Submitted by MatgamarraAlt3 t3_11g8n3r in nosleep

This happened even before Gorbachev took power. The first ones to find it were workers from an oil platform located far from everything in the northern Pacific Ocean. While digging in the ocean floor, they discovered a very unusual trench, filled with rocky formations none of their specialists recognized. Several geographers were called by the Bashfnet to the location, for they needed to know if drilling there was dangerous. But no one was able to decipher which mineral that was. That is, until a biologist analyzed the samples. The results were surprising. Those weren’t rocks. Taller than the Ostankino Tower, those were the largest fossilized teeth known to mankind.

The Politburo didn’t want the West to discover what they had found, so even if the Iron Curtain was still strict, the general population could not be informed. I never knew exactly what they wanted to do with that fossil. Resurrection? cloning? Trying to find an ancient virus to create Bio-Weapons? Announce to the world they had discovered a never seen before super-organism by themselves? I didn’t know, and frankly, I didn’t want to. I wasn’t paid to make questions. In fact, I was just a radar operator. Most of the information I’ve shared until now was acquired via eavesdropping. As I said, the Politburo was not interested in letting many people know. A handpicked group of researchers was chosen to investigate further. I was not one of the scientists, but I was a member of the submarine used to accommodate them.

Preliminary surveys by the Red Fleet revealed that there were a total of fifty-seven tooth, in an irregular circumference of almost forty kilometers. Between the teeth, the sonars found there was a large trench, which appeared to be much deeper than Mariana’s. None of us dared to say it out loud yet, but we knew that was a maw. Traces of the largest living being ever found on Earth. I don’t know which of us started it, but we started calling it the Maw of God.

Our submarine, the Zukhov-19, was completely reformed to become a mobile laboratory to the scientists that we would take to the depths of the ocean. Biological, geographical, mineral, that vessel could do all the analysis one could think of. Nearly all weapons were removed to make way for their equipment. The Zukhov-19 crew went from thirty to forty-six. Fifteen of the smartest scientists of the Union, and a KGB official.

And then, we started descending. We kept going low and lower for days. Of course, everything was very slow. For every hundred meters or so, the researchers would put on their fancy diving suits and go out to collect samples. Or at least it was like that in the beginning. Soon, they started getting bored, and even claustrophobic. Submarines are not for everyone, that is a fact. And also, discovering the teeth and the gigantic esophagus of the monster was hundreds of millions of years old was fun for the first time, but the tests promptly became repetitive.

After two weeks, it began. First with the scientists, but soon all of us were having it. Nightmares, night terrors, intrusive thoughts, hallucinations. An enormous, alien, terrible creature, that had been dead for a long time, but was sensing us, and hoping we would bring it back to life. We stopped sleeping, we started getting angry, depressive or anxious. Some of us knew the Maw was responsible, somehow. The KGB officer was the one who resisted it the most. She said the Politburo had ordered the mission could only stop once we reached the very end of the trench, or the deepest we could go without the submarine being destroyed by the pressure. We had rations for months, and water-filtering machines, apart from sewage “disposal”. The submarine was nuclear-powered, so we didn’t have to worry about energy or fuel.

After three weeks, the scientists had completely stopped going out to collect samples. They just wanted to get back to the surface. But it looked like the creature didn’t want us to leave. I calculated the depth we had descended to in secret. It didn’t make sense. We had gone down more than twenty-kilometers. The submarine should have been splattered at that point. But what could we do? Tell the KGB officer? She would have us declared crazy. Anyone that even mentioned going back to the surface was harshly reprimanded.

After nearly two months, me and the original crew could not stand it any longer. We had not slept well for weeks at that point. We were not harmless scientists. She could have the authority, but we were more numerous. We broke into her cabin during the night, but she was awake, and saw us. The officer confessed, in tears, that she was also having the psychological effects, but dreaded telling the Politburo she’d failed. I told her we could help her fraud the reports, tell the higher-ups we had found the bottom.

To our surprise, we reached the teeth, that we had not seen for months, after merely a day going up. And then, we could not go above them. There was solid material blocking our path. The Maw had sealed us in. Luckily, the Zukhov-19 had discarded most of it’s weapons, but not all. We used a torpedo to blow our way out of the Maw.

Analysis of the submarine’s materials revealed they had been compromised by an impossibly-strong acid. Like if it had been submerged on it for weeks. Four more days, and the walls of the Zukhov-19 would have let the acid and pressure in.

I know that, after all the events, the KGB officer had a talk with the Politburo, and the place was used for nuclear testing not long after. Not many who know about the Maw remain. The dreams never stopped… And not everyone was strong enough to withstand having night-terrors of being swallowed by the Maw of God.

Update

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Comments

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redstercoolpanda t1_japitsu wrote

doesn't sound like it was dead whatever it was, that missile probably gave the poor guy a killer tooth ache.

