Castle Bravo

==May 3rd, 2014==
The ocean is the most mysterious place known to man. We have explored only 5% of our Earth’s seas. We know more about the dark side of the moon than we know of what lies at the bottom of our oceans. 80% of all biomass on the planet is in the ocean.
Yet, for the most part, we of humanity tend to ignore the reality that the oceans hold the deepest secrets of our world, and that the seas contain the most powerful, deadliest organisms ever beheld by man. Humanity is comfortable believing we alone are the sole lords of the Earth, that nothing can topple us. My research over the past year has convinced me otherwise. Despite our prowess, despite our civilizations, we are woefully outgunned by much deadlier, much more powerful creatures. And, due to our forced ignorance, we are vulnerable.
The ocean that gives us life, that feeds and sustains our species, is camouflage for the greatest being to ever exist. And it is only a matter of time before that beast strikes.
My name is Phillip Barnes. Below I have collected my findings over the past year. Through countless journals, archives, interviews and more I have started to scratch away every disguise, every lie and cover-up we’ve been spoon-fed for decades. Misinformation has been piled upon misinformation: entire networks of black ops divisions, fake passports for people that don’t exist, so much deception and misleading, it’s no wonder that no one has been able to uncover the whole truth.
No one except me. Read my transcriptions. Study my findings. Learn the truth and prepare yourselves for when the time comes. You have no idea what’s coming.
==March 13th, 2013==
My first discovery came by accident, during my studies at the University of California, Berkeley. I was a graduating senior on the cusp of my Journalism/Nuclear Engineering degree.
My interest in nuclear energy came early on in my life, due to my upbringing in San Francisco, a city that is home to a large multicultural conglomerate of people, particularly Asians. One of my neighbors was a Japanese family that had come over here from Tokyo in the mid-1950’s, and my family was one of the first to befriend them. I grew up hearing stories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the entire ordeals of the Cold War (the multitude of nuclear tests in the Pacific, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, etc.). For being the first generation in decades to grow up and not be in fear of The Bomb, I had an obsession with nuclear power.
That obsession brought me to Berkeley in 2009, hell-bent on doing whatever I could to study the power and show the world what we were doing with nuclear power. Through Journalism, I was able to focus my interest in nuclear energy and channel it into interviews, research, and reading between the lines of press reports. My journalistic skills made me a proper investigator, and coupling with my nuclear engineering skills, I could see things no one else seemed to see.
So, during writing what would become my senior thesis, I found myself researching one of the most important incidents of the 1950’s: the Castle Bravo nuclear test, the largest atomic weapon to ever be detonated. Authorities who had commissioned the testing had underestimated its power, and the safety radius wasn’t big enough to protect those nearby. The weapon detonated at about eight megatons, injuring nearly a hundred people and killing one radio operator aboard the Japanese fishing trawler Lucky Dragon No. 5, a trawler near the Marshall Islands that was irradiated by the underestimated blast.
When I was performing research—AKA, checking for sources—I stumbled upon something outside my university’s database, an odd link to what seemed to be a conspiracy site. Now, normally I don’t go around on the internet and look at what “evidence” every crackpot out there has to offer, but you must understand: it was late, and I was tired. I was on the verge of quitting my work and going to bed, so I decided to click the link and take a look at what this theorist had to say. The first words that greeted me when the site loaded were: “USS NAUTILUS SIGHTINGS IN PACIFIC OCEAN, EARLY 1954.” Below the title of the article was a subheading that read, “Why was the Nautilus at Castle Bravo?”
It was such an odd conspiracy to see that I was immediately intrigued. I had performed some mild research on the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine ever built, but I had never really done any real work on the machine. I scrolled down and began reading. The excerpt read:
“The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, was first launched on January 21st, 1954 by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, and was commissioned eight months later as the first nuclear submarine in the United States Navy. Despite this, it would be nearly a year before the Nautilus would go on active duty, heading out on January 17, 1955, under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson.
These are the facts as recorded and held as official documents by all known sources, everywhere from the very museum that houses the Nautilus, to Wikipedia; even the government. However, the written word cannot block out eyewitnesses and personal records held by individuals, and eyewitnesses have a far different story to tell. Stories that contradict every account ever written about the Nautilus, including its commissioning and launching. According to eyewitnesses, the Nautilus was not only elsewhere besides port, but also active and engaged in military activities as early as March of 1954.”
The article then went on to quote several witnesses who claimed to have seen the submarine around the Marshall Islands in the early months of 1954—islanders, former military officers, the typical kind of people you’d expect to see attached to a conspiracy theory such as this. The article finished by saying:
“Though the government and official records may say otherwise, what the eye has seen cannot be easily dissuaded. As multiple eyewitness accounts and written accounts show, the USS Nautilus was a fully functional vessel early on in its lifespan, performing unknown work in the area surrounding the Marshall Islands, the very area where Operation Castle would take place. Thanks to investigative work done by those who came before us, it is our conclusion that the government has been lying to the populace from the very beginning in regards to its premiere Navy craft of the 1950’s. Despite this great effort, many questions remain unanswered: What were the secret missions of the USS Nautilus? What were its activities surrounding the Marshall Islands and Operation Castle? Unfortunately, for now, we can only guess.”
I looked down at the end of the article to see what sources it had used, expecting to see nothing at all, but instead found a veritable treasure trove of records that I hadn’t expected. A few were personal journals that had no external links, but one came up live, an ISBN link, “257-1-42-771454-7.” I copied the number into an ISBN search site and got the title of a book called, The Siege: Accounts of Operation Castle. It was written by a well-known Californian journalist who had been rather harsh on the entire nuclear age, so I decided to see if I could find the book and read it for myself. To my surprise, I found a hit right in my school’s library! I made sure to write down the title of the book so as to pick it up the next day.
