Pacific Rising Page 23

  Keyes shifted in the command seat. Then, he sat up straight with his back locked, as though an arrow ran along his spine. An image of the creature rising from the ocean-depths appeared. Water cascaded over its scaly hide in torrents. The beast rose high into the air and bounded toward shore.

  The industrial building, with the missile on its roof, appeared miniscule as the creature stomped onto land.

  “The Kaiju will destroy the rocket!” Yoshi exclaimed.

  “Let’s give it a moment,” Keyes said, trying to placate the general.

  “Somehow, it knows of our plans to destroy it…”

  “This could just be a coincidence—”

  “Look!” said Yoshi. “The Kaiju is headed directly toward the building.”

  Keyes couldn’t debate the comment. He watched as the creature stomped toward the industrial building. The squat building stood on a knoll overlooking the ocean. A rocky hillside and a stretch of beach divided it from the creature. The sandy path cutting through a gap in the craggy hillside was too small for the beast to pass through. Keyes hoped the slight hillside would slow the creature down, at least long enough to allow the missile time for launch.

  “We’re not going to have enough time,” Yoshi postulated.

  Everyone in both command rooms gasped at the comment. Keyes shook his head and longed for a cigar. “Just give it a moment,” Keyes said, confidently.

  The comment appeased them, and then they sat quiet, watching.

  But he had serious doubts, and his pulse raced with anxiety.

  Keyes mused over the prospect of where Penton might have set the coordinates. Surely, he wouldn’t have armed the missile and set it to shoot straight up and down. The information that Keyes had provided the Master Gunnery Sargent would have set the target about a half mile up the beach. Now, Keyes wondered if he’d made a crucial mistake. Maybe the missile would miss the target and serve to make the creature stronger.

  The Kaiju reached the rocky hillside and stopped. It canted its head and peered up at the industrial building.

  “The missile is heating up!” Keyes bellowed with excitement.

  “He hears the rocket,” Yoshi confirmed.

  “We’ll have launch in a moment.”

  Then the creature scaled the knoll, teetering from side to side as it advanced, an immense tail dragging along behind it.

  Ascending the hill, the creature crested the top in no time.

  Keyes watched for exhaust emitting from under the missile, but nothing happened.

  The beast stomped directly toward the building. Brick shook and the missile vibrated. It continued to approach the building, turning its massive head every so often.

  “The Kaiju is drawn by the noise!” Yoshi said.

  Reaching the building, the creature looked down at the rooftop and let out a resounding roar. It turned its head and wrinkled its snout in anger.

  Next, the creature wound up its massive tail.

  The Kaiju whipped the tail with all its might, and the dense appendage hurled toward the tiny brick building.

  Just as the tail hit the building, shattering brick, and crumpling concrete behind it, the missile ignited and blasted from the deck. The Tochka shot into the air, and the Kaiju swatted at exhaust fumes.

  The missile soared into the sky and disappeared from view.

  Everyone in the command room erupted with cheers. Yoshi grinned in the corner screen.

  Keyes wondered where the damn thing was headed. Even if Penton had done a great job programming the missile, the blasted thing was almost as old as Keyes. It could navigate off course and detonate anywhere.

  He began to doubt the wisdom of utilizing such an untrustworthy weapon.

  Thirty-Eight

  Kate rowed furiously over steep waves, while Penton lay on the bottom of the dingy unconscious. The effort pushed them forward only to be driven back. And then another stoic effort would cause them to crest a wave beating toward shore.

  Once over the top of a wave, the lifeboat surged ahead. Through her struggle, they slowly crept further and further out to sea. Kate’s efforts were almost done in futility, without making much progress. But when she finally took a breath and looked toward shore, the infinitesimal advances added up.

  They made it a quarter mile from the beachhead and even further from the industrial building. Having cleared the huge breaking waves, they now undulated over choppy ocean waters.

