TL Note : Highly recommend listening to Godzilla’s March while reading this chapter
Chapter 2: [G].
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
[Bhagavad Gita]
How can I convey the terror of It to those who have never encountered It?
It was a terror that was even difficult to describe.
To merely survive an encounter with It was a miracle. The most I can do is gather fragmented testimonies.
2030.
It was the year that a decisive end was put to humanity’s prosperity.
The year when humanity encountered true terror.
The year that the embodiment of ultimate nightmares and destruction appeared.
The year we first encountered G.
The loss of the two continents of Africa and Australia. The world population plummeted to one-third of its previous size. In 2030, humanity thought it had already come to grips with the terror of the Kaiju.
But that was only the beginning of the calamity brought about by the Kaiju,
as humanity would soon learn.
We came to deeply realize that we, the people of Earth, were on the brink of annihilation.
That we were being destroyed by the Kaiju.
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Hideto Tanabe, Ministry of Internal Affairs official (at the time)
Yes, it was Professor Kyohei Yamane, the strategic biology expert, who named it Godzilla. No, I did not witness it directly. The trigger was Odo Island, a small island of about 3,000 people belonging to the Ogasawara Islands of Japan. At the time, as an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I was guiding the relocation of residents from depopulated areas as part of Japan’s fortress-building plan. Ah yes, it was on May 29, 2030. A Kaiju’s carcass had washed up on the beach. A giant, about 60 meters, resembling a turtle. As if a mountain had suddenly appeared on the beach. It was a close relative of the Kamoebas that appeared in the Philippines in 2002, and was named Kamoebas IV, the 4th confirmed sighting. The problem was the condition of the carcass. It was heavily damaged. Not due to decomposition, as there was hardly any. It must not have been long since its death. But the face was crushed, the right front leg was missing, and a large part of the carapace had been gouged out. The hard carapace had been pierced by something, and the surrounding area was melted. According to Professor Yamane, who was quickly dispatched to investigate, it had likely been killed in a fight with another Kaiju. Terrifying, I thought. As you may know, the carapace of a Kamoebas is extremely tough, and even a bunker buster couldn’t pierce the Guam Kamoebas II. To kill such a Kaiju… what kind of horrifying creature could it be? Apart from the damage to the head and limbs, the method of gouging out the carapace was the real problem. How could such damage be inflicted? Even Professor Yamane, the authority on strategic biology, was at a loss… no, perhaps precisely because he was an authority, it was beyond his imagination. It was… beyond the previous Kaiju.
呉爾羅.
Gojira.
One of the island’s elders said:
“It’s Gojira. Gojira has eaten all the fish in the sea. Surely it will come ashore next.”
It was the name of a dragon god long passed down on the island. In any case, a name was needed, so the thing that killed Kamoebas IV was called Gojira, and its estimated threat level was assigned the maximum of Class 8 at the time. At the request of Professor Yamane, a naval survey team was dispatched to the nearby waters, and a joint investigation was conducted with the United States Navy. Odo Island became an impromptu front-line base… and since there was a severe shortage of manpower, I ended up as the local person in charge, which was quite a struggle. But even after nearly two weeks, we were unable to locate “Godzilla”, and the search was eventually called off, with only heightened vigilance.
What on earth killed the Kamoebas? The only clue was the report from Professor Yamane and the investigation team examining the Kamoebas IV carcass.
“Something like a high-speed charged particle beam.”
This was the conclusion about the cause of the damage to the carapace.
Everyone, including Professor Yamane himself, was perplexed.
A high-speed charged particle beam… in other words, something akin to a beam cannon from science fiction movies… such a creature couldn’t possibly exist, could it?
It shouldn’t exist. It must not exist, such a creature…
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Fuminori Matsuda, Captain of the Japanese fishing vessel Seventh Bingo Maru (at the time)
In 1999, when the Kaiju first appeared, Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate was less than half. If imports were to stop, half of Japan would starve. And the appearance of the Kaiju was precisely the realization of that nightmare. Year after year, securing maritime transportation routes became more difficult, as the import sources of Africa, China, and Australia were destroyed by the Kaiju. For Japan, which was advancing the Japan Fortress Plan as the Pacific’s breakwater, this was the greatest weakness.
