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Description
Entity PELE (AKA BARAGON)
First Sighting: Ecuador, 1981
Size: 48 metres in height at the shoulder
Weight: 34 000 tonnes

History: When Lawrence Cohen was questioned by Monarch for his role in the disaster of Barcelona, all his notes on pre-Crescent civilizations were confiscated as evidence. He had travelled the globe in search of artifacts that would prove that human history searched far further back than believed. During his 1941 expeditions in South America on research into the earliest peoples to reach the New World, he claimed to have discovered ancient catacombs indicating independent colonization of South America during prehistory, not from across the Bering Strait, but from transpacific sailors.

He had discovered these ruins within a region deep within the Ecuadorian highlands known locally as “El Nido del Demonio”, a dormant volcano as he found. Inside, he had documented a series of Cyclopean tunnels of foreign rock types which descended deep into the mountain, where it became too inhospitable to continue. Some of the largest chambers, likely carved into existing lava tubes, were easily over a hundred feet tall and covered in murals up to the ceiling. However, due to the hostile conditions within and lack of suitable equipment, Cohen was only able to capture a few poor-quality photographs and make a number of sketches of the site before he was forced to abandon this venture for another time. However, only a few months after this, an earthquake struck the region, destroying the tunnels that had led into the volcano, burying all material evidence of his discovery. When Monarch reexamined his photographs and sketches many years later, they noted many similarities to the architectural styling of ruins believed to have belonged to the hypothetical Infant People, but that was not what stood out most. Even during their original discovery, the ruins were heavily decayed from tectonic activity over millennia. However, some of the damage seen in the photographs less resembled erosion and more like something huge had clawed along the walls… And many of the murals appeared to depict a crimson reptilian beast, a great golden horn atop its head, a creature that strongly resembled one depicted in the Kilaak mega-temple on the other side of the world… one of the three disaster gods, the volcano lord Baragon.

“El Nido del Demonio”, or Mount Rhodon as it was officially known, later became the secret base of operations for the Nazi fugitive Malic Reisendorf. And some time after that, it became the site of a major kaiju incursion by Reisendorf’s very making, as two of his “children”, the artificial kaiju Gaira and Sanda, drew military forces back to their birthplace as they attempted to destroy the two brothers. Gaira fought back ferociously, hurling boulders and trees at the attacking forces, as Sanda attempted to break into the mountain and try to shelter within the cavernous lava tubes. But all this activity soon stirred from dormancy the true ruler beneath the Demon’s Nest. In an explosion of dust and rock, the right flank of Mt. Rhodon cleaved away as a red-hot beast emerged from beneath the buried magma chamber, her hide still steaming and molten. The great volcano lord had awakened to reclaim her domain.

Eyeing the two intruding kaiju and the multitude of humans and their war vehicles surrounding her, the beast gurgled for a moment before unleashing a torrent of billowing flame and molten rock from her mouth in a great arc, setting the landscape ablaze and annihilating the front line of tanks and aircraft, the two gargantua narrowly avoiding the brunt of the attack. Leaping through the wall of fire, Baragon pounced upon Sanda, mauling him ferociously; Gaira, at the sight of his brother being savaged, in turn grappled with the reptilian beast, clawing and biting her face. Baragon renewed her attack and three kaiju engaged one another in battle, the human forces forgotten. For hours, the two Gargantuas led Baragon deeper into the lowlands, but it seemed that Sanda was attempting to push the battle away from populated areas. This gave G-Force valuable time to re-coordinate an attack plan now that there was an additional kaiju to deal with. More than half of their Maser Cannons had been destroyed by Baragon during their initial siege on Mount Rhodon. Normally, the remaining vehicles would be returned to base, but the situation was desperate. It was largely only because of Sanda that current casualties were low and the conflict had not yet reached a major population centre.

A plan was made to drive the three kaiju towards the coast, where they would be cornered by waiting naval forces and bombarded from land, sea, and air. Using the remaining Masers sparingly to deliberately agitate Baragon and Gaira, G-Force gradually managed to "entice" them towards the shore, with some help from Sanda (who seemed to pick up somewhat on what was happening). The Gargantuas were unable to deal serious damage to Baragon even attacking together due to her stony armour plates, and the repeated burns of Baragon's attacks were overpowering their abilities to regenerate from it. However, as they neared the sea, Baragon descended into the earth, leaving behind only the two Gargantuas once more. Now exposed in the open, Gaira turned his attention back to the numerous armoured vehicles which now opened fire on the two, while Sanda merely tried to defend himself as nonviolently as possible. Baragon, however, had not been attempting to escape, but was instead attempting a different attack strategy. From underneath a battalion of tanks, she lunged from the earth and leapt upon Gaira. But this attack was cut short by Baragon's own doing; her rapid tunnelling and the destructive forces of the battle itself had rendered the cliffside shoreline unstable. A massive chunk of the coast suddenly cleaved into the sea, carrying with it the three kaiju, which continued grappling one another to the bitter end, the two brothers leaping upon Baragon as she attempted to tunnel away; all of them disappearing beneath hundreds of thousands of tonnes of earth and rock beneath the waves in an instant.

