March 18, 2208, 15:30, Port of the Hokkaido Megalopolis, Indian Ocean Fleet, Aircraft Carrier 1 Command Room.
“Commander, the first batch of reconnaissance submarines will return in 2 hours.”
“Well, good job, young comrade.”
Commander-in-Chief of Joint Operations and Commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, General Huang Shaoyang, accepted a report and said to the junior officer who handed it to him.
“Ah, it’s nothing…”
The junior officer, who received this commendation, stammered a bit and quickly bowed before rushing back to his post.
General Huang looked at the report in his hand and pondered some things.
“Indeed, they didn’t find it.”
An untimely voice came from the door of the command room.
After the voice sounded, an elderly man wearing the uniform of the World United Forces, with white hair but spirited, walked in from outside. He glanced at the report in General Huang’s hand, casually found a place to sit down, and said:
“I told you that your methods won’t work, Mr. Huang. You should consider our approach. At least it would be much more efficient in finding it.”
No one in the headquarters dared to respond to these words, because the elderly man was the second-in-command of this joint operation, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Chester Weber.
His views were contradictory to General Huang’s, and this disagreement didn’t just arise in the past few days. Even before they became commanders-in-chief, when they were both still in the Indian Ocean Fleet, they looked down on each other. After all, one was a pure naval officer, while the other had transitioned from the Army to the Navy.
It was normal for them to have animosity towards each other.
Yesterday, as soon as General Huang arrived, the two of them had significant differences in their methods of searching for Godzilla.
General Huang advocated a steady and systematic approach, wanting to use unmanned submarines to conduct a thorough search in the deep sea areas where Godzilla might be hiding. The sound intensity of manned submarines was much stronger, and they didn’t require a large number of unmanned vessels.
In terms of efficiency, this method was better than the previous one. However, it had a safety issue.
Commander Weber’s proposed solution was to disperse nuclear submarine groups for the search. In other words, if Godzilla was successfully located, it could also detect the submarines and launch an attack.
This was extremely unsafe for individual nuclear submarines. If one of them was destroyed by Godzilla, the losses would be tremendous.
Compared to that, the unmanned vessel approach was much better.
However, the efficiency of unmanned vessels was too low. There weren’t enough unmanned submarines available in the world’s navy to search for Godzilla. Relying solely on the existing submarines, it might take months or even longer to find it.
Leaving a monster that could potentially threaten all coastal cities and sea routes unattended for months or even longer? Not everyone could accept that.
General Huang, knowing the sarcastic nature of Commander Chester, didn’t refute him even with a single word. He was well aware of their long acquaintance and his cantankerous temperament. If he had countered, the old man would have undoubtedly worn a mocking expression as if to say, “You’ve lost your composure.”
That’s how they were when they lived in the same naval dormitory before.
After reading the report, General Huang called a few people over in the command room and asked about the discrepancies between this report and yesterday’s projections.
“Why are there dozens of submarines missing?”
“The rescue team requested some submarines this morning to weld and repair the puncture hole. It should be finished the day after tomorrow. Don’t worry, we’re working on it.”
“What about the repairs on the third vessel?”
“We’re in the process of fixing it. You can rest assured that it will be repaired in the next few days!”
“And the supplies? Nobody informed me about it.”
“General Luo and his team delivered them. You really don’t have to worry. If there are any issues, we will report them to you.”
They first discussed trivial matters mentioned in the report and, after confirming that there were no significant problems, General Huang instructed them to return to their workstations. Then he approached Commander Chester, who had been waiting for a while, and asked:
“Is your side’s exercise arrangement finalized? We can’t afford any delays.”
As he spoke, General Huang glanced at the document in Commander Chester’s hand and looked at his old rival’s face, saying:
“So, what was the outcome of the meeting?”
“Yes, on the 23rd at 7 o’clock in the Far East time zone, the Pacific Fleet will arrive near Hokkaido for the second exercise. I showed them the scenario you devised for the confrontation, and they all agreed.”
Commander Chester bluntly mentioned the date. The joint exercise was the reason for his visit, to inform General Huang that their schedule was set.
The joint exercise between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Fleets was proposed by General Huang the previous evening. He believed that before engaging in a full-fledged battle with the monster, they should have at least one exercise to have a baseline. It wouldn’t be appropriate to send a group of inexperienced soldiers who had never fired a single shot.
Commander Chester agreed with General Huang’s idea and also believed that at least one exercise should be conducted before the battle. Therefore, they applied to the International Committee under the World United Government for this military exercise.
Finally, the exercise was approved, and Commander Chester and Commander Huang Shaoyang immediately began arranging the time, scale, and location of the exercise. Commander Chester’s visit was to inform the Indian Ocean Fleet about their arrival time and the arrangements for the exercise.
The exercise was divided into three parts: the unilateral exercise of the Indian Ocean Fleet, the unilateral exercise of the Pacific Fleet, and the confrontational exercise between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Fleets.
In last night’s meeting, the first exercise was detailedly arranged, but the second and third exercises were not yet finalized. It was already 9 p.m. in the Far East, and it was even 1 a.m. in Hawaii where the Pacific Fleet is located. Everyone was asleep.
It wasn’t practical to wake everyone up for a remote meeting, so at that time, Commander Huang hastily set some items and asked Chester today if the plan was feasible.
The news received now is that the plan is feasible!
Upon hearing this news, Commander Huang breathed a sigh of relief. If it was feasible, there was no need for another meeting. He was getting tired of having meetings these days.
“Well then, we’re good here. Shall we meet again in five days?”
Since it was decided to conduct the confrontational exercise between the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet, Chester would definitely need to return to prepare in the Pacific Fleet. Their next meeting would probably be in five days.
“Don’t be in a hurry. We won’t part ways just yet. They think it’s fine, but today I’ve been thinking that there are still some areas of this exercise that need to be adjusted.”
Chester, not in a hurry to leave, felt that certain aspects of this exercise needed to be modified.
Pulling his old rival along, they had another meeting after dinner that lasted for over two hours.
…
“Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!!”
“Boom boom boom boom boom!!!!”
The urgent alarm sounded, startling Huang Shaoming who was sleeping.
In reflex, he put on his uniform and rushed to the command center.
“Report to me, what’s happening!”
Having put on his uniform and arrived at the command center, he immediately saw the projection screen displaying a satellite image, showing a massive shadow moving beneath the surface of the sea.
Godzilla had appeared.