EPISODE 12: DESPERATE ODDS! MOGUERA'S LAST STAND!

 

“KAKATTE KO!”

 

Goro’s war cry echoed. Everything in the desperate moment seemed to move in slow motion. Salunga was still in mid-leap from behind and the Alpha Ropen was flying forth from the front. Moguera’s pointed arms were aimed at the Ropen, glowing bright blue as the Auto-Lasers charged up and the giant saw blades on its back were at maximum RPM. In the control room of Ogasawara, Goro’s father watched in wide eyed stunned silence along with Miki, Major Aso, Colonel Hayashida, Master Chief Barnes, and the rest of the staff on hand.

Suddenly, at the last moment, Moguera’s thrusters ignited at maximum power. Dust, smoke, debris and flames erupted from under its feet and the end of its short tail-like main thruster. The giant Mech suddenly rocketed upward with great speed despite its size. Salunga, still in mid-leap, quickly contorted its body to dodge the saw blades but was grazed on the shoulder. The Mech’s Auto-lasers fired two bright blue beams at the Alpha Ropen; blasting its face and wings but failed to hit the wound on its chest from the Gotengo’s attack. The Alpha crashed into the ground but quickly bounded back to its feet, shaking its head. Salunga also landed on the ground but despite the cut on its shoulder, was also largely unhindered.

Goro, looking at the two kaiju on his screen as he hovered a thousand feet in the air, suddenly said, “Auto! Lock on spiral grenade missiles!”

“Roger.” Auto replied. “Locking on now.”

A pair of red crosshairs popped up on the screen over both monsters. Salunga braced itself on the ground. The Alpha Ropen flexed its wings out and began to flap them. Just as the two Monsters attempted to make a move, the pointed ends of Moguera’s arms suddenly split open and revealed 2 large missiles with spinning noses. The two missiles’ ignitions flared on and they rocketed down at the two kaiju. 

Two massive explosions shook the landscape; their combined blast radius was roughly 400 meters across.

On one of the hillsides, the dozen Mu warriors were marching the captive soldiers from the Bushmasters, Ken, Paul and the injured Dakota along through the forest when suddenly they were hit by a gust of wind and dust from the force of Moguera’s missiles.

“Jesus! What the hell was that?” Nguyen asked.

               They looked over towards the battlefield to see the large plumes of dust and flame rising towards Moguera as it hovered overhead.

               “Moguera must have used its Spiral Grenade Missiles.” McCall said.

               “Guess its lights out for those two then.” Paul added.

               The Mu warriors looked on with a bit of concern but still had their weapons pointed firmly on their prisoners. The lead warrior did not seem worried, however. Ken, though still a little dazed from the helicopter crash, could tell that from his lack of concern that the fight was not over.

               In Moguera’s cockpit, Goro watched with the patience of a viper. Moguera’s missile hatches closed but remained aimed at the areas where the Alpha and Salunga were. After a few seconds of waiting, it seemed as though the battle was over. Goro’s sharp and determined stare at the screen gave way to a slightly amused and triumphant smirk.

               “Yatta…” He expressed in his native language.

               At home base, everyone in the room seemed to feel the same feeling of relief. Even Goro’s stone-cold father’s serious stare curled ever so slightly into a smirk like his son’s. Like her nephew, however, Miki was not so certain.

               It was as the flames diminished and the dust started to settle, that suddenly the plume of dust and smoke grew in size once more. The Alpha Ropen emerged from the enlarged cloud and skyrocketed towards the Mech.

               “Nani!?” Goro shouted, before scrambling to manually lock onto it.

               The Auto Lasers shot at the kaiju but without the automatic targeting, the giant bat swayed out of the way; effectively dodging the beams. The Alpha flew up and latched onto Moguera’s front side. Goro tried to do a barrel-roll in a desperate attempt to shake it off, but the Kaiju powerfully flapped its wings and knocked it off balance. As soon as Moguera’s thrusters powered up, the Ropen was able to knock it over towards the ground. Goro pulled back on his flight sticks hard enough that before it was too late, Moguera leveled off and avoided crashing. However, just as it was coming around to reengage the Ropen, Salunga suddenly tackled it to the ground.

