Mercenary Black Mamba

The Garuda, a bionic robot, had sensors where humans had nerves and sensory organs. Micro lattice formed its skin and contained sensors for texture, temperature, friction, strength, colors, and sound waves. The skin itself was a human's sensory organ. In terms of seeing, it was a combination of a micro camera, picture radar, and a multi-spectroscope. Its eyes served as laser cannons and couldn't see anything.

[What is this?]

Garuda wondered. Its artificial intelligence compared the collected information with its archives. The discrepancies in the power level were tremendous. According to the saved information, the target had to be disintegrated to molecular levels.

The bionic fusion reactor was activated. Its two horns protruding from the top of its head caused an interference resonance wave. Its two plate-sized eyes glowed white. High-momentum photon energy bounced off the retinae 10,000,000,000,000 times per second. Tritium's energy levels rose rapidly.

The electric laser that had just surpassed the threshold shot from the mirror. A scarlet beam two meters wide illuminated the sea. The gripper, caught in the laser beam, was soundlessly disintegrated. Ishihara, who in the driver's seat, met the same fate. He was drowning in underwater pressure. That surely was a better fate.

The underwater area off the eastern shore of Japan was where the Pacific plate dove below the North American plate. Along the edge, a seismic zone was formed. In Suruga Bay where the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant was located, there was the Suruga canyon, the epicenter of the Tokai earthquake.

The small Suruga plate, sitting on top of the vast Pacific plate, withstood tremendous stress. Hard rock blocked the Suruga plate that kept trying to dive under the North American plate. The rock was sustaining tremendous pressure too.

A laser shot directly forward. A piece of 25-ton heavy machinery was not anything significant. Garuda's tritium laser, at its full capacity, shot through the sea floor. The red beam directly struck the rock. The underside of the rock disintegrated like flour. The rock, losing its friction, gave way to the pressure.

With the obstacle removed, the 5,000-square-kilometer-wide Suruga plate sank. The Shizuoka prefecture was shaken up. Suruga Bay sloshed and the Enshu-nada bubbled up. It was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5. If the Pacific plate had sunken, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 or above would have decimated Shizuoka.

The ground near the Hamaoka plant suffered. The ground rose two meters and the sea floor collapsed by 1.5 meters. Crevasses appeared across the area and flames rose. The reactors and waste facilities were designed to withstand up to a magnitude of 7.5 but the supportive buildings and facilities collapsed at 6.5.

Boom! The electric wire towers fell like domino blocks and became bent and collapsed. The high voltage wires and 150mm-wide cables got tangled together. The transformer exploded. The circuit breaker did too. The reactors still stood but with the decimation of the surrounding buildings, the substation was no longer functional. It was a very localized earthquake with a limited area but its outcome was destructive.

The electricity was cut in Sector 1 and Sector 2 at the same time at once. Only Sector 3 had electricity supplied from outside. Blue sparks jumped here and there in the darkness-submerged two sectors. A siren was heard. The night shifter jumped out from here and there, frantically.

"It's an earthquake! An earthquake!"

"Run! Run!"

A clamor suddenly filled the space where only the sound of waves and wind could be heard moments ago.

"Stay alert!"

Someone shouted but no one was listening. Hundreds of people, panicking at the risk of being radiated, ran to Sector 3 where there was a radiation-blocking hanger and electricity was still live. They looked just like moths flying into a campfire.

"Don't run! I am the head of security. The repair team must halt the reactor immediately. Operators, cut the electricity now."

The head of security yelled. Some employees who were running off came back. The Hamaoka plant entered an apocalyptic state with one strike from Garuda. It really was Black Mamba's minion, who was known to be a natural disaster himself.

******

The underground cave's waste treatment facility was shaken. Kaeda, who was just exiting the sixth silo after the Nureonna control system, lost his balance and fell. The corridor was suddenly tilted and shaken.

"What?"

Kaeda, wide-eyed, grasped a pipe. When he pushed against a wall and regained composure, the hangar was shaken again. The pipe detached from the cave wall. Kaeda hit his head against the wall. Objects were falling. Iron beams were becoming bent. Heavy things hit each other. The collective din was deafening.

"It's an earthquake!"

Kaeda grimaced. What was this? There had been signs. Small earthquakes of magnitude 2-3 happened five times this year alone. The company paid no mind. Small earthquakes were part of everyday life in Japan.

The Shizuoka earthquake observatory and the Meteorological Administration all determined them to be routine occurrences. While everyone had become accustomed to them, something was ongoing on the sea floor. The imminent threat was something else. The blueish liquid ran across the cave's floor. The structure was more vulnerable to vertical shock than horizontal. There was a fault in the hanger which broke the silo.

"No!"

Kaeda shouted. It was the highly radioactive liquid that had filled the sixth silo. If it touched him, his radiation-blocking suit would not prevail. Kaeda stood abruptly and frantically ran to the entrance. If the silo cracked, 3,000 tons of radioactive fluid would be spilled. He did not feel like taking such a shower in the midst of current circumstances.

"Help!"

The shout stopped Kaeda in his track. The security guards were crushed under radioactive waste barrels. Kaeda couldn't leave them behind. They were his colleagues and now comrades on this newfound battlefield.

"Fuck!"

Kaeda looked around for a lever. A barrel weighed 200 kilograms. Without a lever, it wouldn't budge. Instead of a lever, he found a shrill screech assailing his eardrums. Kaeda, startled, looked back to see his worst nightmare manifesting in reality.

"No!"

A small-car-sized head was forced through a crack in the silo. The Nureonna, with its thick midriff stuck in the crack, screeched as if it was greatly annoyed and wielded its head around. The 500mm fortified concrete wall was torn down. Kaeda fumbled in his pockets.

