R'LYEH - CHAPTER SIX

The House of the Old Ones
Across the floor many pools of blood had covered most of the floor, the bodies of the congregation were scattered some were sat in the pews whilst the rest were sprawled across the ground. The shiny black brogue shoes stepped in the blood as Blackman wandered amongst the dead walking past the hounds as they feasted tearing away at the corpses growling with predatory delight, Blackman saw Lady Garvel kneeling at the alter her head bowed and reciting a prayer. Blackman stood behind Garvel he put his hands together and waited politely as Garvel finished her prayer, Blackman spoke “I apologise that it had to come to this but sadly certain factors required me to use your congregation to finish what we started” Garvel lowered her hands “I understand, I’m honoured to give the house to the dark beings of the void” Blackman stepped in front of her “You gave a lot to begin this awakening are you sure that you wish to give yourself fully too them” Garvel smiled stroking the blindfold that hid her eyeless sockets “It would be a great honour to join the darkness” as before the black skeletal fingers cradled Lady Garvel face as the inhuman voice spoke “Are you ready?” Garvel placed a hand on the one holding her face “I’m ready” give a quick twist Garvel’s neck snapped and she went limp, Blackman lowered her to the floor then saw one of the hounds “You can consume her” he began heading out of the church “When you are done you can return to the void, I will finish this myself” he left the room as the hounds continued to feed.


Transmission Tower
Access Elevator
Kara was leaning on one of the sides of the elevator as it made its way up the length of the colonies transmission tower she was silent just staring at the lights in the shaft as they rushed passed them, Kay looked worryingly at Paulson who returned a similar expression but they didn’t want to say anything after what happened down in the power station, they knew that Kara was hallucinating like they did but it seemed a whole lot worse for Kara, Paulson remembered that Kara had mentioned about seeing things long before they reached the geology department and that mystery room in Blackman’s lab.


Transmission Control Room
The elevator eventually stopped at the top of the tower and the doors slid open revealing the control room, Kay stepped out first checking to make sure that no one was hiding but the room was clear they nodded to Paulson that is was safe, Paulson put a hand gently on Kara’s back “Come on let’s find you somewhere to sit and rest” the two of them moved into the control room, Kara found a wall on the far side of the control room and slumped onto the floor resting her head in her arms.

Paulson and Kay headed to the control console, Kay took the seat as Paulson stood behind them asking “So if everthin workin?” Kay ran a systems check “Just give…me…a second aaaaaand YES! Everything is working fine” they typed at the controls “Will take a few minutes to realign the transmit beacon then I can contact the Lafayette to send rescue” Paulson patted Kay’s shoulder with delight “Great, can’t wait to get off this shithole of a planet” he left Kay to carry on with the work and walked over to Kara sitting next to her. He looked over to her as she sat silently “I’m guessin that you saw something too?” Kara raised her head and nodded she spoke “What did you see?” Paulson gave a large sigh feeing hesitant but replied “When I was a kid not long before I finished school, my home town I was known as bein quite the provocative type and that attracted the attention of my creep of a Uncle who thought it would be fun to use his family visits to use me to get his end away” Kara turned to look at Paulson “Did you tell your family?” Paulson sighed again “Not for a long time, I felt wrong about what was happening but eventually it came out” Kara felt the unease from Paulson’s silence “What happened?” Paulson continued “There was accusations that bein known as such the horn dog that I seduced my Uncle because bein such a good guy he would never force himself on someone like that, so I left and moved in with my older sister how had her own place and I never looked back” Kara looked down to her feet “Must have been hard reliving that” Paulson shook his head “Not really, I got angry because whatever was happenin it tried to blame me, but I never once blamed myself for what happened it’s probably how I was able to regain control” Kara was silent and Paulson took the plunge to ask her “What did you see? We heard you scream a few times” Kara knew she would have to say something “I was married once, his name was Emmett and we were blessed with a beautiful girl…Dani” Paulson noticed Kara’s smile so full of emotion and love and talking about her husband and daughter “We were taking a long trip to a cabin that my father used to own but he gave it me when he passed away. It was late and the rain was coming down hard, but we were so close that I was determined to get us there and out of the weather…” Paulson queried “Then what happened?” Kara continued “I was going too fast the wheels slipped on the wet road, the car flipped and rolled multiple times the crash killed Emmett instantly but Dani…s-she had been thrown from the car and the force of hit and tumbling across the road she broke multiple bones and cracked open her skull” Paulson was shocked hearing the story “Jesus” Kara carried on “By the time I crawled out the wreck and to her she had bled out” there was a quiet moment between Kara and Paulson but then Kara spoke again “Everyone always said that I wasn’t my fault, the weather was bad and it was poor luck that caused the crash…but I knew differently, I was going too fast, I knew that the weather was poor and I should have driven slower, it was all my fault” Paulson gave a moment to think what to say “Maybe it’s why this place has had more of an effect on you than the rest of us, we dealt with visions of misery caused by others but for you…you were drivin and you believe that you are cause of their death. It’s tryin to break our minds to the point when we become just as twisted as that old gal and her weirdo church” Kara agreed with what Paulson was saying she appreciated that he wasn’t coddling her about what happened her he continued “I can’t give you my thoughts on what happened to you but all I can say is it’s for you to come to terms with on your own, only then will you be able to let it go” Kara nodded “Thank you Paulson” Paulson smiled “You get some rest O-SEC I’m gonna check on Kiddo see how far they gettin” he stumbled getting up on his feet and headed over to the console.