               “Chikusho!” Goro cursed.

               With Moguera pinned, Salunga, with its massive and powerful jaws, chomped down onto flexible joint of the Mech’s left arm. Despite being made of mostly specially made alloys, Moguera’s arm was crunching and cracking under the immense pressure of Salunga’s jaws.

               In the cockpit, an alarm buzzed and a schematic of Moguera’s body showed up on the scream. The left armature was orange.

               “Left arm functionality is at 30 percent.” Auto said.

               “Plasma cannon!” Goro shouted.

               “The cannon’s hatch isn’t opening.” Auto replied. “The Kaiju’s forelimb is pressed on the front torso.”

               At that moment, Salunga suddenly twisted its jaws and with a series of loud screeches and cracks, it tore off the arm off at the elbow.

               “Left arm gone.” Auto said.

               “Chikusho!” Goro cursed again.

               “The Kaiju is no longer holding the chest cover shut.” Auto said.

               Goro wasted no time, shouting, “Plasma Cannon, now!”

               Salunga threw the severed arm away and looked down when it heard the mechanical hiss and snap of the chest cover opening. Moguera fired its plasma cannon. The bright colorful beam shot forth, dead center on Salunga’s torso; propelling it several hundred feet into the air before it came crashing down into the forest.

               The Mu warriors and their captors watched the whole thing in stunned silence. The head warrior still seemed unimpressed.

               “You can’t win this.” Ken said to the leader, drawing his attention. “If Salunga and the Ropen are all you have to offer-”

               Suddenly one of the guards struck him in the back with the butt-end of a spear.

               “Silence!” the guard said.

               The leader looked down at Ken as he fell to his knees. The others flinched in a feign attempt to interfere; prompting the guards to tighten their weapons’ aim upon them. The lead warrior knelt down to look Ken in the eye with a condescending yet still serious demeanor.

               “Your weapons and warriors are impressive.” He said to Ken. “Your arrogance, like all surface dwellers, will forever be your tragic flaw.”

               The leader returned his focus to the battlefield and closed his eyes to concentrate once more. This time, Ken took notice.

               “You’re controlling them…” Ken said under his breath.

               Moguera suddenly activated its thrusters to push it off the ground and return it to an upright position.

               “Auto.” Goro said. “Where’s the Alpha?”

               “Scanning now.” Auto replied.

               Suddenly a voice came over his radio, “Gotengo to Moguera. Gotengo to Moguera.”

               Goro got a little excited and replied, “Captain! I’m reading you loud and clear!”

               Onboard the Gotengo’s control room, the crew was scrambling about attempting to get things back in order while Shaw oversaw.

               “We’re pretty banged up but we’re working on getting her back up and running.” Shaw said. “We managed to re-establish coms with home base. Kiryu Squadron is on the way but you’re still going to have to hold them off for a little while longer.”

               “Roger.” Goro replied.

               During that very moment, at the airbase on Ogasawara the Kiryu Squadron was scrambling to their respective vehicles. Bri was the first, re-entering Kiryu’s cockpit, she hurried past the maintenance crew.

               “Ollie.” She called out to her AI system, before even getting strapped in. “System diagnostic, and fast.”

               “Already done.” Ollie said with its avatar saluting on the screen. “Maintenance was able to fix most damages. There’s still a slight decompression in the left arm but we are still 99% combat effective.”

               “Good I’ll keep that in mind.” Bri said as she got strapped into her chair.

               “We’ve been refueled and the excess tanks were filled up as well.” Ollie added. “The extra fuel will allow us to travel at top speed without hindering our combat effectiveness once we arrive.”

               “Excellent.” Bri said, she then spoke into her headset. “Kiryu, here. We’re ready to go.”