  Kate shoved the paddles deep into the water and pulled back hard, propelling them in longer distances between each stroke. Fear of the missile exploding on takeoff had fueled her rowing labor. Now, the Tochka soared high into the air and flew out of sight. The creature stood at the base of the squat building, battering the structure with its massive tail.

  Although the lifeboat moved into calmer waters, she’d grown tired and drained from clearing the breakwaters. Regardless, Kate stepped up her efforts, anxiety fed the exertion.

  Marine training always tested endurance beyond reasonable conditioning. And now she had a clearer understanding of the method to the madness. The Marine Corps had a proud tradition of winning against great odds and overcoming dire circumstances. Kate understood a large factor, spanning generations of victories, drew from a single trait: perseverance.

  She didn’t plan to become radioactive fodder. Her arms tensed, firm, like ropes, and her back and shoulders contracted, tightening sharply with each stroke. Abdominal muscles flexed tirelessly from her physical fitness training. Gritting her teeth, she rowed even harder. There will be time to rest when you’re dead, she thought.

  The lifeboat moved further from the shoreline, but she worried they wouldn’t make it far enough to avoid the fireball blast.

  Thirty-Nine

  Keyes watched the missile reappear on the screen. Everyone sat in the room with their mouths agape. He grinned at the image.

  “What is it?” said Williams.

  “The Master Guns really knows his stuff…”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Stepping toward the large screen, Keyes traced his finger from the missile trajectory toward the creature. A straight angle, the missile would likely detonate on the target. “He adjusted the Dead Reckoning coordinates based upon the creature’s prior travel path,” Keyes explained. “The Jarhead got it just about perfect.”

  Keyes stepped back and stood by the edge of the table. He noticed Yoshi in the top corner window smiling widely. “We’re not out of this yet,” Keyes cautioned.

  “True, very, very true,” Yoshi replied. “But this is looking good.”

  “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.”

  Yoshi smiled, nodding. “We’ll see soon enough.”

  The missile cut through the sky, rocketing downward at a tremendous velocity. Keyes expected it would impact the earth at the creature’s feet. Then, he heard General Yoshi mutter something incoherent.

  Searching the screen, Keyes quickly found the source of the alarm. The creature had decimated the little industrial building, battering the brick and concrete blocks. Cement dust billowed around the Kaiju, creating a smoke screen that concealed the beast.

  “No way to determine the success of the attack,” Yoshi stammered.

  “Get me the sortie leader on the comm-link,” Keyes demanded.

  “Yes, sir!” Williams worked the keyboard swiftly.

  A headshot of a pilot flying through cloudy skies appeared in the right-hand corner, across from Yoshi. “What’s the word?” Lieutenant Commander Donovan said.

  “We’ve lost visual of the creature,” Keyes replied.

  “Understood,” said Donovan.

  “Your squadron is going to follow up the missile with a strike on the target,” Keyes explained. “You’ll only be able to make a single pass.”

  “Roger,” Donovan said.

  “Let everything loose,” Keyes said. “And get out of there, pronto.”

  “Understood.” Donovan cleared his throat. “Any word on the mis
sile’s success?”

  “On time and on target,” Keyes responded.

  “So, we’re batting cleanup…”

  Keyes looked at the screen. Dust billowed in the air and continued to obscure the scene. A silhouette of the creature appeared to be stomping on the ruined building, crumpling it to bits. But Keyes just couldn’t be certain.

  “With loss of visual, we can’t be entirely sure,” Keyes admitted.

  “We’ll do our best,” Donovan said.

  “I know that you will.”

  “Over,” said Donovan.

  “Godspeed.”

  The window in the right corner of the screen fuzzed out, and the image of Lieutenant Commander Donovan flicked off. Keyes returned his attention to the descending missile. Shooting downward, the Tochka picked up speed.

  Then, the missile rocketed into the earth, smashing into the center of the billowing sediment. An explosion erupted, blasting a mushroom cloud into the air.