A large portion of Ecuadorian forces were lost in the campaign, with several of its warships sunken and dozens of land units lost by the landslide that ultimately vanished Baragon and the two Gargantuas. Several hundreds acres of forests and a few small villages were razed or buried by Baragon's searing emissions. Only two of G-Force's Maser Cannons were still salvageable afterwards, and although the ultimate results were inconclusive, they regarded the overall contributions of the experimental weapons as invaluable and effective, announcing continued development into the program. In the months following the event, unconfirmed sightings of Baragon would be reported by inhabitants of remote Andean villages in Peru and Bolivia, suggesting she burrowed away after a period of inactivity. The fate of Sanda and Gaira remain unknown; no life signs were detected from the coastline where they disappeared, and the two are presumed to either have perished or somehow escaped without being noticed. Due to the complex international involvements of this particular kaiju event, it would be wildly publicized news around the world for months, but it would be the last major kaiju event for the next several years, when it would be far eclipsed.

Description: In the inhospitable depths that riddle the continental plates, few inhabitants of the worlds beneath are more well-suited to movement through the tangled labyrinth of rock than Baragon. With massively built jaws and forelimbs infused with geological elements, she is one with the earth itself, and a highly accomplished burrower capable of freely descending beneath the Earth's crust. Her endoskeleton is heavily reinforced, with interlocking vertebrae beneath her coat of scale-like plates that allow her to survive the immense pressure. The lower jaw is divided into two separate, independently mobile halves, but are each armed with thickened, plate-like teeth that face outward and grow continuously like the incisors of a rodent to combat the intensive wear on them. Using her jaws and claws, Baragon can tear through the earth like a shark through the water, the shearing, shovel-like mouthparts and forelimbs cleaving through bedrock at great speed; her pace through rock is unmatched by any known entity, kaiju, manmade, or otherwise, and she can tunnel hundreds of metres in under a minute, covering many miles in hours.

The large horns on her head release powerful, high-frequency energy waves that pulverizes and effectively liquifies earth in front of Baragon, allowing her to "swim" through the planet's crust when she needs to move more quickly through the ground (this ability is also sometimes used offensively as a short-range concussive blast). Moving more slowly, she can dig more conventionally, creating elaborate subterranean trails; seismic mapping around Mt. Rhodon indicates she has created a vast tunnel system that spans unknowable distances and depths which is likely ever-growing, making her nearly impossible to track once she descends beneath the surface. Using her personal tunnels, she may move through thousands of kilometres within days virtually anywhere on Earth. While moving through these tunnels, her horns also emit low-frequency vibrations that travel outward and back through the earth, allowing her to navigate in pitch darkness. In fact, the ear-like lobes flip outward to cloak most of the face while burrowing as protection, since vision is largely pointless.

Baragon's bio-terrestrial carapace and skin is rich in tungsten, granite, and silica compounds, among other substances, and is predictably incredibly tough and highly heat resistant. The geological elements are interlaced by keratin-like structural protein strands so that it remains relatively flexible while still retaining its strength; an invaluable attribute while travelling in the claustrophobic depths. A true master of the earth, she can survive sustained submersion through molten magma within the mantle layers, sometimes swimming through the liquid rock for hours at a time, feeding off the concentrated geothermal energies and foraging for exotic ores in deep-earth conditions inhospitable even for most kaiju. Her inner layers are just as interlaced with heat-resistant elements as her outer layers, as these dips into the mantle fuel an internally insulated, biological internal furnace equivalent to a digestive organ that allows Baragon to consume and derive nutrition from virtually any form of matter, organic or inorganic. Large portions of her diet consist of geological substances, or other bio-terrestrial hyper-organisms, but practically anything can be eaten and processed.

This "furnace" retains matter in a condensed molten state, and as a defensive measure, the pseudo-saurian can regurgitate this lava in several different forms. The first type is merely a red-hot superheated gas that is belched out, capable of carbonizing flesh, shattering concrete, and setting the very air alight; useful for comparatively minor threats but less effective against particularly well-defended or heat-resistant kaiju. The second type is a targeted explosive "lava bomb" where a bolus of semi-solid rock is projected with great force like a mortar strike, allowing them to strike opponents from a distance (a radius of at least two kilometres has been reported), sometimes hurling multiple in a single succession. The last form is a massive wave of highly fluid lava expelled at once, an attack with the capacity to not only immolate foes, but also to trap them within a shell of rock and metal as it hardens.

