The Secret of Firebase Z

Chapter 7: Deep Within Firebase Z

The fireteam and Danny entered into the interior of the firebase, looking for its secrets. Aside from the multiple common daemon and Draugr corpses within the firebase, as well as glitchy splashes of Umbral energy, they find scattered broken tails and horns, some of which are charred by Pyro energy, while others are leaking Umbral energy.

"Could this guy be experimenting with Behemoths?" Sucrose asked.

"It could be. Either that, or a Shoggoth rampage happened here – specifically the Shoggoth I've just found," Danny answered.

"So where is this Shoggoth anyway?" Molly asked.

Danny answered in response, "Well, this Shoggoth could be somewhere–"

Suddenly, a strange roar permeated the firebase.

"–nearby," Danny continued as he heard the strange roar.

"Over there," Hilda said as she pointed to the source of the roar.

The fireteam and Danny ran to the source of the roar, located in the deeper recesses of the firebase. They found the Shoggoth that Danny had just encountered.

It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than a Zinogre—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon them, crushing any Behemoths it crosses and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.

Sucrose had inspected the Shoggoth further: "Formless protoplasm able to mock and reflect all forms and organs and processes - viscous agglutinations of bubbling cells - rubbery fifteen-foot spheroids infinitely plastic and ductile - slaves of suggestion, builders of cities - more and more sullen, more and more intelligent, more and more amphibious, more and more imitative! Oh my Barbatos! What madness made even some random dude willing to use and carve such things?"

"We need to exterminate it," Raiden Mei said.

"Agreed," Danny said.

As Hilda deployed another holographic A-Wall to protect the other fireteam members and Danny, Sucrose threw a volatile wind spirit vial in order to "aerate" and weaken the Shoggoth using Anemo energy.

Molly fired her rocket launcher through the A-Wall (causing the resulting missiles to be empowered) and into the Shoggoth. It was a direct hit, and the Shoggoth suffered major damage, but it didn't flinch.

"Keep firing!" Raiden Mei said as she unloaded an Electro beam from her tesla ray gun.

Hilda unloaded a barrage of bullets from her LMG, Tulip shotgunned, Molly fired more rockets, Bee unleashed Hydro arrows, Mayonna sniped, sky beams started falling out of the sky and broke a hole in the ceiling, Sucrose cast wind blasts, and Danny used his heavy bowgun's "Wyvernheart" machine gun mode. All these attacks are directed to the Shoggoth, severely weakening it but not quite flinching it.

That is, until rays of light different from those produced by Mayonna's enchanted sniper rifle shined on the Shoggoth through the hole in the ceiling.

"Is that–" Mayonna asked.