Modern/Delta Green - The Beginning of the End (Updated Daily: Sep. 8)

[talien]

Guppy was glad that they all wore suits that could withstand freezing temperatures. They had all packed flippers and some basic SCUBA gear, with their air tanks for the HALO jump converted to SCUBA tanks. But mostly Guppy was just following Caprice's lead, who decided to go ahead with infiltrating the base while the others were arguing about it.

Guppy could make out Caprice ahead of him, visible only by the sluice of water he cut as he swam steadily towards the giant horseshoe.

Then something tugged on his leg. Guppy panicked and looked down, his mind conjuring images of some tentacled beast sucking him into the depths. But it was just a fishing line, connected to a blinking round sphere.

Guppy untangled his leg and swam faster.

An explosion behind him blasted seawater high up into the air. The shockwave pounded Guppy a second later, flipping him over and over. He wasn't sure if he hit another mine or if the shockwave set it off, but a series of explosions tore through the surface of the water.

Battered and bruised, Guppy felt himself slipping out of consciousness…

Caprice grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him up. An ululating alarm wailed from the horseshoe, followed by the sudden intense focus of the spotlights.

"Uh oh," said Caprice, swimming as fast as he could with one arm around Guppy.

Guppy craned his neck. "Uh oh?"

They were closed enough to see that the spotlights were each connected to a dome positioned atop the horseshoe's deck. From each dome jutted a long barrel pointed in their direction.

"Gun emplacements," said Caprice.

Caprice stopped swimming forward. They were sitting ducks, defenseless. He stared up at the heavy machinegun aimed at his head and made peace with his maker.

The machinegun clicked and shuddered. Sparks flew out of the sides.

Caprice started swimming again. "C'mon Guppy, SWIM! If we can get inside their angle of fire I don't think they can target us."

Guppy turned and started swimming. His ears were still ringing and his eyesight was blurry, but it didn't matter – in the churning surf, with the spotlights spinning frantically about, he couldn't see much anyway. He swam as if his life depended on it.

Caprice reached an airlock door, just above sea level. He tugged on the wheel but it wouldn't budge.

"Help me!"

Guppy, still shaking off the cobwebs, grabbed hold and pulled. It didn't move. "It's locked from the inside," he wailed.

Suddenly the wheel spun open of its own accord. Half-expecting a pistol pointed in their faces, they peered cautiously inside. Nobody. Caprice and Guppy dove inside.

Inside the airlock a red strobe light whirled crazily, the wail of the siren muffled but still audible. The water at their feet began to rise.

"What the…I think this horseshoe thing is diving!" exclaimed Caprice.

Caprice began to pull the door shut when Hammer's gloved hand caught the lip. He stepped inside, followed by Archive and Jim-Bean.

"How did you…?" asked Guppy.

Hammer shot Jim-Bean a look. "Don't ask."

[talien]

"They're down there," said Jim-Bean, pointing at a narrow ladder to the bridge. "They're waiting for us."

"All right. We're going in hard and fast," said Hammer, pistols cocked. "Jim-Bean, you take point. I'll provide cover. Caprice, Guppy, see if you can make it to the control panels. We need to find out what happened to the book. Archive, you hang back, provide support as needed. Ready?"

They nodded.

"Jimmy, go!"

Gripping the ladder with the insides of his feet, Jim-Bean slid down the rail. He was immediately peppered with gunfire. Jim-Bean held one hand out and the bullets ricocheted off harmlessly.

Hammer was next. He hit the ground hard, rolled and came up firing. The gunfire stopped for a moment as the guards ducked behind control panels.

The other agents followed, each letting loose a volley of retaliatory fire so that another agent could slide down.

Lining the walls of the chamber were seven consoles with matching chairs. The consoles were for RADAR, the diving control center, the quartermaster post, radio, sonar, SINS (Submarine Inertial Navigation Systems), and the complex’s computer. A periscope flanked by a radio antenna and a radar antenna stood in one corner of the room.

The tcho-tcho guards piloting the horseshoe were dressed entirely in black — slacks, turtleneck sweater, and deck shoes. Colonel Feng Ho stood at the center of the mass of men, firing his pistol.

Canister-shaped grenades were tossed over into the center of the room.

"Gas!" shouted Hammer.

The agents all flipped their breathing masks up. In the smoke and fumes, something big and heavy ka-clunked on one of the operating panels.

Feng Ho's voice was audible in the darkness. "Let's see you stop this."

"Chain gun!" shouted Caprice.

In the interim Ho had three men mount a belt-fed chain gun. Ho's hand swiveled it to aim at Jim-Bean.

"'Bthnk! Ftaghu! Fhtagn!" Archive pointed one finger and Ho froze in place, hand still on the trigger.

Jim-Bean cackled. "You think that's going to stop me? Try this." He tore the pin of a grenade out with his teeth and tossed it.

"Jimmy, NO!" shouted Hammer.

The bridge crew could only look on in horror as the fragmentation grenade bounced its way towards them. Ho, shaking himself free from the spell, dove over one of the consoles.

Then a localized explosion tore through the pressurized sub.

[talien]

Hammer came up first, sputtering in rage. Half of him was amazed he was still alive. The other half considered how to murder Jim-Bean on the spot, if he could even be killed anymore.

Jim-Bean stood, smiling. He was unharmed by the blast. Water streamed in from a dozen places, electrical wires sparked, and computer equipment was everywhere.

The other agents slowly rose to their feet.

Hammer turned to face Jim-Bean, hands at his sides. It was not a friendly gesture.

Jim-Bean smirked as he held up a broken vial. "Looking for this? It was destroyed in the blast. Too bad."

It was the vial of BIOSAN-4. Hammer now had no means of stopping him.

"Don't be mad, Hammer. We don't have time for this nonsense and that was the quickest way to end the conflict."

"End it? You put all our lives in danger! Are you trying to kill us?"

Jim-Bean laughed. "If that were the case you'd already be dead." He sighed. "Besides, we're after the book, remember? And I know who can lead us to it. Ho, come here," commanded Jim-Bean.

Colonel Feng Ho meekly joined Jim-Bean. "We need to get to the auxiliary bridge."

Ho led the way. Hammer, suddenly realizing just how powerless he was, went along. The other agents, dusting themselves off, followed.