I was up early that morning so I could grab the library’s copy of the book before anyone else did. I was there at the footsteps of the library right when it opened and immediately rushed back to the proper aisle and grabbed the book, almost forgetting to check it out when I left. During the entire day, I was absorbed by the accounts of Operation Castle, diving deep into the stories that were a part of it. I hadn’t truly realized how many lives had been affected by the tests, the reality of that pushing me to read on. My interest heightened when I reached a chapter called “Unexplained Occurrences.” I read on, copying down an account that stood out to me.
The first was by a man named Gerald Hart, an operator who had been attached to the USS Essex, an aircraft carrier best known for its service in the Korean War. Hart’s account read thusly:
“I’d had a buddy throughout my entire time at the Naval Academy, a guy named Taylor Stalks. He and I had planned to go serve at San Diego, but right before graduation he told me that he had been requested to join the submarine force. After that, I didn’t see him for years, not until at least ’58, when he and I ran into each other outside of Honolulu. We talked for a minute—you know, simple small talk—when I asked him how life in the submarine force had been treating him. He paused for a moment, then said, ‘Oh, not bad.’ And he proceeded to mention to me that he’d served aboard the Nautilus from ’54 to ’57. We made more small talk for a little while, then he said he needed to leave, and so we parted ways. It wasn’t until much later, years in fact, that his story didn’t add up. Nobody served on the Nautilus in ’54, not in an active capacity at least.”
Naturally, I skimmed through the rest of the records in the chapter for something from Stalks, but all I got was a quote saying that the author had talked to Stalks but not been requested to publish his findings, due to the sensitive nature of Stalks’s missions aboard the Nautilus. It DID mention, however, that Stalks lived somewhere around Portland, Oregon, a place that I’d need to check out very soon. I was about to put the book away for the day when I saw one final entry, from a very young boy who had lived on Bikini Atoll before being moved to Kili Island due to the bombings. The boy (an adult at the time of the interview) had an account, saying:
“I was very young when I first saw it come up out of the water. It was just off the shelf where my mother told me never to go swimming because there were many sharks out in the deep water. I was on the beach that day helping my father haul in the day’s catch when we suddenly heard a great crashing sound offshore, and suddenly there was a great machine right off our island! We saw people come out from inside, and they must have been excited or nervous because we could hear them all talking all the way on the beach. We knew something was wrong right then. A few days later, we saw the outlines of something very big swimming underneath the water, and soon saw bits of it breaching the surface. There were three of them, and all of them looked to be very sharp, almost looking like broken glass. We thought it was another one of those machines, but it looked so much different from the one we had already seen. We saw it again three more times before we were taken off the island. One of those times, the three spikes ran into a ship offshore and caused a great explosion.
After we had been evacuated, some of the US military men asked us whether we had seen anything unusual, telling us that the USSR had been attacking their ships, so we told them of the broken glass bits that we had seen. When they were done questioning us, we were told not to repeat the story to anyone. To this day I still do not know what I saw.”
That interview was by far the most unusual I had read and seemed totally detached from the rest of the records within the book. I skimmed through it all once again, to see if I had missed anything similar but came up short.
I was more frustrated and confused than ever. I had opened up this book in order to clear up one mystery, but had instead been given another. The vagueness surrounding this second object didn’t appear to be intentional, but almost as if the witness couldn’t decide what exactly he had seen. To my knowledge, the Soviet Union had not been working in the area at the time of Operation Castle, and no submarine I had ever seen or heard of ever had three periscopes or anything that looked like broken glass.
My mind returned to the USS Nautilus and its secret mission in the Marshall Islands. This book had given me no real clue as to what it had been doing, but it had given me a lead that I could track in the form of Taylor Stalks. Unfortunately, due to the crunch that comes with graduating, I didn’t have a lot of time to head up there yet. With a little luck, I’d be able to head to Portland after I was done at Berkeley.
The next day, I went on Amazon and bought a copy of the book and returned my library’s copy. I’d deal with the investigation later.
==May 25th, 2013==
The rest of this article is a transcription of personal files and journals I kept over the past year. I was two weeks removed from graduation at the time of the interview shown below. This section of my findings was performed via multi-media approaches, coming from either my own writing or transcriptions from an audio interview I performed with the subject, retired Petty Officer 3rd Class Taylor Stalks, resident of Tigard, a suburb of Portland, Oregon.
==May 18th, 2013==
I finally remembered that book I bought a while ago, went back to where I had made notes about Taylor Stalks. I had to buy a Yellow Pages from Portland so I could find him, since searches on the internet weren’t working. Hoping this doesn’t come up dry, as the Yellow Pages cost me nearly $40.
==May 21st, 2013==
Thank God for Amazon Prime. Yellow Pages arrived today, have begun searching through the phonebook for the name Taylor Stalks. Unfortunately, I found a total of 42 individual Taylor Stalks in the Portland area. This may take some time, as well as a few awkward phone calls.
==May 23rd, 2013==
Found him! Through two days of bad work scheduling and grueling phone calls, I found the Taylor Stalks of the USS Nautilus. He seemed unsure of talking to me at first, but I managed to convince him that speaking to me would be a worthwhile venture. I will be heading up to Portland soon so I can restart my investigation.
-Audio transcription begins-
May 25-
Barnes: Again, thank you for letting me come into your home, Mr. Stalks. I do appreciate your hospitality.