The Japanese government made strenuous efforts akin to forced labor to increase food production, but the effects wouldn’t be seen in just a year or two. In that situation, we had no choice but to turn a blind eye to some dangers. After contracting in the 2000s, Japan’s fishing industry rapidly expanded from the 2010s onward. We had no other option to avoid starvation. Many new ships were built, crewed by youths who should have been goofing off in high school, venturing into the Pacific in search of marine resources…most of those kids chose being fishermen to avoid the military draft, but they usually ended up puking on deck and regretting it. Fortunately, marine resources were on a recovery trend, with annual tuna catches increasing year by year. Concern over kaiju attacks amounted to little, maybe just two or three ships a year being sunk by giant squid at worst. Of course, there were exceptions like Dagahra in 2017…we were truly fortunate the marine pollution was contained in the Southern Hemisphere…In any case, the Pacific in the 2020s was worlds apart from the Atlantic or Arctic. Those seas were infested with troublesome creatures like Gezora, Manda, Ganimes…Have you heard the stories from American fishermen in the Bering Sea? The idea of crab fishing while watching for Ganimes attacks is just insane…But I’m getting sidetracked.
The common belief was that the Pacific had no serious Kaiju, Or if there were, they were killed by Dagahra poison. Nobody could have imagined that the lack of Kaiju in the Pacific was because it was the domain of that horrifying creature. We had been fishing so carefree, right on top of its territory.
Yes, 2030. That year, ships started going missing in the latter half at an unusual rate – the 58th Hachiman Maru, the 2nd Kobayashi Maru, the foreign ship Glory. In hindsight, it was an alarming pace. The Kaiju incident on Ōdo Island in May…? No, I couldn’t have made that connection. It was thousands of kilometers away, and Kaiju don’t appear in the open Pacific, only along the continental coasts – that’s what I firmly believed. The much-trumpeted search by the Self-Defense Forces – or was it the National Defense Force by then? – amounted to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
The radio transmission from the Fifth Eiko Maru came in on the late night of October 10th, if I remember correctly. The captain, whom I’ve known for a long time, was terribly distressed. He was usually as steady as they come, a real seafaring man with nerves of steel. But now he seemed utterly shaken. It was more than just confusion—maybe closer to madness. “The sea is acting strange,” he said. “It’s glowing blue.” “It looks like the gates of hell. ” “It’s boiling. ” “It lit up again. ” “Can’t see anything through the steam. ” “There’s something out there. ” “Something beneath us. ” “Get out fast. ” “The sea exploded.” At that moment, I reckon our ship wasn’t more than 200 nautical miles away. Something was definitely happening out at sea, and it seemed the Fifth Eiko Maru got caught up in it. Back then, we figured they might’ve been caught in an eruption of an underwater volcano. What else could it have been? The sea suddenly glowing and boiling—what else could it be? Eh?
“I’m heading out to rescue you right away. Don’t worry.”
I tried to calm him down with those words.
[Don’t come]
That was his reply.
[Don’t come, don’t get close, get back to Japan right now, run away, you’ll die too]
He was completely gripped by terror. I couldn’t imagine what sight he had witnessed. Just before the radio cut out, I heard a sound unlike anything I’d ever heard before – deep from the pits of hell, yet high-pitched. My headset was vibrating. Now I know – that was a roar.
I quickly steered my ship towards his location. I couldn’t just abandon him. But when dawn came and I reached the spot, there was nothing there. Just a calm sea, with no sign of the volcanic eruption that should have swallowed him up.
That it was caused by a mobile living creature – that was unimaginable to me at the time. I could only be utterly bewildered.
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Kent-Kingsley, employee of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (at the time)
In the latter half of 2030, there were indeed numerous perplexing reports from fishing boats and cargo ships in the Pacific. The most common were reports of “undersea volcanic eruptions” – massive plumes of steam rising from the sea, the sea suddenly flashing and exploding, even in areas where no volcanoes should exist. But investigations found no evidence to support these claims. This kept happening over and over, leaving us scratching our heads.
There were also sightings of lightning-like phenomena racing across the surface of the sea, and of what appeared to be the carcasses of giant Kaiju floating on the waves. Some ships even went missing after such reports. But…Kaiju attacks sinking ships had become an everyday occurrence by 2030. With budgets tight, the attitude was “let the undersea volcanoes erupt as they please, we’ve got more pressing Kaiju problems to deal with.” How was the Atlantic doing? Was the Gezora outbreak really true? What happened to Manda? Is there a risk of Ganimes moving south? How do we handle the ocean pollution around Australia? That was the kind of mindset.
Certainly, if we connect the strange incidents that have been reported, you will realize that the “mysterious undersea volcano” and the “mysterious light” have been gradually approaching the continental of the United States.
In hindsight, we might be blamed for not realizing the crisis. If we had more imagination, we might have been able to detect the approaching threat. Or if we had more information. We learned that a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine had gone missing. But that kind of information never reached us. Could we have really predicted it? Until that day, the Kaiju was just a huge, incredibly huge animal – nothing more. No one had imagined that such a thing existed.
Lightning strikes and undersea volcanic eruptions are natural phenomena, natural disasters. That these natural disasters were caused by a single Kaiju is just an incredibly far-fetched delusion.
We were not science fiction writers or comic book authors.