With Ho in the lead, they were left unmolested by the other crew members, who were no longer interested in fighting anyway. Creaks and groans echoed throughout the ship as they reached the auxiliary bridge.

Guppy and Caprice sat down at the controls. "Routing control to auxiliary," said Guppy.

Caprice flicked a few switches. "What the…inbound targets, coming in fast."

"Oh right," said Hammer. "We called in a PURGATORY strike."

"You what?" shouted Caprice. "When were you going to tell us that?"

"When you asked your team leader for permission to swim across a minefield!" Hammer barked back. He flicked on his cistron, but got only static. "Can you outmaneuver them?"

"Outmaneuver them?" Caprice shook his head. "This thing's on autopilot. It's a nuclear powered sub. Diving fast too."

"I think I can change course…" began Guppy.

Warning lights clicked on. There was a terrible shudder as the entire vessel groaned.

"Direct hit! We're taking on water!" shouted Caprice.

Guppy flipped some switches. "Sealing all non-critical sections. This thing isn't going to last long."

The lights went out. Then the emergency lights flicked back on, bathing them in an eerie green glow.

"All right Ho," said Jim-Bean. "Where's Cho Chu-Tsao and her book?"

"She took one of the mini-subs," said Ho. "She said she was going to R'lyeh."

"Ril-who?" asked Caprice.

Archive's lips were set in a grim line. "R'lyeh," he repeated. "That is very bad news."

"Are there any other mini-subs on this thing?" asked Hammer.

Ho nodded. "The Wallaby has two Joeys. She took one of them."

"Huh, must be Australian subs," said Caprice.

"Take us there," ordered Jim-Bean. "Before those Jericho Jets realize they haven't finished us off."

[talien]

Guppy sat down on the bridge of the Wallaby. His eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store as he switched the power on. It hummed to life with all the fanfare of a Mac computer. "I recognize this…this is the submersible that was stolen from an Australian facility!"

Caprice sat down on the chair opposite him. "Yeah I heard of the Wallaby. It keeps pressure equalized at any depth."

"The Wallaby can operate under its own power for two weeks," said Guppy. He flipped more switches as the diagnostics whirred to life.

"It looks the Millenium Falcon to me," said Hammer, standing behind Guppy.

"Better," said Guppy, grinning for the first time in awhile. "The Wallaby has combination of pontoons and ballast, a single set of impeller motors, and a mini-sub cradle."

"The Joeys," said Ho robotically. "There are two. Tsao took one."

"I've got her signal," said Caprice. "We can track her."

The horseshoe shuddered again. "Let's get the hell out of here," said Hammer.

"Aye, aye, captain!" said Guppy. He pushed a lever forward and the sounds of couplers disconnecting rumbled the perimeter of the Wallaby.

The Wallaby pulled away, spinning as it caught in the current and propelled itself quickly away from the larger ship.

"I just realized," said Jim-Bean, laughing to himself. "If the mini-subs are Joeys and this thing is the Wallaby, then that Horseshoe thing is…" he broke out into fits of laughter. "…a KANGAROO! HA!"

Jim-Bean's hysterical laughter was all that echoed throughout the Wallaby as they descended into a deep sea trench.

[talien]

This story hour is from "Grace Under Pressure" by Jeff Barber and John Tynes and "Project Pi" by Peer Kroger from Worlds of Cthulhu #1. You can read more about Delta Green at Delta Green. Please note: This story hour contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

• Game Master: Michael Tresca
• Kurtis "Hammer" Grange (Fast Hero/Gunslinger) played by George Webster
• Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero/Telepath) played by Jeremy Ortiz (Jeremy Robert Ortiz)
• Joseph “Archive” Fontaine (Dedicated Hero/Acolyte) played by Joe Lalumia
• Hank “Guppy” Gupta (Smart Hero/Field Scientist) played by Joseph Tresca (Free Video Training for Photoshop, 3ds Max, Flash, After Effects an more)
• Sebastian "Caprice" Creed (Fast/Charismatic/Smart Hero/Techie) played by Bill Countiss

Grace Under Pressure is a perfect fit for Project Pi, combining a deep sea submarine expedition with the excitement of heavily armed SEALs. While I was really attracted to running Grace Under Pressure with miniatures, time didn't allow for it. Events moved quickly, as the agents are still in pursuit of Cho Chu-Tsao, there's a giant submarine tumbling into the depths behind them, and they're about to descend into R'lyeh.

In R'lyeh, our old friend Dr. William Davis Ko is back – turns out he's a traitor to Majestic-12 and continued to fund his Deep One research in conjunction with the Pi Virus. John Powers, also a traitor to Majestic-12, was icing on the cake. From there, it was just a matter of having Cho Chu-Tsao, Ko, and Ko's bodyguard duke it out in front of Fat Dragon's nifty temple which my two-year-old son helped me put together.

I knew this scenario was trouble though. I even mentioned it on Nebulos' story hour, who ran it as a d20 Modern game like I did. The problem is that the scenario doesn't really have a survival conclusion. Basically, the PCs have a very high chance of getting "Deep One on them" with the only solution being a tradeoff with the final villain in front of the Cthulhu shrine. Assuming the agents sell out to save their lives, it leaves the little matter of Cthulhu awakening.

The resolution, as implied by the scenario, involves nuclear subs might firing a missile at Cthulhu. We didn't have a nuclear missile because I changed the scenario around. But I did have a nuclear-powered submarine.

Both scenarios are concerned about avoiding awakening Cthulhu, which just seems silly to me. I mean, seriously, you can't beat a Star Spawn of Cthulhu in combat, so if you're going to blow one up with a plot device, why not just use the Big Guy himself?

So I used the Star Spawn as the Big Scary Monster you THINK is the final boss but isn't. My brother even asked, "why do they call this game Call of Cthulhu? Do we ever get to meet him?"

And then he did.

I had my Call of Cthulhu action figure from SOTA toys, which I used in my Arcanis story hour. It's been a couple of years, so the players completely forgot about it. In fact, I was careful to bundle him up in a plastic bag so that nobody accidentally discovered him before his big reveal. It had exactly the effect I hoped.

Defining Moment: Agent Jim-Bean sacrifices his humanity to save the human race.

