* * * * *
Major Robert Howard Phillips looked at his octagenarian great-uncle as if he had suddenly developed two extra heads.
"Let me get this straight. You want me to use laborers, hired by you, through the rivals of the Chinese tong that's been serving as our chief negotiator with the Heikegani-ryu?"
John Aaron Phillips shook his head.
"They weren't hired by me. They were hired by Chemique Internationale! A joint Anglo-French business venture that Vandersnatch Shipping and I recently 'invested' in. They have interests ranging from perfume factories in Marseilles to oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. With equipment for the latter supplied by Indepetroco. And, with Vandersnatch tankers transporting their output!"
The younger man smirked.
"I see. And, has this joint venture recently begun wildcatting anywhere in the Australasian region, by any chance?"
His great-uncle's smirk was even bigger.
"Funny you should ask...!"
* * * * *
SEA OF JAPAN
(OCT. 25, 1952)
The meeting took place in the captain's cabin aboard the Midway-class aircraft carrier "U.S.S. Java Sea." And, the people present (in addition to Captain Cuthbert Holmesby, himself) included Major Phillips; Captain Hobart Ross of the Flasher-class submarine "U.S.S. Tomcod;" and First Lt. Gerard Elkhorn (USMC Airwing).
"Go ahead, Lieutenant," prompted Ross: "Tell them what you told me."
The twenty-something young man nervously nodded.
"The Chickasaws were flying in textbook formation. Each one carrying ten of the Cantonese laborers that had been hired to help us set up the base camp for our 'wildcatting' of Black Mountain.* And, we were halfway between Port Moresby and Cooktown when it...happened."
"What happened?" demanded Phillips.
"We...we were attacked, sir."
"Attacked?! By whom?"
"Not by whom, sir. By what! It was something...monstrous. Literally, monstrous!!"
"Could you be a little _more_ specific, lieutenant?"
Noting the exasperation in the major's voice, Elkhorn nodded.
"It...it looked like a dinosaur, sir. Only, no dinosaur I'd ever seen before at any museum! It was more like...well, it had a tail like a snake; wings like a bat; and the upper torso of a...a naked woman!!!"
Holmesby could not figure which he was more shocked by: the lieutenant's description; or the _lack_ of shocked amazement on the other officers' faces. What he heard a second later, however, eclipsed both of those for shock value.
"How big was this snake-tailed, bat-winged woman?" asked Phillips (with no skepticism in his voice, whatsoever).
"About a hundred--maybe even a hundred fifty--feet long. And, her wings were about another fifty feet from tip to tip!"
"I see. And, what did she do when she began her attack?"
It turned out that, of the five helicopters that were supposedly civilian-owned, the first two had collided with each other in trying to stabilize themselves from the turbulence created by this flying giantess' initial pass. Exploding almost on contact. The giantess had then performed a surprisingly nimble U-turn for something so massive. And, in passing over the three remaining helicopters, she had flicked her tail like an Australian cattleman's whip!
Smashing the lieutenant's helicopter to pieces even before it landed in the water.
"The two left over? She grabbed them up in those big, clawed hands of hers...and squeezed. Scrunching them up like scrap paper! The guys inside never had a chance. After that? She...it...flew off. With me and one of the Chinese guys as the only survivors."
"God must've been with us, though. Because we got picked up by some Torres Island fishermen within fifteen minutes! Apparently, they'd seen the same thing we did. Because, when I asked them what that was, one of them (who only spoke a little pidgin-English) kept saying this one word, over and over."
" 'Ropen! Ropen!' "
tbc
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
*Chickasaw: U.S. military designation for the Sikorsky H-19 helicopter. Forerunner of the still-extant Choctaw.
Black Mountain: anglophonic name for Mount Kalkajaka.
Wildcatting: American slang term for oil prospecting.
Black Mountain: anglophonic name for Mount Kalkajaka.
Wildcatting: American slang term for oil prospecting.