Stalks: It’s quite alright, son. Admittedly, I don’t get many questions about my time aboard that old rust-bucket nowadays. Most folks your age don’t even know it existed.
Barnes: Can you start from the beginning? From your time at the Naval Academy, I believe you knew a man name Gerald Hart, is that correct?
Stalks: Yes, I knew Gerald. He became a Warrant Officer in the Navy a few years after I left service. He was one of my oldest friends in the Navy, and the only reason we hadn’t stuck together through it all was because I was requested to be part of the crew for the Nautilus, once it launched.
Barnes: Can you tell me for how long you served aboard the Nautilus?
Stalks: I began active duty in 1955, on January 17th. I was brought onboard as a Machinist Mate, specializing in Auxiliary Equipment. I served aboard until August 18th, 1957, my entire time onboard having been that of a Machinist Mate.
Barnes: I have heard reports that the Nautilus was serving earlier than that, sir.
Stalks: *Chuckles* You have, have you? Well I can tell you, I was onboard that submarine the day it first set sail, and it was one mighty cold winter when we left port in ’55.
Barnes: Uh-huh, sir. I have here a copy of a book called The Siege, written back in 1984, and an account told by Gerald Hart says that you mentioned to him that you had been serving onboard the Nautilus since 1954. I have my copy right here, and the account is on page 213.
Stalks: Well, Gerald’s hearing never was too good. He worked with the big guns a lot, had his hearing damaged by the constant cannon fire.
Barnes: Well, alright then, sir. I do have one more thing, though. There was another story in here, just a few pages later, that tells of a submarine popping up near the Bikini Atoll, and of some other underwater vessel that crashed into a Navy vessel, as well of questions surrounding some sort of Soviet submarine. Do you know anything about that?
Stalks: …
Barnes: Mr. Stalks? Can you please tell me what this is?
Stalks: *Chair creaks as he leans in* Son, what I’m about to tell you is one of the biggest secrets in the entire world, so I need to know- are you going to breath a word of this to anyone?
Barnes: I- no, of course not, sir.
Stalks: *Chair creaks once more* We were out in the Pacific Ocean in 1954, performing secret practice runs to ascertain whether or not we could truly breach what we all called “The Lower Depths,” the deep seas that were at depths of over 1000 meters or greater. We had been sent out to see if the Nautilus could truly handle going down that far, and just how far it could go. We had just reached thirteen-hundred meters when we first detected something on radar- an unknown signature.
Barnes: What was it?
Stalks: We didn’t know. It was big, that much we knew. The signature was so big that we estimated it was over a hundred meters long, meaning that it was at least 350 feet long. We started to panic when we realized it was heading straight for us, and at a very high speed. We were all told to brace for impact, because it looked like this big thing was about to ram into us.
Barnes: What happened?
Stalks: Well, nothing, really. We heard a grinding noise of sorts as something made its way along our hull, but there was no water leak anywhere, thank God. There was another sound that came a bit later, so loud that it nearly deafened everyone aboard. It was some sort of deep, rumbling growl that was unlike anything I’ve ever heard. All I knew is that it never seemed to stop.
Barnes: What did your Commander do?
Stalks: We got out of there as fast as we could, that’s what! [Chuckles] We headed back for the surface immediately, doing whatever we could to get away from what had just struck us, praying that there wasn’t any damage that was going to cause us to blow up and irradiate half the Pacific Ocean. We made it back to the surface and wanted to head back for the nearest port we could find. However, when we sent a report of what had happened, we received word that we needed to head straight back to Honolulu for a debriefing.
Barnes: What occurred in Hawaii?
Stalks: Each member of the crew was individually debriefed, so I told them what I had heard. Once we were done, we were all told to keep this to ourselves until the government deemed the information declassified. After all, no one knew we had been out there, and that was the way they wanted it.
Barnes: Was that the end of it?
Stalks: No, that wasn’t. We started hearing reports of US ships being sunk by some unknown force, and we even got a Soviet relay that demanded to know why we had attacked their ships and sunk them. Of course, we had done no such thing, so the Navy immediately denied it. It wasn’t until a few days’ worth of talking that they realized something else was out there, causing all this havoc. But our part in it, at least, was over.
Barnes: Did you ever find out what it was that hit you?
Stalks: I never saw it again. At least, not with my own two eyes. But a friend of mine who was part of Operation Castle later that month, a fellow named Cal Fields, gave me a picture he had taken while out there in the Marshall Islands. He wanted to show it off to me, since he knew I had been on the Nautilus- both of us were part of some deep government projects at the time. I have it around the house somewhere, if you’d like to see it.
Barnes: Could you please let me see it?
Stalks: Certainly, hold on just a moment, I’ll need to find it. *Chair creaks as he stands up and leaves. A few minutes pass before his footsteps are heard once more* Here you are, son.
Barnes: … My- holy- is this real, sir? It can’t be real!
Stalks: Cal Fields was a scientist brought to work on Operation Castle, Mr. Barnes. He was not a joker in any sense of the word, nor was he a competent photographer by any means. That picture is genuine.
Barnes: I’d love to run some tests on it- that is, if you don’t mind, sir.
Stalks: You keep it, son. I’ve looked at it so many times that I’ve memorized every little detail.
Barnes: Thank you so much, sir, you’ve given me a lot to go on. I’ll be heading out now, if that’s alright.
Stalks: Alright then, son. Say, you never did tell me what this was for…
Barnes: Just some private research, sir, nothing more. Again, thank you.
-Audio ends- 
I’ll attach the picture to the next entry. I’ll need to verify its authenticity before I publish it. I have labeled the picture “Subject One” for the time being. If it’s genuine, then Stalks was given something that shatters every known concept of science that we’ve ever concocted. I’ll go get it verified before I perform any further research. And I have to do some research on that man Stalks mentioned- Cal Fields, he said his name was.