               “Super X-3 to Kiryu.” Akane’s voice replied. “Roger. Allow us to go in and get on station first to assess situation before jumping into the fight. Heron 1 will remain on station with Super X-3 once Kiryu engages. Heron 2 will cover and provide assistance for the Gotengo.”

               “Roger.” The other pilots responded in almost perfect sync.

               Akane then added, “QRF is ready for lift off. With our top speed, we should arrive in 30 minutes.”

               “Roger, Kiryu Squadron.” Ground control responded. “You are clear for take-off.”

               On the runway, the Super X-3 moved into position at the end of the pavement. Its main thrusters then ignited with a bright yellow jet of flame. With incredible speed it then rocketed off the runway and into the sky. The Heron aircraft followed shortly thereafter. Once the 3 super-jets were on their way, Kiryu’s thrusters erupted. The MechaGodzilla lifted off the launchpad until it reached a height of 1000 feet. It then adjusted itself and proceeded to fly off in pursuit of the Herons and Super X-3.

               Back on the battlefield, Salunga suddenly rose from ground; the broken trees and debris sliding off it as it stood and shook itself off. The Kaiju’s chest was smoldering a little from Moguera’s plasma cannon but its thick callous chest withstood the attack.

               “Sir.” Auto said in Moguera’s cockpit. “The second bogie is up again.”

               “Nani!?” Goro said, panning his video feed back to Salunga. “Dosureba i no?” (How can this be?)

               Auto then explained. “The skin on the Kaiju’s chest appears to be thicker than our own armor covering sir.”

               “Like hitting a tree-trunk with a hot sledgehammer.” Goro remarked.

               “It gets worse sir.” Auto added. “Look here.”

               On the video feed, a red frame formed around the wound it received from Moguera’s saw blades; only it appeared to scarred over.

               “Muri desu…” Goro remarked. (That’s impossible)

               Back at the Ogasawara base, Akira’s eyes widened in awe.

               “Sore wa…” He started to say in Japanese before transitioning to English. “It healed over already.”

               Barnes said. “That wound is just a few minutes old though.”

               “That Kaiju is well adapted for close range combat.” Akira said. “It lacks any long-range capabilities, but its biology has evolved in such a way that only a direct puncture of its heart or brain or a significant amount of damage is the only way to bring it down.”

               Suddenly the video feed froze and became shaky.

               “Damn it.” Barnes said.

               “What’s causing that?” Kuroki said.

               “It’s the Ropen swarm.” Barnes replied. “Ken’s initial report stated that their echolocation is at such a high frequency that it disrupts electronic signals. That’s why we can’t get a solid radio link with them at the moment.”

               “Why’s the video able to come through though?” Miki asked.

               “It’s coming through on a different and stronger signal line. But even that’s getting knocked out at times as you can see.” Barnes said.

               Back on the battlefield, Goro squared off with Salunga.

Goro asked, “Did scans pick up the Alpha yet?”

               “Negative sir.” Auto said. “Either it fled or is outside the range of the scanner.”

               “Chikusho…” Goro cursed. “How are our weapon systems?”

               “Left Auto-Laser and Grenade launcher offline. Plasma Cannon and Right Grenade Launcher have enough left for one more round each. All other weapon systems fully functional.”

               As Salunga and Moguera squared off, high above the area, the Alpha Ropen and the rest of the Ropen swarm circled. On the ground, as the leader of the Mu warriors concentrated, he suddenly smirked. Shortly thereafter, Salunga suddenly charged at Moguera and attempted to pounce on the mech once more. Goro, anticipating its charge, launched the mech upwards. As the Kaiju crashed into the earth, Goro saw his moment of opportunity and went to fire the last Spiral Grenade missile at Salunga. Unbeknownst to him, as the armature opened, the Alpha suddenly divebombed from its high altitude position and thrusted its claws out like a giant bird of prey.

