GIGARRAH: AFTERMATH

Hatsue sat tense in the driver’s seat her fingers gripped tightly on the steering wheel, the road was long and journey had been even longer, in the distance she could already see the columns of smoke still emanating from the fires, it had been four days since she had gotten the call from Akira she had been keeping track of the attack on Nakasato but hadn’t heard any word from her husband since so she decided to go and find him, she left their daughter Mika with Hatsue’s mother to be safe, the military was still patrolling the area even though Gigarrah had vanished for a second time hopefully she would be able to get through the city and find her husband.

The radio was buzzing with reports and witness accounts of what happened during the attack and how the government was dealing with the aftermath to find survivors and plans to begin rebuilding the city, Hatsue didn’t know how close she was going to get by now the military and emergency service must have closed off any main access to the city, but she was going to try the best she would even go on foot if she would have to but she wasn’t leaving without Akira. The city drew closer the skyline was a field of smoke rising up miles into the air, helicopters circled across the city possibly reporting the news or helping rescue teams to help search for people still trapped in the rubble and debris, the news had already stated that the death toll would be in the thousands, if there is one thing people knew about Gigarrah was that whatever city was in his path there would be utter destruction and a wake of death and misery left behind, what was unknown was how such a massive creature would arrive and disappear in a blink of an eye, no one could understand it back in the 60s when Gigarrah laid waste to Tokyo the Japanese Government gave permission to the US Military to carpet bomb the monster…

[FLASH BACK]

Tokyo, Japan 1968
Gigarrah Attack, Day Eight
Soldiers ran through the park as dust and debris swirled around them, Hondo looked back to see the Imperial Palace swarmed in fire and smoke, a shadow moved in the smoulder Hondo stopped for a moment to see the massive beast emerge from the flames, black embered skin, spiky quills running along the top of its head and neck with a long tail sweeping behind it a long rumbling growl shook the ground, Hondo turned away and ran clutching at his radio “Command this is Hondo, we have a sighting at the Imperial Palace, I repeat Gigarrah is at the Imperial Palace!” he legs burned with pain but he had to get as far away from the creature as possible the radio crackled “Copy Hondo, get your men out of there, our fighters are going to take one last run at this thing then the US Air Force are going to level the entire area to ash in five minutes” Hondo acknowledged the call and continued to run.

In the air the fighter jets soared low over Tokyo, one of pilots looked out to the fires that covered the city “Shinseina tawagoto” the jets kept to formation they could see Gigarrah moving across the Imperial Palace another pilot spoke “That thing is massive” the lead pilot spoke out “Make every hit count! This is our last chance to kill this thing before the US wipe out the area!” the planes swooped down closer heading straight for Gigarrah the lead pilot yelled “Alright let him have it!” the missiles launched from the planes and streaked across the city each one striking Gigarrah in numerous places on its body, it roared out in anger, Hondo had reached the edge of the Palace grounds and saw the barrage of missiles hitting their target he knew that wouldn’t be enough, a red glow began to emanate from Gigarrah’s mouth Hondo had seen this before he knew what was coming “Oh shit! Everyone run! RUN NOW!” they ran into the city as Gigarrah erupted his beam of crimson energy from his jaws carving into the air catching two planes which exploded and clipped the wing of another the jet lost control and careened towards the city, Hondo saw it head towards them he yelled out “GET DOWN!” his squad fell to the floor as the plane crashed into a nearby building and burst into a ball of fire spewing rubble and glass in all directions, Hondo got to his feet and check on his men despite a few cuts his men were alright, Hondo stopped when he heard a deep humming noise coming from the sky he looked to the sky and multiple US bombing aircraft in the sky, they had to run and they had to run fast.