==May 27th, 2013==
Journal Entry: I went back to my university to the photography department and talked to an old professor of mine. We both looked over the photo for any errors and found nothing. The photo is genuine, completely un-doctored. The thing in the picture, whatever it is? It’s real. It existed.
God help us.
centre|thumb|330x330px|Subject One
==June 13th, 2013==
I think I’ve found something. Cal Fields, a friend of Taylor Stalks who had been a part of the Operation Castle test, the man who gave him the picture of Subject One. I believe that Cal Fields is the key to unlocking the mystery, or at least a man who is a step in the right direction for this investigation.
I came upon him almost by accident, having spent most of the last several days poring over pages of Google Search (I even forced myself to use Bing, just to see if I could uncover some different hits. Ugh), and found mention of Cal Fields on a personal blog, of all places! Not a single mention of him on anything related to Operation Castle, nothing related to the Nautilus, but instead comes up on wordpress.com, marked from the year 2009. It would have been unbelievable if it hadn’t been for the person who had written it.
The author of the blog, username “LittleBoy737”, said that he was the grandchild of Cal Fields, and the blog appeared to be some sort of genealogy report for school—high school or college, I couldn’t tell. Fields had been a research assistant attached to Operation Castle in 1954, taking part in surveying areas for key detonation sites. LittleBoy737 described their grandfather as being a pretty minor accessory to the entire operation, so that would explain why nothing on any site has records on Fields—he was too junior. Apparently they misjudged him, going by that photo of his.
I did a little digging on the author of the blog and sent him an email. Hopefully he’ll respond soon so I can ask him a few questions.
==June 14th, 2013==
Got him. LittleBoy737 of the Cal Fields blog responded late today, at approximately 10:32pm, Pacific Time. LittleBoy737’s actual name is Michael Hayes, second-born son of Sandra Fields, daughter of Cal Fields.
My first question regarding Cal Fields was whether he was alive or not. Hayes said that no, he had died almost exactly five years prior to the posting of that genealogy report, and that he had constructed it in a sort of memorial. I will be honest, that was a pretty big blow to my chances, since I had no way of conferring with someone who had been there the day of the testing.
After rearranging my thoughts, I was able to ask Hayes whether or not his grandfather had left anything behind—photo albums, journals, records of any kind relating to his grandfather’s work on Operation Castle. Hayes said that his family kept a series of journals at his house, but mentioned that they were ‘strange.’
“How so?” I responded.
After a few seconds of typing, Hayes replied by saying, “LOL my grandfather was weird he was always going on bout this big creature out there @ the testing site and that the reason we’d performed all those tests was to try and kill it. Don’t think he was right n the head.”
Poor grammar aside, Hayes didn’t realize he had just handed me a gold nugget. I asked him if I could see the journals. Hayes immediately said no and told me that his grandfather’s journals and writings were locked in the family safe and he lived a few miles away at the local community college instead of with his parents. Frustrating, but he did offer to show them to me in person if I came out to meet him.
He then proceeded to tell me he lived in Colorado. Joy, I have one helluva road trip ahead of me.
==June 20th, 2013==
Just got finished talking with Michael Hayes’ family. I recorded the entire thing and took some pictures, so I’ll transcribe the contents later. A lot of nonsense regarding Cal Fields, but his journals were incredible. I should have them uploaded tomorrow.
… I’m in shock. I have no words for what I’ve read.
==June 23rd, 2013==
Here are the entries from Cal Fields’ personal journal, used during the Operation Castle tests, and during studies completed before the Bravo bomb test.
===February 20th, 1954===
11.2833° N, 169.6167° E
“My colleagues and I were requested to come to the Marshall Islands by the US Navy on a matter of ‘national security’ to take part in a series of exercises aboard the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier that set out from Honolulu three days ago. We have not been told why we have been assigned here, nor have we been debriefed on what purpose we are expected to perform. Though I hardly believe that we have been brought here for some nefarious purpose, I find myself uneasy. Why would the Navy need nuclear scientists for an expedition of any kind?”
===February 22nd, 1954===
11.3333° N, 167.4500° E
“It seems we have been brought here to perform survey missions for an unknown purpose. Yesterday we came upon the wreckage of a damaged transport craft of some kind, apparently one that had been carrying immense supplies of atomic radiation to an undisclosed location (and, as Michelson remarked, it’s probably best we don’t ever ask which location it is). Though we examined the wreckage wearing protective gear, we soon found there was no need- all radiation was simply gone. No traces whatsoever, as if it had been stolen. None of us could explain it.
Nor could we explain the mysterious scarring across the ship’s hull, which looked as if it had been slashed to ribbons by knives. I am not a militaristic man, but I do not know of a weapon our enemies possess that could cut through steel so cleanly.”
===February 23rd, 1954===
Pacific Ocean
“Our party has grown in number today, with the arrival of the world’s top paleontologist, Dr. Harold Childress, and biologist Gregory Penn, a herpetologist. As usual, no explanation has yet been divulged, though my suspicions continue to grow. Numerous elements of our party are not designated Navy, or any military that I am aware of. The leader of our expedition appears to be a Japanese fellow named Serizawa, apparently a survivor of Hiroshima. I feel like we are being used to look for something. However, no real answer has been given; only whispers and rumors.”