Kay typed away on the control holograms as Paulson loomed behind them “Give us some news Kiddo” Kay looked up at him then back to the screens “We’re all good to transmit” Kay gave the headset to Paulson and pressed on the transmitter button he began to speak “Mayday, mayday UNF Lafayette this is Fort Haven come in over?...Mayday, mayday UNF Lafayette this is pilot Carl Paulson transmitting from Fort Haven are you receiving? Over” a voice came in over the speakers “Paulson this is Captain Halmstad what is the problem? Over” Paulson responded “Captain somethin has occurred on the colony some of the outpost locals have gone crazy, many of the people are dead two other survivors and myself are under serious threat down here there are things roamin through the colony, our dropship was destroyed and we are requested emergency evacuation” the Captain spoke with curiosity “What do you mean by things Paulson? What the hell is going on down there?” Paulson replied “Sir there isn’t time to explain right now we need to get the hell of this planet and leave this system!” the Captain responded “Don’t worry Paulson we will have a dropship come and get you out of there, it’s going to take some time to prep the dropship eta for touch down will be forty minutes, Paulson sighed with relief “Thank you Captain, we will get to the landing strip for pick” the Captain “Copy that Paulson we’ll meet you there” the transmission ended.
Paulson took off the headset “Ok dropship is en route, forty minutes and they will be touchin down on the landing strip, so we better get going” Kay was already helping Kara get up onto her feet “So what’s the plan to get through the station?” Paulson brought up Kara’s map “We run, take the route we came and keep an eye out for those crazies” Kara looked at the map “That’s still a long way with them and if there is more of those dogs on loose” Paulson nodded “That’s true but it’s all we got but our chance to leave is here and we need to take it” Kara knew he was right and agreed “Alright check the weapons and let’s get the fuck off this planet” the three of them checked their gear and made their way to the elevator.


Mining Quarry
The trio moved quickly when the does opened it was down here were Ahmid and Blackman had confronted them with some of Garvel’s congregation and were Trent was fatally wounded, they reached the area of the quarry where the large stone door stood something made Paulson stop “What a minute” Kara stopped and saw Paulson crouch next to one of the dead men that lay across the ground “What’s wrong Paulson?” he had managed to hit a few of the attackers last time but this one had been pulled apart by something “These are some of Garvel’s troop but something else killed then man” Kara checked some of the other bodies Paulson was right they had been crushed or broken by some massive force “Doesn’t look like the dogs did this” Kara then remembered the strange shape she saw lurking amongst the gun fire but apart from them and the cultists there was only “Blackman?” Kay glanced around the corpse piles made them feel uneasy “Guys we need to keep moving” the other two stopped looking at the bodies and they headed for the elevators that would lead them back to the mining sector. As the final one made it’s way up Paulson spoke to Kara “What do you think killed those guy?” Kara shook her head with uncertainty “I think Blackman is more than what he appears to be” the others looked at Kara puzzled she glanced at both of them in response “You saw him down there with those dogs, he even said that they were from other dimension and he had control over them, that screams that he isn’t what we think he is” Kay queried “So what do we do about him?” Kara had a simple answer “As long as we avoid him, we just get to the dropship and just leave him here” Kay nodded “Sounds reasonable” the elevator neared the top of the shaft.