However, it is not merely Baragon's magmatic properties, but her sheer tenacity in battle which marks her as a formidable combatant. Extremely territorial and aggressive, it seems no matter the size or number of her opponents, she will fight to her second last breath before considering flight. It may not be inaccurate to suggest Baragon's two most favoured activities are feeding and fighting, for there are few entities she will reject in either case. Her heavily armoured body, built to withstand the weight of the Earth itself, can also weather extreme punishment in battle, and her teeth and claws, adapted to sheer through miles of metal ores and bedrock, can just as easily tear through the hides of battleships and other kaiju. She is surprisingly agile despite her stocky and heavily built frame, and is capable of leaping great distances to try and topple larger foes. Tunnelling in and out of the earth, she utilizes her speed and stealth underground to destabilize the earth, creating pitfall traps and erupting from the ground in ambush strikes, sometimes even bursting out of the sides of mountains or cliffs.

Her "ultimate" defensive move when all else fails, Baragon will raise her flattened dorsal plates and mass vent the thermonuclear energy from within (normally, this is vented in small increments to prevent overheating) hot enough to melt rock on contact for up to a hundred metres, the sudden extreme heat causing a powerful explosion of rock and lava. Utilizing this defence greatly slows Baragon's metabolism, leaving her sluggish for hours afterwards (or until she immerses herself in an extreme heat source), so this self-induced "eruption" is rarely utilized unless against truly formidable foes. However, Kilaak pictographs suggest if this is performed within the caldera of an active or dormant volcano, it will initiate a spontaneous eruption of the volcano itself (possibly through some geo-chemical reaction triggered by heating of the exotic deep-earth compounds in Baragon's armour). While confirmation of this ability is of yet uncertain, and realistically untestable, all else attests to Baragon's deserved place among their top spot among the pantheon as one of the great disasters.

———

NEXT: Destroyer of Worlds

———

BONUS (MASER MINI-PROFILE):
sta.sh/07kvtsfv8n9

Description
Entity PELE (AKA BARAGON)
First Sighting: Ecuador, 1981
Size: 48 metres in height at the shoulder
Weight: 34 000 tonnes

History: When Lawrence Cohen was questioned by Monarch for his role in the disaster of Barcelona, all his notes on pre-Crescent civilizations were confiscated as evidence. He had travelled the globe in search of artifacts that would prove that human history searched far further back than believed. During his 1941 expeditions in South America on research into the earliest peoples to reach the New World, he claimed to have discovered ancient catacombs indicating independent colonization of South America during prehistory, not from across the Bering Strait, but from transpacific sailors.

He had discovered these ruins within a region deep within the Ecuadorian highlands known locally as “El Nido del Demonio”, a dormant volcano as he found. Inside, he had documented a series of Cyclopean tunnels of foreign rock types which descended deep into the mountain, where it became too inhospitable to continue. Some of the largest chambers, likely carved into existing lava tubes, were easily over a hundred feet tall and covered in murals up to the ceiling. However, due to the hostile conditions within and lack of suitable equipment, Cohen was only able to capture a few poor-quality photographs and make a number of sketches of the site before he was forced to abandon this venture for another time. However, only a few months after this, an earthquake struck the region, destroying the tunnels that had led into the volcano, burying all material evidence of his discovery. When Monarch reexamined his photographs and sketches many years later, they noted many similarities to the architectural styling of ruins believed to have belonged to the hypothetical Infant People, but that was not what stood out most. Even during their original discovery, the ruins were heavily decayed from tectonic activity over millennia. However, some of the damage seen in the photographs less resembled erosion and more like something huge had clawed along the walls… And many of the murals appeared to depict a crimson reptilian beast, a great golden horn atop its head, a creature that strongly resembled one depicted in the Kilaak mega-temple on the other side of the world… one of the three disaster gods, the volcano lord Baragon.

“El Nido del Demonio”, or Mount Rhodon as it was officially known, later became the secret base of operations for the Nazi fugitive Malic Reisendorf. And some time after that, it became the site of a major kaiju incursion by Reisendorf’s very making, as two of his “children”, the artificial kaiju Gaira and Sanda, drew military forces back to their birthplace as they attempted to destroy the two brothers. Gaira fought back ferociously, hurling boulders and trees at the attacking forces, as Sanda attempted to break into the mountain and try to shelter within the cavernous lava tubes. But all this activity soon stirred from dormancy the true ruler beneath the Demon’s Nest. In an explosion of dust and rock, the right flank of Mt. Rhodon cleaved away as a red-hot beast emerged from beneath the buried magma chamber, her hide still steaming and molten. The great volcano lord had awakened to reclaim her domain.