===February 25th, 1954===
11.1667° N, 166.3333° E
“Now I know why we have been brought here. Because of it- a giant creature unlike anything I have ever seen. It swam directly underneath us, grazing our hull as it swam for a convoy carrying nuclear waste to a disposal site (Why out in the ocean? The radiation is far too dangerous to place in a body of water, surely they know this) and attacked, feeding on the radiation. I understand why a paleontologist and biologist were brought here.
The explanation for our presence has also been given. We have been brought here to try to find a way to kill it. But how does one go about killing something that massive? It must be ancient, more ancient than anything else on this Earth. Its size is colossal, its strength stupendous. Its very cry shattered glass across the entire ship, and even caused some men aboard to go temporarily deaf.
We were told of how it was discovered—it intercepted the USS Nautilus whilst the submarine was performing a top-secret test run off the coast of Bikini Atoll. Apparently it has been attacking passing ships for sustenance, which seems to be radiation. The man leading this expedition, Serizawa, is head of a group called Monarch—a multi-national organization dedicated to keeping track of Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism 01—MUTO for short.
I sense a feeling of sadness from Childress and Peck, who were as awed as they were frightened at the sight of the beast. They revere such finds. It would provide them with a legacy for eternity, yet they have been brought here to bring the monster—yes, for that is what it is—to an end. Such a beast is considered to be too great a threat to mankind. I do not know if I yet agree.”
===February 27th, 1954===
11°35′N, 165°23′E
“Gojira. That is what the islanders call him. A word leftover from Japanese occupation of these islands, a legend that has survived through the ages. Apparently the beast has been swimming past their island ever since the Nautilus was intercepted, and it now spends its time surveying the ocean for food.
We have been ordered to move the islanders to another location. Tomorrow, our technology, atomic bombs crafted by our hands, will be used to lure the beast in. Tomorrow, Gojira will be killed.”
===February 28th, 1954===
“Castle Bravo struck.
"A direct hit on Gojira.
"The blast was much too large, far larger than anticipated. Word of a fishing trawler being hit by radiation has already reached our ears. We have enacted a disaster.
"Five more detonations to go. ‘Tests’ are what they will be called by the public, to maintain secrecy.”
===May 13th, 1954===
“Operation Castle has come to an end. All nuclear weapons have been detonated, ensuring that Gojira will never surface again. Godzilla, as some of the Americans attached to the operation have dubbed him, much to Serizawa’s chagrin.
It has been over two months since Castle Bravo’s detonation, and there has been no sign of the monster. Many of our Navy comrades decided the beast had been killed. Serizawa and Monarch’s members disagree. No body, no signs of a kill, Serizawa said. With almost a touch of admiration, I noticed.
Despite the thinking of some of my fellow scientists, I am forced to agree with Serizawa’s conclusion. Such a beast cannot be so easily disposed of. An animal that feeds on radiation, that emits it in the form of fire, cannot be killed by the very thing that gives it life. It is an illogical, arrogant presumption to believe that we of the United States have destroyed something that nature perfected long ago.
We return to the States now, having secretly declared our mission a success. Many return in good humor, confident we have assured our place at the top of the world. I am not so confident, not so easily assured. Out there was, and is, the ultimate predator of Earth’s history, and he will not be so easily beaten. We may have been able to walk away from this encounter, but I fear for the lives of those who encounter him next. I fear for the future of tomorrow.”
thumb|220x220px|A picture of the journal.
==June 24th, 2013==
I haven’t left my room since I arrived home. I have no clue what to do with myself, how to overcome the gravity of this information. I feel like I’ve been crushed by a skyscraper. My mind is in turmoil as I try to make sense of what I’ve read.
Gojira, Godzilla. The largest, most powerful creature to ever live. I’ve never felt so vulnerable, so insecure in the dominance of our world. What if that thing is still out there? Or worse, what if he isn’t the only monster out in the depths of the earth?
I’ve got to find out. I first need to know if Godzilla’s still out there. That organization Fields worked with—Monarch, I think it was called. I need to start with them. If I can find some mention of them somewhere, something, anything at all, I can at least start going down that rabbit hole and see how far it goes.
I may not update as much as I once did, for more reasons than one. This isn’t just clearing up information, this is a top-secret matter of international importance. Odds are, there’s someone out there who wouldn’t be pleased with what I know already. I doubt they’d want me to learn more.
==June 26th, 2013==
I’ve failed to come up with any good leads lately. The past two days have left me stuck in a hole with no visible means of escape. Apparently, Monarch has been covering their tracks well, something I should have expected from an organization that acts like a black-ops military unit. No mention of anything in any search engine I could justifiably use. I have other options, but I’d like to see what I can do here before using them. The methods to utilize those options would be… unsavory, to say the least. I’ll see what more I can do.
==June 27th, 2013==
Gojira may have been seen by others before. I came across something from a source I didn’t expect: the Book of Job, the Bible. The book mentions a mysterious sea creature known as the leviathan, and it has a rather well-written description:
“…I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; sling-stones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is its equal—a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
Coat of armor? Flames from its mouth? Nothing on earth is its equal? The similarities between the vivid description given in the verses above and what I know of Godzilla are striking and cannot be coincidental. It has to be him, I’m sure of it. It gets worse. Another creature is described in the very same book of Job, an animal called the behemoth. I will not go into description here since the verses do not necessarily correlate with this investigation, but I believe my worst fears are being confirmed; other monsters are out there in the world, or at least there were. Gojira survived this long. It’s not a stretch to believe there might be others.
==June 28th, 2013==
______-----______!!!@#^&@!* Dam-$!#@?{}@?:$<> it all-##~!@#?_+}{? They got into!#_+#$#@!@#2314523’’ system. Can’t @##>{#!___________________
==July 3rd, 2013==
Finally! I just managed to recover every possible item from my old laptop’s hard drive, and thankfully managed to recover the data I’ve collected in my research. I was worried. I was also embarrassed beyond belief. What I did was beyond stupid and I was asking for it.