               Just as Moguera was firing the missile, the Alpha latched onto the Mech by the head with its claws and pulled it down towards the ground. Goro, discombobulated by the surprise take down, screamed and still fired the missile. However, the projectile shot way off target; rocketing towards the hillside near where the Gotengo went down.

               Shaw, seeing the missile heading near their area on the screen shouted, “Brace for impact!”

               The crew braced themselves up against the consoles and covered their heads with their arms. The Spiral Grenade Missile struck the hillside and exploded. The force of the explosion destroyed the hill and shook the Gotengo violently. To their relief, though shaken, the vessel was not further damaged by the impact.

               As the small mushroom cloud dissipated, Moguera was once again downed with the Alpha pinning it; one of its talons still clutched the Mech’s head.

               “Lieutenant Kuroki.” Auto said. “Lieutenant Kuroki. Are you alright?”

               Goro was in a daze and disoriented but was regaining his senses. He could hear Auto and also hear the sound of the Alpha’s talons scrapping the outer armor as they were not far from the cockpit.

               “Lieutenant, hurry!” Auto said. “Damage level increasing!”

               A few seconds shaking his head, he suddenly saw on the video feed that the Alpha was about to tare into Moguera’s remaining arm.

               “Auto!” Goro said “The last Plasma Cannon burst! Now!”

               Right as the Alpha leaned forward to bite down on Moguera’s arm, it heard the Plasma Cannon’s hatch open.

               “SHINU!” Goro shouted.

               The Plasma Cannon fired its last blast and hit the Alpha Ropen in the head. As the bright red, yellow and green beam fired into the sky once more, the giant Bat’s body was flung upward several hundred feet until it arched and came crashing back down towards the ground. The head was gone, leaving only a seared and smoldering fleshy area between the shoulders.

               Watching the scene, Ken and the other prisoners drew a small dose of relief in the Alpha’s defeat. The video feed came back up at Ogasawara to which they could only see a view of the sky at first. Then it rose, as Moguera got back to its feet, and saw the headless body of the Alpha Ropen lying limp as a ragdoll. Most of the room let out a sigh of relief. Even the General could not help but take a deep, relieved breath through his nose.

Akira was ecstatic shouting “YATTAZE!” (WE DID IT!)

Miki was not so relieved, however. It wasn’t until the view panned back around that everyone else’s relief faded when they saw the quick shot of Salunga charging toward it. Goro quickly hit the thrusters and pulled back on the controls while also squeezing the triggers of the eye-pulse-laser cannons. The bullet-like pulses of energy hit Salunga’s face and shoulders, throwing off bursts of sparks with every impact, but the kaiju was unphased. It tried once again to pounce on the Mech in an attempt to bring it down. Moguera flew further up however and remained hovering in the air just out of the monster’s reach.

“Kuso…” Goro cursed.

“We’re running low on power, sir.” Auto said.

“I know.” Goro said. “The pulse lasers and the auto laser won’t bring it down.”

               “Kiryu squadron is on the way.” Auto said. “If we remain here out of reach, we should be safe until they arrive.”

               Goro looked down at Salunga as it stood looking right back up at Moguera like a cat, whipping its tail back and forth.

               All he could do was angrily stare right back at the kaiju’s soulless eyes and curse again, “Kuso…”

               Just then the video feed became blotted out.

               “Kore wa!?” Goro shouted.

               “It’s the swarm sir!” Auto said. “They’re attacking us!”

               “Auto-Laser!” Goro shouted as he began shooting the pulse lasers at random. “Lock on and fire!”

               Moguera’s pulse lasers fired at the swarm of Ropen as did its remaining auto-laser. But the cloud of giant bats was rapidly engulfing the mech. Though they were falling by the dozens, there were far too many for it handle. Around the thrusters on its feet and the main tail thruster they began clustering up into the exhausts. The heat of the jets was incinerating a good number of them at first, but they were starting to clog it up.

               “They’re attacking our thrusters!” Auto said.

               “Increase the boosters!” Goro said.

               “There are too many of them!” Auto replied.

