The Secret of Firebase Z

Chapter 9: R'lyeh

Through the portal, Raiden Mei, Sucrose, Mayonna, Tulip, Hilda, Molly, Bee, and Danny, as well as the Versa Pietru, find themselves within the eldritch city dimension of R'lyeh.

The city is a panorama of 'vast angles and stone surfaces too great to belong to anything right and proper for this earth, and impious with horrible images and disturbing hieroglyphs'. The geometry of R'lyeh is 'abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours'. The strange architecture of the city makes navigation on foot disorienting and treacherous; surfaces that appear flat may actually be tilted, and angles of masonry that appear convex at first glance may actually be concave.

Versa Pietru spoke to the fireteam about R'lyeh: "The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay the great dormant 'Cthulhu', used as a 'power source' for the city."

Sucrose spotted a glowing purple anomaly in the distance. "What's that?" she asked.

Raiden Mei answered, "That must be where Gideon and Shub-Niggurath reside. We have to stop them."

"Agreed," Bee added.

The fireteam rode on top of the Versa Pietru, which proceeded to fly with its wings and transport the fireteam around the unpredictably unstable eldritch city.

Atop the flying Versa Pietru, the members of the fireteam witness the instability of the buildings within R'lyeh. Some fireteam members, especially Bee, were a little bit confused about R'lyeh's changing landscapes. Also, throughout the buildings of R'lyeh, mysterious runes that roughly translate to 'toast', 'dogs', 'wedding', and 'donut' can be found all over the walls of the R'lyehian buildings.

Apparently, the glowing purple anomaly that Sucrose spotted is within a massive black spire. Glitchy umbral energy is seeping from its windows, indicating that Shub-Niggurath is within the spire. At the front gate to the spire, the fireteam and Versa Pietru find more Withered Bonnie guards (6 of them), as well as an inscription saying: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

Like the encounter at the R'lyeh portal, Bee performs her elegant 'Waltz of the Flowers' dance once again in order to distract the animatronics guarding the gate, while Mayonna notices small Dragonators (retractable drill spikes) on the floor below the gate (and the animatronics) triggered by an obvious blue button with a 'P' on it, just located at the top of the inscription.

As Bee is distracting the animatronic guards with her dance, Mayonna lines up a shot to hit the 'P' button. Her aim was true, and with a single shot of her enchanted sniper rifle, the 'P' button was pressed, and steam began hissing from the floor beneath the animatronics. A few seconds later, a row of Dragonators erupted from the ground and pierced through the animatronics' bodies. Bee ended her dance with a graceful finale as the animatronics exploded into confetti and fireworks and the spikes retracted from the ground below. The other members of the fireteam clapped as both them along with Versa Pietru entered the spire.

"Gideon Gleeful," Raiden Mei called to Gideon as soon as she entered the spire.

Gideon was slightly diminutive and wore a blue suit. But his most defining feature could be his fancy white hairstyle.

"Who dares to invade the holy lair of the Shub-Niggurath?" Gideon questioned the fireteam as well as Versa Pietru.

"We're here because of Shub-Niggurath," Raiden Mei answered, "We know that you've been using Shub-Niggurath in order to resurrect the New Illuminati and cause unprecedented chaos."

"And we're here to stop you," Hilda added.

"Stop what? Shub-Niggurath? HA!" Gideon retorted as an eldritch form, the Shub-Niggurath itself, began to rise from a huge cauldron behind him.

"The Shub-Niggurath approaches," Versa Pietru said as the fireteam prepared their weapons.