Kaiju Rampage

by Eric S. Brown

  Kaiju Rampage

  Eric S Brown

  Copyright 2016 by Eric S Brown

  Kaiju Rampage

  Captain Daichi watched his crew hard at work on the deck of the Hiroaka. The day had just begun, but already the ship’s hold was filling up with fish from her nets. Daichi had never seen the kind of loads his men were hauling now before in his life. It was almost as if something out there in the water was driving the fish his way. He whispered a prayer of thanks and smiled. This was Daichi’s first run as captain. He had feared he would not live up to the expectations of his father and let the old man down. Even at the age of thirty-one, Daichi was somewhat afraid of the old man. Though his father was pushing eighty, he could still make his words cut deeper than the sharpest of swords.

  The two of them had never seen eye to eye. Daichi had never wanted to be a part of his father’s fishing company, much less the captain of the old man’s best remaining boat. Daichi had dreamed of being a writer, going to America, and becoming a star. At first, he had some success. He had sold his first ever story to a paying magazine and almost immediately got an offer to write one for another. That sort of thing was rare in the writing world, and Daichi allowed himself to believe that he could make it. He spent the next few years doing his best. His work sold, he made money, but it was never quite enough or dependable enough to be all he did in terms of a job.

  Daichi’s father had been there for him, if at a price. His father had given him just enough work to keep him afloat and chasing his dream for a time. After five years had passed, his father became more and more demanding of him, pushing more and more work onto him. His father’s health had begun to fail with age. The old man needed someone who could take over and continue to bring honor to the family name. Daichi was the only son. He had three sisters, but his father wanted him, not them. His father held with the old ways and wanted Daichi to surrender his failed dream to step up and do what he had been born to do.

  When this fishing season had started, the old man had given Daichi a choice. Take over as captain of the Hiroaka or leave the family business behind for good. Daichi had known it was no idle threat. Either he stepped up or he was out. His self-published sales were down, and short stories weren’t paying what they used to, not that it had ever been enough. With his rent already close to being late and a stack of bills on his desk, Daichi was left with no choice. Now, here he was on the deck of the Hiroaka, doing the job he had sworn as a child he would never do.

  The Hiroaka was an old ship, only weighing in at a displacement of around one hundred and fifty tons. Her entire crew, counting Daichi himself, was composed of two dozen sailors. She ran nearly one hundred feet from bow to stern. What she lacked in size and crew, though, she more than made up for in the tech aboard her. Her sonar and comm. gear was top of the line. That fact was one of the few things Daichi liked about her.

  Natsuo approached him wearing a concerned expression that gave Daichi cause for worry.

  “Good morning, Natsuo,” Daichi offered.

  “Captain Daichi, sir,” Natsuo responded with a quick nod of his head. “I would be most grateful if you would accompany me inside.”

  “Is my father calling again?” Daichi asked. His old man, though wheelchair bound, had followed him to sea in a sense, thanks to the very state of the art gear that Daichi liked that the Hiroaka had onboard. Even in the worst of storms, the ship’s communications worked flawlessly.

  “No, Captain Daichi,” Natsuo told him. “There is something you must see.”

  Daichi grunted his consent and moved to follow Natsuo to the heart of the small ship where her helm controls and sonar station were. Tomo, the ship’s comm. and sonar specialist, was there waiting for them. Tomo got up from his station as Daichi entered. He gave Daichi a quick bow of respect.

  “What is it, Tomo?” Daichi asked. “Natsuo has been rather vague about why you needed me here.”

  “With good cause, Captain,” Tomo said. “We did not want to cause a panic.”

  Daichi’s eyebrows rose at the bizarre disclosure. “Panic? What are you talking about, Tomo?”

  “Look for yourself, sir,” Tomo told him, gesturing at the sonar screen.

  Daichi studied the screen. At first, he didn’t have a clue what Tomo was trying to show him, but then he saw it. The blip was so large Daichi had thought it was just part of the screen.

  “What is that?” he asked.