It was only when Los Angeles was devastated that we finally realized.
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Michael Taylor
HSC-12 Patrol Helicopter Pilot, US Navy 5th Carrier Air Wing (at the time)
That night was strange from the start.
The sonar definitely detected three shadows.
Kaiju generally act alone. But three appeared at once.
Anguirus, Rodan, Baragon. It was like a total Kaiju assault.
That alone was almost more than we could handle. Facing three Kaiju at once was probably something no country had ever done before.
So we were just focused on dealing with the immediate situation in front of us. We had no time to worry about what was behind them.
The real threat was behind them.
The Kaiju gathered together, a threat that thry had to desperately flee from.
That it was approaching Los Angeles was something we completely failed to realize.
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Terry H. Maximilian
Battalion Commander, 143rd Artillery Regiment, US Army (at the time)
“The approaching Kaiju are confirmed as three, Anguirus, Rodan, and Baragon, or similar species or close relatives.”
Hearing that three Kaiju had suddenly appeared, I felt tense but also a surge of fighting spirit. Three at once was unprecedented, but they were all known Kaiju.
Anguirus was the fourth, Rodan and Baragon were the second of their kind. The US or its allies had already succeeded in eliminating them, and they didn’t carry any troublesome pathogens. In the control room, I encouraged my subordinates, “We can do this.”
At that time, the Pacific side had relatively fewer Kaiju appearances, and the United States’ primary strategy against Kaiju was to block and annihilate those escaping from Eurasia, particularly in the Pacific, using fortress cities like Japan. That’s why urban fortification was prioritized on the East Coast, with the West Coast coming later. Nevertheless, Los Angeles was relatively better off in this regard. Steel barriers were set up along the coastline, and the city underwent redevelopment as a military hub to enable rapid deployment of troops. Underground shelters were built to protect citizens, and large-scale artillery positions were established on hills overlooking the Los Angeles Basin, forming a deadly kill zone. Preparations were complete. It was time to show the results of our regular training.
As the three Kaiju crossed the defense line, the attack order was given. The first target was Rodan II. This Kaiju had a membranous wing, limited but capable of flight. We would go for the troublesome ones first in individual attacks. Ammunition: anti-Kaiju armor-piercing shells. Observed fire was conducted, and over 200 gun muzzles opened fire in a concentrated barrage. In the illuminated night coastline, we could see Rodan II writhing under the concentrated fire.
It was then that the operator analyzing the footage said something suspicious. “Has the attack order been given for Anguirus IV as well?” Of course not. But she continued, “Look at this.” The characteristic of Anguirus was the spiked carapace on its back. But the one that appeared that day had its back spines grotesquely damaged. And it wasn’t just Anguirus IV. Rodan and Baragon also seemed to be wounded before the attack even began. Something was very wrong. They weren’t stupid. They wouldn’t recklessly charge into a well-defended city like that. They were smarter than that. They should have flinched or fled from that barrage of artillery fire. But Rodan, Anguirus, and Baragon continued to advance unstoppably.
“All gun positions, continue the attack. Don’t let them set foot on land no matter what.”
I gave the order again. I felt a desperate, ominous presence in their figure. It seemed determined to land in the city of Los Angeles at all costs… That’s the will I sensed. In hindsight, that was wrong. They were certainly desperate, but… it wasn’t that they wanted to destroy the city of Los Angeles or kill all the people there.
They were just desperately trying to escape.
To get away.
From him.
The Kaiju that kills Kaiju.
The God of Destruction,, The King of The Mοnsters.
Varan, exposed to the bombardment, spread his membrane and tried to flee into the sky.
“Don’t let it escape, shoot it down!”
I gave the order. At that moment, a stream of pale light pierced the fleeing Varan. The light dyed the main monitor completely white, and in the next instant, the command center was shrouded in darkness. All the electrical circuits fell silent. The command center, protected by thick concrete, was plunged into pitch black darkness, but a distinct roar echoed clearly.
His roar.
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Jason-A-Moore, a citizen of Los Angeles (at the time)
I can’t get his footsteps sounds out of my ears. A sound that seems to come from the depths of hell. A memory that evokes the time when humans were still trembling apes before the beasts. Oh, it’s stuck in the back of my mind and won’t go away. A sound that seems to shake the soul. Slowly, slowly, it’s getting closer.
All I could do was crouch in the underground subway shelter with my head in my hands. Footsteps. The ground is shaking. Suddenly the emergency lights went out and everything went pitch black. No one could even scream. Then a growling sound came… I knew that something tremendous, something unimaginable was happening. But I didn’t know what it was.
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Edgar-H-Daniel, a citizen of Los Angeles (at the time)
Oh no!
Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla is coming!
Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla is coming!