The bombers slowly approached their target position the head bomber pilot spoke to the other planes “Approaching target prepare bomb bay doors” the hatches on the bottom of the planes opened wide exposing the rows of high grade explosions being stored within, each plane and their crew stood ready waiting for the signal to release that moment before the release felt like it could go on forever waiting the hear the words, “RELEASE NOW!” the button was pressed and from the stomachs of each plane a horde of black cylinders fell towards the ground, Hondo saw them falling and the world fell silent like an inhale of breath waiting to be released the flashes came before the bangs scattering across the area then sound wave reached Hondo and his men a gust of wind and explosions one after the other cracked into the air with Gigarrah bellowing in the mix of the chaos…

When the barrage of bombs had stopped Gigarrah had vanished, no body or blood he had just disappeared with no trace of him to be found, the world was on alert for a while but the years turned to decades and there was no sign of him, Hatsue turned off the radio she had heard about the Tokyo incident enough times when her grandmother had to be evacuated from the city when Gigarrah emerged, she began to slow the car down a peered out of the side window it appeared to be some sort of block on the road caused by an overturned truck probably turned over in a rush to flee the city, Hatsue cursed under her breath she was so close she couldn’t stop now, she would have to go on foot, stepping out the car she could feel the air was thick with dust and ash she locked the car and began walking the highway looking for a way to cross into Nakasato.

After walking for a moment she came across a slope of earth that led down to another road which should lead her to where she needed to go, she clambered over the concrete siding and gentle landed onto the grass patch as she turned though her foot slipped and with a loud “SHIT!” she tumbled down the slope rolling and flipping over until she slammed into the ground below she swore again and winced as she got to her feet and placed her hand on the metal barrier which curved around the road to rest for a moment, after catching her breath she climbed over the metal and stood in the deserted road when a voice came from far behind her “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” She turned to see a black all terrain buggy heading towards her it stopped next to her inside was two Caucasian men the one in the passenger seat looked at her with concern “Do you speak English?” Hatsue shook her head the man tried Japanese “Then you will have to excuse me, my Japanese can be a bit rusty, that was a nasty fall you took are you alright?” Hatsue smiled and raised a hand in reassurance “Oh don’t worry I’ll be fine” the man spoke again “Did you come from the city because there are camps for survivors to help with medical aid and transport out of the city” Hatsue replied “I not trying to leave I’m trying to get in” The man’s expression shifted into curiosity “Why the hell are you trying to get in?” She took a deep sigh “My husband Akira is somewhere here in the city I haven’t heard from him in four days, I’ve called numerous people and they can’t help me so I’m going to find him myself” the man nodded “Then please let us help you to find him, with the state the city is in it’s too dangerous to be wandering the city alone” Hatsue’s heart lifted slightly at the gesture “You’d really help me?” “Of course, my name is Walker” “Hatsue” “Climb in, where do you need to go?” She climbed into the back seat of the buggy and remembered when Akira last called her “The last call I got my husband was at the seaside mall” Walker turned to his driver and nodded then glanced back at Hatsue “Don’t worry we’ll find him” the buggy hummed to life and set of down the road toward the city hopefully Akira was waiting for them.

The buggy entered the city but with all the devastation they had to go slowly to avoid hitting rubble from the surrounding buildings, Hatsue gazed up at the high rise skyscrapers that they were passing by some which had stood over three hundred feet had been smashed down to nearly half their size leaving jagged peaks of broken concrete and bent metal clawing to the sky above, the buggy screeched to a halt Hatsue looked down to see that and entire tower block had completely fallen on its side blocking the road “Shit” Walker sighed the driver named Carson looked at his surroundings “We will have to go back find a way around” Hatsue noticed an alleyway and pointed it out “Can we fit down there?” Walker looked to where she was pointing he nudged Carson “Can we fit down there?” Carson eyed up the alley and nodded “Will be a bit snug but yeah sure” the buggy reversed and turned facing the new route and Carson began to slowly lead the buggy down it, moving slowly the buggy was a couple of feet from the side of the alley walls, Carson turned to Hatsue “So how come your Husband was in the city?” She replied “I took our daughter Mika to my mother’s for a week she lives in a small village on the other side of Japan so we see her only occasionally, Akira sadly had to work but he was planning on meeting there for the last few days that’s when it all happened” she glanced at the men’s uniforms and noticed that they didn’t appear like regular military “May I ask your uniforms don’t seem like US military” Walker smirked “No we’re not, our division is part of the MFD” Hatsue recognised the acronym “The Mega-Fauna Division?” Walker continued “Yes, we try to track and monitor any of the Mega-Fauna across the world and by doing so try to gain scientific information on them to help keep them from causing destruction…” as they came out of the alley they found more buildings destroyed charred from Gigarrah’s hyper beam attack “…But Gigarrah…is something different, he arrives without warning than vanishes without out a trace, makes it impossible to track him” “It would explain how he destroyed Nakasato so quickly” Hatsue replied, Carson nodded “On the scene we got witness accounts stating that he came from the sea this time down the shipping port…”

