Article 6: Notes of Captain Petrov, Department of Biological Warfare

April 26th, 1970

Our expeditions into the cave systems have been met with resounding success, as have our experiments. We now have a number of artifacts in our possession, the result of further exploration into the underground structures. They’re quite fascinating, really. We don’t have the full picture-- landslides have severely damaged significant portions of the tunnel network--but what remains is a thing of beauty. The tunnel walls are remarkably well finished for hewn stone, with circular inscriptions carved into the walls. According to reports, there are a series of paths branching off from a central hub where the most notable artifacts were found. That’s not in any way to disparage the discoveries found in the other sections; the ancient tools and mechanisms, dining and sleeping areas, the structures found at the outskirts, petrified wood in the shape of one-armed crucifixes. Strange skeletons were found at their base, Neanderthal in nature, with arms nearly as tall as the legs and torso put together, concluding in hands with six long, tapered fingers. Head to toe they measure around 250 centimeters tall, far above the men. The skulls have a flat face, with thick, jutting brows above enlarged eye sockets. There’s a strange ridge on the dorsal side, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The biologist, Sokolov, is similarly baffled. He’s particularly interested in it’s neurocranium, the brain-case, saying it’s extraordinarily large. His hypothesis is that these creatures are from the beginning of humankind, when the ancestral tree split off leaving the lesser species to die, around 4,000 years ago. Let him have his fun, it’s none of my concern. My business concerns what was found in the largest chamber; more of the specimens found by that gypsy. Unlike the initial specimen, (Henceforward referred to as Subject Anton) these additional specimens have rough edges, almost as they were a larger piece that broke or shattered. They seem to fit together, but not well, like a broken piece of wood. If you put them all together you’d have a misshapen mound, perhaps a meter high, perhaps three meters across. Each has a similar glyph upon it, one each, sometimes repeated multiple times upon the same specimen. The soldiers who had contact with the specimens have started to report the same symptoms the geologist, Dr. Gannibal, suffered at the beginning of his exposure to them. Nightmares, fainting spells, alternating bouts of insomnia and narcolepsy. They’ve been placed on rest duty, at least for the time being. Speaking of Gannibal, his…altered mental state seems to have give him some knowledge of what occurred here. He says that long ago, a race of ancient inhuman beings, the Alran, made contact with beings from higher planes. It appears some sort of ascension took place, as some Alrimites were left behind, abandoned and alone, given no other choice but to attempt to reconvene with these Great Ancients. These Ancients are enticed by signs of higher thought, despite their unsympathetic nature. And so the abandoned Alrimites, in desperation, secured themselves to the one-armed crucifixes found in the cave in hope that the resulting right triangle would be proof enough of intelligence worthy of coaxing back the Great Ancients. Evidently, it was not. I would dismiss it as nonsense, if not for the fact that there was no way for him to know of the expedition, yet he knew of it anyway. Just what I needed, on top of everything else. The soldiers which were exposed to the sludge within the cave needed to be quarantined, it is too late for them anyway. Better to sedate them than have them conscious and lucid. A small mercy, I suppose. Soon enough they’ll be like that gypsy; bowed legs, hunched back, arms twisted and pulled until they hang down at the knees, fingers elongating as the bone pushes through gangrenous flesh, forming claws like knives. I am no coward. I am a patriot, and I will follow my orders to my own death for the sake of the Motherland. I am no coward. But those things, with their jaws hanging open, sharpened teeth in rows like a shark, eyes blackened and filled with blood, darkness flowing from bulging eye sockets like cracks in a dam...they make me uneasy. And we know for a fact that gypsies had been getting into the cave before we found it, soldiers encountering their twisted forms on patrol. Of course, the Red Army is no stranger to the use of overwhelming firepower. Kill them all on sight.