YOU ARE READING STOLEN TRANSLATION. READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
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Samson-O-Grant, a member of the U.S. Army 1st Special Forces Group (at the time)
Three hours after Godzilla’s landing, we, the Delta, were at an altitude of 10,000 meters above Los Angeles. The mission was high-altitude low-opening parachute deployment. A high-altitude airborne operation from 10,000 meters. The purpose was information gathering. That’s right. We didn’t even know what was happening. Suddenly, all communication from Los Angeles was cut off. Fragmented information was coming through. Something glowed. Los Angeles was on fire. And… a Kaiju that spewed beams of light had appeared, or so the rumors went.
But aircraft approaching Los Angeles, manned or unmanned, had lost all contact. Something… something unimaginable… beyond imagination seems to be happening. Even for us humans, who had long become accustomed to the “unimaginable” since the appearance of the Kaiju, what was happening was beyond our imagination…
We descended into the midnight skies of Los Angeles through the rear ramp of the C-130 transport plane. We formed a circle, using the smoke pouring out from our feet as a marker, and descended into the pitch-black clouds. Occasionally, a lightning-like… no, an even more dazzling and terrifying light leaked out from under the clouds. It felt like descending into the depths of hell.
And then we saw it.
We were just desperately trying to survive and escape.
Many did not make it back alive.
Why was I the one who survived?
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David-A-McDonald, a citizen of Los Angeles (at the time)
From my house, I could see the night view of Los Angeles.
As soon as the gunfire started, something glowed. A lightning-like light.
When I went outside, the cityscape of Los Angeles, which was usually brighter than the starry sky, had sunk into darkness. Intermittent sounds of bombardment could be heard. Then the light flashed again. A light that seemed to tear the world in two. Like having a camera flash right in my face. I involuntarily closed my eyes. The roar and the impact came, and I crouched down to shield my wife. I heard the roar of a terrifying beast. A sound unlike any animal, one that would never leave your ears once you heard it. I was terrified. I thought the world was ending. When I opened my eyes, the cityscape of Los Angeles was gone. The familiar high-rise buildings were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they had vanished… I didn’t know what had happened. How could I? That the city had been sliced off by the Kaiju’s thermal ray…
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Andy-A-Antonio, a citizen of Los Angeles (at the time)
The evacuation order had long been issued, but that didn’t matter. It’s a Kaiju after all. Footage of the Kaiju would be worth a lot of money. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to strike it rich. Since the Kaiju incident, taxes have only gotten heavier, and medical costs have been rising. My mother was suffering from cancer. But the doctors only gave her painkillers and didn’t do anything more. Are we humans who are not needed for the battle against the Kaiju supposed to just die? Don’t be ridiculous. I couldn’t just let them be sacrificed.
It seems the Kaiju were approaching the city in a group of three. This was a rare opportunity. At least if I could get one of them… If by some chance I could get all three of them in the same shot, I’m sure it would sell for an astronomical price. Then I’d have the money to take my mother to the doctor. That’s what I was thinking.
But there were plenty of people up on the rooftops who had the same idea. People with gigantic lens-equipped devices, almost like cannons. My equipment was pitiful in comparison. It wasn’t even digital. Back then, that kind of thing was prioritized for the military, and what trickled down to civilians was priced outrageously, so all I had was the old 8mm film camera my grandfather had left me. Peering through the camera, I could barely make out something shining in the direction of the harbor.
That’s when it happened. The world was suddenly lit up as bright as day. Such blinding light, I had never seen before. The world regained its color. A beam of light streaked across the sky, and in the next moment, the lights in the city went out. The digital cameras around me met the same fate. Looking back, it’s kind of funny – rather than try to figure out what was happening, the people around me panicked over their broken cameras.
The light… Godzilla’s heat ray also generated powerful electromagnetic waves that dealt fatal damage to electronic devices. The pitiful human technology at the time, before receiving technical support from Bilusaludo… especially unprotected consumer goods, didn’t stand a chance.
No one could have anticipated that the Kaiju would employ electronic attacks. Humanity back then relied almost entirely on electronics for communication, so to lose that was like suddenly being blinded and deafened. On that day, when Godzilla first appeared before humanity in Los Angeles, he systematically devastated the city… but in reality, it was all decided by that initial heat ray.
Radio and phones were useless, and even cars wouldn’t start. Worse, many citizens were trapped when the electronic locks on shelters failed.
I was desperate. Godzilla was a threat, but the people around me were a threat too. If they realized I was the only one left with a functioning camera, I didn’t know what they’d do. I ran down from the rooftop. With the sudden chaos, the road blockades were crumbling in places, so I was able to approach the ocean fairly easily. All the while, that terrifying roar echoed again and again, each time turning night into day.
That’s when I saw it.
The King of the Mοnsters.
Godzilla.
The enemy of humanity.