Relevant Media

• I Crush Everything
  I Crush Everything
  : By Jonathan Coulton.
• Delta Green: Countdown
  Delta Green: Countdown
  : Source of the Cho Chu-Tsao.
• Call of Cthulhu Action Figure: from SOTA Toys.
• Grace Under Pressure: from The Unspeakable Oath.
• Worlds of Cthulhu #1
  Worlds of Cthulhu #1
  : by Peter Kroger.
• Shrine of Cthulhu: by Fat Dragon Games.
• Project Pi Story Hour: by Nebulos.
  
  

[talien]

Did the stars come out? Did the world spin round?
Does it matter that much when you're ten miles down?
And in the light that filters down
Into my giant yellow eye
I can see the sails unfolding
Stretching white against the sky and I forgive them
I forgive and I let go

--I Crush Everything by Jonathan Coulton

30,000 FEET BENEATH THE PACIFIC OCEAN—The agents were in hot pursuit of Cho Chu-Tsao's smaller mini-sub, the Joey. It was difficult to tell if they were actually overtaking her in the Wallaby, though, as the pings they got back from her homing beacon were erratic.

There was a hideous wrenching noise and then the power flickered. The Wallaby swerved to starboard.

"What was that?" asked Hammer.

"We lost the starboard impeller!" shouted Guppy, struggling with the controls.

"Can you tell me where the problem is?" asked Jim-Bean. "If so I can probably take a look."

Caprice brought up a map of the Wallaby. It really did look like the Millennium Falcon. A starboard section blinked red. "There."

Jim-Bean grunted. "I think I'm close enough…" He took a few steps towards the back of the bridge. "Yep, I can see it." His eyes glazed. "Looks like…looks like there's something stuck in the impeller. Muck and debris fouled up the blades. The grill at the front of the impeller tube has been smashed in."

"The muck must have closed over the grill completely. That'll cause the impeller to create a vacuum that pulls the loose corner of the grill inwards," said Caprice.

"Do something fast!" shouted Guppy. "We're spinning in circles here!"

"I can suit up—" began Caprice.

"I've got it," said Jim-Bean. He reached out into the air with his hand, a pantomime for his telekinesis. "Lots of muck and clay, and several sections of…that's weird."

"What?" asked Archive fearfully.

"It looks like black coral. Stout and gnarled."

Archive frowned. "Black coral? There's no coral like that in this part of the ocean."

"Can you clear it?" asked Hammer.

"I think so." Jim-Bean concentrated and made a yanking motion with one clawed hand. The Wallaby shuddered and righted itself.

Guppy sunk back into his seat. "Whew. Okay, we've evened out."

Jim-Bean lit a cigarette in the recycled air of the Wallaby and took a puff. "Looks like the psychic maniac has some value after all."

[talien]

The exterior lights of the Wallaby only extended about twenty yards; beyond that there was nothing but the Iightless deeps of the ocean and the silence.

"Uh, guys?" said Archive. "Did you notice what's moving in our wake?"

Caprice blinked at the monitors. They'd been descending for fifteen minutes without incident. "That's weird."

Guppy checked too. "Phosphorescent plankton isn't that unusual on the surface, but it's definitely strange down here."

Another few minutes passed without occurrence. Then, the Wallaby's lights revealed strange forms; the Wallaby had reached the strange black coral that fouled up their motors.

At first the coral was just singular knobby fingers clawing up from the ground. Gradually the coral became more frequent, and the specimens got longer, thicker, and more gnarled. Before long, a forest of black stalks stretched out before them.

While the earliest specimens were only a few inches or so long, the coral in the forest reached twenty to thirty feet in length. The mass extended to the sides for as far as the lights could reach.

"What is coral doing down here at this depth?" asked Caprice.

A little more time passed. The Wallaby was traveling a few yards above the top of the coral spines, while the agents looked out the windows at the strange landscape surrounding them.

Gradually, patches of phosphorescence were visible, pooled on the sea floor within the coral, similar to the glow trailing in their wake. Then, just ahead, something entered the area shown by Wallaby's forward spotlights.

Within a few moments the coral forest was broken up by chunks of stone, curiously regular. While they appeared to be fragmented and split, they did suggest being a part of something else.

"Is that fallen masonry?" asked Hammer.

The chunks passing beneath the Wallaby were larger and larger, and had different shapes. Cubes, rectangles, then columns, octagons...it was clear that they were not natural.

"No," said Archive gravely. "R'lyeh."

At first irregular and far between, the glowing patches increased in number and size, eventually flowing together into a soft latticework across the sea floor. While nowhere near as bright as the Wallaby's spotlights, the glow did serve to illuminate contours and shapes in the dim water beyond the light.

The coral grew thin, with only a few stalks clumped here and there. In its place lay the rudiments of buildings.

It became clear that they were are at the beginning of a broad canyon-like avenue, lined with squat structures revealed by the spotlights and the sickly glow that was increasingly widespread. The buildings became more elaborate the further that the Wallaby went. Very quickly, the tops of the structures were beyond the range of the spotlights, and their height could only be guessed at by the faint phosphorescence that coated them. They were enclosed by mammoth towers, stolid halls, all cracked and dim, showing the wear of centuries, perhaps millennia. The architecture was of ancient origin, but showed traits found in nearly every style ever produced by man.

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," whispered Archive.

"What?" asked Hammer, irritated by Archive's odd behavior.

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming," whispered Archive, hugging himself. "We are in a very bad place."

The construction of the buildings wasn't right. Angles were swallowed up by masonry. As the eyes attempt to follow them, the mind reeled when they didn't lead where they should.

The avenue came to an end at a slope of rubble and ooze, rising up to the face of a vast wall of closely-set structures well over seventy yards high. The span of buildings reached far beyond the range of the Wallaby's spots, but they could be made out in the strange glow of the place. A stronger glow emanated from over the top. The net effect was imposing and ominous.

Guppy nudged the controls, starting the Wallaby's climb to the top.

And then they saw it. The wall was actually the exterior of a mammoth depression mat extending below the level of the terrain outside. This enormous arena was hundreds of yards across. It would quickly stretch beyond their field of vision if not for one thing: it glowed.

The strange phosphorescence noticeable in the Wallaby's wake was present, and it covered everything inside the bowl. The walls of the place descended and tumbled inwards, coming together somewhere below a vast pool of muck. The muck glowed only faintly, compared to the walls surrounding it.