[FLASH BACK]

Nakasato City, Japan

Gigarrah Second Emergence

Four Days Ago

The port was busy today three massive tankers were docked and being loaded and a fourth was slowly making it way in, Nagisa was supervising the loading of the cargo containers from the deck of one of the ships, the ship’s captain approached from behind “So how’s it coming Nagisa?” Nagisa looked over his shoulder “Everything is on schedule give it another hour and we will be ready to disembark” the captain nodded “Excellent, excellent let me know when we are fully loaded” “Will do sir” the captain patted him on the back and returned to the bridge, Nagisa looked back to the manifest to keep up with the record.

The crane operator handled the joysticks with care making sure the movements of the container were slow and steady, the crane moved over the tanker he could see the ship’s officer Nagisa signal to him the ok to lower the container down but something caught his eye of in the ocean it look as if the water was glowing, Nagisa heard a peculiar noise coming from the ocean he turned to see in the distance near the oncoming tanker that the surrounding water was glowing red “What the hell?” he whispered, the captain emerged from the bridge one deck above him “Nagisa! Are you seeing this?!” “I am Captain!” he shouted in reply “What in god’s name is it?!” Nagisa replied back to the captain’s question “I have no idea sir!” everyone on the ship and the docks gathered to see the strange glow in the water the oncoming tanker appeared to maintaining its course when all of a sudden a massive plume of water erupted sending the tanker upwards then crashing back down into the sea and with a massive groan of twisting metal it was split into two, Nagisa couldn’t believe what he had just seen it must have been some sort of explosion, maybe the tanker carrying hazardous material which ignited but Nagisa still didn’t understand the red glow.

Everyone continued watching the scene of disaster alarms even began to ring out, Nagisa then noticed something the glow that was coming from the water was starting to move and it was coming their way, Nagisa hit the alarm and yelled to the captain “SIR WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” the captain nodded and ran into the bridge and yelled at the crew “EVERYONE MOVE IT GOT OFF THE SHIP, NOW!” the crew began running from the ship onto the docks and away from the oncoming threat, Nagisa made sure the crew left then saw the red glow approaching the ship as it got closer the water began to bulge there was something alive under the surface he had to leave and fast, he ran down the ramp and saw many of the crew watching he waved and yelled at them “GO RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!” as he ran onto the docks he heard the groaning of metal again he glanced back to see the tanker begin to rise up slowly followed by a loud inhuman roar “Oh shit!” he barked as he kept running, suddenly rain began to fall Nagisa knew it was water from the ocean raining down but he refused to look back, a shadow passed over him and the fleeing crowd then the tanker came crashing down onto a nearby warehouse, Nagisa stopped in his tracks and altered direction to go around the wreckage when all of a sudden the ground shook, shook from footsteps, something had come out of the ocean but Nagisa didn’t want to look back he kept running as fast as he could, there was group of buildings and storages house to his right which had another tanker docked alongside them, there was a flash of red and the buildings and the tanker erupted into an explosive cascade of fire, Nagisa could feel the heat but kept his focus on the rest of the crowd trying to escape when in a blink there was another flash of red and the ground shattered into dust and the fleeing people reduced to ashes, the sheer force of the blast Nagisa was kicked into the air and slammed into the ground hard, as he lay there he felt the ground shake to the sound of colossal footstep his vision blurred from the injury he could see a massive creature head into Nakasato, the beast let out a roar and the city began to scream Nagisa fell to blackness.