His body was jet black, like an ancient tree that had lived for millennia. Lit by the flames, it gleamed with a dull metallic luster. I captured on camera as he mercilessly rained his heat ray down on the fleeing Baragon. I don’t know how I survived getting that close. It didn’t take long for the entire city of Los Angeles to become engulfed in flames. But I became the first person to film Godzilla on camera.
Everyone was eager to know about the mysterious, light-emitting Kaiju that had devastated Los Angeles in a single day. Probably the most played footage in all of human-recorded history. Ah, just as I had hoped – a windfall. Thanks to that, I never had to go hungry until this day. I was able to provide a proper education for my sons. The eldest even got a ticket for the Oratio. Not to die on the streets, but to pass away in a hospital bed. Excellent. …Except for not being able to save my mother.
Godzilla’s heat ray struck the underground shelter directly. They never stood a chance. Nothing was left, not even a single bone fragment.
Damn it.
Why didn’t I go back to my mother’s that night?
I should have just dropped the camera and gone to save her.
Damn it.
Note 1: Andy later succumbed to radiation sickness caused by Godzilla’s radiation, passing away two weeks after this incident.
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Stuart Maxson, Commander of the 4th Fighter Aviation Squadron, U.S. Air Force (at the time)
The first thing we had to do was come to terms with the facts.
Contact with Los Angeles was suddenly lost. We knew something unprecedented had happened, but we had no idea what. Gradually, some information trickled in, but at first, it was hard to believe.
A Kaiju that spews a heat ray capable of slicing through skyscrapers like butter is now attacking Los Angeles.
The information must be confused. That can’t be possible.
That’s what we all thought at first. But eventually, blurry footage started coming in.
The familiar silhouette of Los Angeles was nowhere to be seen. Like a strawberry shortcake with only the strawberries eaten, the skyline of buildings was gone, replaced by raging flames that dyed the sky crimson. Occasionally, lightning-like beams of light would be fired from the ground into the sky, disrupting the footage.
I had already ordered the pre-launched B-2s to attack. Ah yes, at the time, Air Force bases across the United States had B-2s equipped with the improved Bunker Buster II, specially modified for Kaiju combat, on standby to scramble the moment a Kaiju appeared. We still didn’t fully grasp the gravity of the situation. We thought no Kaiju could withstand an air strike.
But…before long, a message arrived that an F-35 escort fighter had been shot down by it. Its heat ray had grazed it, causing electronic malfunctions. But an even more shocking report came in.
— The Bunker Buster II had scored a direct hit, but to no effect.
At first, I couldn’t believe that report. Either it hadn’t hit, or the angle must have been wrong, I thought. I ordered another attack, only to rack up more pointless damage.
The result was the same.
— Bunker Buster II, direct hit but no effect.
I could sense command headquarters becoming flustered.
Could we really not defeat this Kaiju…?
That fear began to quietly spread.
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Greg G. Norton, San Francisco citizen (at the time)
When the evacuation order for San Francisco was issued, the truth is, very few people were taking it seriously. Not only were there hardly any evacuees, even the people going to shelters were a minority. Rumors had spread that Los Angeles had been devastated by a fire-breathing Kaiju the night before, but almost no one believed it. After all, how far is it from LA to Frisco? The Air Force will take care of it in the meantime, was the general sentiment.
We had gotten so used to Kaiju.
When the military comes out and starts firing missiles, Kaiju die – that’s what we believed.
We didn’t know the true nature of these Kaiju.
By the time we found out, it was too late.
When Godzilla’s heat ray struck the Transamerica Pyramid, and debris rained down on us, it was already too late for everything.
If only we had fled sooner.
It was foolish.
We had plenty of time to escape.
If we had, I could have saved my family.
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Michael Logan, San Francisco citizen (at the time)
When I finally crawled out from the rubble of my collapsed apartment, San Francisco had already been reduced to a mountain of debris by Godzilla. The sight I saw was Godzilla’s back as it retreated into the sea.
Seeing that back, I…I prayed.
I thought we could have done something.
But that figure seemed not of this world.
So grand, so sacred…if such a thing as a divine incarnation existed, it had to be him…that’s what I felt.
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Kenneth C. Spring, Captain of the USS Huey, US Navy Aegis destroyer (at the time)
After Godzilla, which had devastated San Francisco and Los Angeles, vanished into the sea, my ship, patrolling the West Coast, was ordered to locate and track it.
