NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This thread is going to be about a small escort force attempting to fight a vital convoy through heavy enemy resistance. The escort force consists of two Franklin class cruisers, six Flying Dutchman Frigates, and four Nurse Shark Corvettes. The convoy consists of sixty merchant ships of various types. Enemy forces can consist of anything from submarines up to the occasional heavy cruiser. Players are needed for some of the escort vessels, enemy attackers, and merchant ships. The estimated time for the convoy to reach it's destination is two weeks. I will be taking the role of escort commander and anything not taken by someone else. Time period, 2010-2050. Information on the above ship classes can be found at this link. http://na.halberd.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=13

IC: Captain Brian MacLeod watched from the bridge of the USGS Werewolf as the last of the convoy formed up outside the harbor. It was a large vitally important convoy, but it was an indication of how hard pressed they'd been that the escort force for such a convoy was so small. MacLeod knew that the next couple of weeks could very well be the longest of his life.

OOC: Anytime people, the more the merrier.

CNS Rubicon, the first of her kind, and only one of the three of her kind that remained, floated on the surface of the ocean serenely, peacefully. The raised conning tower was silent, only one person gazing at the vastness of the ocean.

Captain Julianne Vansen looked at her ship, and the vast ocean. During the recent years, the wet navy of the Protectorate had been going thru a vast downsizing. The Space Fleet required immense amounts of personnel, and wet navy had only a small part of the purpose it once held. But Vansen was a wet navy skipper to the heart. No matter how much the people at the admiralty had attempted to coerse her, she had blatantly refused to be re-trained for space duty and take the command of a warship in space. She had stated that the Rubicon was her command as long as it was in one piece, and he loved the ship and the oceans that her ship sailed. She sighed at her so familiar thoughts and used the elevator to drop back to the bowels of the massive Nightingale-class Battlecarrier.

The bridge was relatively silent as she returned there. This particular patrol region was usually very calm so there was little need to maintain a high state of readiness. She walked to her command chair at the highest point in the entire bridge, and looked at the massive displays that covered a 160 degree arc of the forward portion of the bridge, nothing worth noting.

"Skipper?" The comms officer at the second tier of the bridge called thru the bridge intercom. The bridge was simply too large for shouting to work here.

"Yes Roger?" She asked.

"We have some intel that there is a Grimdale convoy about to depart from this harbor." The comms officer stated and one of the three large screens in the forward section of the bridge changed to a navigational map and a single harbor was flashing yellow in it.

"And?" She asked patiently?

"Ma'am, we are relatively close to the harbor, we could get there in three hours at max burn, and we have our instructions from the admiralty to assist on shipping lanes when possible. And we arent really needed anywhere else right now." The man answered politely.

Ofcourse Vansen had known their orders, she had simply waited for the Lieutenant to point out all the factors.

"Hmm, you have a point Lieutenant. Get a satlink connection up, i want a transmission sent to that convoy."

[code:1:6009248956]To: USGN (i assume your navy designation is USGN Grim? ) Convoy
From: Clairmont Navy Battlecarrier Rubicon, Captain Julianne Vansen commanding

Attention USGN Convoy, we have heard that you are about to ship out soon. We offer our assistance in protection of your convoy. We can reach your position in approximately three hours.[/code:1:6009248956]

Looking down at the message handed to him MacLeod sent a silent prayer heavenward. "Radioroom, get a message off, tell these people we accept their offer."


"TO CAPTAIN JULIANNE VANSEN, YOUR OFFER IS GREATLY APPRICIATED AND GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED, I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR JOINING OUR SCREEN."
CAPTAIN BRAIN MACLEOD, ESCORT COMMANDER

Below the surface, lurked a silent, efficient killer, the revolutionary Nuclear Attack Submarine, the Tsunami. A powerful weapon of warfare, the Tsunami was the first vessel of its class, having a total of 24 torpedo tubes and auto-loaders. Its sonar and radar were the best available, years beyond anything anyone else had...

Although it was the most powerful submarine to ever sail the seven seas, it did not belong to any nation... Intead it belonged to what many would term to as a psychopath... The owner of the Tsunami was none other than the engimatic owner of the of the wealthy Cala Electronics, Isaac Warton...

The Tsunami traveled swiftly through the seas, its powerful electronics masking its noises from any prying ears. In the bridge of the submarine, Commodore Alexander Vinson, sat quietly... His vessel, although the most powerful in the world, had to creep silently through the seas. Under orders from Isaac Warton to test out the Tsunami on live targets, Commodore Vinson reluctantly decided to choose his targets as the USGN convoy...

Now the powerful submarine, the NSSN-1 Tsunami was heading at 15 knots, silently trailing the convoy...

(OOC: You guys should be able to pick up something odd, but nothing concrete...)

Unbeknownst to Captain MacLeod, the Megalodon class submarine Tang had been assigned to provide indirect escort to the vital convoy. Coasting along in complete silence on her magnetic propulsion drive she trailed the convoy.

