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    Daikaiju Attack
    Daikaiju Attack
    Daikaiju Attack
    Ebook286 pages5 hours

    Daikaiju Attack

    By Stephen D. Sullivan

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    About this ebook

    It’s 1966. The Space Race has blasted off, the Cold War is heating up, and Giant Monsters are attacking Japan!

    News photographer Akiko Natsuke’s life fell apart when she caught her boyfriend cheating. But she didn’t expect that night would literally herald the End of the World -- not until she found the creature lurking in the meteor crater. Now Japan’s top scientists and military brass are racing to protect the country from rampaging monsters, while Akiko finds herself caught between salvaging her personal life ... and saving the world.

    Harkening back to the glory days of Japanese kaiju (rubber monster suit) films, Daikaiju Attack is filled with action, drama, rock and roll, and -- of course -- Giant Monsters. Fans of the classic Godzilla movies are sure to enjoy this fast-paced novel!

    Stephen D. Sullivan's giant monsters leave a devastating mark on Japan, and Daikaiju Attack will leave a satisfied mark on its readers! -- Derek M. Koch, Monster Kid Radio

    Stephen D. Sullivan is the award-winning author of dozens of novels and stories, including trilogies for Legend of the Five Rings, Spider Riders, and Dragonlance.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephen D. Sullivan
    Release dateMay 13, 2014
    ISBN9781311274304
    Daikaiju Attack
    Author

    Stephen D. Sullivan

    Stephen D. Sullivan has written more than 50 books across many genres: fantasy, SF, horror, detective, movie adaptations, and more. Readers the world over enjoy his fast-moving prose style and hard-hitting action sequences. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the 2016 Scribe Award for his horror-comedy novel, Manos: The Hands of Fate.Not sure where to start? Try these:NEW! Manos: Talons of FateBEST SELLER: Manos: The Hands of Fate (2016 Scribe Award Winner)HORROR & MONSTERS: Daikaiju AttackFANTASY: Tournament of Death novelsSCIENCE FICTION: Heart of Steam & RustADULT: Elf Erotica (Elf Princess on Mars)OVERVIEW: Martian Knights & Other TalesThere are plenty of others to choose from, too. (Including some books from other authors published by Steve's Company, Walkabout Publishing.)Browse! Buy! Enjoy!

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      Book preview

      Daikaiju Attack - Stephen D. Sullivan

      CONTENTS

      DAIKAIJU ATTACK

      1. The Meteor Shower

      2. The Meteorite

      3. The Mystery

      4. The Test Reactor

      5. Doctor Shimura’s Flight

      6. The Morning News

      7. The Airport Prophecies

      8. X-Base Besieged

      9. X-Base Attacked

      10. Adam Takes Flight

      11. Beauty and the Beach

      12. The Man of Stone

      13. Monster Beach Party

      14. A Survivor’s Tale

      15. Terror on the Beach

      16. Flight for Life

      17. Surveying the Damage

      18. A Deadly Distraction

      19. Path of Destruction

      20. Nightmares at Home

      21. Doctor Shimura’s Press Conference

      22. Visions of Destruction

      23. Waiting for Disaster

      24. The Tottori Gambit

      25. The Package

      26. The Fires of Hiroshima

      27. Deathtrap in Tottori

      28. Buried and Burned

      29. Pursued by a Nightmare

      30. Flee or Die

      31. The Final Decoy

      32. Last Flight

      33. In the Path of Goragon

      34. Casualties of War

      35. Last Chance

      36. The Final Reckoning

      37. Fallout

      38. Concluding Reports

      Afterword

      About the Story

      About the Author

      Music to Read By

      Movies for Inspiration

      * * *

      DAIKAIJU ATTACK

      ~ Goragon vs. Taishen ~

      Stephen D. Sullivan

      1. The Meteor Shower

      ~ July, 1966 – Near Sunset ~

      Akiko Natsuke had never walked out on a posh party before—or on a photo assignment, for that matter—but she supposed there had to be a first time for everything. To her right, just out her driver’s-side door, the Seto Sea whispered seductively, offering quick, cold release from her heartbreak.

      She rubbed the back of her fist across her eyes, smearing away her tears, and continued driving down the seaside highway. She knew she’d just ruined her makeup, but she didn’t care. She only wished that she could wipe away the memories of tonight as easily.

      No matter how hard she tried to forget, the terrible image still burned in her brain: Shinobu Shindo, her boyfriend of two years, in the bathroom of the Tadaka beach house, his half-naked body entwined by the pale limbs of Rika Tadaka, starlet on the rise.

      I wish I’d never opened that bathroom door! Akiko thought. Why didn’t I knock first?

      She choked back a sob, pulled over to the shoulder of the road, and stopped the car, yanking the parking brake so hard that her hand hurt. It would have been so easy not to stop, to run her sporty convertible through the flimsy guardrail and then over the side of the cliff into the surf below...