But that massive body…and yet, despite leaving so much evidence up until its appearance in Los Angeles, Godzilla’s form had completely disappeared. It’s not just a beast. It has clear intelligence. It must have realized that we humans were searching for it. That’s why it vanished…
Godzilla, which had destroyed two major cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, was recognized as the greatest threat to the United States. Finding and destroying it became the top priority, taking precedence over all other missions. Even the 5th Fleet, dealing with the post-Indo-Pakistani War turmoil in the Far East, was disbanded. More than four carrier strike groups were constantly patrolling the West Coast, searching for Godzilla. Yet its whereabouts remained elusive. Occasional Kaiju sightings turned out to be just subspecies like the giant octopus or Ebira. But in less than a year, three nuclear submarines went missing. Undoubtedly…the work of Godzilla.
What makes Godzilla so terrifying? Is it that scorching heat ray that incinerates everything? Or its invincible physical body? No, in my opinion, it’s something else. Despite its massive size, Godzilla possesses stealth capabilities that surpass even our latest stealth fighters and attack submarines. Its body absorbs all radio waves, making radar detection impossible. I don’t know how, but apart from the heat ray emissions, it’s barely detectable by infrared or radiation either. In other words, most precision-guided weapons are useless against it. Underwater detection is even more difficult. I don’t understand the principle, but Godzilla can move underwater more quietly and faster than even nuclear submarines, not to mention conventional ones. Some speculate it has a sort of electromagnetic propulsion. The point is, this Kaiju possessing city-wrecking weapons can suddenly emerge from the sea without being detected at all, and launch a devastating first strike. That is Godzilla – perfect stealth, invincible defenses, needing no supplies, and an inexhaustible arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
A true nightmare.
One year after the Los Angeles attack.
Godzilla appeared again.
300 kilometers off the coast of Washington state. Of all places, right in the middle of a carrier strike group.
A flash pierced through the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. At first, we thought it was lightning, but it wasn’t. It had burst through the hull of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from below.
Over 10 missile cruisers, Aegis destroyers, and submarines formed the defense system – the most fortified naval base of human-made defenses, an impenetrable fortress. Yet, it easily infiltrated and nonchalantly sank the mightiest surface warship, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The USS Harry S. Truman, with its bow sticking up like a gravestone, sank into the sea, scattering its aircraft.
And that was just the beginning of the tragedy.
The one that had easily sunk three aircraft carriers then came ashore again and devastated Seattle.
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Todd N. Simon, Tank Crewman, US Army Special-Formed Armored Division (at the time)
Do you know about the Battle of Kursk? Yeah, it was the largest tank battle ever fought between Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was a clash involving a total of 6,000 tanks and 4,000 aircraft from both sides. They said there would never be a battle of that scale again. But the Colorado Springs Total War was exactly that.
Total war. Yes, that’s what it was in December 2031, a decisive battle.
Every weapon was mobilized. Land, sea, and air forces, even the state militias… every weapon. From tanks to infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery, not just the latest M4A1 tanks, but also the previous generation M1s… and even the earliest models that should have been retired long ago, like the 24-tube self-propelled rocket launchers. All combined, they might have matched the 6,000 at Kursk. And the aircraft were no different. Fighters, bombers, drones, helicopters.
It really seemed like they gathered every single weapon inside the United States and amassed them there.
Seattle, which had been thoroughly fortified to defend against Godzilla’s attack, fell easily. There was no choice but to throw the full might of the United States at it. The higher-ups must have thought so.
We also had a vague sense that this was the final battle.
If even this much firepower couldn’t defeat it, then there was only one force left that we could rely on.
But that was a force that absolutely must not be used.
Humanity has gone completely mad, but that weapon is one where the mere act of using it means defeat.
…But it’s useless to say such things.
By the way, do you know the most unforgivable sin in military tactics?
That’s right, Sequential deployment of forces. Forces need to be concentrated as much as possible. Trickling them in one by one to be defeated in detail is the height of tactical folly. The military faithfully followed this principle at that time. Yes, that’s why they abandoned everything west of Colorado Springs. There are even rumors that they intentionally lured Godzilla to places like Portland, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas, just to buy time to concentrate the military in Colorado Springs. I don’t really believe that, though.
The attack began in the early hours of December 24th. The commander-in-chief rallied us, saying we would win this battle and celebrate Christmas. …Ending the war by Christmas. Has there ever been a case in history where a war started like that actually ended that way?
Our tank platoon’s mission was to guard the self-propelled artillery battalion dug in on the mountainside. You know the artillery’s nickname, right? That’s right, the Goddess of the Battlefield. We were the knights guarding the goddess. But in the end, we didn’t even get to fire a single shot. As soon as we thought the battle had begun on the other side of the mountain, the next moment the mountain we were hiding behind was completely blown away by his heat ray. Surviving the landslide was more urgent than fighting the Kaiju. Our entire position was wiped out.
Total war. Final battle…
It seems that was only our way of thinking.
For the Kaiju, humanity’s desperate resistance was probably no more than crushing an anthill.