A huge black mountain towered up above the rest of the sunken city. The beeping signal suddenly cut out.

"We lost her," sighed Guppy. He slowed the Wallaby to a hover. "The signal cut out."

"Where?" demanded Hammer.

"Into the mountain. She must have crashed—" started Guppy.

"No," said Archive. "She didn't crash. They're inside the mountain."

"Follow her," said Hammer.

"But the instruments say…"

"I don't care what the instruments say!" snarled Hammer. "We've come too far to give up now. Follow her!"

Guppy swallowed and accelerated the Wallaby straight into the mountain.

[talien]

As the Wallaby approached the dark mountain, a massive opening revealed itself to be navigable. It led into a kind of pool in a huge cavern.

"Sensors indicate a breathable atmosphere," said Caprice. "But we'll need to put on pressure suits—"

Guppy sighed as a warning light flickered on his console. "Jim-Bean just opened the airlock."

Jim-Bean gave the Wallaby's cameras a thumbs-up.

"Caprice, you watch Ho. I don't want him out of your sight."

Feng Ho, if he was aware of his plight, didn't show it. He watched Jim-Bean curiously on the monitor, like a puppy wondering when its master would return.

Caprice rolled his eyes. "I get to watch the mind-controlled zombie? Great."

The other agents followed Jim-Bean out of the sub.

The pool was located in a massive subterranean hall. Wide paths ran along the edges, like the waterfronts of an underground port facility. From the paths, dark passageways led further into the mountain. The domed ceiling of the hall was so high that it was swallowed up in darkness. Titanic, irregularly spaced columns rose up all around them.

"This is interesting," said Archive, tracing a finger along one of the columns. "It's in Aklo."

Everywhere on the walls and columns, strange, uncanny alien reliefs and hieroglyphs in an antediluvian, long forgotten language were worked into the stone. The whole complex seemed to be incomprehensibly old. But the dark, basalt stone with the strange symbols looked to be completely untouched down through the millennia. The only sign of its age was the thick growth of algae and fungus that had grown up out of the water like a cancer and covered large portions of the walls, ceilings, and columns. The plants emitted a dim, greenish light that was the only illumination within the primeval edifice.

"This doesn't make any sense!" said Guppy, shaking his head. "We're so far underwater…the pressure should be immense. Even the whole notion that there's breathable air…we didn't have to depressurize...." he threw up his hands.

"The rules of nature don't apply here," said Archive gravely.

"Guys," said Jim-Bean, pointing. "Looks like we found our Joey."

On one side, barely discernible in the darkness, the Joey research sub was moored. On the shore behind it was the remains of an improvised camp.

Gunfire raked one of the columns above Jim-Bean's head. He didn't even flinch.

The other agents ducked behind columns. Jim-Bean shook his head. "Powers, I know that's you. Give up."

The familiar tink of a grenade pin being pulled reached their ears. The grenade made a lazy arc in the air.

Jim-Bean put one hand out and the grenade hovered for a split second before rocketing back the way it came. The ensuing explosion knocked one pillar down. It folded in on itself, collapsing almost sideways.

The agents encircled the shattered pillar.

Sure enough, Powers was partially pinned beneath it. He was alive but covered in blood, muttering the same words over and over, in what almost sounded like a prayer:

"As the tiger arose from the flame the sleeper will wake just the same. Born again by our hands, infinite power he commands. For his return we are forewarned, from his own flesh shall he be born. His second body we shall bestow and our thoughts only will he know. By our will directed; by no thing deflected. The age of man sets like the sun. Death unto them, for we have one!"

Powers didn't look right. Bluish veins pulsed beneath his skin and his eyes were a watery yellow.

"Is he talking about Tiger Transit?" asked Guppy.

Archive shook his head. "More like a prophecy."

"He's finished," said Hammer. "Guppy, Archive, you're with me. I want to make sure there's no one else in that sub. Caprice, Jim-Bean, stay with the Wallaby until we return."

The other agents left, leaving Caprice and Jim-Bean with the dying Powers.

"Ho, return to the Wallaby." Jim-Bean didn't even bother to look up. "Stay there until we return."

Ho robotically did as he was told. Caprice smiled. "That frees me up. I'll join the other guys. No offense, but you are freaking me out." He jogged after the other agents.

When they were alone, Jim-Bean grabbed hold of Power's collar. "You're a traitor to Majestic, Powers. How? How did you do that? How come your head hasn't exploded?"

Powers laughed, spitting up blood. "You…want to…know…how?"

"I'll just pry it out of you," began Jim-Bean, concentrating. He closed his eyes…

Then Powers vomited a hideous stream of bluish-green goo.

Jim-Bean stumbled backwards, gasping. Powers' eyes rolled as he expired.

"Damn it, Caprice, I told you to stay with Jim-Bean!" growled Hammer. They arrived just in time to see Jim-Bean dunking his face in the saltwater pool.

"What happened to you?" asked Hammer suspiciously.

"Nothing," said Jim-Bean. "Just cleaning the stink of this place off of me. Let's go."

[talien]

The agents entered into the labyrinthine passageways of the sunken nightmare city.

"From what I could decipher from the laptop on the Joey," began Guppy, "there's three cultists down here. Cho Chu-Tsao, Agent Powers, and William Davis Ko."

"So Powers wasn't the only defector," said Caprice.

"No. In fact, it looks like Majestic ended up funding Ko's research. They gave him access to some piscid humanoids, codenamed BLUE HADES, retrieved from PROJECT JENNIFER—"

"Deep Ones," corrected Archive.

Guppy looked at him. "Okay, sure. Ko got his hands on some Deep One DNA."

Hammer nodded, his eyes tracking signs of Chu-Tsao's passage. "That explains the fish-hybrids we found in Chicago. Tiger Transit was originally funding Ko's work."

The trail led through broad and high corridors overgrown with dimly glowing algae and fungi. Mysterious reliefs on the walls depicted nightmarish horrors.

"Right," said Guppy. "And I think Majestic-12 wanted access to Ko's experiments. But I guess he was a double agent."

"So Ko's research for Majestic-12 picked up right where he left off with Tiger Transit?" asked Caprice.

