The Lords of Sol

STOP
There was no tone or inflection to the voice, just a standard synthesised sound. The Professor didn't believe in pointless fripperies.
I have pertinent information.
The virus which the ship infected you with is a variant of the T virus which I have dubbed the Cthulhu strain or "C" virus. The C virus originates from a failed strain of T virus which Umbrella terminated as it failed to provide the physically boosted warrior they desired. However it did alter the subject's mental field, causing their brain waves to adopt a very specific frequency. Umbrella may have overlooked such interesting results, but the master of this island did not. He perfected the virus in secret...or at least he believed it was in secret.
Each one of you...
The drone slowly rotated so that it appeared to focus on each of them, one after the other. Completely unnecessary of course due to the omni-directional sensors, but even the Professor appreciated the occasional dramatic touch.
...has reached the final stage of the infection. Your minds are open receivers. Whatever controls this facility is not currently broadcasting at full strength but when it does you will be powerless to resist.
How do I know this?
I already possessed some of the pieces of the puzzle, but as you flew to Aktley more was revealed to me.
When the "spaceship" crashed, not only were the gathered Lords infected but also half of continental America. 40 minutes ago, when you were in transit, the brainwaves of some of the infected changed. They are already receiving input.
Your unique physiologies may afford you some limited protection but you are far from safe. I advise that you keep talking to each other. If one Lord starts to behave erratically I advise that you terminate him with extreme prejudice.

Gross, there is a high probability you are now immune to the C virus. However with your current rate of metabolism your lifespan can be no longer than 2 days. A normal, non-irradiated human would have been dead already.

What the drone didn't articulate to Gross was that he was now infectious. An infection that could wipe out the human race. Even if Gross did survive what was below, he couldn't be allowed to leave the island. However the drone did communicate this information to the others on a tightly projected cone of sound.
Gross cannot be trusted. He needs to feed and you may be his next meal.

Blinky, the T virus had reached an advanced stage before the C virus could re-assert control. You may have thought the C virus had been nullified but you failed to take into account the dormant mRNA which had already inserted itself into your genome. The result is that you have an increased resistance to the mind control but this is only because the T virus has degraded your higher thought centres. You have 7 hours, plus or minus 47 minutes, before you lose control of yourself.
To the other Lords, excluding Blinky, he broadcast once again.
Blinky's mind is weakening. His animal side may take over at any time and he will not know friend from foe. Not that you were Blinky's friends to begin with...All those double crosses in the past.
Next Maximus was left out of the loop.
He is closest to human norm. The virus has reached full saturation within him. Projections indicate he is most vulnerable to mind control.
All he could find to say about the remaining Lord was:
Wolfsbane is an unknown factor.
All of it was true. With any luck they would disable the base and kill each other in the process. With any luck...Luck? He scolded himself for such thoughts. No such thing.
That is all the pertinent information I can share with you. The current controller of this facility is unknown but I can tell you who built it, you may have heard of him...
The drone transmitted the file "Emergency failsafe plan: Operation hostile takeover of home planet, elimination of other Lords, total domination - Lord Vorak".
With that it blinked out of existence as the phasing field re-activated.

 

Blinky cleared his throat, and spoke calmly to the other lords.

Why does the fact that that machine confided details in me about each of you make me feel like someone is trying to play all the sides?

Blinky wasn't much concerned, half of it was bullshit. Arleen had already given him the status report, while trying to keep her voice from quaking over the intercom. She was the closest thing to an actual friend he had. She was also tracking the signal of that strange probe back to its reclusive controller. Information still had to come in.

Blinky tapped her out, she'ld be redirected to Ariel now. Her training was incomplete, but Blinky still had room in his pounding head for a little faith. She could do it. It was him he was worried about now.

Well, are you all coming?

 

I'm coming. It seems I've got nothing to lose, anyway, so I'll go out with one hell of a bang.
Two days...huh. At least I can do some good with the time I have. Though, I may be able to extend my life if I can feed before that time...DAMNIT! No! I can't think like that! My very being with this team endangers their lives, I can't slip when they need me most!
I...If I fall unconscious at any time, I want you all to agree to kill me. I'm not going to risk taking any of you out to sate some hunger I may have...I really don't think I'd come to my senses until I was "done."
Gross stepped into the base.
Whomever comes into this base as well I would consider a part of my little "agreement". Though, I'm sure certain individuals here would do so regardless, heh. Blinky, you seem to nearly be in the same boat as me.
Of course...neither your subordinates, or the probe, have deemed you to be a vampire. Right now you're the lesser of two evils.
Gross looked among the three other lords;
Maximus, with his powered body armor and technical genius,
Wolfsbane, with his innumerable cans of spam and boundless Chakra,
And Blinky, with his lethal claws and command of sub-zero temperatures.
Regardless of their strengths, there was no way of telling just how many would make it out alive.