Allow me to explain. Since I couldn’t find any other means of finding information, I did something I definitely should not have done: I bought the proper equipment, set my laptop to Tor, and jumped onto the Darknet. I had run out of options and made the decision to proceed into the dark side of humanity.
I won’t go into detail with what I saw. The vast of amounts of filth roaming the place, the disgusting wares for sale were sickening. The Darknet was, and is, disgusting, but it’s also a place for top-secret information. Whistleblowers have been using the site to blow the lid off company secrets for years, so I figured it was as good a place to start.
I began with making inquiries across the Darknet, setting up places where people could send me information. I simply asked, “Has anyone ever heard of an organization called Monarch?”
The majority of responses were the predictable rubbish- attempts to sell horrific pornography, illicit drugs, various banned items and substances, as well as people deriding me. However, a few responded with real information. Most was insubstantial, but it was real info. I began to get a very vague idea of what I was up against. One of the sources that replied first mentioned something about a military op known as Operation Sea Orbit, so I’ll research that tonight. The source said the operation was a cover for something bigger. I can hardly guess what.
After a few hours on the Darknet, I got something I didn’t expect, a response from an individual who claimed to have once been a part of Monarch in the early 80’s. He asked me why I was doing this. I told him of my findings, not once wondering why I was trusting a complete stranger on the Darknet. He told me to meet him at North Street Parking Garage here in San Francisco a week from our conversation (June 28), and immediately proceeded to leave the conversation. The last thing he said to me was, “They’ll come after you now. Always be armed. Be on watch.”
As I prepared to leave the Darknet, my computer crashed violently, churning out fragments of data and records I’d had since I was in freshman year at Berkeley. I was being hacked. I ripped my laptop out of the wall and took out the battery, but a lot of damage had already been done. It ended up costing me $700 to fix.
The hacking could not have been coincidental. I am sure I am being watched now. As of this moment, I am performing some backup work on a public computer in a local library branch, where I am performing some work on the files I’ve collected. I won’t say what. They’re probably monitoring me.
I don’t feel safe anymore.
==July 5th, 2013==
I headed to the parking garage today, a knife tucked underneath my shirt just in case. It’s a pitiful thing, a cheap pocket knife I’ve had since I was eight, but it’s all I have. I was worried about the setup, it was the perfect place for a murder.
Luckily, things went exactly according to plan. I met my visitor there at about 9 at night. He stayed in the shadows, a hoodie and gas mask kept over his face to avoid any chance of me seeing his appearance. The man referred to himself as ‘Nautilus’ (fitting) and gave me a hard drive of sorts. It looked tampered with. He proceeded to explain to me what it was and what it was for, as well as how to use it. I won’t say here, not yet. But it was enough.
Nautilus gave me a few fragments of information -Operation Sea Orbit, a nuclear-oriented expedition in 1964- was a Monarch-led force intent on finding out whether Gojira was alive once and for all. Monarch’s been active across the globe ever since ’54. He also mentioned three words: “Janjira,” “Devil,” and “Universal.” He told me to use the device and figure them out. With that, he left, warning me again to keep my guard up.
When I got home, I tried to run those words through my brain and see if it picked up a response, a memory, something. Oddly enough, I did: Janjira was a city not far from Tokyo, Japan that was evacuated back in 1999 due to a meltdown at the nuclear plant-
Dear God, it couldn’t have been… could it?
==August 1st, 2013==
I’ve been working ever since I met with Nautilus. I’m afraid to use the device he gave me. I’m afraid of what will happen.
I work all day like a normal person. My parents ask me what I do with my time. I tell them I go out and visit clubs. I’m actually watching my windows and double-checking my locks every night, afraid to go anywhere. I half-expect to find listening devices in my apartment. I think I see them watching me wherever I go. Monarch. It has to be them.
They know I know about them. I think they want to kill me.
I don’t want to die.
==August 4th, 2013==
Nautilus is dead. I’m sure of it.
A man was found dead in a car that had sunk in the Bay. The vehicle had been drudged up by accident and the ones who found it alerted the authorities. The victim was identified as a James Crowell, a former military veteran who had served in the 1980’s. I know that was Nautilus because of that. They killed him because he talked.
What will they do to me?
==August 5th, 2013==
They’re outside my apartment looking at me. I know they are. I can see one of them staring at me from across the street. I can see the patch on his jacket, a simple trefoil symbol. No one else but I or another Monarch member would know what it means.
I think he has a gun. I’m not safe here. I’m calling the police right now.
[Ringing] … [Ringing] … [Ringing] …
Dispatcher: 911, what is the nature of your emergency?
Barnes: Hello? My name is Phillip Barnes. There’s someone standing outside my apartment building, he’s been staring right into my window for ages, and I think he’s armed. Someone please send help.
Dispatcher: Sir, I need you to calm down. Can you describe the person in question?
Barnes: *Deep breaths* I can barely see him now…
Dispatcher: Sir, please remain calm. Focus and tell me exactly what he looks like.
Barnes: He appears to be a white male, looks to be mid 30’s. He’s tall and wearing a navy-blue uniform with a trefoil symbol on his chest and another symbol on his right arm. He’s wearing sunglasses, too.
Dispatcher: Alright, you said he was armed. Can you see the weapon?
Barnes: No, but the way he’s holding his arms, he’s got to be armed. Please send someone over here.
Dispatcher: Sir, you’re sure you can see a weapon?