      But, no. Akiko was stronger than that. She wouldn’t give Shinobu—or that tramp—the satisfaction.

      The newspapers, even the Tribune, where Akiko worked, painted Miss Tadaka as pure and innocent; that was part of her appeal.

      Ha!

      Some innocent! Making love to another girl’s fiancé in the bathroom of her own father’s beach house—and in the middle of a publicity tour party, no less.

      Well, Akiko would see that Rika got plenty of press coverage—just not the kind that little witch wanted. Aki only wished she’d had the presence of mind to snap a picture of the two of them in the act before storming off. After all, the Tribune had sent her to the party to take pictures.

      But when she accidentally stumbled across a big scoop—Virginal Starlet Caught in Love Nest—what did she do? She ran off crying, like some middle-school girl. Sure, Shinobu’s betrayal was heart rending, but…

      "Some photojournalist you are!" Akiko sobbed, resting her forehead against the steering wheel of her Fairlady 1500. The red plastic felt cool, almost soothing, against her skin.

      Her mother had warned her that Shinobu Shin Shindo would never work out. Never date a reporter, Mama had said, "and never anyone you work with." It looked like Mama Natsuke had been right on both counts. Akiko could almost hear the I told you so already.

      Aki lifted her head from the steering wheel, her tear-blurred eyes lighting briefly on the ring circling the middle finger of her left hand: a golden band set with a beautiful white pearl.

      Just a token, Shin had promised her. I’ll get you a proper engagement ring when my raise comes through.

      Well, he’d gotten a raise tonight, all right...

      Angrily, Akiko stomped out of the car and pulled the ring from her finger.

      With all her might, she threw the golden circlet as far as she could past the roadside cliff face and out over the sea.

      For a moment, the ring caught the light of the setting sun and shimmered like a star as it fell. It looked almost... beautiful. Then it vanished into the deepening twilight—just like her relationship with Shin.

      Memories of two wasted years—memories that would have seemed happy just yesterday—welled up inside Akiko, and tears budded in her eyes once more. What a fool she’d been!

      She should have seen the signs, should have noticed the way Shin paid extra attention to the ladies when the two of them were out on assignment together.

      But, wasn’t that his job, to flatter the starlets so he could get a good story and Akiko could get good pictures?

      Aki looked at the camera outfit lying on the passenger seat, thinking of the pictures she’d taken of that hussy Rika earlier in the evening. Aki felt half tempted to throw the whole case into the surf after the ring.

      But, no.

      Even if she and Shin were through, she still needed her job at the Kobe Tribune. How else could she keep her apartment? If she quit—or got fired for throwing the newspaper’s expensive camera into the ocean—she’d have to move back to Shirahama to live with her mother, and that was the last thing Aki wanted right now.

      She blinked back her tears, and the droplets sparkled on the edge of her lashes—looking like more falling stars in the darkness.

      No … Wait … it wasn’t only her tears...

      Those were stars, just winking to life in the cerulean sky … Falling stars!

      Akiko smeared away her tears with the back of her hand again.

      This was amazing!

      Bright streaks of orange, white, and red, like fireworks on New Year’s Eve, lit up the entire sky.

      Quickly regaining her wits, Akiko fetched the Tribune’s camera—a Pentax Spotmatic SP—from the passenger seat of the Fairlady and began taking pictures. Here was a series of images that would push that no-good would-be starlet off the front pages!

      Akiko found herself smiling as the Pentax SLR’s shutter clicked as fast as she could wind it.

      I’ll have to put in a new roll of film soon, she told herself.

      She flipped the camera up to check the shot counter; she’d lost track in all the excitement.

      Just three shots left.

      As she looked heavenward once more, gazing across the Inland Sea, her eyes went wide.

      A huge fireball was streaking across the sky!

      Quickly, she raised the camera and shot again: once...

      The fireball grew larger, brighter. The pictures would be amazing!

      Twice...

      Still larger and … Wait!

      It’s headed straight for me!

      Duck! Akiko cried, as if voicing the word might force her to action.

      At the last moment, she threw herself down on the shoulder of the road behind the Fairlady.

      Heat seared her skin and a roar like a freight train blasted her ears as the meteor zoomed overhead.

      Akiko looked up as the burning rock shot by, the wind from its passing tugging at her bobbed hair.

      She swung the camera back up to her eye as the meteor sizzled over the mountainous hills beyond the seaside highway.

      WHOOM!

      The fireball struck just behind the ridgeline, shaking the earth with its impact and sending flames blazing into the cool evening air.

      The thunderous sound entirely drowned out the soft click of Akiko’s Pentax.

      Third time lucky, the photographer thought. This would be front-page worthy!

      Smoke and steam from the blast rushed into the sky, forming a billowing mushroom-shaped cloud.

