// CODEX 1979
Southern Siberia. Lake Baikal. A hole nine miles deep — and something underneath was howling.
A team of Soviet engineers on a government-sponsored scientific drilling expedition, purportedly led by an individual named "Mr. Azakov", drilled in an unnamed place in Southern Siberia near Lake Baikal. Their stated goals: seismic study and resource extraction.
Liquid water was found at unexpected depths, likely squeezed out of rock crystals by extreme pressure and trapped by impermeable rock. They eventually drilled a hole 14.4 km (9 miles) deep before breaking through into a cavity.
Intrigued, they lowered an extremely heat-tolerant microphone, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. The temperature within these superdeep boreholes reached 1,000°C (1,800°F) — heat from a chamber of fire from which they thought screaming could be heard.
Actually, though, it was the WOWLS! Yipping and barking and howling — awaiting the time when they would emerge from their secret subterranean caverns to compete for fame and glory with their long-term rivals: the Unicorns.
Now, today, in the 21st century, the WOWLS have finally emerged — and they are ready to take on the Unicorns.