Nagisa would be found two days later, luckily alive.

The trio had finally arrived at the seaside mall; the forward operating base that was stationed was still operational after the attack, battered but operational, Walker climbed out of the buggy and helped Hatsue out of her seat and they made their way towards the base, Walker found one of the soldiers “Agent Walker of the MFD, what is the situation?” the soldier was still a bit shaken “The area is still hot from the attack but bio-units are almost done” Walker nodded “Good as soon as we can get there we can gather as much information as we can” the soldier replied “We will have an escort team ready for you” Walker looked to Hatsue “Good, another thing this woman is looking for her husband last time she heard he was here” Hatsue got her phone out and looked up a picture of Akira and showed it to the soldier “His name is Akira Takahashi he was here four days ago after a car crash” the soldier looked at the picture and recognised the face “Yeah, yeah I remember him he was one of the last of the evacuees to arrive” Walker replied “Did he get onto any evac transports?” the soldier shook his head “No the last one had to leave when Gigarrah attacked the last I saw he ran off into the city” Hatsue looked panicked “Wait! He ran into the city? Why?” the soldier shrugged “I don’t know but there was too much going on that everything was just in complete chaos maybe he thought he could find shelter elsewhere” the soldier pointed into the base “I’d speak to Lieutenant Takarada he might know more about your husband” Hatsue was handed back her phone “Thank you” they proceeded inside the mall.

The mall interior was bustling with soldiers and military staff, Walker strode over to a group of men “I’m looking for Lieutenant Takarada” the men pointed to a man who was leaning over a map of the city Walker wandered over to him “Lieutenant Takarada?” Takarada turned around to face him Walker reached out a hand “Agent Walker of the Mega-Fauna Division” the men shook hands “How can I help you Agent Walker?” Walker gestured to Hatsue “This is Hatsue Takahashi, her husband was here in the city when the attack happened, we’re trying to find him” Hatsue held out the photo on her phone “His name is…” Takarada interrupted “Akira?” Hatsue was surprised at hearing the name she stepped in closer to the man “You know him?” he nodded “Yes, we found him wandering alone through the city and we escorted him part way to help him reach here, I saw him again later when we attacked Gigarrah before he disappeared” Walker looked inquisitively “Wait he was at the attack?” Takarada nodded again “It was quite unusual…”

[FLASH BACK]

Nakasato City, Japan

Gigarrah Attack

Four Days Ago

Tanks thundered down the street the ocean alongside was filled with numerous Naval ships, Takarada looked at his men they looked defeated and broken but he knew that they had to keep going they had to stop this thing they couldn’t allow another incident like Tokyo, the battalion came to a halt Takarada was met with the Sergeant Major “How did it go Lieutenant?” Takarada sighed with exhaustion “We threw everything at that thing, we couldn’t even put a scratch on it…what the hell are we dealing with sir?” the Sergeant turned and looked out to the ocean “You’ve heard the stories about Gigarrah, accounts stated that the forces back in the 60s unleashed hell upon it but nothing hurt it, in fact it only seemed to piss it off more” “So what do we do now?” the Lieutenant replied, the Sergeant Major turned back to face him “This FOB is the only one left with civilians to evacuate and that bastard is bearing down on us as we speak, we need to head back into the city and hold the line until the civilian vehicles are clear, we will get artillery support from the fleet to hold him back” Takarada nodded sternly the Sergeant patted him on the shoulder and climbed onto one of the tanks to talk to all the forces “Now I  know we’ve taken heavy casualties and it seems hopeless at this point but we have a duty to make sure that these civilians get to safety, now Gigarrah is heading this way and we need unleash everything to keep him at bay, now let’s move out!” the tanks and troops began to move towards the city in a last ditch effort to stop Gigarrah.