"Yeah," said Guppy. "Worse, actually. He stumbled upon a flu-virus under PROJECT PI. The Pi prion can convert human DNA to Deep One DNA in a matter of hours."

Jim-Bean paused for a moment, coughing.

"You okay Jimmy?" asked Hammer.

"I'm fine," said Jim-Bean. He kept walking.

"They tested it on the native population," continued Guppy. "And from the gist of the emails, they were going to unleash it on Ho's men too."

"So we did Ho a favor!" laughed Jim-Bean.

"Yeah," said Caprice slowly. "A favor."

The twisting trail led to a stone slab hallway that descended at a slight grade as it proceeded into a small hillock. There were signs of a lot of traffic in and out of the temple. The agents filed inside, weapons ready.

The entrance opened into a passageway nearly ten feet wide and fourteen feet tall. Toward the bottom, where the walls were better protected from the elements, strange hieroglyphics covered them. The floor sloped at a nearly twenty degree angle.

"So what are the cultists up to?" asked Hammer. "They want to turn the whole world into a bunch of fish people?"

Archive shook his head. "That's not enough. They need a leader."

"Or a god," said Jim-Bean. He pointed ahead of them.

The enormous hallway emptied into a waterlogged room nearly thirty feet across, twenty-five feet tall, and about sixty feet long. At the far end of the entry chamber was a huge octopoid form whose tentacles reached along the walls. The dank water was opaque, and the water grew deeper as the incline increased.

With the slope of the structure, the sensation of helplessly falling to be consumed was nearly overwhelming. At the center point where the tentacles came together there was a hideous mouth with savage, irregular teeth. The teeth continuously dripped noxious green slimy secretions. The chamber was not lit, and their flickering flashlights illuminated the massive tentacles, the shadows making them seem to move around to pull all into its awful mouth.

"Cthulhu," whispered Archive fearfully. "There was a journal in the sub too. It was written in Aklo. Translated, it read: Who disturbs his rest and breaks the seal, who can wake the sleeper for he will rise up and in his wrath the earth will quake. Woe to them who disturb his rest, for his wrath will be directed at them and will destroy them. The day will come when he awakes, sets his foot on land again, when R'lyeh rises again and challenges anew. It will come, the day, when time comes to an end."

Caprice shook his head. "No way. I am NOT setting foot in that thing's mouth. It'll eat us!"

"It's just a statue," said Jim-Bean, fascinated. He seemed unable to tear his gaze away from the horrible sculpture.

"What about the green goo?" squeaked Guppy.

"We'll just avoid it," said Jim-Bean, holding up one hand. The goo began dripping in an umbrella-like pattern as Jim-Bean's telekinetic field held it at bay. "Feel better? Now can we please—"

Water exploded in a series of geysers around them.

Hopping, loping humanoids reared up, encircling them. Their predominant color was a grayish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed.

The agents tore into the Deep Ones. Gunfire sparked in the darkness as the hopping things were blasted backwards, floating face down or face up. More horribly, they bled like humans, great gouts of blood that spread in the water around them like a red stain. And as more fell, others sprang up out of the water.

"Where were they hiding?" Guppy fired his pistol, frantic. "The water isn't that deep!"

"The laws of geometry and physics don't apply here!" Archive fired his Glock and a Deep One's head exploded. They were surrounded.

"We have to go through the mouth!" shouted Hammer, guns blazing.

"We'll be completely underwater," said Caprice. They had used up their oxygen in the HALO drop and the swim to the Horseshoe. "If there's no exit on the other side—"

The thunderous explosion of an even bigger geyser behind them cut Caprice off. Something massive and squamous stretched to its full height out of the water. Like a bent old man, it hunched over even in the huge room. Rudimentary wings jutted from behind it, dripping seawater. The writhing tendrils that made up its face were a disgusting bright pink, as were the wiggling appendages that constituted its forearms. It shrieked an inhuman wail of rage as its tentacles stretched towards Hammer.

Without hesitation, the agents dove through the Cthulhu-statue's mouth.

[talien]

They swam into darkness through weird black coral, rising up in tightly clustered poles that hindered their progress. Hammer gasped out of the pool, sucking in a stale lungful of air.

The other agents emerged behind him in a massive chamber. The ceiling, if there was one, was concealed by mist.

At the center was a subterranean dome. Before it were five oddly shaped tombstones, each with a symbol in Aklo engraved upon it. A raised altar with an Elder Sign at its center pulsed in time with the glowing symbols.

A huge doorway jutted from the surface of the dome. It had the features of Cthulhu's head, a skull-faced beast with tentacles for a mouth. Three figures stood at the portal.

Cho Chu-Tsau, arms raised, was chanting in time with the pulsing symbols. Next to her, reading aloud the chants from a book and swathed in ceremonial robes, was the frail Dr. Ko. But the third figure was what disturbed the agents most.

It was a fish that walked like a man. Its giant, catfish-like head was somehow part of a purplish, malformed humanoid body. Two of its whiskers rose up over its head like horns, and two others dropped like a moustache over its gaping mouth. It had a distinct oriental cast, stripped to its waist in pants and sandals. A huge cannon was strapped across its back, a wicked-looking sword dangling from its belt.

Hammer called them all to a halt. The room's darkness was complete. The agents had an advantage, as all eyes were trained on the portal.

"Archive, Hammer, you take out Chu-Tsao. Guppy, Caprice, you're on Ko. Jim-Bean, you and I will take out…"

Jim-Bean was gone.

Hammer swore. "Move!"

The agents spread out.

"Alright people, on my mark. One, two…GO!"

Gunfire flashed. Cho Chu-Tsao turned as bullets sparked off the back of her head. Eyes blazing, the petite tcho-tcho shifted her chant, pointing at Guppy, Archive, and Caprice.

Hammer aimted at Ko, but the fish-thing stumped into the line of fire. Bullets thumped into its flesh but if it had an effect, its swollen purple body didn't show it.

Cho Chu-Tsao picked up some dust and smiling with perfectly normal teeth, blew a kiss at the agents. A shrieking wind of greenish dust closed the distance between them, transforming into a flesh-ripping dust storm. Guppy and Caprice dove in different directions.

"Split up!" shouted Hammer. "Don't cluster together!"

Hammer fired again. Cho Chu-Tsao held up one palm and the bullets deflected off of it.

