Realm of Kong: The Culling Read online

  REALM OF KONG:

  THE CULLING

  BY DANE G. KROLL

  COVER ART BY CHRISTOPHER HOLLER

  Dedicated to

  Michael

  I'd still be culling things

  if it wasn't for him.

  PART 1

  ISOLATION

  Chapter 1

  2061 AD

  The winter air left the Russian sky pristine. All of the stars were out, but no one paid any mind to that. Just below the sky a battle was raging. Lord Tatsumi, the Mu kaiju-god, was marching across the city of Vladivostok.

  He came with little warning. Proximity sensors placed around the ocean had gone off giving the Russian military only a small window to prepare for the attack.

  Lord Tatsumi walked with a purpose. His destruction was minimal. The monster came to shore ignoring the docks and the immediate area. The Pacific fleet was caught off guard from Lord Tatsumi’s appearance. Their city was left undefended on the beach. Citizens watched in awe as the kaiju towered over them with every step. Its leathery skin glistened under the moonlight. Steam rose out of its mouth of molten breath.

  Then the air strike began. Fighter jets soared through the sky. Each one released a series of missiles targeted at Lord Tatsumi. The shock and awe attack halted the monster for only a moment. The impacts enraged the kaiju-god. He let out his familiar battle roar. Fire and lava spewed out of his mouth.

  The people on the streets struggled to get to their feet and retreat from the area. Fire fell from the sky up to a mile away from Lord Tatsumi. Buildings caught fire and streets melted from the kaiju’s fire breath.

  The fighter jets turned around for another attack. As they made their approach Lord Tatsumi struck at the planes. The monster was faster than any of the pilots had anticipated. It dodged many of the missile attacks. Without a target the missiles crashed into a nearby building, bringing it crashing down. Lord Tatsumi was able to strike down two of the planes unable to adjust course fast enough.

  A few miles away from Lord Tatsumi’s attack a military base was going on lockdown. Soldiers rushed out to the field. Followed by the men were tanks and blaster cannons. Then the base wheeled the biggest blaster cannon that existed in the world.

  The XO Blaster Cannon contained enough power to equal a solar flare. This was the prototype. It had never been used before. Testing was to begin later in the year when the weapon was fully calibrated.

  The commander of the base, General Belov, sat at his desk. He looked out the window overlooking the city. He could see the XO Blaster Cannon being brought out and Lord Tatsumi on his way toward the base.

  General Belov ignored the phone ringing on his desk. He kept his attention on the enemy approaching. Belov was never much of a religious man. He would appear at his family’s church on Christmas and Easter, but tonight he said a prayer under his breath. He prayed for help and understanding.

  The door to his office burst open. A soldier rushed inside. He anxiously saluted his superior officer.

  “Sir what are our orders?” he asked.

  General Belov ignored the soldier. Instead he reached for the phone that had yet to go silent.

  “Take down the kaiju,” he gave his orders over the phone. “Lord Tatsumi cannot reach the base. It knows what we have.”

  When General Belov was done on the phone he turned back to the window to watch the action unfold. Lord Tatsumi continued his approach to the base. The planes were doing no good at stopping his advance.

  “What’s your name?” General Belov asked the soldier at his door.

  “Mager,” he answered.

  “Stay here,” said Belov. “At ease. Have a drink.”

  Hesitantly, the soldier said, “Yes, sir.” He relaxed a bit, but the situation was still panicking through his mind. Lord Tatsumi was unstoppable.

  The kaiju-god was at the base perimeter. A trail of flames remained behind him. He stared down the barrel of the XO Blaster Cannon. Silence and a sense of calm came over the battle.

  There was no other weapon to use. Everything else had proved worthless against the kaiju-god. Lord Tatsumi made his first step onto the base.

  “Fire!”

  The XO Blaster Cannon fired for the first time. The blast lit up the sky. Lord Tatsumi was hit with fire and heat as powerful as the sun. The kaiju was knocked back. Its top layer of skin burned to ash.

  The soldiers in the immediate area near the Cannon fell to the ground dead. The ambient heat and back draft were too much for the human body. The Cannon had gone through little testing. There was no way of knowing its boundaries.

  Lord Tatsumi regained his composure. He continued his approach to the base. The military had no other choice, but to fire one more time.

  The Cannon knocked back Lord Tatsumi. More soldiers fell under its massive power.

  “Do not relent! Keep firing! Take it down!”

  Night turned into day after every fire from the Cannon. The battlefield would go blind after every strike. Darkness enveloped the military base. Lord Tatsumi was charred black. After every blast the sky would light up and Lord Tatsumi would be a step closer. Nothing was stopping him.

  General Belov had not said a word since his order to fire against Lord Tatsumi. Mager and he watched the battle in grave silence.

  It was too much to bear for the soldier. “What are we going to do? It’s not working.”

  “We have to wait,” said General Belov. “Our orders are coming.”

  “For what? To retreat? We don’t have anything else we can fire at that thing!”

  “Yes, we do. God, help us, we do.”