  Building fragments, mixed with shrapnel, soil, and rock erupted across the terrain. The mushroom cloud wavered, then spread horizontally over the landscape and radiated across the sea. Keyes held his breath watching the fire blast, trying to ascertain its course and breadth.

  “Will the Marines make it?” This from James his executive officer.

  “A Tochka is supposed to have 100 kilotons of nuclear warhead,” explained Williams the intelligence officer. “The cloud should reach about 40 thousand feet high and extend a blast radius half as wide. Anyone clearing the target zone by half a mile will escape immediate burns, and the further they get away, the more likely to survive the radiation.”

  “So, how far away is considered safe?” James said.

  “Depending on winds… they’d need to clear at least a mile to be safe.” She crossed her arms, thinking. “Three miles would be about a sure thing.”

  “Not sure if they even got much past the half-mile point,” Keyes muttered, trying to make sense of the speck on the screen representing the lifeboat.

  Williams sighed. “They need to keep that boat moving away from the blast.”

  “This is all conjecture,” Keyes said, shaking his head. “We don’t know for certain how much they packed into the warhead. The thing could be loaded with more nukes… for all we know the blast will engulf them no matter how hard they try to get away.”

  ****

  Kate rowed at a breakneck pace. The lifeboat rose and fell over choppy waves, moving further out to sea. She dug her flight boots into Penton’s side, using his body for leverage as she torqued on the aluminum oars.

  Having a clear view of their path, she’d watched the monster demolish the industrial building, whacking it repeatedly with its tail, then it stomped the concrete block and bricks into rubble.

  A cloud of dust had wafted up and surrounded the creature, obscuring it.

  Then, the missile whizzed out of the sky with flames projecting from its tail. She pulled the oars into the boat and covered both ears. And a moment later, the missile impacted into the middle of debris from the obliterated building.

  An explosion erupted from the site, sending debris flying in every direction. The ground shook and coastal waters undulated.

  A bright cloud shot into the air, mushrooming at its apex.

  Kate tried closing her eyes but couldn’t help peeking at the destruction. The fire blast didn’t even reach the shoreline. A small nuclear warhead, the radius of damage appeared fairly contained. She breathed a sigh of relief. Further devastation ensued.

  Rings of glowing light shot from the center of the cloud formation, like branches emanating off a tree trunk. The shockwave whisked across the water.

  She grabbed the oars and desperately began rowing again.

  The lifeboat whipped across the water in futility. Outpacing them, the shockwaves moved rapidly, closing the distance.

  Still, her instinct to fight for survival held strong. Endurance for one moment more, she thought. Kate rowed and rowed, vigorously battling fatigue and ocean currents. Every ounce of her being infused into the rowing. Panting and heaving the oars with all her might, she pushed to her physical limits and beyond, arms and lungs burning.

  The glowing rings extended a quarter mile out to sea, wavered and then dissipated from sight altogether.

  Kate rowed the lifeboat a good three-quarters of a mile from the blast site. They were far from safety. Radioactive fallout would catch on the wind and travel in sundry directions. She caught her breath and then kept rowing.

  ****

  Keyes stared at the screen in disbelief. Movement stirred from ground zero as smoke and dust from the blast dissipated.

  “The Kaiju lives!” Yoshi declared.

  Sure enough, rubble shifted and the creature rolled onto its side. The beast tried to raise its head and appeared disoriented; the large snout dipped and turned from side to side, as though the creature had lost its senses.

  Another cloud of dust wafted into the air, as the beast’s massive tail whapped the detritus strewn on the blast site.

  “Yeah, but it got knocked down pretty good,” Keyes said, pointing.

  Yoshi nodded, acknowledging the blow.

  “Donovan… what’s your ETA?” Keyes demanded.

  “Two minutes from the target zone,” Donovan replied.

  “Our missile launch was a success, but the creature remains alive.”

  “We’re prepared to strike,” Donovan confirmed.