Archive, squinting and bloodied by the jade storm, pointed at Cho Chu-Tsao and chanted back.

She felt it. Eyes blazing with rage, Chu-Tsao started another chant.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Jim-Bean was already standing atop the giant doorway. From his vantage point he could see that Ko was still chanting, picking up where Cho Chu-Tsao had left off, reading from the book.

Jim-Bean took aim and fired.

The fish-thing shoved Ko out of the way, but not quite in time. It nicked Ko's arm. He yelped and crumpled, still managing to continue his chant.

"You know that ritual probably doesn't even work, right?" shouted Jim-Bean down at the two figures. "I mean, you can't trust a Portuguese translation of anything…"

The fish-thing unslung the cannon on its back. "BOOM!" it bellowed. Then it fired.

Jim-Bean took the blast head on. Despite the protection afforded by his telekinetic screen up, there were limits to his powers. His head rang from the impact, and blood trickled from his nose and ears.

Down below, Ko slumped over the altar, still chanting. "That's what was missing," Ko whispered to himself, blood dripping down one arm. "Blood!" The pulsing of the Elder Sign and the runes reached a fever pitch.

Archive's own chant matched Chu-Tsao's cadence. They seemed to be locked in a power struggle. Archive held up the Elder Sign before him and chanted louder still.

Jim-Bean almost lost his balance, his protoplasm-infused body struggling to mend his broken bones before another blast finished him off. The big fish-thing reloaded its pistol and took aim…

"BOOM!" came the rumbling laugh.

Jim-Bean was smart enough to duck, but the rocket struck close enough to sting him with debris. His telekinetic shield was fading. If he didn't do something fast, they would all be dead.

So Jim-Bean did what he always did when the going got tough. He had brought with him a satchel full of explosives, originally intent on destroying the Horseshoe with them. But he had a different target now.

Jim-Bean tossed the satchel down below and telekinetically fired all the detonators simultaneously.

[talien]

"No!" shouted Hammer.

Cho Chu-Tsao was momentarily distracted, turning to look at the satchel tumbling down towards the altar. Her defenses lowered, Hammer fired a bullet between her eyes. She slumped backwards, mouth open in surprise.

The ensuing explosion blasted the plinths off their bases. Guppy was nearly beheaded by one of the rocks as it whistled through the air.

The shockwave stunned the agents. In the ensuing dust and debris it was clear that the altar had been ruined. Hammer, Archive, Guppy, and Caprice struggled to their feet.

A figure strode towards them out of the cloud of dust. Hammer's pistols were up in a flash.

It was Jim-Bean. He dusted his hands. "Great, so now that's over…"

The rubble shuddered. A huge piece of stone slid off the back of the Deep One bodyguard. It was bloody and battered, with one goggle eye smashed in. In its arms was the frail Ko, looking like nothing more than a sickly child in its arms.

"The stars are right again," Ko whispered as he expired. "What we failed to do by design…you did…by accident…"

He died with a smile on his lips.

The bodyguard made a low moan. But it was not mourning over the dead man in its arms. As the dust settled, a horrible fact became clear: the door was open.

By blood and force, the seal had been penetrated, its doors blasted open. In the darkness, a mountainous mass pulsed softly with the same unnatural glow as the rest of R'lyeh.

Jim-Bean's mouth fell open. For once, he was without words.

"Run…" whispered Hammer, straining to tear his eyes away from the slumbering mass at the center of the dome. "Run!"

The agents turned. Archive, like Jim-Bean, seemed entranced by the fleshy mass that stirred within. A slit of yellow inched open, bathing the agents in an unholy light. Slowly, a fiery red orb rolled down into view. The dual-pupils winced tighter, shifting from the far-off dreaming of a slumbering titan to keen alertness. An eye that had just regained its focus.

Hammer shoved Archive. "RUN!"

A tentacle unfurled out of the dark recesses and, with a yelp, the Deep One bodyguard was gone.

Jim-Bean turned and ran.

The place shuddered around them. Onwards they ran, diving back through the submerged chamber. Stone plunged in great showers, puncturing the watery passageways. Of the Deep Ones and their dark lords there was no sign.

They burst out of the entrance through the Cthulhu statue's mouth. Struggling, with the water up to their hips, they lurched upwards, desperately scrabbling, crawling for purchase along the steep incline.

One of the statue's tentacles snapped off, spinning over and over as it bounced its way towards the agents. Caprice dove to the side but not fast enough. It smashed into his shoulder, spinning the agent back towards the void of the Cthulhu-statue's mouth.

Hammer caught him by the arm. Lugging the unconscious Caprice in a fireman's carry, he struggled on.

The other agents paused to look back.

"Keep going!" shouted Hammer. "Jimmy, tell Ho to fire up the Wallaby!"

Jim-Bean stumbled on like a man drunk. The psychic pressure was immense. They didn't understand, the fools, what was happening. They weren't running from a mere earthquake. They were protozoa fleeing a Baleen whale. Using his psychic powers was like screaming in a wind tunnel – he could barely concentrate, much less hear himself think.

Finally, they reached the Wallaby. The other agents piled in.

On his way to the sub, Jim-Bean suddenly fell to his knees, hacking and wheezing. It was as if someone was trying to pull his stomach through his mouth.

Blue fluid filled up his lungs and nose, choking him. Jim-Bean vomited it out in a spray. The effluvia swam away with a life of its own.

Jim-Bean found himself next to Power's corpse, staring at his vacant, dead eyes. They had milked over completely with a yellow film. His mouth was gasped open like a shark dying on land.

Jim-Bean grabbed the belt of grenades around Powers' torso. He wasn't going to need them anymore.

The ground continued to tremble. Jim-Bean staggered to his feet and clambered up onto the Wallaby. He barely had time to pull the airlock shut when the submarine submerged.

[talien]

The agents were all battered and bruised. Caprice lay unconscious on the floor with a bloody head wound, a strip of gauze over one eye. Archive sat rolled up in a ball, whispering to himself over and over: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" Guppy was in the pilot's seat. Hammer sat at the co-pilot's seat next to Guppy, but he wasn't entirely sure what to do.