  Lord Tatsumi was on top of the XO Blaster Cannon. The dead piled around the massive weapon. In the cover of darkness, Lord Tatsumi reached out for the Cannon. His hand covered the barrel. There was one last shot fired. The blast hit Lord Tatsumi at point-blank range.

  The air burst into a fireball. The XO Blaster Cannon exploded. The shockwave disintegrated windows miles down the road. Lord Tatsumi was brought to the ground. His crash rumbled in the night sky. The sound of the city settling back from the attack and the impact of Lord Tatsumi finally died down. Everything was still.

  “They did it,” stunned Mager. “We did it!”

  “Quiet,” said General Belov.

  The sound of gravel shuffling around was heard. At first it was just pebbles settling in then bigger rocks started rolling. There was no light available to see what was happening. The last explosion put out many of the fires in the area. The sky was becoming blocked by smoke.

  A shadow rose up from the wreckage at the base. Then a burst of flame lit up the sky. Lord Tatsumi had survived. The kaiju triumphantly walked through the destruction of the XO Blaster Cannon. The military had been crippled. Now, there was nothing standing in its way.

  Lord Tatsumi approached a building in the center of the base. General Belov watched helplessly as the monster cut through the walls of the structure. The building crumbled away like paper. It revealed two behemoth missiles. The buildings were built around them to hide and secure their location.

  The missiles stood seven stories high.

  In the office, General Belov’s phone rang again. He was quick to pick it up this time. The conversation was quick and very one-sided. General Belov listened to his orders.

  His only reply was, “Yes, sir.”

  He looked up at the soldier. “Have another drink,” he said.

  The two men watched as Lord Tatsumi tore into one of the missiles. He started to rip out its insides. The missile started to fall apart under the destructive power of Lord Tatsumi.

  General Belov opened a locked drawer hidden underneath his desk. The solider was so in awe of the situation going on outs
ide he did not pay his general any attention at first.

  “What are those?” he asked as he turned around to look at General Belov. Then the soldier noticed the trigger switch in his hand.

  “Those are two of the most powerful bombs on the planet,” said General Belov. “They were always meant to attack the kaiju eventually. God forgive me.”

  General Belov activated the switch.

  Then the entire city turned into oblivion.

  Chapter 2

  Following the events of the Mu’s ascension to the surface world in the Pacific, the UN facility on Mitake Mountain in Japan was on lockdown. Robo-Kong, mankind’s greatest defense against the kaiju, had been destroyed. It left the giant mech, Babel 4, as the sole defender of not only the Japanese facility, but the rest of the world if the emergency called for it.

  Babel 4 was on constant guard over the facility. It was the lone watchtower of mankind’s struggle to survive. The pilots rotated shifts around the clock to operate Babel 4.

  The rest of the soldiers and staff located on the island were all brought in and put on standby until further notice. Nobody new was scheduled to come to the island and many scientists were either terminated or asked to go home.

  The world was going through recovery. Thousands of coastal cities along the Pacific Ocean had been flooded. The death count was still rolling in, even more were still missing. Many people just wanted to go home and see that their family was safe.

  Traveling and communications were limited. The rising country in the Pacific destroyed the underwater communication connections across the world. The ash cloud created from erupting volcanoes had nearly dissipated, but it left a mark on the world. The temperature had dropped causing an early winter. Satellites struggled to transmit signals. Many of the airlines were worried about traveling around the world. There were still too many dangers. It left people everywhere stranded and alone.

  Captain Cassandra Weathers was stopped at the entrance to the communications room. The room housed several dozen phones and computers meant for the soldiers and scientists on the base. Before the Rising there was typically an available seat at any given time. The room was always open to allow for the difference in time zones across the world. Now, however there was rarely a spot open.

  Everybody wanted to keep in close contact with their family. There had been so much death following the Rising, and many more still missing everybody was trying to check in and see how others were doing.

  Many residents of the Japanese facility had lost their homes to the flooding and tidal waves. The relatives that were still alive were scattered deeper inland of their countries. Messages poured in the first week. They were from relatives all just checking in to say they were still alive. It took another week to properly sort through the mess. The sudden surge of internet traffic had crashed their network. Thousands of messages were deleted or lost.

  Now that the recovery had begun every message was about the progress people were going through. Slowly, society was putting itself back together.

  Weathers gazed across the room one last time. She still did not see any spots opened, and a line was forming along the wall to her right. She wouldn’t be using any of the computers any time soon.

  It was only a little comforting that she knew her family in New Mexico was fine. Weathers had already spoken with her grandparents a couple of times, but she had been unable to time it right to speak with her mother. She had always been at work or just out of the house whenever Weathers called home. Weathers wanted to see her mother again, to speak with her again. Her mother was her biggest supporter. After Robo-Kong was destroyed nobody understood how devastating it was for Weathers. Piloting the giant robot was the biggest goal she was working towards. Losing Robo-Kong left a hole in her spirit. Her motivation was lacking, and she needed to speak to somebody that would understand, her mother. Weathers knew her mom could talk her back into motivation. She always could.

  Instead, Weathers shrugged off the waiting line in the communications center and headed toward the holding cells of the facility. With her teammate, Dr. Macy, hiding in his lab and the entire facility on lockdown, their team had become inactive. One of her other teammates, Noah Sato, was left in his cell.