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vardigr t1_janf958 wrote

Be fascinating to see what's there now...

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_janfce7 wrote

I hope the bombs killed whatever it was

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frostdeity t1_jcfl3r5 wrote

You do not seem to comprehend how large a creature would have to be to have a maw 40 km in depth. Godzilla would be like a noodle for it. So i don't think bombs did any damage. We can just pray that it never awakens :/

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Vickyiam40 t1_jap0o3w wrote

Sounds like they were being digested. Lovely.

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jfksheadwound t1_jas0h12 wrote

In warhammer 40k there is an excerpt of tyranids(alien all consuming species) basically swallowing a observation post in space and the describes the process of digestion for them. It’s quite illuminating to something as simple as digestion.

For any 40k nerds I know I could explain better and more about it but this isn’t a 40k thread

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FaythKnight t1_jape8bs wrote

What if, it's just a really really big fish. The crew felt weird cause of all the pressure and stuff so the hallucinates.

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_jardj4l wrote

That doesn’t explain why the hallucinations never stopped

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FaythKnight t1_jarnm3r wrote

Well they did get swallowed by a really really big fish. I'll wet myself it I get that too. Probably till the next year or so.

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allaboutwanderlust t1_japqzwi wrote

I… don’t think it was dead in the first place

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ViaticLearner41 t1_jarmdlw wrote

Maybe the maw is proof that earth is a giant super organism. A "living" planet.

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[deleted] t1_japkujy wrote

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[deleted] t1_japrods wrote

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[deleted] t1_jaqt4jk wrote

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[deleted] t1_jaquake wrote

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[deleted] t1_jar6pq4 wrote

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[deleted] t1_jat1bzk wrote

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Jimbodoomface t1_jap39gm wrote

I wonder what it tastes like. I'd love to cook up some of those samples, pending tests for toxic chemicals, obviously. Was very disappointed to learn giant squid is inedible due to high concentration of ammonia in the flesh, but as the saying almost goes there's plenty more cryptids in the sea.

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Makomako_mako t1_japvu06 wrote

Not to sound rude but you may want to adapt your non-cyrillic spelling to the correct anglicized versions of things like Bashneft or Zhukov

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MotherDuderior t1_jap2bwj wrote

I hope somebody at some point said ,"I've got a bad feeling about this"!

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CalmWhisky t1_jar6vhc wrote

The Deep One sends their regards.

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Hades_Crow t1_jar6fyr wrote

If only it were still alive, unless, of course, it never died…

Hmmmm wonder what type of animal If an animal at all, or a new species of animal that does not fall in a category

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Madman_writing t1_jasyshj wrote

OP, Kindly report to site 300, Krasnoyarsk Krai, we can make the dreams go away!!

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Citrus210 t1_jaq1b7p wrote

We're you down there for two months or four days?

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_jaqply3 wrote

We stayed there for two months. We got our right in time. Four more days and we would die

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talyn5 t1_jar042x wrote

Charybdis?

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SSBMarkus t1_jare0h8 wrote

Please let us know if there are any follow ups!

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_jarej58 wrote

I don’t think anything else happened, this was many decades ago. But I have a cousin pretty high up in the navy. If this nonsense war doesn’t kill him I’ll ask him

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This-Is-Not-Nam t1_jav7p50 wrote

So you could see the teeth but you descended in a gap between the teeth? The gum line? And that gum line was deeper than the Marianas trench? Is that right? If not, could you please clarify? What class submarine was it? 26 km down? Yikes. Glad you got out.

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_javps4p wrote

The teeth were miles apart from each other, I think we descended into the mouth. It was open. But when we tried to leave, it closed and tried to trap us.

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This-Is-Not-Nam t1_jax030j wrote

Oh... thanks for that clarification. I was going to say that monster had some extremely deep gums. :) Do you remember what kind of sub it was? I grew up in the 80's during the cold war and learned about Soviet and USA subs.

I was thinking it was a Boomer (Typhoon class) but I don't know of any sub in the Russian (or any fleet) that could go down 24km. I think you said 24km? But if the mouth sealed up, maybe the pressure inside the cavity lessened once you entered and you were able to go so deep. Holy crap man, you describing the size of this thing in KM. I was thinking you could probably see it from space.....

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MatgamarraAlt3 OP t1_jax8x4p wrote

Somehow the creature was fooling us, we thought we were going deeper but I think we were actually very close to its mouth. We were using a modified and more compact version of the Typhoon Class, ours was smaller and didn’t have the capacity for carrying missiles, only underwater torpedoes. It was used mainly for recon missions. I think the KGB erased all records of its existence, since I couldn’t find anything about the Zhukov-19

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This-Is-Not-Nam t1_jaxg9nr wrote

Very cool! Do you think there will be follow up on this expedition? I'd love to read more about it! :)

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