  “Move in fast and hit the damn thing hard,” Keyes instructed. “Then get the hell out of there.”

  “Roger,” Donovan responded.

  A moment later, the squadron of F-18s whizzed across the screen. The jets approached the fallen beast, rapidly closing the distance. Donovan flew in the lead, with the other four planes set in a standard “V” formation, wingtip to wingtip.

  The fighters surged downward, racing toward the target zone.

  Squirming on the ground, the creature kicked and whipped its tail, trying to right itself without success. More dust whisked into the air, but visibility remained clear. The lead jet pulled away from the others and dove toward the monster.

  Donovan swooped within fifty yards of the creature and let his missiles loose in two bursts. Motors ignited as the ordnance released from the undercarriage. The AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles ripped through the air toward the target.

  The Kaiju found his footing and started to rise, wavering on weak legs.

  Donovan’s jet pulled up as the missiles impacted the creature. Explosions burst flames and smoke into the sky.

  He veered right then another two jets dove towards the creature. More missiles ripped through the air, detonating on the monster’s hide. The fighters broke in separate directions, leaving a clear path for the next two planes.

  Emboldened by the success of the first two sorties, the last two planes buzzed in close to the creature. AGM-65 Mavericks were released from the fighters. Missile motors burned through the hazy, smoke-filled scene. The volley of ordnance pounded into the creature, erupting with multiple blasts.

  The Kaiju stumbled as the fighters tore away from the target.

  As the creature fell, it tilted its head and shot a ray of blue light at the trailing plane. The jet exploded on contact with the laser beam. No sign of the pilot ejecting, as plane fragments hurled through the sky.

  The squadron reassembled and buzzed over the flailing creature.

  Keyes leaned over and whispered to his intelligence officer: “Cut the video feed to Yoshi, now,” he said.

  Williams nodded, understanding.

  A moment later, the small window in the corner of the screen wavered. General Yoshi disappeared from the screen, replaced by fuzzy static.

  The fighters made another pass, riddling the monster with machinegun fire from Vulcan six-barrel rotary canons mounted to the nose of each plane. Bullets dug into the dense hide, causing it to roar in anger.

  A buffeting so intense, the Kaiju wailed in fury and began to ris
e from the ashes.

  Donovan led a squadron of jets high into the sky while the fourth broke across the ocean. The undercarriage of the solo fighter appeared to be empty. Keyes figured it had been loaded entirely with Mavericks.

  Circling around after reaching altitude, the small sortie buzzed toward the target zone.

  The creature staggered to its feet and canted its head from side to side as though listening for the jets. Glancing into the sky, the Kaiju shot a blue beam into the clouds. The beam shot past the nose of Donovan’s fighter, barely missing him.

  Reaching the target zone, the F-18 Hornets released the remaining ordnance. A payload of B61 – Nuclear Bombs whisked toward the lumbering creature. The bombs were 340 kilotons and over three times the yield of the Tochka missile.

  The cluster of nukes hit the target simultaneously. Bombs exploded into a mushroom cloud almost three times the size of the previous one, erupting skyward and shooting a fire blast over the tranquil landscape and ocean waters.

  Donovan’s sortie throttled away from the combat zone toward safety.

  When the smoke cleared, the Kaiju was nowhere to be found. A moment later, the screen wavered, then General Yoshi reappeared with a bewildered expression on his face. He wasted no time. “What is the meaning of this?” Yoshi demanded.

  “We had a brief technical difficulty,” Keyes replied.

  “What sort of difficulty?” Yoshi snapped, incredulously.

  “Not to worry, my friend,” Keyes reassured him. “Everything is under control. Systems are back on-line. And look… the Kaiju has been defeated.”

  Yoshi skeptically glanced at the satellite feed. A smile crept across his face, and he nodded with satisfaction. “Very good work, Admiral.”

  “Thank you, my good friend,” Keyes responded. “But this was a joint operation, and the credit belongs to everyone.”