  Over a year ago, Noah had smuggled himself onto Japan. He was known as a monster chaser. People across the world challenged themselves to see who could get the closest to a kaiju and live to tell about it. Every challenge got more daring as people would post their videos across the internet for all to see. Eventually, it evolved into trying to ride the kaiju.

  After the Tengi Treaty was sanctioned Japan’s boarders were closed. It cut off most of the kaiju from the rest of the world. Only the most dedicated of chasers continued to find their way onto the island to follow their dreams of climbing the kaiju.

  Noah had been caught in Tokyo by Colonel Jordan Honsou and Randal McClare. Noah was looking to get out of Tokyo at the time, but he had hoped it was not in handcuffs with the UN. He still wanted to stay on the island. He was unfortunately lucky. Most monster chasers that were taken into custody at the facility were deported back to their home within the week. There was little reason to keep them around or the chaser could use their connections and money to get themselves out.

  Noah was a different scenario. He had been kept on the island indefinitely. He was never given an explanation why. There were always excuses about red tape. Noah was told he had to earn his way off the island, and by that he was attached to the team of Macy, Ishikawa, Weathers, and Honsou.

  “How are you doing?” Weathers asked Noah when she arrived. Noah was looking worse than ever. Every day he looked more miserable than before.

  “Still awful,” said Noah. He stretched out his neck from the metal tracking system around it. It was an awful piece of jewelry that beeped every now and then. The only thing Noah liked about it was that it helped hide a necklace that Noah had grabbed from the evidence locker during Lord Tatsumi’s siege on the facility.

  “Bored out of my mind,” said Noah. “Please tell me we have something to do. I need to get out of this room.”

  “No, sorry,” said Weathers. “Macy hasn’t come out yet.”

  “Then tell whoever to send me home,” said Noah. “You can’t keep me here.”

  “I’ve passed along your message and my sentiments. It is doing nothing. Whatever is keeping you here is clearly more important than you being sent home.”

  “And you are okay with that?”

  “No, but they must have a reason,” defended Weathers. “What do you know? Tokyo is off limits to everybody. Even Tengi does not go there. They must think you know something.”

  “Tokyo is a mess,” began Noah’s tale. “If they want to know what is going on in Tokyo I will gladly tell them what I saw. Nothing. Tokyo wasn’t my goal. It was just a stopping point. I have no plans of going back there if that’s what they are worried about.”

  Noah was partially telling the truth. He had no intention of going back to Tokyo. He had gotten what he wanted.

  He was lying about the rest. There was something going on in the city. There were people there. People Noah did not want to see again. If they found out Noah led the UN there then they would come after him.

  “I will keep trying,” said Weathers. “I don’t like seeing you in here.”

  “Gee, thanks,” said Noah.

  “In the meantime, I might be able to get you to the communications room,” said Weathers. “It isn’t much, but it will get you out of the cell for a little bit. Is there anybody you would like to contact? Where is your family? I’m sure they are worried about you.”

  “I don’t have any family,” lied Noah. “How do you think I got so much money to get here?”

  Weathers frowned. She wondered what brought Noah to the island. He did not speak much about his past. He kept details minimal about his life. He only talked about his time in Japan and getting close to the kaiju. She worried that was part of the problem that was keeping Noah on the island.
He was keeping secrets.

  In fact, Noah’s family was alive. He knew they were fine. His family now lived in Dubai after spending Noah’s early years in southern California. The second biggest secret that Noah was keeping was the identity of his grandfather. Sato was the surname of his grandmother’s family who had recently passed. He did not want anybody to know he was related to the founder of the Mechiju Corporation, Higo Tessai. There was a lot of money and a lot of politics involved with that name. Noah did not want to be a part of it. He refused to be a pawn in the workings between the UN and Mechiju.

  His grandfather made their money from building the UN the weapons that went up against the kaiju that attacked the world in the early years. The Babel line of giant robots was his greatest creation. Many called their family war profiteers; others, opportunists. Noah’s father and mother never tried to challenge the claims. They hid behind their money and went on with their lives under the shadow of the brilliant mind of his grandfather.

  Noah always had bigger dreams. He listened to his grandmother’s stories about early Japan before the attacks. The necklace he wore was his grandmother’s. He came all the way to Tokyo to find it.

  The city had been abandoned in haste. Possessions were left behind and things were never touched again. The necklace was right where his grandmother had left it over fifty years ago.

  Noah was glad that Weathers had come to visit him. She was the only one on the team that did. The only other visitor he had was McClare. Noah had saved his life. It was McClare’s way of saying thanks.

  Those two were the only people helping to keep him sane during his stay at the facility. Everyday Noah came closer to revealing who he really was just to get out. He knew his grandfather could have him back home by nightfall with one word. But Noah continued to refuse that option. He did not need his grandfather’s help.

  Chapter 3

  Lieutenant Ishikawa Yumi’s usual role at the facility was to welcome the newest recruits and see to any visitors or prisoners passing through. Today her current job was the exact opposite.