Eyeing the two intruding kaiju and the multitude of humans and their war vehicles surrounding her, the beast gurgled for a moment before unleashing a torrent of billowing flame and molten rock from her mouth in a great arc, setting the landscape ablaze and annihilating the front line of tanks and aircraft, the two gargantua narrowly avoiding the brunt of the attack. Leaping through the wall of fire, Baragon pounced upon Sanda, mauling him ferociously; Gaira, at the sight of his brother being savaged, in turn grappled with the reptilian beast, clawing and biting her face. Baragon renewed her attack and three kaiju engaged one another in battle, the human forces forgotten. For hours, the two Gargantuas led Baragon deeper into the lowlands, but it seemed that Sanda was attempting to push the battle away from populated areas. This gave G-Force valuable time to re-coordinate an attack plan now that there was an additional kaiju to deal with. More than half of their Maser Cannons had been destroyed by Baragon during their initial siege on Mount Rhodon. Normally, the remaining vehicles would be returned to base, but the situation was desperate. It was largely only because of Sanda that current casualties were low and the conflict had not yet reached a major population centre.

A plan was made to drive the three kaiju towards the coast, where they would be cornered by waiting naval forces and bombarded from land, sea, and air. Using the remaining Masers sparingly to deliberately agitate Baragon and Gaira, G-Force gradually managed to "entice" them towards the shore, with some help from Sanda (who seemed to pick up somewhat on what was happening). The Gargantuas were unable to deal serious damage to Baragon even attacking together due to her stony armour plates, and the repeated burns of Baragon's attacks were overpowering their abilities to regenerate from it. However, as they neared the sea, Baragon descended into the earth, leaving behind only the two Gargantuas once more. Now exposed in the open, Gaira turned his attention back to the numerous armoured vehicles which now opened fire on the two, while Sanda merely tried to defend himself as nonviolently as possible. Baragon, however, had not been attempting to escape, but was instead attempting a different attack strategy. From underneath a battalion of tanks, she lunged from the earth and leapt upon Gaira. But this attack was cut short by Baragon's own doing; her rapid tunnelling and the destructive forces of the battle itself had rendered the cliffside shoreline unstable. A massive chunk of the coast suddenly cleaved into the sea, carrying with it the three kaiju, which continued grappling one another to the bitter end, the two brothers leaping upon Baragon as she attempted to tunnel away; all of them disappearing beneath hundreds of thousands of tonnes of earth and rock beneath the waves in an instant.

A large portion of Ecuadorian forces were lost in the campaign, with several of its warships sunken and dozens of land units lost by the landslide that ultimately vanished Baragon and the two Gargantuas. Several hundreds acres of forests and a few small villages were razed or buried by Baragon's searing emissions. Only two of G-Force's Maser Cannons were still salvageable afterwards, and although the ultimate results were inconclusive, they regarded the overall contributions of the experimental weapons as invaluable and effective, announcing continued development into the program. In the months following the event, unconfirmed sightings of Baragon would be reported by inhabitants of remote Andean villages in Peru and Bolivia, suggesting she burrowed away after a period of inactivity. The fate of Sanda and Gaira remain unknown; no life signs were detected from the coastline where they disappeared, and the two are presumed to either have perished or somehow escaped without being noticed. Due to the complex international involvements of this particular kaiju event, it would be wildly publicized news around the world for months, but it would be the last major kaiju event for the next several years, when it would be far eclipsed.

Description: In the inhospitable depths that riddle the continental plates, few inhabitants of the worlds beneath are more well-suited to movement through the tangled labyrinth of rock than Baragon. With massively built jaws and forelimbs infused with geological elements, she is one with the earth itself, and a highly accomplished burrower capable of freely descending beneath the Earth's crust. Her endoskeleton is heavily reinforced, with interlocking vertebrae beneath her coat of scale-like plates that allow her to survive the immense pressure. The lower jaw is divided into two separate, independently mobile halves, but are each armed with thickened, plate-like teeth that face outward and grow continuously like the incisors of a rodent to combat the intensive wear on them. Using her jaws and claws, Baragon can tear through the earth like a shark through the water, the shearing, shovel-like mouthparts and forelimbs cleaving through bedrock at great speed; her pace through rock is unmatched by any known entity, kaiju, manmade, or otherwise, and she can tunnel hundreds of metres in under a minute, covering many miles in hours.