Barnes: I know he’s after me, I swear! He- Oh, no…
Dispatcher: Sir, what’s wrong?
Barnes: I think, I think someone’s trying to break into my apartment. Oh, God, please- somebody help-
Dispatcher: Is there any way for you to exit your apartment, sir? What are your options?
Barnes: Just the front door! I’m going to have to run right through them- God help me, please help me-
Dispatcher: Sir, the moment that door opens you run right through and run over anyone in your way, do you hear me?
Barnes: [Deep breath] Alright, I will- AAGH!
[Sound of grunts of surprise and anger, sounds of a scuffle. Heavy breathing after sounds of panting]
Barnes: I made it out! Tell me where to go!
Dispatcher: Get out into the crowd, get away from your apartment as fast as you can. Make your way to the police station and we’ll be able to help you. What is your apartment’s location?
Barnes: [Panting] Avalon Ocean Avenue Apartments, 1200 Ocean Ave. My apartment was B12!
Dispatcher: Alright, sir, I’ll stay on the line with you for as long as I can. Hold on for just a second-
Calling all available cars, we have a 10-66, possible 10-72 and 417, proceed to 1200 Ocean Avenue, Avalon Ocean Apartments…
==August 6th, 2013==
I’m alright. Just worn out. The police didn’t find anyone, but they did find a signs of a break-in. The cops promised me that they’d patrol the area just in case. Nothing was missing or reported stolen.
They didn’t check my laptop, though, and that’s where the intruder struck. All of my records and data were deleted. That’s Ok. Monarch doesn’t know where I have all my backups. They never will.
I’m with my parents right now, staying at their house temporarily. I’m leaving San Francisco tomorrow. It’s not safe here anymore.
It’s time to use the device Nautilus gave me.
==August 7th, 2013==
I left San Francisco today. Not saying how I left or where I’m going. Once I get situated at a temporary location, I’ll use the device. I won’t let them find me this time.
==August 8th, 2013==
I’m in. The device Nautilus gave me? It’s some sort of high-security online database, or something along that line, I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it allows me to go right into the entire Monarch network. Every single stinking bit of it. I wasn’t able to do much today in terms of data mining, but I was able to learn how to filter through their network. It’s so complex, the sheer amount of loops, re-routings and false links must be some sort of code to keep non-members out even if they have access to the network.
I hate to admit it, but I may need outside help to learn how to break the code. I don’t want to go to the Darknet again, but that may end up being the only choice I’ve got. Give me a day or two to see what I can find.
==August 10th, 2013==
People say Boston and New York are the dirtiest cities on the East Coast? They’re liars, I promise you. I’ve been performing multiple searches across the net for people who know binary and computer coding and I must’ve found thousands of hackers. All of them in the Baltimore area alone.
I managed to contact one of them, and he agreed to help me crack Monarch’s coding for $1000. I’m now $1000 more in debt, but at this point I don’t think it matters. The Monarch will kill me if I stay in place for too long.
I should have some findings by tonight.
==August 11th, 2013==
Holy CRAP! That hacker took hours to sort through everything Monarch had and we only managed to grab about a gigabyte of data in total. And even once we got it we couldn’t actually decrypt all that we stole. We stole bits at random, never staying in one place for too long. The network was heavily secured. Something kept tracking us throughout the entire infiltration, so I’ll need to change locations once I’m done here.
I’ve skimmed over what we have, but I haven’t had time yet to really sort through it all. It’s more than what I hoped for, even if it isn’t really all that much in the face of how much was there. Hacker I paid said there was somewhere around fifty-thousand terabytes worth of available data on the network. He then proceeded to ask me where I had found this place. I promptly threw him out. I can’t afford to risk any talk.
I’ll report back tonight to show off my findings. Hold on till then.
Serizawa’s son is a part of Monarch, his name’s Ishiro. I feel like I should have expected this.
He’s got an assistant; some British woman named Vivienne Graham. Supposedly she was a biologist with a focus on paleontology back in the late 1990’s before Monarch dragged her into the mess.
Monarch’s led by some Canadian, a Dr. Gregory Whelan. Absolutely no data on him whatsoever, not even a picture or a file on him. I guess guys who head black-ops organizations aren’t even allowed to really exist.
I’ve been sorting through what makes up their roster—names and people from every possible country, and many have been a part of Monarch for decades. A couple of Russians on the program have been scientific advisors since 1954—Americans, Japanese, and Soviets were working together thirty-five years before the fall of the USSR. Unbelievable, but it does make me wonder if the knowledge of Godzilla kept the countries from firing nukes at one another-
Hold on, someone’s outside my hotel room. A car just pulled up, still sitting there. I think I see the Monarch patch.
I’m leaving.
==August 13th, 2013==
I got shot at this time. No subtlety with a knife, no quiet kill. They knew I had accessed their system, and they followed me. I got careless and nearly paid with my life. I paid with the hacker’s life instead. His body was found yesterday in a dumpster, stab wounds all over his body.
I don’t know whether or not to blame myself for his death. Every time I dig deeper into Monarch’s files, something goes wrong. Maybe I should stop.
But maybe I should keep going, if only to piss them off. No more data mining on their site anymore. I post what little I have and keep moving.
==September 8th, 2013==
Kaiju. A Japanese word or strange beast, or creature. Literal translation means monster. The word keeps cropping up in the files Monarch has on Godzilla, usually in the form of Serizawa Sr.’s writings. He kept studying Godzilla till his death in 1989.