      Akiko wound the reel and hit the shutter button once more, praying for that extra shot or two a lucky photographer can sometimes squeeze onto the end of the roll.

      The button only depressed halfway; the shutter didn’t click.

      Damn! Not lucky enough!

      Tonight had been a real mix of good and bad timing.

      Akiko looked at the billowing smoke, knowing that by the time she loaded another roll of film, the cloud would have dissipated into the twilight air.

      But she would have plenty of time to reload before she climbed the mountain.

      2. The Meteorite

      ~ July, 1966 – Sunset ~

      Drenched in sweat, Akiko plopped down on top of the wide, flat boulder in the middle of the slope to catch her breath. She felt grateful that she kept her spare hiking boots in the trunk of her Datsun Fairlady; she’d never have been able to trek up the mountainside without them. She was also glad she’d brought a flashlight. The sun had dipped below the horizon as she climbed, and beneath the mountain’s tall trees, darkness was closing in fast. Of course, it was no coincidence she’d had the right equipment for this job. A good photographer needed to be prepared for any eventuality, and Aki prided herself on being ready to handle whatever came her way.

      So why had Shin’s betrayal caught her so flat-footed?

      She cursed quietly and spat a bug from her mouth. Mosquitoes were starting to swarm in the twilight. She needed to get going, or she’d be eaten alive.

      Akiko hoisted her camera bag, hung her reloaded Pentax around her neck, and started trudging up the steep, forested slope once more.

      Ahead, she could still see a faint trail of smoke from the fallen meteor—A meteorite, now, she reminded herself—curling into the early evening sky. In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens. Fire trucks… But were they racing toward this crash site, or had other meteors landed in a settled area? Certainly the meteor swarm had been big enough for multiple impacts. Could one of the nearby towns be ablaze even now? Akiko hadn’t spotted light from any fires, but…

      She sniffed the air, but smelled only faint wisps of smoke and a lingering earthy odor from the blast, both of which she’d noticed before starting her trek. No indication of a big fire there. Plus, the blackish cloud over the meteor’s landing site had been growing steadily thinner, not more dense.

      The possibility of a big blaze still made Aki nervous.

      She’d almost been caught in a wildfire once, while on assignment near Kure; being surrounded by flames was not an experience she cared to repeat.

      Nothing’s burning, she told herself, pressing ahead. There’s no fire.

      She had almost reached the top of the ridge now, and she felt certain that she’d find the impact crater—and perhaps an actual meteorite—on the other side. Her body tingled with anticipation. She was an explorer on the verge of a great breakthrough. Beyond the next rise lay something no human being had ever seen before … undiscovered country.

      Akiko smiled. Once her editor saw pictures of what she’d found, he’d forget all about Rika Tadaka—the aspiring actress (and fiancé stealer!) that Aki had been sent down this deserted stretch of coastline to cover.

      Perhaps with photos of the crashed meteor in the bag, Akiko could even accidentally lose the snaps she’d taken of the little tramp. She could almost hear herself explaining the problem to her boss now: I’m sorry, Goro-san, but in all the excitement, the rolls of film with Rika must have slipped out of my bag. It was a long, hard hike to the crash site, you know.

      Goro Arota, her editor, would be mad, of course, but he’d soon get over it. And hadn’t Nick Burr, that American assigned to their bureau, taken pictures of the long-haired hussy at a shopping center opening just a few weeks back? The Tribune could run those pictures again, if they really need to put Rika’s piglike face in the paper.

      Yes. That plan would work—just so long as Akiko got some decent pictures of the meteor’s landing site.

      The notion of dumping the pics of Rika gave Aki so much pleasure that, for a few moments, she almost forgot about Shin’s betrayal. Almost.

      Caught between gleeful revenge and lurking depression, Akiko topped the rise and stared down the other side.

      Below, a wide, bowl-like valley stretched between the mountain ridges, and in the middle of the vale lay a huge crater. The pit looked as wide as a baseball stadium, and all the trees around its edges had been knocked flat by the meteor’s impact. Small fires burned around the blackened hole’s perimeter, but happily none of the blazes seemed to be spreading into the forest beyond.

      In the center of the crater rested a huge, glowing, orange-and-black mass.

      Akiko had seen a lava dome once, during a work trip to Hawaii a few years back, and this appeared similar to that. Had the meteor liquefied the bedrock of the mountains as it hit, or was she seeing the meteorite itself?

      She couldn’t be sure, but this certainly was a newsworthy shot.

      Quickly setting up her tripod, Akiko mounted the Pentax and squeezed off a couple of preliminary snaps. The light was rapidly failing, but she hoped that by varying the shutter speed and F-stop, she could capture a clear image of what she was seeing.

      Front-page material, she thought, grinning.