  “We don’t know, Captain,” Natsuo told him. “Whatever it is, though, it’s coming straight for us.”

  “And fast, too,” Tomo added. “It’s moving at twenty knots.”

  Daichi glanced back at the sonar screen, quickly doing the math in his head. “So we have about ten minutes until whatever that is reaches us?”

  Tomo and Natsuo nodded in unison.

  “Could it be a ship?” Daichi asked. “Have you tried hailing it?”

  “I don’t think it’s a ship, sir,” Tomo said. “Something about the way it moves…”

  “We have tried making contact with it, Captain,” Natsuo informed him. “On every channel available to us. There has been no reply.”

  Daichi rubbed at his cheeks with the fingers and thumb of his right hand. “I am man enough to admit I don’t have an answer to this one. Both of you are more experienced with all this. What do you suggest we do?”

  “Run, Captain,” Tomo said almost instantly. “We certainly can’t fight something that size and that fast if it’s hostile. The Hiroaka is a fishing boat. Yes, we have some small arms aboard in case of pirates but nothing that could give us a chance against something like that.”

  “I have to agree, sir,” Natsuo nodded.

  “The men are in the middle of pulling up the nets,” Daichi protested. “All the fish in them here will be lost if we run. And what we will tell the rest of the crew? Won’t running cause exactly the sort of panic you were hoping to avoid?”

  Neither Natsuo nor Tomo had an answer.

  “You said this thing is moving at twenty knots correct?” Daichi asked, still weighing his course of action.

  “Yes, Captain,” Tomo replied.

  “The Hiroaka’s max speed with her engines at full is only eighteen knots,” Daichi reminded them. “If we run and whatever that thing is decides to come after us, we won’t be able to outrun it.”

  Natsuo and Tomo stared at him, waiting for his orders.

  “The call is yours, sir,” Natsuo said. “Whatever you decide to do, though, Captain, I suggest we do it quickly.”

  “Fine,” Daichi grunted. “Tell the crew what’s going on and pass out what weapons we do have aboard. There’s no point in keeping them in the dark at this point. They’ll know something is badly wrong as soon as we give the order to abandon the nets.”

  Daichi paused, taking a breath before continuing. It hurt him to give up the fish, but he could see no other option. “Tell them to drop the nets. Tomo, get down to the engines and make sure we get all the speed out of them that we can. Natsuo, set a course away from whatever that thing, maximum speed.”

  Tomo and Natsuo hurried to carry out his orders while Daichi moved to watch the chaos that began on the ship’s deck as soon as Natsuo started barking orders through the loudspeakers.

  The crew outside looked absolutely terrified as they cut loose the nets they had been reeling up. He could see in their faces, even from where he was looking out the window of the small control room of the ship. The fear in those expressions only grew as Natsuo ordered the men to pass out the weapons from the ship’s weapon lockers.

  Daichi’s attention became focused on the horizon beyond the Hiroaka’s forward deck. He picked up a nearby pair of binoculars and raised them to his eyes. Out there in the distance, he could see the something massive cutti
ng through the waves towards the ship. Daichi felt sick as the full scale of its size sunk in. The thing was many, many times the size of the Hiroaka.

  Natsuo was spinning the wheel around madly, turning the Hiroaka away from the approaching contact. Daichi could already see that even with the engines straining at full power, it wasn’t going to be enough.

  Some of the sailors on the deck who had already been given small arms opened fire at the massive creature streaking towards the ship. Shotguns thundered and pistols cracked rapid succession. Daichi had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at how futile their shots seemed given the size of the thing coming at them.

  In the last instant before the creature plowed into the Hiroaka, it rose partially up out of the waves. Its head was horned. A great horn protruded from each side of its skull, and a third larger one rose from the middle of its forehead. Its body was covered in thick scales that reminded Daichi of the scales of python, all yellow and black. It gave a roar that left everyone aboard the Hiroaka screaming in pain and clutching their ears before the creature dropped its head back into the water. The window in front of Daichi blew out. Shards of glass exploded, burying them in his flesh. Blood spurted in splashes of bright red from one piece ripped open the side of his neck. Daichi stumbled backwards to collapse onto the floor.