Mining Sector
Ore Processing Plant
After reaching coming up in the service the group reached the vehicle bay and headed for the upper walk way that would lead them across the processing plant, they moved quickly reaching the far end of the plant heading passed the plant control room into the preparation area. Suddenly Kara felt something grabbed her from behind and with a heaving force she was pulled back and flung through the door way she had just come through, she landed and her back hard against the metal as Blackman emerged walking slowly towards her “You are quite the pests!” Paulson and Kay turned hearing the commotion Kay yelled in frightened surprise “KARA!” but Kara called back to them “Guys just go!” she got to her feet “I’ll deal with him!” Blackman turned to the other “Yes, go I’ll deal with you two once I’m done with your friend!” the two hesitated but eventually the carried on to the elevator that would lead back up to the colony.

Blackman returned to face Kara who was about to aim her rifle when he stepped quickly towards her “Now, now let’s not be using that shall we” he grabbed the barrel of the rifle and with a backhand he slapped Kara across the face, he managed to free the weapon and tossed it over the side of the rail down to the plant below. Kara rubbed her cheek “A slap? Come on and fight properly you nancy” Blackman smiled then side stepped thrusting out a punch which Kara blocked, she stepped in close with a gut punch and up palm struck to Blackman’s chin then she moved back before he could return the attack. Blackman seemed impressed “You’ve got plenty of fight in you Kara, but it’s useless none of you are leaving this place” Kara held her arms up ready “I don’t care if I leave but I promised them that I would get them home” Blackman laughed “You said that to the others” the words caught Kara off guard as did the spin kick which struck her side, Blackman came in close and attempted to throw her over the side but the hard throw was too much and luckily sent her over the gap and grabbed the railing of another causeway.
Kara was dangled above the processing plant she began hoisting herself up “Shit!” she flipped over the railing, she saw Blackman coming after her “What the fuck is this guy” Kara looked behind and saw a ladder that led up to the upper level of the plant were the hoist winches and ventilation pipes where located. She turned back to see if Blackman was coming up the ladders “Waiting for someone?” Kara turned to another strike to the face but she put one foot behind her to stop from falling. Kara then lunged forward throwing a punch which Blackman stopped it “Maybe I should have gotten you on my side to kill everyone” Kara gritted her teeth and thrust a knee in Blackman’s ribs. He grabbed Kara by the leg and pitched her down the causeway, she tumbled scraping along the metal and cursed to herself she could tell that Blackman was holding back, he was hiding some level of strength “Fucker’s toying with me” she wiped the blood from her nose.

Blackman approached adjusting his tie that had become crooked, Kara tried to get to her feet but her body ached and she fell to her knees as Blackman grabbed her by the jacket collar and pulled her along the causeway “Come on now my dear, I haven’t had this much fun in eons” Blackman got Kara to her feet and turned her around Kara managed a backhand like he did, he simply smirked at her “Is that it nancy?” he thrust a hand hard grabbing her by the throat and held her against the wall, she gritted her teeth and spat out words “You’re…not human are…you?” Blackman grinned and nodded “Clever girl, I’ve been wandering in this form for far too long but this awakening is my chance to ascend and take my place at the Great Table” Kara smirked in reply “Then show me who you really are dickhead” Blackman laughed “I don’t need to change form to finish you” he laughed again at Kara’s situation.
Kara felt the man’s grip tightening “You seem…full of shit…to me, just a crazed nutjob…in a cheap suit” she didn’t wait for him to reply, she thrust her arms down into his loosening the grip and then grabbing his shoulders went in and headbutted him. Blackman yelled from the impact and stumbled back as Kara coughed from the choking he growled “I will not be insulted by some fucking human filth!” Kara leaned against the wall as he talked “I have worked too hard to put my plan’s into motion and I will not be stopped now!” as he straightened up ready to attack again Kara sputtered out “Fuck this” she quickly pulled out Trent’s handgun that she had took when he was killed and aimed it quickly at Blackman, Kara fired three rounds into Blackman’s chest and a fourth into his skull, he recoiled crying out as he fell over the side of the railing and down to the mining sector below, he landed with a loud thud and a snap from his back, Kara leaned over the railing and saw Blackman lying motionless on the ground.