Captain Kane looked up as one of his sonar operators suddenyl put his hand to his headset. "Captain, we've picked something up, very faint, but it seems to be trailing the convoy."
"Any idea what it is?"
"Negative sir, it doesn't match anything in our records, but it's definately another sub of some type."
"Helm, plot an intercept course, torpedo room, warm up the fish in tubes three and five."

(OOC: Be careful... You technically should not be able to identify it as submarine, but more as a faint unidentified submerged contact)

The calmness of the sea broke as the massive gas-bubble of the supercavitating CNS Rubicon raced thru the depths of the ocean. Its two enormous hydrogen burning rocket thrusters gouted flames behind the ship as they propelled it forward.

The bridge had been manned to full strength as the ship had departed for the mission. Duty officers manned their posts, checking systems operability and readiness.

The middle one of the three main screens showed a navigational map with course projection and locations of contacts. The location of the USGN Convoy glowed as a blue blip with an ID text under it, and the icon of the Rubicon was allready quite close to it.

"ETA forty-three minutes Skipper." The helm officer reported thru the bridge intercom.

Captain Vansen smiled. The comms lieutenant had been a bit too pessimistic with the time estimate he had given, instead of three hours, the whole trip would have lasted about two and a half hours by the time the Rubicon arrived.

"Very good helm, keep the ride smooth." She responded.

Vansen glanced at the datascreen attached to the armrest of her command chair, the 23rd Sub-fighter squadron would soon be ready for launch. They would be providing a screen for the convoy as well as lead reconnaissance. Vansen opened up a comm channel to the Squadron CO of the 23rd.

"Commander, what is your status?" She questioned.

A few seconds passed before a youthly voice replied.

"We're taking our depletable munitions now and charging the fuel cells. I have briefed the squadron on the mission."

"Excellent Commander, i want you out there the second we come out of supercav."

"Acknowledged Skipper."

(OOC: Be careful... You technically should not be able to identify it as submarine, but more as a faint unidentified submerged contact)

OOC: Anything submerged moving fast enough to keep up with the convoy has to be a submarine my simple process of elimination.

"Captain, we have a contact coming in fast and noisy, it's a little early, but I think it might be those reinforcements."
MacLeod looked up from the most recently recieved estimates of enemy forces. "Good, when they join up, send them a welcome and assign them to watch our starboard flank, we're spread thin there."

As the battlecarrier dropped the supercav bubble and came within range of the convoy, she was greeted by the convoy escorts.

"Skipper, the USGN Escort force is welcoming us. They also have a post for us, apparently their starboard flank is stretched a bit thin." The comms lieutenant told Vansen thru the bridge intercom.

"Well, naturally we'll go where we are needed. Helm, bring us to the starboard flank of the convoy, dont get too close, give us some room to maneuver in that position." Vansen told the two helm officers who acknowledged.

The sleek lined hull of the massive submarine engaged its hydrajets and glided smoothly thru the water as it headed for the duty post assigned to it.

Vansen watched as her helm officers brought the Battlecarrier into position.

"Well executed helm." She told the two lieutenants.

"Comms, tell the Convoy Escort leader that we have seven squadrons of sub-fighters aboard, we could use them as an outer shell of defense."

(OOC: 15 knots is not that fast... Some whales can travel faster...)

The Tsunami continued to move at 15 knots, his forward torpedo tubes flooded and the torpodoes warmed up, but the outer doors closed.

On the bridge, Commodore Vinson sat uneasily on the bridge, slowly waiting for the Tsunami to get into position. Of course, he could always use the revolutionary Vortex 300-knot torpedoes, armed with a ton of explosives equal to a thousand tons of TNT, but he only had a limited number...

Suddenly, the sonar officer glanced up and said quietly, "We're picking up some of the escorts... We have a submarine up ahead... I think, they've flooded their tubes... I hear some whirling..."

"Damn't... They've detected us... Chief of the Watch, call silent battle stations," replied the Commodore.

"Aye, sir," replied the Chief of the Watch.

Within seconds, red lights came on all over the ship, indicating battle stations. Within three minutes, the entire boat was ready for submarine. Into the comm unit, Vinson called the torpedo room and asked, "Are the torpedoes ready?"

"Aye, sir... We have standard Mk-89 ready in tubes 1 through 18, Mk-93 nuclear torpedoes in tubes 19 through 24, and Vortex torpedoes ready in the special outside tubes..."

"Good... I want the outer doors open on tubes 1 through 4 and 19 and 20."

"Aye, sir..."

Within seconds, the outer doors of the six torpedo tubes opened...

OOC: I've read that series! Michael DiMercurio right?