  The monster struck the Hiroaka at a speed well over twenty knots. The hull of the fishing vessel folded inward with the squeals of rending metal. The impact was so great that the Hiroaka was lifted from the surface of the ocean and sent toppling over onto its side before it completely broke apart as the monster plowed through it, tearing it to pieces.

  ****

  General Akio watched the floor indicator of the elevator slowly clicking upwards. He felt as if he were slicked with sweat despite the cool of the air conditioning that kept the building at a comfortable sixty-eight degrees, no matter how hot the summer day grew outside. The fingers of his right hand clutched the handle of the armored briefcase he carried. Akio was not looking forward to his meeting with Director Daisuke. Daisuke was one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. He owned this entire building, and the full wealth and power of the Rao Corporation was his to command. The job had fallen to Akio to be the one to deliver the news to him that monsters were real, and they were on their way to this very city. Akio could only pray that Diasuke wasn’t the sort who took out the anger wrought by the message upon the messenger. It was not as if Akio had no power of his own. He was a general. Still, there were other means that men such as Daisuke could extract their vengeance if they felt they needed to do so to keep their honor intact.

  The elevator doors opened onto the top floor of the Rao building. Akio steeled himself and plunged through them into the vast waiting area beyond. At the far end of the room, a lone secretary sat at an antique and luxurious desk. Her long black hair was pulled tightly atop her head into a bun. She wore thick, though stylish, glasses. She looked up from her work to greet him with a smile as Akio marched towards her. The two of them were not alone. Two well-dressed and clearly armed security personnel stood not far behind her desk, guarding the entrance to Daisuke’s office.

  “Good afternoon, General Akio,” the sectary purred. “Mr. Daisuke is expecting you. You may enter whenever you are ready.”

  The two guards stopped him as he started for the door.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” one of them said, but Akio knew the man wasn’t sorry. If anything, the gun for hire merc was having the time of his life getting to frisk a full-fledged general. Akio endured the weapons search with nothing more than a frown, though inwardly he imagined putting the two guards into their place. He was young for a general and had risen to his position by killing enemies of the state, not pushing papers with his butt in a chair. Akio seriously believed he could take them both at once.

  “He’s clean,” the smaller of the two guards said.

  The other nodded and gestured towards the office doors. “You may go on in now, sir.”

  The doors opened on their own as General Akio walked to them and on through them into Daisuke’s office. The office was the epitome of the word grandiose. Large tanks of exotic fish lined its walls and scores of American comic books, framed and sealed in protective casings, hung above them. The lighting of the room was dim and twelve foot tall, twenty-four feet wide window behind Daisuke’s desk shaded to block the rays of the sun.

  Director Daisuke sat behind his desk watching him closely as Akio strolled across the long distance towards his desk to ultimately take a seat in the empty chair in front of it.

  “Greetings, General.” Daisuke grinned, flashing too-white teeth.

  “Director,” Akio acknowledged him. “I wish I was here under better circumstances.”

  “Exactly what are the circumstances that bring you here, General?” Daisuke asked.

  “May I?” Akio asked, lifting his briefcase for Daisuke’s approval.

  “But of course,” Daisuke assured him.

  Akio sat the briefcase on Daisuke desk and keyed in the three series of codes needed to open it. With the completion of each sequence, there was the audible snap of a lock opening. When he was done, Akio spun the briefcase around so that Daisuke could see the visual screen that lined its top.

  “What I am about to show you, Director Daisuke, is classified and—”

  “I am aware of the protocols, General. Do get on with it,” Daisuke ordered him.

  “These images were taken yesterday morning,” Akio said as he activated the screen inside the briefcase. It came to life showing a grizzly scene of bodies floating, being bounced about on the waves. The images were rough and shaky as if being shot from a handheld device, close up. The image zoomed out to show a large body of debris that appeared to have once been a ship then altered again to show everything from a viewpoint high above the wreckage to give it scale. From this angle, the rescue boats that were clearly shooting the original set of images could be seen.