 

Wolfsbane observed the drone with mild interest, and then set off towards the base entrance. On his way, he gave both Blinky and Gross a friendly pat on the back.

Don't you worry, guys. We'll make it through this, don't you worry. And when we're done, we'll take care of that virus, once and for all. I'm sure there's a cure, spiritual or scientifical. So let's go and kick some zombie ass, eh?

And with that, Wolfsbane set off into the bases vast network of tunnels, down into the dark.

 

Maximus finished his locational direction finding on the probe's transmission, and sent it back to HQ for comparison with the previous data and added some comments at the end. He checked the report from the scan performed on him via the power armor, and checked what information was being scanned. He read the bit about himself being totally infected with Cthulhu Virus, but it being dormant? He didn't feel any different. He added some other info for the research team to begin diagnosis of the C Virus, as well as try and find a cure for it. He switched his PDA back off, to terminate any connections.

Boys, it looks like we've got our hands full, or so that droid wants us to believe. It didn't even identify itself, for all we know its a messenger from the creator of the virus, trying to turn us against ourselves....

Regardless, I'm up for smashing this place and kicking the ass of the person resonsible for ruining my day!

With that, a bright bulletproof halogen headlight mounted on top of the armor's helmet lite up, illuminating the entire area, and he started off into the complex, a whorl of steam disappearing behind him.

 

Blinky led the way through the beginnings of the cave complex, progressing down gradually about a hundred feet through winding terrain. The rock was fairly new here, probably depositby a glacier during one of the ice ages since the last time Blinky had visited. So very long ago...

The shadows hold the future, young one, look to them

Slowly after a chance run in or two with a patrolling zombie, the rock grew older, until they came to a collapsed hole in the ground. Blinky stopped the other Lords, looking through to see stairs beneath.

I had no idea, I would have thought this would have degraded by now... You guys get a real treat today, a crash course in fifty million year old architecture.

Blinky climbed down the hole and waited for the others to follow. They were on an exterior staircase, wrapping around a wide curve. Only ten feet away, a crackling field of electricty held at bay the Pacific Ocean, darkening and oppressive as the sunlight filtered to nothingness a hundred feet below the waves.

Hurry up, I want to get inside the actual complex. I like water... but not like that.

 

The amoount of power needed to keep this running...it's incredible! Though, I've nothing with me to record and send back to Das Sturmgeist...
Grossenschwaum was obviously enamoured with the incredibly powerful force field, but also completely understood the particulars of their current endeavor. Also, the pulses of the force field seemed irregular...yes, it was a good idea to keep going.
Do you know what we can expect down here, Blinky? It would seem to me that you've been here before.
Gross sensed something was amiss as they got closer to the main complex.
I can't be the only one of us feeling...unsafe, here.

 

A light pulsed in front of Blinky, and screaming echoed behind him. His left arm hung limp at his side and blood trickled down from his forehead. Slowly, he reached towards the light.

I think so, but it's all hazy. This place is ancient, far older than even myself. As for what's down here, I have no idea.

Blinky sniffed the air and a grimace crossed his face.

It's so almost familiar. Stay on your toes, anything could be inside of here.

With that, Blinky continued around the spiralling staircase until it dead ended in front of a pair of sizeable doors, each etched with a bizarre creature similar to an octopus.

 

Maximus had switched over to electric power when he reached the staircase, which allowed from much quieter movement. He'd taken in the forcefield with some wonder, as it blocked water and air out. His own experiments with fields had only allowed blocking of heavier materials like metal or plasma, but did a poor job of keeping out gases and liquids. He initiated a full scan of the field and one of the field generators trying to unlock its secret.
After a minute or so of gathering data, he hurried after the others until he came to the bottom of the stairs and stood before two massive doors, which were engraved with the image of Cthulhu.

Hey, that's Cthuhlu, the god those aliens were trying to awaken. My data-base says he's supposed to be some ancient diety or pre-human monster. An ancient cult has been trying to awaken him for centries, and if they succeed, this creature will awaken and try to destroy mankind. They say he looks like a human with the head of a squid, huge bat-wings, and long talons for hands. I'm not sure that the myths of Cthulhu and the C virus are connected, but I'm guessing that behind these doors, we'll find out.

If the two are connected, then we're really in trouble. If this is the place I'm thinking it might be, then perhaps we'll find the secret hiding place of the Necronomicon, the 'Law of the Dead'. Its a book that is one of the key elements used to awaken Cthulhu, its magickal incantations necessary to call him from the depths. It also says here that four other elements are needed to complete the ritual....

Shall we find out whats behind these doors then?