Ho had it the worst. He just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Behind them, Jim-Bean languidly kept one arm on each chair. He stared in fascination at the collapsing black mountain. Something was emerging from it, wings unfurling like a butterfly exiting a cocoon. It was so alien and yet strangely beautiful to him.

The psychic pressure was pounding now, like a heartbeat. Jim-Bean had trouble focusing.

The comm. crackled. "Mayday! Mayday! This is the RSV Horseshoe, we need immediate help, is anyone there? Christ!" There was the sound of banging in the background. "…They're outside now…listen, we're under attack! Repeat, we are under attack!" There was a muffled explosion. "Wallaby! Wallaby!" A sudden crack. Then a couple of heavy thumps and static.

Guppy yanked the wheel hard as the Horseshoe, still sparking and falling into the subterranean depths, suddenly loomed into view. The Wallaby skidded off the side as the huge metal form slid past as the Horseshoe sank into the depths, down towards the thing that was assuredly coming for them all.

"That's it!" Hammer turned to Guppy. "The Horseshoe is nuclear powered, right?"

Guppy blinked. "Yes, but…"

"Guppy, that thing can't reach the surface. We've got to stop it. No matter what it takes…"

Hammer and Guppy exchanged a look. They had their differences in the past. Guppy had threatened to kill Hammer; Hammer had Guppy committed. But in that moment they weren't enemies, or allies, or fellow agents. They were all that stood between humanity and the end of the world.

"Okay." Guppy spun the Wallaby around and dove after the descending Horseshoe. "I'm not sure how much pressure this thing can handle. We're descending fast."

"I just need you to get us on board." He brought up a map of the Horseshoe. "There!" Hammer pointed at the airlock near the bottommost part of the huge submarine. "Can you get us close enough to the reactor?"

Guppy punched the Wallaby into overdrive. "I can try!"

The Horseshoe was tumbling over and over, like an asteroid on a collision course. Alarms shrieked in protest as Guppy set the Wallaby into a spin.

"I'm going to have to match the tumble…so hold on!"

Hammer strapped Caprice and Archive into their seats. Hammer had just enough time to strap in before Guppy threw the Wallaby into a barrel roll. Jim-Bean stayed with feet firmly planted on the deck, unaffected by the Wallaby's gyrations.

Ho hit the bulkhead with his face, splitting it open. His insane laughter finally stopped.

There was a tremendous thump as the Wallaby bounced off the Horseshoe, Guppy leveled it out, and then the smaller sub scraped along its surface.

"Extending umbilical!"

The Wallaby confirmed they had made a connection.

"Jimmy, you're with me," said Hammer. "Guppy, keep this thing running. We're going to need to exit it fast."

"Do you have a plan?" asked Guppy.

Hammer stopped in the middle of putting on a pressurized suit. "We're going to cause a nuclear meltdown."

[talien]

Jim-Bean and Hammer were dressed in pressure suits, which were sturdier than the diving suits. The Horseshoe had largely depressurized. Water streamed everywhere. They moved past dead bodies floating face up in cramped corridors.

Hammer's cistron was hooked into the HUD in his suit. "According to the deck plans, this is the entrance to the reactor." They both grabbed hold of the huge wheel on the door. Nuclear warning signs were plastered everywhere in bright yellow.

It wouldn't budge.

"The pressure from outside must be too great," said Hammer. "We'll have to blow it."

"We don't have enough explosives to blow it!" shouted Jim-Bean. He was always shouting now, because there was a roaring in his ears.

"That's the only way. We'll have to make do—look out!"

Jim-Bean turned slowly as Hammer extended one pistol and fired past him. A Deep One's head exploded. Deep Ones crept down the corridor, hopping along walls, jumping from pipe to pipe, swarming like ants down a tunnel.

Hammer raked the area with gunfire. Suddenly red warning lights began to swirl and klaxons shrieked behind him.

The Deep One corpses piled up. Hammer spared a glance over his shoulder. The outer door to the reactor had just slammed shut again.

"Jimmy! Jimmy, are you nuts? You can't survive in there!"

"Maybe not." Jim-Bean's voice betrayed no hint of concern for his plight over the comm. "But I can certainly handle it better than you can."

Hammer reloaded, fumbling with the pistols in the darkness. The suit's limited visibility and the gloved fingers made it difficult.

"Damn it, Jimmy!"

He didn't get a chance to say more. The Deep Ones, finding their courage, launched another assault. More of them plunged down the hallway.

Hammer sprayed their legs. He didn't have to aim, because they swarmed through en masse without regard for their own safety.

The door opened again behind him.

Jim-Bean staggered out of the room, gasping. Whatever had happened to him in the nuclear reactor was not visible; it was impossible to see through his fogged mask.

"Hammer?" asked Guppy, who could monitor life signs from the Wallaby via their suits. "What just happened to Jim-Bean? His vitals are off the charts."

The Deep Ones had stopped their advance, for the moment. "Can you walk?" asked Hammer.

Jim-Bean patted Hammer on the helmet. "I'm fine," he gurgled back. But Hammer knew he was not fine. The suits were not meant to handle radiation. The amount of exposure Jim-Bean had suffered was horrific.

Jim-Bean leaned heavily on Hammer as they half-limped, half-dragged each other to the airlock. The Horseshoe shuddered and groaned around them like an old man.

"Guys, hurry up!" shouted Guppy through the comm. "There's Deep Ones headed straight for us! I don't know much more the Wallaby can take!"

Hammer and Jim-Bean wheeled the airlock door open. The umbilical bunched and flexed precariously as the Wallaby struggled to stay attached to the tumbling Horseshoe. Hammer suddenly felt pressure on his back.

He stumbled forward into the lock as the door winched behind him.

Hammer whirled, struggling with the airlock door. "Jimmy, what the hell are you doing?"

Jim-Bean held up one hand, and telekinesis winched the Wallaby's airlock closed.

"Don't worry…" wheezed Jim-Bean, "this is…what I was…built for."

"Jimmy!" shouted Hammer, watching helpless as his friend stood framed in the airlock door.

Then the umbilical tore apart.

The Wallaby spun away, and Hammer could see Deep Ones hurled off in different directions from the violent maneuver. Lights sparked behind the distant form of Jim-Bean, silhouetted in the open air lock.

Hammer stripped off the suit, scrambling back to the bridge.

Guppy punched it. The Wallaby roared forward with every reserve it had left.

