The Horror from the Vault, or simply the Gestalt, is an ancient creature of unknown origin which attacked the United States following its release from an underground vault near the town of Alden. It is from the internet story of the same name by writer Isaac Boissonneau.
Origin[]
The origins of the Gestalt are unknown, as is the name of its species, if such a being can even be classified as such. For unknown reasons, and by unknown parties, the creature was contained within a tomb constructed of icy black stone, similar to Obsidian, but with microscopic strands of supercool liquid worked into its structure to prevent the creatures escape, as the cold is anathema to it. Within this Vault, restrained by the intense cold of the surrounding stone, it was locked away inside of a silver sarcophagus wrought in the image of a faceless ghoul, presumably the creatures natural form, with numerous depictions of its past atrocities inscribed upon the sides, presumably as a warning. There the Gestalt remained, entombed for countless centuries beneath the earth… until it was discovered once more, to the ill fortune of all.
The Vault was first re-discovered by a team of collage students and their professor whilst on a geological excursion. While initially enthusiastic about the discovery, tensions soon rose when the Sarcophagus was unearthed. Strange dreams began plaguing the research staff and the inhabitants of nearby Alden; nightmares depicting landscapes of living, bleeding flesh with skies of bruised skin, and a moon of rotten meat hovering above a sea of stagnant pus. These dreams began to cause severe psychological stress in some, causing many to become withdrawn and sullen.
The Sarcophagus was shortly opened, and the Horror made its discoverers its first meal, sparing only the traumatized Lori Summers; a student from the original excursion who had remained on to uncover the Vaults secrets. Shortly after, it began abducting townsfolk from Alden and its neighbor, Aiden, as well as capturing numerous animals. Using the gathered biological materials, the Gestalt began creating “scout forms” to seek out fresh prey; grafting the appendages and organs of multiple creatures into grotesque parodies of arachnids, snakes, and even mammals such as Bears and Wolves. The Gestalt itself remained safely hidden within its nest; a large bio-construct of flesh and bone with a pool of nutrient rich sludge at its heart, in which the Gestalt submerged itself between moldings.
Military action was taken shortly after a pair of policemen encountered the Gestalt, resulting in the death and assimilation of one officer and the permanent mental scarring of his partner. Attempts at combating the creature and its constructs in the conventional way were met with overwhelming failure, as the Gestalt responded to the fire bombing of its main nest by mutating itself and many of its constructs into airborne forms, concealing itself within the resultant cloud of ash. From there, the Gestalt began its attack in earnest; flying creatures simply referred to as “Flyers” were dispatched from its main mass to capture humans from towns below the cloud, carrying them up into the ash so that the Gestalt might feed upon them, or twist their flesh to its needs. Fire was discovered to be a catalyst for the creature; triggering random mutations to ensure the Gestalts continued existence. This adaptability proved instrumental in its conquest of mainland America, attacking such locations as the Panama Canal and even New York, where it can be assumed that a second attempt to firebomb the creature caused another mass mutation, ensuring the city’s total destruction in “The Burning of New York.”
The US was driven into regions where the Gestalt couldn’t survive in order to escape its onslaught; migrating much of the population that hadn’t been abducted and assimilated to Antarctica, where many lived in bunkers located deep below the surface in order to escape the cold. It is not known what the Gestalt does to territories it has conquered, but it can be assumed that it utilizes collected biomass to create further constructs, which then construct larger nests capable of producing much stronger creatures, ad-infinitum. The United States now belongs to the Gestalt, and it can be assumed that unless some manner of harnessing the cold to humanity’s advantage can be found, the Gestalt will continue to attack and conquer new areas; assimilating their animal and human populations into its collective biomass, forever enslaved to its terrible, alien will…