 

Wolfsbane stood, frustrated, at Maximus side, and waited for something to happen. He was anxious enough as it was to get his hands on some zombies to kill, and this waiting didn't make it any better; he'd entered his frenzy now, and the only thing able to calm him now was the immediate death of his enemies.

Oh, what the heck!

He said, and threw a ahuriken with an expolive tag fastened to it at the door. The explosion wasn't big or amazing, but it was good enough to open a perfect hole in the solid stone-door.

Let's go, then!, he added, and ran through the dustcloud of the destroyed door.

 

Gross watched Wolfsbane step through the newly opened door.
If it works, I've got no problem with it. However...I'm not sure how quiet we can be after that. This Cthulu...I've heard of him before. Well, if he can indeed be called a "him."
Cults just piss me off. Almost as much as scientologists.
Still, he followed Wolfsbane. There wasn't much else to do in an enemy base than get the job done.
The air seems thicker, here. Much more dense than ususal...it's probably just from how low we are.
Grossenschwaum noticed how the floor was mottled with spots of a slick, yet sticky liquid. He scanned the ceiling for Lickers; they were the only things that came to mind, and they were not a pleasing thought.
I don't know if we should move faster or slower, here. I definitely don't feel at ease, regardless.

 

Blinky walked into the room, his eyes scanning rapidly for clues. No Lickers to be seen, but they had obviously been here before. Gross was probably the only other Lord who had firsthard experience with those deformed monstrosities, but even he didn't know that they too were only the meat of this strange Cthulian army. The other things defied naming, things he hadn't seen since the last time he was in this damned city, watching his master push those same runes that he did only minutes before. Or was it hours? He honestly couldn't tell, but so long as he could still walk and tell Lord from zombie, he still had time to try to make things right.

Wolf, in the future, less explosives right next to the energy field that's keeping the pacific ocean from collapsing over our heads. What do we have here...?

Blinky bend down and used his foreclaw to trace the viscous yellowish fluid out from a large circle. He paced around it once and traced out divet, then backed up three steps and brushed off the floor until he found two notches.

It's some type of lift. It heads down into the complex from here.

 

Well then, lets get a move on. We cant bloody stay here forever. And with that Maximus entered into the lift room and started trying to figure out how to activate it.

 

The phased drone waited at a distance and watched Wolfsbane detonate a portion of the gate. A several million year old, possibly xeno-artifact and he was blowing chunks out of it like it was a condemned mall.
Dismissing this from his thoughts, he guided the drone away from the smouldering door towards the location indicated in the Vorak files.

 

Blinky tapped pounded on the floor in frustration, trying to remember how to get the lift to descend, when his fist slid down into a groove and the floor in the circle began to lower. He stood up and shuffled onto the lift waiting for the other Lords to follow. When they were all on, the lift was descending into a darkened elevator shaft, and Blinky looked straight forward into the rapidly darkening space in front of him.

Suddenly, the skin on the back of his neck straightened.

Out of the darkness... strike

Blinky stepped to the right as a glob of acid fizzled by his ear, and yanked Grossenschwaum towards him as a large glob shot through the space where he was just standing. So this is where the damn Lickers had went.

 

The darkness enveloped them rather quickly and then Maximus heard strange noises. He flipped on the halogen floodlight on his helmet and illuminated the room. A descent sized hole lay before him on the floor now, that wasn't there a minute ago. He looked up to see what else had changed when he noticed the ceiling was covered in lickers. The numbers were hard to distinguish, but there were a number of them all huddled together like a pit full of snakes.

Looks like we got company...., he whispered.

The LCD screen flicked to life, the onboard combat AI was already analyzing the threat level and methods of dealing with them.

* Option 1: Flame thrower - Enemy casualty rate=High, high probability of friendly-fire - not recommended

* Option 2: Small-Arms fire - Enemy casualty rate=low, possible ricochette, use with caution - recomended action

* Option 3: Freon blast - Enemy casualty rate=moderate, possible risk of frostbite to allied units - recomended action

He tapped the screen next to option three and a short metal tube popped out of the right arm next to the gatling gun. He raised his arm up and a quick but heavy burst of liquid nitrogen sprayed out onto the lickers. Five lickers fell to the ground and shattered, others seemed frozen to the cealing. Then something moved under the mass of frozen corpses....

 

Leeches!
Grossenschwaum grabbed a section of frozen licker and started to smash the massive parasites on the floor.
These were leeches that had been tainted by the T-virus, and they could group together to form a single, larger foe.
Don't let them touch you! Don't let them combine!
All of the leeches had to be killed before the lickers started to thaw, or there could be something else everyone needed to worry about.
There's something else here, I can...smell it?
That's new...I don't think I could do that before...
That didn't really matter, he already knew what it was.
It's a viper...The Viper.
A huge snake, perhaps 45 feet in length, emerged from the hole left by the massive glob of acid.
It moved with a speed that seemed impossible for its size, and it lunged forward, mouth agape...!