"No! It's gone!"

Kaeda's face paled. The controller was gone. It must have been flung out of his pocket when he hit the ground. He looked back. The blueish liquid covered the cave floor.

"I shall fall like a cherry blossom!"

Kaeda turned back.

"I'm sorry!"

Kaeda shook his head and ran toward the entrance. It was meant to operate underwater but it still could outrun any human. He heard the sound of bones breaking. The Nureonna was feasting on the employees. He could no longer use a linear car because its tracks were all bent. He ran out of the waste treatment facility.

"Oh my!"

Kaeda was dumbstruck. The power plant was in flames. Dark red flames rose here and there and soared to the sky with each explosion. The sirens blared, assaulting the eardrums. Circles of flashlights frantically roamed the yard. The employees were running about in confusion.

"Fujimori!"

"Yes, sir!"

A man who had been shouting into a megaphone ran up to him.

"Call all the guards and call the employees taking shelter in the earthquake-resistant building too."

"Yes, sir!"

The head of security took out his intercom. There was a din. The upper lid of the second reactor soared into the sky. Vapor billowed out like clouds. It was a sign of an imminent meltdown. With no electricity, the water supply pump would stop too. A nuclear reactor continued to emit heat after it is halted. Without a cooling liquid, the overheated nuclear fuel melts the core of the reactor. If the meltdown continues, the protective shell melts down too and radioactive fume is released into the atmosphere.

"It may end up like Chernobyl!"

Kaeda suddenly felt wide awake. April this year, a meltdown happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The damage was indescribable. The 30 kilometers around the explosion site became a wasteland and 3,000,000 people were affected. If a meltdown happened here, the 700,000 people in Shizuoka and nearby Shimizu were done for.

"Fujimori, I declare a third-degree emergency. Activate the emergency water supplier!"

Kaeda yelled.

"Sir, we first need to activate the emergency power supply."

"Move now!"

The employees ran about frantically. The enormous power supply vehicle sprinted across the yard, followed closely by a fuel supply vehicle. Employees hiding in the main control room swarmed out. Kaeda grasped his head and moaned. It was the worst kind of catastrophe.

Dozens of headlight beams illuminated the yard. Trucks and jeeps coughed out armed men. It was the defense force, tasked with the power plant's protection.

"Sh*t!"

Kaeda swore. This was the reality of the Defense Force. They only knew the manuals and something not in them could only be handled by following direct orders. They individually possessed no analysis or adapting skills.

"Yoshida!"

"Yes!"

"Can you drive an armored vehicle?"

"I'm sorry but the hangar collapsed on it."

Yoshida trailed off. Kaeda looked around at the guards. Half of them were bare-handed and the armed ones only had Type 64 battle rifles. He couldn't blame Yoshida for it either. Japan was a peaceful country. After the Japanese Red Army disbanded in the 1970s, the word terrorism was only found in dictionaries.

"Do you have a common-use firearm?"

"We have M2 heavy machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers but the launchers are in the armory."

"Place the machine guns immediately up front."

"Sir?"

Yoshida looked at Kaeda with wide eyes. He well understood orders such as "suppress fires" or "maintain order" but never heard one involving firearms. Kaeda wanted to poke his eyes. This man joined the Defense Force for job security and nothing else.

"Right now!"

"Yes, sir! Prepared shooters, come forward! Those unprepared, prepare right away!"

The startled officer ordered. A heavy machine gun and two light machine guns stepped forward and 20 ran toward the Sector 3 barracks. They were the grenade launchers and rifle shooters.

"We need artillery."

Kaeda sighed. The Nureonna's hide was stronger than steel. A heavy machine gun could damage it but still couldn't kill it. To eliminate it, they needed an RPG7 or a 30mm machine gun. They at least required Mina guns to establish some defense but they only had two 7.62mm 62-style machine guns and one 12.7mm M2 rifle.

Kaeda didn't know when the men who ran to the barracks would return. Kaeda wished that the hangar silo's sliding door could stall it. The heavens didn't grant his wish. If it still operated, the door would have stalled the nureonna but the earthquake had deactivated it.

There was a din. The sliding door got unhinged and was flung through the air like a soccer ball that was just kicked. The walking catastrophe stepped out of the building. The nureonna was relishing its finally regained freedom. There was food everywhere. The air was fresh. This was heaven.

"What is that?"

"A nureonna!"

"The gator monster!"

The guards' office at the entrance of the hangar was filled with a clamor. A dozen or so guards gazed at the monster with their mouths agape. The monster stood on its hind legs and roared.

"A godzilla!"

Someone corrected him. It looked like an alligator but an alligator could not stand on its hind legs. It was correct information but not very much needed at the moment.

A tail thicker than a utility pole slammed the office. The structure made of concrete and steel was crushed like a melon that was stepped on. Blood and debris splattered everywhere.

"Run!"

The surviving guards dispersed like startled spiders. The nureonna ate them one by one. It was like a toad feasting on flies.

* * *

"F*ck!"

Kaeda grimaced. He clearly heard the nureonna's roar amidst the explosions and clamor. Kaeda hesitated. With the current forces, they could not stall the nureonna. But they still couldn't ask for outside backup because the identity of the monster had to be kept a secret.

"Did I bring this upon myself?"

Kaeda sighed deeply. His hesitation was short-lived. If the nureonna entered one of the nearby cities, that would be material for some horror movie. They needed to handle it before it exited the plant grounds.

"Yoshida, call for backup at Itazuma."

There was the 1st Division's 34th Regiment stationed in Itazuma. They needed heavy artillery fire if they were to subdue the nureonna.