fortunate then, that they were finally freed from the prison of the depths. Brief instances of their awakening, when chance storms of lighting or volcanic events on the seafloor engendered enough light for their skin to absorb photonic energy weren’t enough to free themselves. A few drones might assimilate nearby marine life and a few human vessels across the centuries, but not enough.
This crude system however, was interesting. No more than a human might consider the neat formation of ants interesting as it was.Useful was the proper term, in helping clear the path of meddlers so they could focus on the true objectives. The last terminal, the one that couldn't be activated remotely that housed the major prize wouldn't be an issue much longer either.
From Singapore to Uganda to Canada, computers outside of Japan seemed to go haywire as data was absorbed and upended. Most places were hit only briefly, unimportant sectors without purpose. The few important enough, miniscule in number as they were, outweighed the worth of the others a billion fold.
Millions of codes were brute-forced through locks and firewalls were smashed through. From the Pentagon to the Kremlin and multiple others. Military and governmental operation computers and systems either shorted out or froze at the controls. Nothing could launch, nothing could be overridden, nothing would be coming to Tokyo’s aid. Monitors that could only displayed the same word over and over again
M̶̹̺̆ I̵̖̯̒ Ḽ̸̕ Ḷ̴̰̓͑ Ḛ̴̍̓ͅ N̵̠̒ N̴̮̈́̎ I̸͋̀ͅ A̶̖̓͠ N̴͇̳̎
The clock ticked closer to the end. It was December 31st, and dusk crept across Tokyo as the UFO hovered stoically above the carnage unleashed. Hundreds of bases much like this one gawked in confusion, and then recoiled in horror when their missile silos opened up on their own.
The dawning of the new era, poised to be strangled under the fires of the old.
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RIP Aso, dang.
Also, I love the scene with Riki and Akane. I'm kind of sad we didn't get the MKG fanboy too haha, but that might have been too indulgent for a very minor scene. Also, I feel like there's something tragic about the dichotomy between engaging in good faith with Godzilla and engaging in good faith with the Millennian to drastically different results.
Well. Shit just went from 0 to 100 real fucking quick. Gabe did good with the first scene. And ngl, I thought Riki was an Evo reference with how gung ho he was over the Kongo. And Katagiri realizes his mistake.
Also, will admit I never comprehended the threat the Millennians posed in the original movie. So them gaining access to the Nuclear arsenal in this take makes them more simple & drastic in the stakes involved.
And noooooooo! Don't tell me you killed off arguably the best character in this story, you fuck!
The shit hits the fan chapter.
I'm not calling it just yet, but i think Aso may be gone, if so that's a real shame.
Katagiri's arc leads to one of the few places it ever really could.
Not much left now, time for the action.
Way to go Katagiri, you doomed the planet.
Congratulations Katagiri you Dipshit you killed us all(not likely since this is a prequel but living at this moment).
If you actually make it out of this then there's no way in hell you won't be court marshaled, dishonorably discharged or out right go to prison for your reckless bullshit.
Even though it looks that way I am hoping Aso isn't dead.
Ah so the war begins. Good job Katagiri you f**king idiot...
I could be wrong but I doubt Aso is dead. My guess is that the drone tries to kill him but is stopped in some way possibly by being stabbed with the Godzillasaurus claw? Maybe he stabs it maybe Hina does, but they still get what they need from him and considering that they only need his eyes... Again I stress that this is just my guess so I could be way off.
The folly of katagiri's actions is now laid bare. That moment where the drones poured out of the building gave me vibes of halo's flood.
The Invasion Has Begun!!! So, nice to see more in-depth of Drifty’s home boi Hopkins and Sho makes a come back.
And we start with Gabriel. Do like the contrast between Kuroki and Mei.
I do like just the little bit of interaction between the three, does a good job humanizing the characters, a very nice.
I do like Gabriel knows who Junior is and disapproves, he still understands. Then again, he is a Wylder, so of course he would.
I do like that Kuroki continues his previous understanding of the situation and now sees even more.
I do like Gab preparing all the weapons he can get ready, in character and also practical.
I like the overall interactions, reflection on the situation.
"The next big ship CCI cooks up will be called the Yamato."
I really like that line. Does a really good reflection of CCI and humanity's present hubris. Especially works well with Katagiri's line on the Futurian's future last chapter.
That said, I do like Hopkins' perspective on things. He understands things better than most, and even though he doesn't mention it, there's the other stuff his family gets involved in, very understandable. And he still has faith in Junior being on their side still.
I do like Kuroki's perspective and that he understands how powerful Junior is and exactly what he would've done had he actually wanted to hurt anyone.
I like how the conversation ends with Gabe giving her a big weapon as a precaution. Knowing who he's based on, that's very much in character.
Very good character moment.
I also like the statement of him losing a friend to Senior.
Which adds to the overall theme: Gabe lost someone to Godzilla, just like Aso, just like Yuji, and just like Katagiri...but he realizes that Senior and Junior aren't the same thing. He doesn't blame the son for the sins of the father.
I do like the big question Gabe levels at Kuroki. It's a very impactful question. Also like that on some level, Kuroki realizes Junior inadvertantly saved his life in 95.
Kuroki's introspection gives him a LOT of character, and I enjoy seeing what goes through his mind. It was implied in vs Biollante how much pressure was on his shoulders, this is an extention of that.
I also like Gabe's statement about it, and his statement on weapons at the end: they're tools, it's more important why you're firing one than if it exists at all. Another unique POV that from other's.
I do like that we instantly see the mentality Aso and others were uneasy about. The mentality that might give birth to the Futurian's future. We've heard about this, it's nice to actually SEE it in person.
Also, like seein Akane here.
...And now we see the consequence of Katagiri's mistake. Millennian knows and strikes to take them offguard before they can launch the attack.
Oh boy, and we get the implication Aso's been assimulated...doesn't quite say he's DEAD, we know all they really need is some DNA, butt not knowing kinda makes it scary.
And Katagiri suddenly realizes he's made a mistake, but far too late to stop it. Millennian now has access to everything humanity has.
Millennian looks down on humanity, but only in the way you might on an insect. And they now have access to everything, effectively crippling humanity. And it is here humanity receives the name of its foe...as it turns their nukes on themselves.
Omnious chapter building towards the climax of the story. Well done.
Whelp Katagirir fucked up big time. Not surprising.
Also name it Kongo! She's the finest ship(girl) you could ask for. Ain't nothing gonna get her admiral. XD
Great chapter.