She spoke on the earpiece “Guy’s are you there?” Kay’s voice spoke in her ear “Kara thank god, are you alright?” Kay nodded “Yeah, Blackman is dead” Paulson voice spoke out this time “Good, now get yourself out of there, Kay and I are heading back to the control room meet us there so we can get to the evac shuttle and get off this rock” Kara took a deep sigh “Just go don’t wait, I’m on my way” she moved along the walkway and down the set of ladders steps to the causeways below.
Down in the plant the body of black began to shake, it arched up as the ribcage cracked open but instead of red blood, thick black ooze spurted out as a slender clawed hand reached out of the body cavity and planted down onto the ground, as they pushed down the head emerged skull like but with no eye sockets and all black in colour. The dark figure rose up from the shell that was once it’s human form, it was the slender and skeletal figure from her hallucination, dressed in faded golden apparel similar to those the pharaohs of Egypt, it reared it’s head and let out a loud shriek. Kara stopped turning quickly at the sound of the horrific noise she launched herself next to a large metal girder for cover, she peaked around the side of it looking down and could see the black figure who then spoke in deep inhuman voice which made Kara flinched as if it was almost painful to hear it “You worthless fool! Did you honestly think that you could stop me? ME?! Have you any idea what I am? I am The Crawling Chaos, The Faceless God, Father of Bats…” Kara crouched and kept low she moved to another girder to remain in cover “I am The Black Pharaoh, I am…Nyarlathotep!” he looked up at the different catwalks above him “I can hear you scurrying around” Kara slumped to ground it sounded as if he was right next to her ear “You can’t escape what is coming Kara…he has awakened and is about the rise” the vision returned Kara closed her eyes from the pain, tentacles squirmed and writhed in the void as something growled and moaned she could almost see it, something massive moving through the veil of stars. Nyarlathotep continued to speak “The blood that was needed is complete to satiate his thirst, but now his hunger will make him come forth and claim his kingdom once again” the Black Pharaoh let out a laugh “Those fools thought by giving up their flesh or their colleagues that they would be safe” Kara called out “What do you mean by that?!” the dark figure looked up to the causeways the black teeth in an eternal smile “Everything that has happened here has been part of my design, they see only what I want them to see, there’s more to R’lyeh than you know” he turned on the spot hoping to catch sight of the meddling human “Have them turn on each other and kill the majority then I killed the rest, Garvel was such a loyal servant but her usefulness had come to an end so I ended her and her house of fanatics” Kara moved to keep her position hidden “After all that devotion to just wind up dead!” Nyarlathotep laughed deeply that Kara could feel it tremble “Death waits for you all, the void will consume everything and there is nothing you can do to stop it!” the figures right arm shifted and became a slow flurry of black tendrils “Why don’t we make this more intimate, COME DOWN!” with a fling forward the tendrils whipped up crashed through one of the causeways that Kara was hiding kicking it up before it crashed down to the plant below. Hitting the ground Kara rolled from the impact as the metal clanged and banged hearting her ears, there was no time to suffer the pain before that thing would be upon her, she darted off and hid amongst the high towers of mining carts and machinery. Nyarlathotep emerged by the wreckage of the causeway but wasn’t that surprised to see that Kara wasn’t there “I would enjoy hide and seek but I am running on a deadline and I wouldn’t want to keep the great dreamer waiting when he rises” Kara noticed that the rifle that was thrown was close by, she crouched down and reached for it and managed to pick it up without making a noise, Kara quickly checked it over and saw that it was still functional. The voice called out again “Just give in Kara and it will be over it would be better for me to do it, to look upon Cthulhu’s might is not capable for the minds of humans to comprehend, you’ll scream from the agony as your mind shatters to pieces” she could hear that he was close, Kara picked up a fragment of metal off the ground and with a strong throw launched it to somewhere away from her. The metal clanged in the distance and the black figure turned away walked off, Kara gave a hushed sigh of relief she need to find a way to take out the monstrous being, could it be killed? She managed to kill one of those hounds and if they could die so could he.

Kara moved quietly holding tightly to the rifle as she moved through the columns of empty carts eventually coming out by one of the large motors that powered the grinder, Kara peered out and saw the skeletal figure standing near the large ore shredding machine “I can give you to your daughter Kara, reunited together” Kara scowled “I know that what you spit through those teeth is nothing but pure bullshit you offer only death!” the Black Pharaoh turned and sniggered “Death is the only way, this universe doesn’t belong to you” he growled “I have lived through the millennia of your race, the lives of those lesser paved the way for kings to rise” Kara laughed “You think yourself a King? Crawling around in the dark getting others to do your dirty work!” Nyarlathotep turned it’s skull-like face the empty sockets searching for Kara as she creeped around out of sight. He formed the tendrils again which whipped out knocking down one of the columns of carts “I WAS A KING! I ruled your pitiful race back in the deserts of the pharaohs, they WORSHIPED ME!” he spun around lashed the tendrils which took out another tower with loud bangs and crashes “If his awakening goes without fault he will be pleased with my work and grant me the power that I truly deserve” another crash of the cart which was next to Kara forced her to duck for cover behind one of the massive forklifts as Nyarlathotep let out a frustrating roar as he launched one of the mining carts across the room. Kara had no choice but to try and fight the monstrosity, she stepped out and fired round after round from the rifle each one striking randomly striking across Nyarlathotep its body, black blood spattering out from the wounds but the Black Pharaoh ignored them as Kara kept firing until the final rifle cartridge was ejected she took the pistol and continued firing. Nyarlathotep held out his arms wide taking every hit until the last bullet he laughed “I guess you are done…now it’s my turn how about a form that will be much more fun” the Black Pharaoh’s form began to shake and writhe as it grew bigger and bigger the legs split into large thick swirling tentacles, the skeletal shape expanded into more bulking looking flesh as the skull turned into a faceless head with a split going half way and a long blood red tongue coiled out, Kara stood looking at the horrid behemoth as it roared “Fuck THIS”.