The large horns on her head release powerful, high-frequency energy waves that pulverizes and effectively liquifies earth in front of Baragon, allowing her to "swim" through the planet's crust when she needs to move more quickly through the ground (this ability is also sometimes used offensively as a short-range concussive blast). Moving more slowly, she can dig more conventionally, creating elaborate subterranean trails; seismic mapping around Mt. Rhodon indicates she has created a vast tunnel system that spans unknowable distances and depths which is likely ever-growing, making her nearly impossible to track once she descends beneath the surface. Using her personal tunnels, she may move through thousands of kilometres within days virtually anywhere on Earth. While moving through these tunnels, her horns also emit low-frequency vibrations that travel outward and back through the earth, allowing her to navigate in pitch darkness. In fact, the ear-like lobes flip outward to cloak most of the face while burrowing as protection, since vision is largely pointless.

Baragon's bio-terrestrial carapace and skin is rich in tungsten, granite, and silica compounds, among other substances, and is predictably incredibly tough and highly heat resistant. The geological elements are interlaced by keratin-like structural protein strands so that it remains relatively flexible while still retaining its strength; an invaluable attribute while travelling in the claustrophobic depths. A true master of the earth, she can survive sustained submersion through molten magma within the mantle layers, sometimes swimming through the liquid rock for hours at a time, feeding off the concentrated geothermal energies and foraging for exotic ores in deep-earth conditions inhospitable even for most kaiju. Her inner layers are just as interlaced with heat-resistant elements as her outer layers, as these dips into the mantle fuel an internally insulated, biological internal furnace equivalent to a digestive organ that allows Baragon to consume and derive nutrition from virtually any form of matter, organic or inorganic. Large portions of her diet consist of geological substances, or other bio-terrestrial hyper-organisms, but practically anything can be eaten and processed.

This "furnace" retains matter in a condensed molten state, and as a defensive measure, the pseudo-saurian can regurgitate this lava in several different forms. The first type is merely a red-hot superheated gas that is belched out, capable of carbonizing flesh, shattering concrete, and setting the very air alight; useful for comparatively minor threats but less effective against particularly well-defended or heat-resistant kaiju. The second type is a targeted explosive "lava bomb" where a bolus of semi-solid rock is projected with great force like a mortar strike, allowing them to strike opponents from a distance (a radius of at least two kilometres has been reported), sometimes hurling multiple in a single succession. The last form is a massive wave of highly fluid lava expelled at once, an attack with the capacity to not only immolate foes, but also to trap them within a shell of rock and metal as it hardens.

However, it is not merely Baragon's magmatic properties, but her sheer tenacity in battle which marks her as a formidable combatant. Extremely territorial and aggressive, it seems no matter the size or number of her opponents, she will fight to her second last breath before considering flight. It may not be inaccurate to suggest Baragon's two most favoured activities are feeding and fighting, for there are few entities she will reject in either case. Her heavily armoured body, built to withstand the weight of the Earth itself, can also weather extreme punishment in battle, and her teeth and claws, adapted to sheer through miles of metal ores and bedrock, can just as easily tear through the hides of battleships and other kaiju. She is surprisingly agile despite her stocky and heavily built frame, and is capable of leaping great distances to try and topple larger foes. Tunnelling in and out of the earth, she utilizes her speed and stealth underground to destabilize the earth, creating pitfall traps and erupting from the ground in ambush strikes, sometimes even bursting out of the sides of mountains or cliffs.

Her "ultimate" defensive move when all else fails, Baragon will raise her flattened dorsal plates and mass vent the thermonuclear energy from within (normally, this is vented in small increments to prevent overheating) hot enough to melt rock on contact for up to a hundred metres, the sudden extreme heat causing a powerful explosion of rock and lava. Utilizing this defence greatly slows Baragon's metabolism, leaving her sluggish for hours afterwards (or until she immerses herself in an extreme heat source), so this self-induced "eruption" is rarely utilized unless against truly formidable foes. However, Kilaak pictographs suggest if this is performed within the caldera of an active or dormant volcano, it will initiate a spontaneous eruption of the volcano itself (possibly through some geo-chemical reaction triggered by heating of the exotic deep-earth compounds in Baragon's armour). While confirmation of this ability is of yet uncertain, and realistically untestable, all else attests to Baragon's deserved place among their top spot among the pantheon as one of the great disasters.

———

NEXT: Destroyer of Worlds

———

BONUS (MASER MINI-PROFILE):
sta.sh/07kvtsfv8n9