At the Antarctic United Nations Observatory, nurous technicians and scientists manned various observational equipnt linked to the search party down below. The last few minutes had been filled with an eerie silence from the expeditioners’ end.
“Sothing is wrong. Why haven’t we received any information from them? They should at least report that they are safe.”
In the observation room, an observer said anxiously.
“Could sothing have happened?”
Another observer muttered in a low voice, which drew the angry looks of the crowd.
This observer hurriedly raised his hand in apprehension and smiled bitterly, “I was just joking, just joking.”
His words really had the connotation of cursing soone to death, and he regretted it after saying them.
The others glanced at him and paid no attention to him as they continued to observe the data shown on the screen.
“According to our instrunt readings, the people underground in Antarctica haven't moved at all. They are still at a depth of 913 ters below ground. This is impossible. Even if there were so issues down there, they shouldn't remain still. Moreover, based on the data from the chips we injected into them, their life signs are stable, and there is no imdiate danger to anyone.”
The leader of the observation team stroked his chin, puzzled.
As soon as he finished his words, one of the observers shouted in alarm, “Leader, there is a change! There is a change! The teorite fragnt that we had been observing is glowing!”
The mont the observer finished speaking, everyone's faces turned pale, and they quickly gathered around. They saw on one of the screens that the teorite fragnt was emitting a bright red light. It blinked several tis in succession, and then, right before their eyes, the teorite fragnt disappeared!
“It disappeared?? What’s going on? The fragnt disappeared! Where did it go?”
The leader of the observation team shouted while rubbing his head.
No one could answer him. As the fragnt was regarded as extrely dangerous, no one had actually co into any contact with it at all. They only used remote observation thods to keep watch over it. Since no locator was placed on it, no one knew where the fragnt had gone.
At this mont, another observer shouted, “Leader, there is a change in the vital signs of the mbers of the expedition team personnel. Vital signs… vital signs are disappearing!”
“What?!”
The observation team leader imdiately pushed away the crowd and ran over. Sure enough, the vital signs of so mbers of the expedition team had disappeared. His face changed drastically and yelled, “Quickly pass this news to the top!”
After thinking for a mont, he quickly added, “Notify the Antarctic base to signal the highest level of alert. Prepare to abandon everything and evacuate. The expedition team sacrificed themselves beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. We can’t tell if there is anything unknown and mysterious down there!”
The technicians imdiately busied themselves. Soon the entire Antarctic base was on high alert. All personnel acted according to the code they had learned during the drills.
……
Under the Antarctic and inside the spaceship, the explorers covered their ears with pained expressions as the chants of ‘Cthulhu fhtagn’ drilled into their heads. They knew that staying there was aningless so they began to move.
The interior of the ancient alien ship was very bright, with visible light sources, which eliminated the need for additional lighting and made the team feel slightly more at ease. Being in a well-lit environnt allowed them to detect potential dangers early, and for humans, being in a well-lit place was always more reassuring than in the darkness.
“Everyone follow and watch your steps!”
The major led a group of soldiers to scout ahead. The scholars walked in the middle, and the rest of the soldiers protected the rear.
“What the fuck. Which bastard is continuously shouting ‘Cthulhu fhtagn’!”
A grumpy expert cursed, but when he shouted the words ‘Cthulhu fhtagn’, his expression turned crazed as he began to dance around and drool from the corners of his mouth.
“Johnson!!”
The expert beside him saw his expression change drastically and imdiately ca over to slap him hard. The intense pain made Johnson co back to his senses.
“Don’t say that word!!!”
The expert who saved Johnson yelled.
Johnson clutched his head in horror and nodded repeatedly. He shivered, “If… if we make it back alive, I think I need to go see a psychiatrist.”
The others didn’t say anything because everyone felt that they should also go see a psychiatrist after all this.
“This looks like a door.”
The major walked up to a wall and, upon seeing the deteriorated yet highly advanced-looking door, he gave it a strong pat. They didn't have a map of the spaceship's interior, so they had no idea where they were.
Soone ca over to help him examine the door, while Gui Bin stood idly by, looking around. Soon, in the midst of a fleshy and honeycomb-like wall, he noticed a symbol.
“Wait, don’t touch that door. The symbol here is exactly the sa as on the badge the Elder Thing gave us earlier!”
Gui Bin tried to stop those studying the ‘door’ in a panic but was ultimately a step too late.
The door was opened.
To the astonishnt of everyone, they looked inside the door, and soon, each person revealed a mix of surprise, confusion, and fear. Their emotions shrouded their hearts.
“Deep ones?!”
Behind this ‘door’ appeared the deep ones, the creatures that once wreaked havoc in Tokyo. These fish-like monsters exuded a viscous liquid from their bodies, and it seed like they were performing so sort of ritual behind the door. All the incantations like 'Cthulhu fhtagn’ were actually chanted by them.
“No, that’s not an ordinary deep one! That's the deep ones’ high priest! I recognize it. I recognize it! It's the sa one that had a huge battle with that immortal elder in Tokyo. I rember it escaped into Tokyo Bay. And now, it's appeared here in Antarctica!”
Gui Bin recognized the leader of the deep ones, and his fear intensified. This deep one was capable of battling the immortal elder for hundreds of rounds and couldn't be killed even by the main battle tanks of various countries!
Encountering it here was certain death.
The major and the soldiers reacted even faster. They were only stunned for a mont before they raised their guns and started shooting.
“Da dada dada—”
Tracer rounds poured relentlessly, raining down on this group of deep ones. When these bullets hit the high priest, there were clanging sounds as they ricocheted off its skin. On the other hand, when they hit the regular deep ones, they caused so wounds, but these wounds were incredibly shallow.
Leaving aside the high priest, it would take heavy firepower and more ammunition to keep just an ordinary deep one!
After being attacked, these deep ones jumped and scread while baring their teeth, but none of them moved.
“Why aren’t they moving? Could it be that they are in the middle of a ritual and can’t move?”
The crowd shook inwardly and let out a joyful smile. If that was the case then things couldn’t be better.
Then, everyone took the sa action — turning around.
Even if this group of deep ones couldn’t move, their current weapons wouldn’t be able to do anything against them, so it would be better to run away now.
When the major turned his head, he saw that there seed to be sothing next to the ‘door’. Without much thought, he grabbed it with his hand and placed it into his pocket.
Imdiately, the deep one high priest jumped and shouted in a strange accent, “Shoggoth!!”
“Rumble rumble rumble—”
The spaceship shook violently!!
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