Nyarlathotep slammed its clawed hands down to the ground and began crawling towards Kara, surprising both of them the ore grinder suddenly shuddered to life trapping two of the Black Pharaoh’s leg tendrils. Black blood and chunks of flesh were mulched in between the spinning blades, Nyarlathotep shrieked as gunshots rang out, Kara saw the figure from up on the causeway firing the rifle “Paulson?” Paulson and Kay had made their way back down and used the opportunity to trap the creature using the ore grinder, Kay stood at the window of the control room operating the grinder. Paulson’s bullet’s seemed to have little effect, Nyarlathotep turned to them “FOOLS!” arching an arm back it quickly transformed into three tentacles Paulson realised the imminent attack “Oh shit!” he rushed into the control room “Kiddo GET DOWN!” he grabbed Kay hurling both of them to the floor as the window burst inward spewing glass everywhere with the tentacles spilling into the room whipping around smashing everything, Paulson was crouched over Kay trying to keep them safe “Get to the far side of the room GO!” they kept as low as possible as they moved to get out of reach.

Kara need to help them but she had no weapons left, it was then she saw the long prongs of the loader and she got a crazy idea, whilst Nyarlathotep was distracted she climbed up into the huge vehicle and hotwired it to switch on the ignition, the engine chugged and rumbled and Kara gave herself an encouraged cheer of praise. She put the loader into reverse trying to get enough distance between her and enraged beast Kara then pulled on a lever that raised the loading prongs up high, Kara thought that this was nuts but it was the only chance they had “Alright you smug fucker let’s see how you handle this!” she pressed her foot down on the accelerator hard.
Thrashing around Nyarlathotep continue his attack on the control room “I AM ETERNAL, I WILL NOT LOOSE TO MERE MORTAL FLESH!” Paulson was sitting on the ground and had his back pressed against the wall as hard as he could at the back of the room, he had Kay wrapped in his arms as the flailing black tendrils slithered towards them, the two of them looked terrified both yelling curses of fright in tandem at the crawling chaos looming upon them, Nyarlathotep growled with delight these were the only three to stand in his way and they no hope in stopping, a light from behind made the Black Pharaoh turn around just in time to see the loader rushed toward him.
The loader hit hard slamming into Nyarlathotep piercing into his chest the force ripping the trapped tendrils out from his mass, he let out a shriek of pain then he pulled the tentacles away from the control room as Kara reversed she lowered the prongs to look Nyarlathotep in the face the split it his face sputtered out blood. Kara gave a smirk similar to Blackman’s human form “Are you done? Because it’s my turn again!” full force of the throttle Kara then jumped from the loader hitting the ground and rolling as her plan shot the loader and Nyarlathotep hard into the wall with a loud bang of metal and a crush of flesh, the prongs pierced through the Black Pharaoh completely pinning him to the wall he shrieked as limbs frantically waved around from the agony, blood streaming from wounds down the skin dripping heavily onto the floor.

Kara’s body hurt but she gathered herself up onto her feet and walked towards the loader, the way Nyarlathotep was breathing Kara could tell he was dying, as the limbs stopped and came to rest on the ground he looked to Kara “This cannot be…possible” he raised his head up as if looking to the sky “Great Dreamer…’cough’ forgive me, I only wanted to be…as worthy of you” he seemed to slump and fall silent. Kara approached the large carcass as Paulson called down from the ruins of the control room “Hey O-SEC, you alright?” Kara waved “I’m sore but I’ll live, just need to find a way up to you” before she could do anything Nyarlathotep grappled Kara holding her in place but too weak to do anything else as, blood seeped out of a gash on the side of it faceless head but a wheezed gagging voice croaked at her “If I can’t take you…’cough, cough’…then perhaps SHE will!” a crooked finger reached out and touched Kara on her forehead and with a blinding pain everything went black.

To Be Continued...