 

A wall of shurikens was Wolfsbanes response to the entrance of the Viper, and the snake automaticly recoiled. Shure, the shurikens weren't strong enough to tear through it's scales, but they could very well harm it's mouth or eyes.
Wolfsbane then drew his master-crafted wakizashi and charged the snake, disposing of a licker as he went.

 

Blinky glowered at the snake, looking hard to see that one particular spot, right above it's nose. Firing a precise beam of cold out of his fingers, the snakes infrared senses were cooled, dropping everything it saw into a deep blue. The snake pulled back again, this time in confusion as everything in front of it pretty much disappeared, even as wolfsbane bore down on it.

 

The drone made steady but slow progress towards its destination. Slow as the phasing field remained engaged as a defence against whatever might be lurking in this complex. The drone had left the main, ancient cavern some minutes ago and was now in a more recent addition. A small research complex built by Lord Vorak but never finished as he had been exiled to deep space for previous...excesses.
The short range scanners had picked up a few basic T and C-virus organisms; Leaches, zombies, Nemesis Grade B, a wounded tentacle-head. As he progressed further into the complex the sightings trailed off, until there was no sign of life at all.
Radiation levels were nominal. He had no idea why the local wildlife would be staying away from this area. No matter. He had reached the central computer core without incident.
The main systems were ticking over on emergency backup power. The only sources of illumination were the blinking lights on the banks of main frames. The drone reached out with the limited bandwidth that phasing would allow and interfaced with the core system.
Most of the data was run of the mill status reports on the building of the facility. Then something caught his eye...mind. The encrypted logs of Vorak's lieutenant. He played the logs at high speed through his mind.

Complex operations day 240: An enormous hulk of a man appeared. His body seemed to be studded with cybernetic devices. At least one of his arms was fully mechanical.
"Vorak is a fool. He left me here as a caretaker of this mothballed complex. Instructed me not to unseal the tomb. Ha! I have found the correct frequency to open the main door of the tomb, poorly hidden amongst Vorak's personal files. I shall claim the power as my own. There is something within that Vorak thought could help him rule the world. It shall be mine!"

Day 247: The man appeared again, this time with a blood soaked healpak affixed to his torso. One of his eyes, which had been organic in the previous log entry, was now a cybernetic lens. The tissue around the new eye showed deep wounds as if claws had raked his face. Terror was in his one remaining organic eye.
"Highly unexpected...
The recording wavered.
...resistance extreme...
...How could anything have survived for so long?...
...wounded...black ichor...injected into my chest…
Static crackle replaced the log entry for several seconds.
...escaped...damaged power plant...power limited...blackouts...
...men dead...nemesi released...kill the tomb organisms..."

Day 253: The man appeared again. His injuries were becoming scars. However the skin around the medpack had turned an unhealthy green colour.
"The sounds of fighting within the tomb have ceased. The tomb was resealed yesterday. I can only assume that the T-enabled creatures succeeded in destroying the...lifeforms within the tomb. My army is sorely depleted. It will take at least 3 weeks to tank-gestate enough replacement Nemesi. I have sent out agents to bring back reinforcement personnel from Umbrella. We just won't tell them that Lord Vorak is no longer giving the orders around here. I must think of my next course of action...."
He gripped his skull and seemed to rock back and forth slightly.
"I must think..."

Day 259: The recording showed an empty room. The lieutenant's voice faded and grew as if he was pacing nervously around the room as he talked. There was a steady clinking sound, presumably from one of his metallic limbs.
"Modification to the T-virus are progressing! Yes, yes, yes! They didn't want to do it. Damn Umbrella Corp salary men. I made them though...only had to kill 4...or 10? I told them. I told them. Came to me in a dream. A dream they must obey. Modify the T-virus. Samples of tissue from the tomb! A dream, a dream. Such a strange dream. A dream? No! I was awake. A whisper, not a dream! I can hear them whisper! But...but...if I obey the whispers stop! Yes. Obey the whispers...No dreams! Dreams? My dreams of the tomb. When the virus...is ready...the tomb must be opened once again!"
Just before the recording cut out the lieutenant lumbered into shot. The sickly green on his torso seemed to be spreading up his neck. Like a mould growing in his flesh...consuming him. His face was slack and his one human eye was crusted over and useless.

There was one more data file. Huge and heavily encrypted. Quite the challenge. This could be the final piece of the puzzle. The drone would have to drop out of phased space in order to fully interface with the system and crack this encryption. The Professor hastily deactivated the field and began to tackle the monumentous task ahead.
It was approximately 0.4 seconds after this that something large, green and covered in tentacles fell from the roof and latched onto the drone.
Oh bother.