On the screen, Guppy was able to monitor Jim-Bean and Hammer's vitals. Jim-Bean's were flaring red.

"His suit's losing pressure!" wailed Guppy.

Hammer closed his eyes. It was worse than that. The explosion hadn't gone off.

He slowly slumped to the co-pilot's chair. Even Archive had finally stopped muttering.

All that sounded within the cockpit was the long, mechanical wail of Jim-Bean's stopped heart.

[talien]

The Deep Ones swarmed Jim-Bean. He could feel their malice, their hatred, their fury at what he was trying to do.

He was wrong about them, Jim-Bean realized. He thought they were mere savages, gasping fish-monsters filled with an alien hatred of all life. But they were far more malignant than that.

They were cells. Single cells, shed from the greater being, the thing that men called Cthulhu. They were the castoff, its detritus. But it was their god, their universe, their source of life. Their fury was not out of fear for their deity, but out of love – they were trying to impress their misbegotten god.

It didn't notice, any more than Jim-Bean noticed the skin that flaked from his body. There was nothing to notice, after all. It was so small, so imperceptible, that the very notion was absurd. It was the ultimate vanity, a display of sheer ego, to think something so important could even notice, much less appreciate, the veneration of floating specks of insignificant life.

The muck at the bottom of the depression bubbled and swirled, and in one large area the glow intensified. Within a few moments something began to rise from the muck. Its head was an enormous, great rubbery slab of tissue with malevolent dark eyes and a writhing mass of huge tentacles at the mouth.

Claws rent Jim-Bean's suit. Water pumped in.

A sacrifice. That's what he would be. The Deep Ones, frustrated by the attack on their god, were going to pay obeisance to their master by ripping Jim-Bean limb from limb.

Jim-Bean knew all this. He knew what they were thinking, feeling. The psychic pressure of the titanic being below was immense, but now it was no longer threatening to drive him mad. He felt peaceful. It was joyous, the arrival of the One True God. All was right. He wanted to laugh, to sing, to dance…

Their sacrifice would be meaningless, realized the tiny part of Jim-Bean's brain that was still functioning. He'd be dead long before they tore him apart.

Jim-Bean drifted off into darkness, in the comforting psychic womb of his lord and master, who was now as much a part of him as he was of them.

The Deep Ones backed off, uncertain. Jim-Bean's head twitched as he drowned, body convulsing as saltwater exploded his lungs. The suit's faceplate was shattered, revealing his peeled flesh and the ruin of a face. The Deep Ones had torn one of his arms off, and it rolled hazily in the water, trailing blood like a misguided rocket.

Jim-Bean was dying. No more pain. No more worry.

The light faded. Jim-Bean was already blind, his eyeballs long since destroyed from the radiation, but there was a light within his own mind that shone brightly. Even that was fading. He was falling, falling, falling…

He deserved peace, didn't he? Jim-Bean had been abandoned, experimented on, treated like a dog. He had been betrayed, violated, and used. He was crazy anyway, increasingly losing his grip on reality.

Stupid humans. They could fend for themselves from now on. It was better this way.

And yet. And yet.

Jenny was in his mind's eye, straining. The babies were being born. His babies. His children. Boys and girls all jumbled together. Nurses whisked them away, except for one. One of them, only one, was stillborn.

The doctor said something to Jenny, holding the limp little creature up for her to see. She wailed a scream of anguish that woke Jim-Bean up out of his stupor. Dead? Dead!

No, not dead. The other six were alive. But the doctors were hiding it from Jenny, hiding it from him. Those were his children. This was his future. They were the inheritors of the earth, and Majestic was trying to cover it up.

Jim-Bean forced himself back into consciousness. He took a deep breath, and found that gills had formed in what was left of his chest.

The virus! The PI virus had infected him, turned him. Now he was one of them.

Though his senses were ruined, his mind's eye could still see. The Deep Ones chanted in a huge floating mass, ushering in their god's arrival. The beast rose from the muck, bigger than anything Jim-Bean had ever seen. It was coated in the phosphorescent stuff, so that it glowed dimly as it rose into the water. Its glow pulsed faintly and seemed to shift in patches, as if the glow itself were sentient.

No. No, that would not do. Jim-Bean reached out with his remaining good arm and grabbed hold of the handle near the airlock.

Down, down, down the Horseshoe plunged. It was heading right for Cthulhu.

Jim-Bean reached out with psychic tendrils. He could feel the grenades, positioned in a wedge, ready to rent a hole in the reactor. Someone just needed to pull the pin. Someone.

Jim-Bean reached out and pulled.

[talien]

Guppy wept. Cthulhu was visible as a dim glow off in the distance, approaching swiftly.

"That's it then," said Guppy. "It's over."

He put the Wallaby on cruise. There was no point in fleeing. There would be nowhere on Earth they could escape to.

Hammer didn't say anything. He just kept staring at Jim-Bean's heart monitor, listening to the mechanical whine heralding his death.

Cthulhu reached the Horseshoe. With slow, ponderous deliberation it rent the submarine, tearing great gouts in its hull.

Beep. Jim-Bean's heart monitor beeped once.

"Guppy," Hammer said slowly.

"What?" asked Guppy.

Hammer pointed at Jim-Bean's heart monitor. His suit had lost pressure and the sensors were completely missing on one arm, meaning he'd probably lost a limb. But the heart monitor still worked.

Huge bubbles fled to the surface as sparks and flaring light from electrical systems lit the scene of the Horseshoe's demise.

Beep-beep. Jim-Bean's heart monitor bleeped again.

"I think you'd better speed up," said Hammer.

Guppy gasped as Jim-Bean's heart roared back. Beep-beep-beep-beep! He slammed the thrusters to full throttle.

Dozens of Deep Ones swarm about the legs and torso of Cthulhu, seeming to rejoice as the submarine met its end.

Then the reactor in the Horseshoe went critical.

There was no nuclear explosion -- the Horseshoe was no nuclear warhead. Instead, Jim-Bean's grenades blew enough force to expose the reactor to water. The instant cooling effect from something so superheated caused a pressure wave of unimaginable power. It exploded outward in a shockwave, engulfing Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, and much of R'lyeh.

The wave caught up with the fleeing Wallaby, engulfing it and then--