               Just then Moguera dropped down slightly.

               “Left leg thruster is overheating.” Auto said. “Main thruster is too!”

               “Chikusho!” Goro shouted.

               Suddenly there was another drop and sudden boom! The left leg’s thruster suddenly shot out a plume of black smoke. Ken and the soldiers watched in horror as Moguera bobbed up and down in the air struggling to stay airborne. By then the swarm had completely engulfed the mech.

               Ken saw the Mu leader as he stood concentrating and, in a desperate ploy to break his concentration, charged at him. The other Mu captors quickly tackled him to the ground.

               “Yamate!” Ken shouted. “Stop it!”

               Ken’s plea went unanswered, and he was easily subdued by the Mu soldiers. None of the other prisoners could do anything to help either. As he remained pinned on the ground, struggling, he suddenly stopped and tried a different tactic; concentrating his thoughts to see if he could use his limited ESP ability to counter the Mu’s device.

               Meanwhile Moguera was starting to lose altitude. Goro still fired the pulse lasers in every direction but nothing was working.

               “Sir!” Auto suddenly said. “Main thruster is overheating! It’s going to explode!”

               “Chikusho!” Goro shouted again.

               On the ground below, Salunga was bracing to pounce on the mech once it got low enough. Ken continued to concentrate his ESP. For a few seconds the Mu leader was unphased. Then suddenly his eyes opened and he snapped his attention at Ken. Ken opened his eyes and stopped concentrating his ESP. Though he had broken the Mu’s focus. He was exhausted and slowly began to pass out. Just as it seemed like the Ropen swarm was about to disperse from Moguera, there was another loud boom but this time it was from the main thruster’s exhausted. It’s flame flickered and a few puffs of black smoke shout out. The mech fell even faster towards the ground, Salunga quickly seized the chance to leap up at it.

               The Kaiju succeeded and latched onto Moguera as it plummeted. At Ogasawara the feed went black to everyone’s shock. The men on the scene watched as Moguera fell with Salunga clinging onto it. Shortly after falling from view, they heard thunderous boom and then suddenly there was an explosion. A large plume of fire debris and smoke erupted from behind the hillside that they saw them go down behind. The men then became engulfed in the in a cloud of dust which obscured their view. Most of them covered their faces and even cowered to shield themselves from some of the debris. The only one who did neither was the Mu leader, who stood still focusing on the now unconscious Ken.

               As the commotion from the explosion settled, they slowly began to get back up to see what they could of the aftermath. On the other side of the battlefield, the Gotengo could see enough of what happened that they all looked on with a somber feeling of defeat.

               Shaw’s mouth slowly began to dangle open in shock, the only word he could get out was “Kuroki…”

               The flames from Moguera’s wreckage raged on with black smoke shrouding the area in a dark shadow as the Ropen swarm circled high overhead. After a few moments of everyone watching with gaping mouths, the only known survivor suddenly reared its head as it climbed up the hillside; Salunga. The Kaiju let out a triumphant and prolonged roar, the likes of which haunted the G-force members present on the site and delighted the Mu soldiers.

               At Ogasawara, Sho could only watch on from the limited view provided by Gotengo in horror. Moguera was defeated and his worst horror was becoming a reality. Sitting next to him, Miki did not need to use her ESP to feel his inner anguish. Aside from his breathing becoming a little more labored and a slight shake in his right fist as it rested on the table though, he did little to show his pain. Miki too was suffering, as she was concerned for Ken.

               “Gotengo to home base.” Shaw’s voice suddenly came through albeit staticky at one of the consoles near where Sho and Miki were sitting. “Gotengo to home base.”

               The young American operator at the console responded, “We read you Gotengo. Go ahead, over.”

               “We have our missile systems operational again.” Shaw replied. “Requesting permission to re-engage.”

               The operator turned to Major Aso, who was looking at the flames and smoke of Moguera’s wreckage, and said. “Sir, Gotengo is requesting permission to re-engage with their missiles.”