How are we supposed to fight against that? It’s the kind of that can change the landscape with just one blast of his heat ray. There’s no avoiding it, not even hiding. When he unleashes its heat ray, the ground vehicles are tossed around like paper by the raging shockwaves and electromagnetic waves, and the aircraft just tumble out of the sky. Oh… the military said they had countermeasures against electromagnetic waves, but if you’re hit at close range, that’s it. You can’t even get close, and he’ll shoot through mountains like they’re nothing. It’s like a fight between a child and an adult… no, it’s like a fight between a god and an insect. That’s not a battle.
When I finally managed to climb out of the tank buried in the landslide, everything had been swept away in a single night.
This is supposed to be the United States’ Colorado Springs? Is this the moon or Mars?
From afar, I heard his roar.
We lost. With regular military force, we can’t defeat it.
In that case…
what will the higher-ups do?
It was clear what would happen.
“Oh God,”
I found myself praying. I hadn’t been to church in over 10 years.
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Elliot-Force, United States Army Mixed National Guard Division – National Guard (at the time)
I don’t want to call it a mοnster. Calling it a mοnster is like calling fireworks and ballistic missiles the same rocket just because they both use gunpowder to fly.
It’s not mοnster. It’s something much, much more terrifying than a mοnster.
I’m not afraid of Kaiju. Kaiju are just living things, just really big living things. A 30mm Gatling gun can make them bleed. If that’s not enough, bring in an anti-ship missile or a bunker buster. That’s all there is to it. There are no Kaiju that humans can’t kill. But this thing is different. I’ve seen him with my own eyes.
I’ve seen A-10s firing their 30mm, I’ve seen an M4A1 platoon unleashing 150mm rounds, I’ve seen B-2s dropping bunker busters. And yet, no matter how much damage he takes, he heals instantly. Why can’t we kill him? he it not a living thing? Is he not of this world? Does he think of himself as a god!
Barbara-Lantis, a transport pilot in the United States Air Force Reserve
Using nuclear weapons against Kaiju was not the first time for the United States.
Not even the first time by the hands of the United States.
In 2024, facing the monster Magma that had devastated North Korea and was approaching Seoul, South Korea, the United States decided to use tactical nuclear weapons under the pretext of protecting American citizens in South Korea. At that time, when South Korean government officials protested, saying, “Just because it’s another country’s territory doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want,” a senior official of the US Forces in Korea reportedly responded, “If the situation were the same, we’d do the same thing even if it were New York.”
But really?
No way.
They actually used nukes within their own country?
And I was the one tasked with it.
…Are you Japanese?
Yes, my grandmother was born in Japan. In Hiroshima, soon after the war ended. Yes, the first city in the world to experience a nuclear weapon. My grandmother’s mother was there and became a hibakusha. She survived but her body was ravaged by radiation…and she passed away soon after giving birth to my grandmother. My great-grandfather, who was a military doctor in the US forces, had come to Japan to study the effects of nuclear weapons on the human body. And…seeing the devastation his own country had wrought, he was consumed by guilt. He took my young grandmother back to his homeland, and she eventually married and had my mother.
He was a gentle man, but the only time they objected was when I said I was joining the military.
But…I wanted to protect my country…no, my family.
I told my grandmother, this isn’t a war between humans.
It’s a fight against a Kaiju. The whole world is united in this battle.
I’m going to be a transport pilot. My job is to deliver food and supplies to those in need.
I would never drop a nuclear bomb on the city where my grandmother was born.
But…that’s what I…
Yes.
150 warheads of 250 kiloton yield – the B-2 couldn’t possibly carry them all, and the big, ugly B-52 was too clumsy for fighting Kaiju. So they hastily retrofitted my C-17 Globemaster into a makeshift nuclear bomber.
…Indianapolis is where I was born.
Where my grandmother grew up.
My grandmother, born in the city destroyed by nuclear weapons, had her hometown taken from her by the nuclear bomb dropped by her own granddaughter.
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Keith Grisham, Military Advisor to the President of the United States (at the time)
The weapons used against Godzilla were 150 of the secretly developed 250-kiloton W22 thermonuclear warheads. The Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons, and the Fat Man on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons. Imagine the sheer destructiveness of 150 of those, totaling 40 megatons.
Wiping the historic city of Indianapolis off the map…but in exchange, we were sure it would defeat that thing once and for all.
In the White House briefing room, alongside the President and other officials, I watched the horrific mushroom clouds rise on the monitors.
Imagining the beautiful city below being obliterated.
The troops were told the evacuation was complete…but in truth, many remained, unwilling to abandon the land of their birth, preferring to meet their end there.
I begged God for forgiveness. For my own helplessness. My own sinfulness.
Ah, yes. I thought it was the end. I didn’t even doubt it.
Who could have imagined a living thing that could withstand the shock, heat, and radiation of 40 megatons?