  “What am I looking at here, General Aiko?” Daisuke asked, “And more importantly, why?”

  General Akio chose his words carefully. “Director Daisuke, the government has known of your Project Kaiju for some time. The fishing vessel in those images was completely destroyed with all hands aboard just off the coast yesterday morning. All signs point to something massive, moving at high speed, ramming into it.”

  Daisuke leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his lips. “Are you accusing the Daisuke Corporation of being involved in the deaths of these sailors, General?”

  “No, Director, at least not at this time,” Aiko answered honestly. “However, surely you can see why my superiors would want you questioned about this incident.”

  “Project Kaiju was discontinued when my father passed on, General,” Daisuke said. “We here at the Daisuke Corporation no longer waste resources on the sort of genetic engineering that project involved.”

  General Akio cleared his throat. “As you say, Director, but the Daisuke Corporation remains under contract as an advanced weapons designer for all branches of Japan’s military.”

  “I understand your concern, General Akio, I do.” Daisuke frowned. “But this corporation, as I said, has taken a different path under my direction.”

  “Director Daisuke, the attack on this fishing vessel is not an isolated incident. There have been two more inside of the last forty-eight hours and close to two dozen in the last week. Each such attack has been closer to our nation than the last. All of these attacks seem to be caused by something massive and intelligent that appears to be on direct course for our nation and this very city.”

  Daisuke tilted his head, as if appraising him more intently. “And you believe this city may be in danger?”

  “All evidence points to that, Director Daisuke.” Akio met the director’s eyes. “We were hoping that your corporation might have some knowledge about whatever is behind these attacks so we can be better prepared to stand against whatever it is once it reaches Tokyo.”

  “There is an Am
erican carrier group just south of this island, General. May I suggest that your time would be better spent rallying them to our aid than here chasing shadows?”

  “I will be approaching the Americans as soon as I am through here, Director. You can count on that,” Akio said firmly.

  “See that you do,” Daisuke ordered, though he possessed no real power to do so. “Now if you will let yourself out, General, I have work which I need to attend to. Good day.”

  “Good day, Director.” Akio kept himself polite as he rose from his seat and left Daisuke’s office.

  ****

  Admiral Travis Hall sat in the command chair about the USS Lee. The Lee was the heart and center of the carrier strike group known as Task force Gamma Red. She carried seventy aircraft aboard her, a mix of fighters and helicopters. The rest of the task force was composed of four destroyers: the USS Harden, the USS Wellington, the USS Curtis, and the USS Kirby. The four destroyers were spread out in a defensive formation around the Lee. The United States and Japan were allies, but Admiral Hall was the type of commanding officer who liked to be prepared at all times. His habit of doing so had saved his life and those of his crews more than once in his career. The last twenty-four hours had been anything but usual. His communication officers over the last two shifts had picked up the desperate and dying cries of the crews of several civilian boats not too far away. Each attack had appeared completely unprovoked, catching the stricken vessels utterly by surprise. And each attack had been just as deadly. As far as Admiral Hall knew based on the reports, it didn’t sound like a single ship had survived once attacked. He had dispatched two Seahawks to recon the location of the closest attack to the task force’s position, but they had been intercepted by Japanese fighters and ordered to return to the Lee. Whatever was happening out there, the Japanese were playing their cards close to their chest about it.

  Just before noon, a Japanese destroyer group, consisting of four Atago-class vessels, was detected approaching the task force. The DESRON closed to within a few miles and was now operating on a parallel course to it. The DESRON had identified itself as Samurai II and assured Admiral Hall that its intent was not hostile. Commander Hiroto, when questioned, would give no reasonable explanation for the actions of the DESRON under his command. When Admiral Hall had inquired about the transmissions his task force had intercepted and offered assistance, Commander Hiroto not only refused help, but wouldn’t comment on the obvious attacks occurring in Japanese waters beyond to politely suggest that they were not of concern to Task force Gamma Red.