               Aso was unsure of what to think. He turned towards the General who was still looking on in a petrified trance.

               “Sir?” He asked.

The General hesitated for a moment to answer, he wanted vengeance, but he refused to let his feelings interfere. Instead of passing the word along through the chain of command, he instead stood up and approached the console. Aso watched remorsefully as Sho walked by him towards the operator. His serious stature unnerved the younger subordinate. He then held his hand out; wordlessly requesting the operators headset. The young soldier obliged.

               Sho put the headset on and spoke into the mic, “G1 one to Gotengo.” On the other end, the sound of Sho’s voice made Shaw tense up a little. “Await reinforcements before reengaging. Over.”

               Shaw cleared his throat before responding, “Roger, awaiting reinforcements. And…” He stopped for a moment to look once more at the crash site. “Deepest regards, sir.”

               Sho looked up at the screen once more as well. He once again had to fight his emotions.

               Just as he was about to respond, Goro’s voice suddenly cut in, “Don’t cry for me just yet, sirs!”

               Sho and Shaw’s eyes both widened.

               “Moguera?” Shaw asked. “You’re still operable?”

               “Negative.” Goro replied. “Moguera is gone. Escape pod was jettisoned just before crashing though.”

               “Roger, good copy.” Shaw said with a relieving sigh. “Hold position until further notice.”

               “Negative, unable to hold position.” Goro said. “Can’t explain right now but portable radio and AI unit will be on hand. I will get back in contact ASAP though. Over and out.”

               Sho was annoyed by his son’s attitude, but he could not help but crack a slight smirk in relief at his survival. He handed the headset back to the operator and headed back to his seat. The Gotengo crew continued getting the battleship back up and running.

               Meanwhile, the Mu warriors who had captured Ken group were awaiting orders from their leader. The lead warrior was concentrating his thought patterns through the special crown once again to the Ropen swarm and Salunga. The remaining Kaiju stood watch on the hillside as the swarm began descending back into the forest. One the Ropen, separated from the swarm and landed near the leader.

               The prisoners, who were sitting around their wounded and the unconscious Ken, watch as the Giant Bat stood before the Lead Mu Warrior like an obedient steed.

               “This is nuts.” Nguyen said quietly.

               “He’s actually able to control that thing.” Lieutenant Joyce said quietly.

               “Yeah, that device he has on appears to be it.” Paul said.

               “But what’s he doing now?” McCall asked.

               Suddenly the leader reached out and the Ropen lowered its head before him. The leader placed his palm upon the creature’s scalp. At first, he appeared to be petting the monster. But then he began to concentrate his thoughts once more through the device.

               Dakota seemed to notice something about what was going on and speculated out loud, “I think… it’s a christening…”

               Just then, the Leader removed his hand from the monster’s head and it reared back up. As it did so, the white fur around the bat’s collar seemed to molt away, until a V-shaped patch was left on its chest; the same patch that the Alpha had. At that time the Mu Leader returned to the group and the Ropen returned to the swarm.

               The Mu Leader looked around at the prisoners for a moment and then asked, “Who is your highest ranking?”

               Lieutenant Joyce stood up, and said, “I am.”

               The Mu Leader looked at the Lieutenant, and then glanced down at Ken, “You and your men will be taken to a holding cell in our empire. Your wounded will be attended to.”

               “What for?” The Lieutenant asked.

               “Safe your breath sir.” The Mu leader said. “You are not in a position to ask questions; despite your status.” He then said to his warriors, “Take them to the tunnel.”

               The warriors had the men stand up. Paul helped Dakota up while Sergeant Sanchez fireman-carried Ken.

               “The unconscious one.” The leader said. “Take him to the Empress’s tower. I will send word later.”

               His subordinates obediently bowed their heads and proceeded to march the prisoners into the forest. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched from a distance by another party. Perched on a hillside about 300 meters away with a pair of binoculars, not too far away from a metal machine that looked like a charred space capsule, was Goro.