Operation Sea Orbit did encounter Godzilla, three days out from the Marshall Islands. He attacked one of the carriers attached to the mission but the ship outpaced him and he eventually gave up. The sight of Godzilla was enough to convince the US military to allow Monarch rights to do whatever they wanted in regard to the information. A full blackout was placed on anything monster-related ever since.
Monarch’s been working across the globe for decades. Espionage, murders, cover-ups on various natural disasters, you name it. Blackouts that have occurred in New York City have been the result of Monarch tampering with some sort of technology. I can’t understand it.
They’ve been everywhere across the globe since the start of the 21st century, it seems. I’ve found pictures they’ve stolen, with data attached to the various files. They’re hiding something, but I can’t figure out what. After all, all three places they named are land-based.
What’s out there?
==September 19th, 2013==
===File One===
An old film photo of Godzilla, apparently taken during Sea Orbit. Not much to the photo, but I felt like showing off more evidence that he’s out there. A monster that took an atomic blast directly still lives out there, in OUR ocean.
===File Two===
Not much of an explanation given to this one, or even where it is. I can’t make heads or tails of it. My basic security access made sure that most of the files I gathered are pretty blurred, so most of what I’ve got is the mere basics. I’m a little disappointed.
===File Three & Four===
Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham. If anyone has ever seen them anywhere, there’s not much of a mention of it past Graham’s resignation at her college back in England in 1997. Serizawa doesn’t even have a birth certificate anymore, far as I can tell.
===File Five===
Some unknown location where Monarch was operating. A jungle, if I had to take a guess. I have no idea what caused those sinkholes.
===File Six & Seven===
A statement came along with the files—UNIVERSAL—OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION RECORDS OF THE MINE COLLAPSE ARE CLASSIFIED. ALL WESTERN UNIVERSAL PAPERWORK HAS BEEN SEQUESTERED. NO PUBLIC STATEMENT WILL BE ISSUED.
I’ve never heard of Western Universal before, apparently some mining company. I’ll have to do more digging to find out what. But they found something, alright, look.
===File Eight===
A skeleton of a Godzilla creature. The records attached to it say they found something inside it. Inside what would have been the ribcage. What on earth could do that to such a powerful animal?
There’s something else, but I haven’t been able to dig deep enough yet. Something about Janjira nuclear plant. I knew they had something to do with it, look:
JANJIRA - ALL MATERIALS RELATING TO THE JANJIRA INCIDENT ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING INTERNAL REVIEW. PLEASE CONTACT MONARCH—DIGITAL SECURITY DIVISION TO REQUEST ACCESS.
Well Monarch, I didn’t talk to your digital security division, I just stole your stuff instead. Enjoy while I pick your data apart.
==September 20th, 2013==
Godzilla’s not the only one out there. Monarch wasn’t looking around at sinkholes for Godzilla. They were looking for more of these things. They were in the Philippines. One of them hit Janjira. I think the other is somewhere in the Mojave desert—I don’t know why yet, I’ll have to figure it out.
No place is safe anymore.
==January 7th, 2014==
It’s been a while since I sorted through this. I haven’t looked at it in a while because—well, why should I? I have no leads, no way of knowing what to do next. Monarch could be behind me right now and I’d have no place to go. No place to run anymore. I’m just not as ruthless as they are.
Godzilla’s out in the Pacific somewhere, sleeping. One of the last files Monarch had on him had a picture of him swimming through the Pacific Ocean in 2011, feasting on radiation from Fukishima nuclear plant. They haven’t seen him since.
The other two monsters Monarch found—MUTO’s, they called them—are exactly where they’ve been for nearly fifteen years. Janjira and Yucca Mountain. The one at Janjira is still feeding on the radiation from the plant it destroyed. The one at Yucca Mountain was sent there as a spore—a dormant one.
I wonder how much longer it’ll last. I wonder how much longer I’ll last. I’ve got no money, I haven’t had a shower in weeks. I look like the homeless people I used to make fun of when I was a kid for smelling bad. I’m practically just waiting for Monarch to find me and kill me.
I’m giving up. If Monarch finds me, they can have me. I’m going home, so at least I can die in some semblance of comfort.
==February 18th, 2014==
I got a job working at a local Starbucks today. I haven’t seen Monarch anywhere.
The files on my computer are gone. So is the device Nautilus gave me. Monarch snuck into my parent’s house and erased it all. I don’t sleep too well at nights anymore.
I try to stay in public places wherever I go. If I’m not with my parents, I’m at work. If not at work, then out in a crowd. If not in a crowd, then with my new girlfriend. I figure it’s the only way I’m safe.
==May 17th, 2014==
6.3 magnitude earthquake in Japan last night. The epicenter was right in the heart of the Quarantine Zone—at Janjira Nuclear Plant.
I think this is it.
==May 18th, 2014==
God help us. They’re all awake and active.
Godzilla and the first MUTO destroyed Honolulu. Another one showed up today in Las Vegas. All three of them are making their way here to San Francisco.
The US military is considering using nuclear weapons. It’s going to happen all over again and this time they’re going to wipe us all out instead of just a few people.
We’re trying to evacuate, but we haven’t got much time. People are panicking, streets are flooded. No one’s getting anywhere in this, even if the military and police are trying to fix it. It doesn’t matter. If it’s not Godzilla and the MUTO’s, then it’s going to be the bomb that kills us.
Everyone who’s been reading this, be ready. If the MUTO’s were out there in the depths of the earth, there’s surely going to be more. There have to be more monsters. Be ready when they wake up.
My parents are yelling for me to leave with them. It doesn’t matter now. This is the end of the world.
We’re all going to die.
Category:Monsters
Category:Photography
Category:Diary/Journal
Category:Reality
Category:History
Category:Military
Category:Longpasta