The Naval ships opened fire tanks boomed, the beast roared and the soldiers screamed “TAKE COVER!” that flash of red and then silence, Takarada was lying face down in the street his ears rang he could hear muffled voices and low intense growling, he clambered to his feet and look about his surroundings the ground was shattered and burnt black he noticed that several of the 295 BTN. were charred husks of ash caught in the devastation of Gigarrah’s crimson energy attack, something caught Takarada’s eye he saw a man step out from an alleyway across the road the man stepped over the bodies of the soldiers and passed the melted carcasses of several tanks, the Lieutenant realised who it was, it was the man he and his platoon found in the city who was looking for the FOB to try and get back to his family, he saw Akira stand in the middle of the street then heard the sound of rumbling from up the street Gigarrah emerged from the dust and smoke and let out a loud roar, looking back to Akira he saw that the man had his arms opened wide “What the hell is he doing?” Gigarrah began making a shrieking noise Takarada was concerned as the creature began to glow again, Takarada began to gather up the surviving soldiers “Move, move! We need to get out of here now!” he and his men ran completely forgetting about Akira…

“As we ran there was this horrible cracking noise then Gigarrah shrieked out a roar then we reached the FOB and waiting for the end to come but it never did, he was gone” he looked to Hatsue “About ten minutes your husband appeared with a severe burn on his arm” Hatsue replied with worry in her voice “Was he alright?” Takarada replied “He was oddly calm about it, but we sent him to a medic site we set up after the attack it’s about a mile away down by the park” Walker spoke “Is he still there?” Takarada nodded “He should be being that close to the site he was sent for decontamination which is a four day schedule so he won’t be released until tomorrow” Walker looked to Hatsue with a smile “Excellent we can set off straight away” Hatsue headed towards the buggy as Walker was about to walk away Takarada stopped “Actually there is something else, I just received word from the bio-units and they say that there is something that we need see” “Did they say what?” Walker questioned “No but they sounded freaked out” Walker nodded “Alright, give me a moment please” he walked out the FOB and spoke to Carson and Hatsue “I’m sorry but I’ve got business to attend to here Carson would you take Mrs Takahashi to the medical site?” “Sure thing” Carson answered Walker looked to Hatsue “Take care Hatsue” Hatsue smiled “You too and thank you for helping me” Walker head back to the base, Hatsue got into the front passenger seat and Carson revved up the engine and the buggy drove off into the direction of the park.

The wind swept through Hatsue’s hair as the buggy weaved through the city; her stomach was in a bit of a flutter at the thought of seeing Akira again and to know that he was alright, as they made their way the passed by several rescue teams helping survivors who were trapped Hatsue thought it was even though people were being rescued it would be a long time before this city was going to recover from this tragedy, Carson leaned over “The park is coming up” Hatsue nodded as they turned a corner and saw the park, the park was on the edge of the city and the visitor centre had been transformed into a medical facility for injured soldiers and civilians after Gigarrah vanished, the buggy pulled up outside and Hatsue and Carson climbed out and slowly approached the entrance a woman in hospital scrubs was outside Hatsue approached her “Excuse me can you help me, I believe that my husband is here his name is Akira Takahashi” the woman looked to Hatsue and nodded “Ah yes he’s here, if you follow me I will take you to him” Hatsue smiled “Oh thank you, thank you so much” she and Carson followed the woman inside, machines beeped and doctors were wandering around checking on several patients a mix of civilian and military those lucky enough to survive an encounter with Gigarrah, as they wandered through Hatsue saw a familiar face sitting on the edge of a bed “Akira? AKIRA!!!” she rushed towards him, he turned to see his wife heading towards him and he smiled and teared slightly “Hatsue?” he stood up and the two hugged each other tightly, Hatsue looked at Akira whose left arm was bandaged up “Are you alright? Is your arm ok?” Akira replied “It hurts but the doctors said that it will recover, may take a long time though” he hugged her again “My god I thought I’d never see you again…Mika? How’s Mika?” Hatsue wiped away a tear “She’s fine, my mother has got her, I’ve come to take you home” Akira smiled “I still can’t believe that you’re here, there’s so much I need to talk to you about” Carson had to interject the moment “Actually that’s also why I’m here, we heard from Lieutenant Takarada that you where there when Gigarrah disappeared” Akira looked to Carson and chuckled “No he didn’t disappear he became so much more…”

