The Marionette crashed upon the surface of the Pacific and sent mist in the faces of some of her crew. They barreled through the night, hoping that their timing would be right. Dr. John Barr wiped his face with a handkerchief and re-focused on the darkened horizon in front of him. If his coordinates were correct, and the writings of the Mad Arab* could be trusted, he would be meeting a cyclopean hell soon. Despite his excitement, he still kept the accounts of his great, great Uncle Francis in the back of his mind. He never spoke with his great Uncle but wished, desperately, that he had. So much of his encounter was as fantastic as it was terrifying.
Barr could picture the slimy monoliths and bas reliefs in his mind. He could see the other-worldly glyphs, and the hideous ruins they were carved into, as clearly as he could see the darkness that surrounded him. He also saw the threat of knowing too much about the antediluvians beneath the water, trapped in their tomb of living death. But it was just too much for his morbidly adventurous mind to leave, alive, under the sea. While the warnings his uncle left behind were plain as day, John's resolve was untouchable. He knew of the terrible things that happen to people who search for R'lyeh and mean to disturb the sleep of cosmic giants; how their fates unfolded before them. That was why he hired a crew of men not native to the Pacific islands, or any island from this hemisphere. The Marionette bounced atop the watery froth that Barr so desperately wanted to pierce. He walked the perimeter of the Marionette and took his compass readings to ensure he was on the right path. Once satisfied, he relinquished command to his first mate and retired to the boat's cabin, then further to the cargo hold. He stopped at a steel door and tapped a finger sequence onto a lit keypad at shoulder height. Some beeps and flashing lights signaled the correct sequence and the door hissed open on its own. This sound pleased Barr, as it reminded him of watching Star Trek as a child. He descended downstairs to the hold and the large cargo container therein. He approached another door with another keypad lock. A swift dancing of the fingers and the door hissed open, revealing a container that was 30 feet long by 10 feet wide. Barr fiddled with and opened the 6 combination padlocks and then eased the container latch open, which offered access to its contents. Barr surveyed the interior briefly: there was a small desk with a computer and a rather large object covered with that was almost the size of the container itself. The sheet was decorated with the combined image of the American and Norwegian state flags. He sat down at the computer desk and ran a quick diagnostic program. The computer's progress bar slowly filled up with small green squares as Barr followed the cables from the back of the computer across the floor and under the sheet. He smiled as he thought of the lovely present that he was carrying. So many families were ruined because of the monster beneath the Pacific and Barr gritted his teeth as he thought about the final chapter of his story---That ancient, shambling mass of evil and horror: Cthulhu. The Great Old One from the stars who waited for the stars to be right so that he could unleash madness and chaos upon the Earth once more. In a few short hours, Cthulhu would reap the rewards of his actions. Today, a single star would visit the giant abomination to liberate him, scattering him into base elements. Barr rose and walked over to the sheet and patted the object under it. It responded with hollow, metallic, pangs that reverberated within. It sent shivers of excitement through the hairs of Barr's body. In less than 12 hours, he would give this monster the chaos it wanted. It would get white-hot chaos in the form of 20 megatons. Finding R'lyeh was almost as hard as acquiring his weapon. Clthulhu would be bathed in heat that was hotter than the surface of the sun. Barr returned topside in time to see the impending Atlantean city approach. Once he saw a giant monolith jutting from beneath the ocean, he began chanting the words that so haunted his Uncle Francis many years before. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". Barr hoped that Cthulhu dreamed a lovely dream tonight because, soon, the monster's dreams would be full of super-heated hydrogen. |
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