      She adjusted the settings and looked through the viewfinder again. Why was the meteorite out of focus now? Had her tripod shifted?

      She peered through the viewfinder and readjusted the settings, trying to get everything as clear as possible. The first stars of evening were blazing brightly now, and she didn’t have much more time before her light failed entirely; the meteorite was far too large to illuminate with the Pentax’s flash.

      Wait... Was something moving?

      Akiko gasped and stepped back. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Had she imagined it?

      No! She hadn’t. The meteor seemed to be … pulsing, almost like a beating heart.

      And a piece of it was breaking from the surface, thrusting up like a huge tentacle and...

      It was coming toward her!

      A hissing sound, like steam escaping from a huge kettle, filled her ears, and suddenly the air around her became much hotter.

      Akiko shrieked and ran, dashing back the way she’d come, leaving her camera equipment behind.

      She didn’t dare look back.

      It was coming for her! If she stopped running, it would catch her for sure!

      She imagined the huge, snakelike thing hot on her heels, crashing through trees as though they were matchsticks.

      She lost her footing amid the leaves and rocks, and nearly fell, but she righted herself at the last moment and dashed headlong into something solid.

      Oof!

      Akiko screamed again, and balled up her fists to pummel the monster assaulting her. If she was doomed to die, she wouldn’t go down without a fight!

      3. The Mystery

      ~ July, 1966 – Twilight ~

      Akiko swung frantically, but the thing seized her arms with a grip like iron.

      No! she shrieked.

      Easy now! said a deep, masculine voice. Take it easy.

      Akiko looked up. It wasn’t a monster grabbing her, merely a man—a dark-eyed, thirtyish man in a well-worn tan jacket. He held both her wrists firmly, one in each hand, keeping her from hitting him.

      Take it easy, miss, the man repeated. What’s wrong?

      Akiko glanced back the way she’d come, heart pounding. It’s after me! she blurted.

      What’s after you? the stranger asked, puzzled.

      It’s … it’s … I don’t know what it is, Akiko admitted. It came out of the meteor!

      The meteorite? the man asked. You’ve seen it? You have to show me!

      No! Akiko said. I can’t! It’s too dangerous, it’s...

      Nonsense, the stranger replied. I didn’t hike all this way to see it only to turn around now.

      Akiko stared at the man. He was a very odd type of person to meet in the forest. He didn’t look like a woodsman at all. There was something … dignified about him, and he spoke like an educated man. Who are you? she asked, trying to shake free of his grasp.

      I’m sorry, the man replied, letting her go and bowing slightly. I’m Yujiro Benten, Professor of Astronomy at the Okayama Institute of Science. And you are...?

      Akiko, she said, trying to regain her breath. Despite her fears, she saw no signs of the monster—or whatever it had been—following her. Could she have imagined it? Akiko Natsuke.

      Are you all right, Miss Natsuke? he asked. His brow furrowed with concern as he gazed at her face.

      No, she said. I mean … I’m fine. I just … Well, I guess I’ve made a fool of myself. I’m sorry. She bowed a bit lower than he had, feeling like an idiot.

      It’s just... Professor Benten continued, ...You don’t look very well.

      What do you mean? she asked.

      He pointed to her face, and ran his fingertips over his eyelids and around the tops of his cheeks.

      Akiko suddenly remembered her mascara. It had been messed up by the tears she’d shed over her unfaithful boyfriend, and now she must look a complete shambles!

      She felt her face redden. This was just getting worse and worse!

      Yes, I’m all right, she assured him, taking out a handkerchief and trying to clean herself up. I just … It was a hard climb up here. I’m afraid the perspiration ... and then something strange happened at the crater … and I got scared, and … Well, I’m afraid the whole thing has just ruined my makeup. She laughed a few times, trying to make light of the whole thing.

      Mm, the man said, nodding, though Akiko doubted that he’d bought her story, even if most of it was true (if not the whole truth).

      Not daring to meet his eyes, Aki looked back toward the crater. I-I shouldn’t have run, she said, unable to escape her mounting embarrassment. I’m a reporter … a photographer, actually, and I was taking pictures...

      A photographer, eh? he said. Where’s your camera?

      I-I’m afraid I left it at the crater.

      Well, then, we’ll just have to go back and find it.

      I... Could she make any bigger fool of herself than she already had with this man? She needed to forget her fears and brace up. Was she a newswoman or not? Yes. I suppose so. I need it for my work.

      Don’t worry, he said jovially. I’ll protect you from any … monsters.

      His patronizing chuckle hurt her worse than if he’d struck her. What an awful day this was turning out to be! First Shinobu and that woman, then the arduous hike, and now she’d left the Tribune’s camera and equipment behind, like an amateur!

      What if the Pentax had gotten lost or ruined? It would take months to pay the newspaper back out of her salary—not to mention losing every picture she’d taken today. Plus, an incident

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