Walker and Takarada walked up the battered charred streets they looked at all the destruction all around them Takarada spoke out “The bio-units said they had to wait for the site to cool apparently Gigarrah’s vanishing act seems to leave behind a mass amount of intense heat” Walker added “Explains why everything is twisted and melted” Takarada nodded “But it’s what they found at the site that seems to have put them on edge” they clambered up the peak of rubble and look down into a crater made by Gigarrah, Walker gasped “Oh my god!” inside the crater was a massive charred husk of Gigarrah men in hazmat suits were taking samples from the burnt remains as the two men stood looking down at the site in shock “This is impossible! Is he dead?”

Akira was sat upright on the edge of the bed and looked to his wife and Carson “You need to know what I saw” Carson stepped closer curiously “You saw it didn’t you? You saw what happened to Gigarrah” Akira nodded “It was powerful, pure unbridled power” Hatsue sat next to her husband and placed a hand gently on his lap “Sweetheart what did you see?” he looked at her with an expression of love and wonder he smile “Hatsue, I saw a god…”

[FLASH BACK]

Nakasato City, Japan

Gigarrah Disappearance

Four Days Ago

Akira stood looking at the colossal beast looming in the distance, he felt an overwhelming feeling of humility being in the shadow of Gigarrah, this wasn’t some mindless animal this was a creature of immense strength and power, the body of Gigarrah began to writhe cracks ruptured and glowed a violent red and let out a loud shrieking noise then slammed it’s front limbs hard into the ground and roared again, from behind Akira could hear the remaining soldiers fleeing the area but not him he wanted to see this, Gigarrah slumped down onto the ground and his back arched upward along with a horrible cracking noise, Akira stood in awe at the sight as the beast’s back burst open an emerging was being of bright crimson light it looked like Gigarrah but slender and the red flesh was translucent with the skeleton showing through and the light within was pulsing slowly, it let out an ear piercing shriek it crouched onto the ground arching its back again as shards of light emerged like great wings debris around Gigarrah began to rise slowly into the air as the buildings and lamp posts began to melt from immense heat, Akira raised his left arm to try shield his eyes from the light but he could feel his arm tingling from the heat he winced from the pain but he couldn’t turn away this was Gigarrah’s truest form a celestial being from another realm, to put it simple this is what a god looked like. With another loud shriek the god form began to rise into the air, the ground trembled violently Akira struggled to keep his balance but he watched the angelic creature ascend into the air and as it roared the being faded away into nothing, Akira was left in an eerie silence he could understand what he saw, he just witnessed something impossible all he could do was to turn a walk away.

As they began to make their way out Hatsue took her husband by the arm “Come on my love let’s go home” Akira was still reminiscing about his ordeal “It was the purest sight I’ve ever seen, amidst all the death and destruction from a monster was born a god, that’s what Gigarrah is…a celestial being that comes to this world in a fury of rage and hate and when it’s done it ascends back into the heavens and there it waits in a slumber until its ready to smite our world once more, it’s nothing short of beautiful, utter chaotic beauty” he took Carson by his shoulder “You have to tell them, tell them that we are dealing with more than monsters…we are witnessing the might of gods”

END