But…eventually, the telescopes captured its image.
The sight of Godzilla roaring at ground zero…
“Oh God” “Oh God” “Son of God”
That’s all anyone could utter.
Suddenly, laughter rang out.
It was the President himself.
“That is the beast of the Apocalypse. God has sent it to deliver judgment upon mankind. It is the end. The time of ruin is upon us. Everyone, everyone will die. Everyone will be killed by that thing.”
He suddenly started saying such things. In hindsight, he may have been the first Godzilla cultist. That accursed doomsayer.
We were all left stunned. That’s why we couldn’t act in time.
“I’m terrified, I don’t want to be in this world… God, please forgive me.”
With that, the President shoved a handgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
In the unprecedented crisis facing the United States, the one person who should have been the strongest fled first.
…In the end, everything turned out just as he had said.
We couldn’t kill Godzilla, and now Godzilla is about to destroy us.
Honestly, I think his choice was the right one.
Maybe I should have joined him in pulling the trigger back then.
That way, I wouldn’t have to witness humanity’s downfall.
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Maurice Butler, Infantry, 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment, French Army (at the time)
Godzilla, who had vanished into the Gulf of Mexico, reappeared in Europe a year later. In the year since the effective annihilation of the United States, the EU had tried everything to find a way to defeat Godzilla, but in the end, they achieved no results.
The full might of the United States couldn’t kill him, nor could a nuclear attack that would have thrown the global environment into chaos. The 34-year-long battle known as the EU’s grand offensive and the Defense of Paris was nothing more than a futile delaying tactic.
What else could we have done against a creature that could withstand nuclear weapons?
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Marni Guené, African refugee (at the time)
The port of Dunkirk was packed with people trying to escape to Britain – ships, from warships to shabby fishing boats to something resembling rubber rafts, anything that could float…
I was reminded of the Strait of Gibraltar. We African refugees had recklessly taken to the sea in decrepit boats, and many drowned. The exact same thing was happening in Dunkirk.
I thought, “Serves you right.”
You Europeans should feel the pain that we refugees have suffered.
My father and mother drowned at sea like that.
Now it’s your turn.
That’s what I thought.
I felt no fear even when Godzilla approached.
I watched as the lines of cars on the highway were incinerated by the heat ray,
They were all blown away without a trace.
I thought, “That’s a much cleaner way to die than floating up as an ugly drowned corpse on some beach.”
But I didn’t die.
“Hey, what are you doing, want to die?”
A burly white man grabbed me and, like carrying cargo, he swept me into the sea.
“We can probably fit one more on this little fishing boat, get on girl!”
He put me on the small boat and stayed behind with the rest of the Europeans.
The people who let my parents die,
and the one who sacrificed himself to save me.
They were all Europeans.
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Ivan Ilych Pavlov,
Commander, 13th Rocket Division, Russian Strategic Missile Forces (at the time)
It’s not too late even now. We must launch a full-scale nuclear attack on Godzilla with every single thermonuclear weapon humanity possesses. No matter how robust his biology is, and his incredible regenerative ability, there must be a limit. The environmental impact? Nuclear winter leading to human extinction? Nonsense. We can deal with that after we’ve defeated Godzilla.
Listen. In 2034, Russia should have been able to defeat Godzilla. Our mighty arsenal of ballistic missiles was prepared and ready to fire at Godzilla. All we needed was the order from the President, and it would have been over. If not for the cowardly coup plotters and the meddlesome EU… You don’t actually believe the lie that Moscow’s destruction was caused by the misfiring of our own missiles, do you? No, our nation was subjected to a vile nuclear attack. Whether it was from France, Britain, or the American imperialists, I don’t know. But if not for that chaos, Russia would have annihilated Godzilla, I have no doubt.
Hmph. I see, if the attack had been carried out, the people of Western Europe would have become precious sacrifices. But so what? The result is the same – Europe is devastated, the human population has plummeted to a tenth of its peak, and Godzilla still lives. Fools. If I had pressed that switch, even if the outcome was the same, I could have at least killed Godzilla! You cowards. This battle will not end until either Godzilla or humanity is destroyed! Without the resolve to defeat it even at the cost of our own lives, how can we?!
Listen, it’s not too late even now. I know. I know you imperialist scum, calling yourselves the “Earth Union”, have seized control of Russia’s nuclear weapons. Use them. Use them right now. There’s still time. Don’t repeat the mistake of 2034. Burn Godzilla…burn Godzilla to ashes with nuclear fire!
Hey, wait, let go of me. What are you doing? I’m not finished speaking. Damn it, what have I done? I don’t need any treatment! Release me at once! From here on, I will take command of the anti-Godzilla operation! With all the nuclear weapons on Earth, I will incinerate that monster along with the entire planet! And then, humanity will be victorious!!
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