IC: "Captain, confirmed submerged contact! Transient, transient! Confirmed torpedo doors opening, I think they're lining up for a shot on the convoy."
"All hands, battlestations, sonar go active, snap shots, tubes three and five, all ahead emergency flank, prep decoys and counter measures, prepare the powerplant for an emergency pulse, fire three, fire five, helm, hard starboard, take us deep."
A pair of Mark 87 torpedoes, each loaded with 700lbs of plastic explosives, lept from the tubes, their pulse jets accelerating them to over 200kts, from only half a mile astern of the target as the Tang's active sonar suddenly went active, hammering the enemy sub's hull with deafening waves of sound. Working up to close to ninety knots the Tang dove deep, seeking the shelter of the depths.

On the surface the screening ships suddenly came alive as their crews raced to battlestations, their sonarmen alerted by the noise of the Tang's active sonar.

NSSN-1 Tsunami--0945 hours

Commodore Vinson cursed when he heard the submerged contact go active. Within seconds, the sonar officer reported in and said, "Commodore, positive identification of Sierra 29 as a Grimdale Megalodon Class SSN... Sir... It's fired two torpedoes... They've accelerated to 200 knots..."

"Damn bastard... Fire tubes 1-3 at that sonuvabitch, tube 19 at the incoming torpodes, and tubes 4 and 20 at the convoy..."

"Aye sir... Torpedoes Away!"

The Tsunami shuddered when the six torpedoes were launched. Within seconds they had accelerated to 200+ knots... Three Mk 89s were heaidng for the Megalodon, one Mk 93 was heading for the incoming torpedoes, and one Mk 89 and one Mk 93 was heading for the convoy.

"I want evasive action! Helm, right full rudder, flank speed!"

"Aye sir, right full rudder, flank..."

Suddenly, the Tsunami accelerated to 98 knots as it made a turn to starboard, its propellors churning swiftly...

"Countermeasures, convert our signature to that of a Megalodon... That should fool the suckers for a bit..."

"Acknowledged... Attempting to mask..."

Slowly, to the listener, the sound of the Tsunami seemed to change to that of a Grimdale Megalodon Class SSN, fooling some, but not all...

IC: The surface ships began firing off decoys and launching anti-torpedo torpedos, the sea erupted in a brief flurry of spray as the defensive measures eliminated the incoming torpedoes. ASROC launchers aimed outward and four torpedoes splashed into the water above the Tsunami and began pinging madly as they chased after her.

The Tang dove madly for safety.
"Blow all ballast, maintain maximum down angle, emergency hard starboard. Fire decoys."
The Tang continued it's downward spiral, fighting against the sudden loss of weight from it's ballest tanks, above and behind it a massive vertical column of air bubbles loaded with decoys filled the sea. A trio of tightly spaced explosions shook the sea as the incoming torpedoes detonated upon hitting the air column.

"Cease blow, rig for ultra quiet."
"Captain, I'm picking up what sounds like another Megalodon from the bearing that hostile sub was last on."
"Not possible, we're the only Megalodon within five hundred miles."
"You're right sir, it's sound signature doesn't specifically match any of our subs."
"Some kind of sound manipulation device then. Fire tubes one, two, and four on wire guidance."
"Firing, wires are holding."

OOC: That's nine torps in the water after you now.

(OOC: If you try to eliminate a nuclear torpedo, you're gonna get a massive explosion, that will damage several of your ships.... And unless your torpedoes have good enough systems, in reality they won't be able to intercept torpedoes going some 200 knots... I'll post something later...)

OOC: I know I'm gonna be severly outclassed here, but why not...?

IC:

Ryan 'Dallas' Jones watched as Devon Smith, also known as Big D, piloted teh Zeplin towards the Grimdale Convoy. The Coolidge class light escort zeplin moved quietly through the air, and Zane flew escort for the escort. His Hughes P21-JMkIII followed closely to the zep.

The Tornado G450 engine of the Devestator, the designation for the P21-J pushed the fighter through the air towards the convoy. The group of fighters behind him, four in all, were part of the Ropers, a pirate group that had most of its operations in the Confederated States of Dixie, sanctioned by The Republic of Texas. The pirates all came from the Republic Of Texas or the Protectorate of Oklahoma. Dallas was the leader.

He hoped that one day the Roperswould hold the same reputation as The Fortune Hunters, the premire pirate group. Ryan himself to be known as the next Nathan Zachary. And to do so, he had to act like him, including the whole assisting those in the right who were being wronged.

They had volunteered to help the Grimdale, and were now a few miles out. Big D, the pilot of the zep, radioed the pilots in the air, notign that he could see the convoy. 'Dallas' Jones radioed the convoy, telling them that the Ropers were here to help.

(OOC: If you try to eliminate a nuclear torpedo, you're gonna get a massive explosion, that will damage several of your ships.... And unless your torpedoes have good enough systems, in reality they won't be able to intercept torpedoes going some 200 knots... I'll post something later...)

OOC: Nuclear weapons need to go through a complex arming sequence before they can detonate, otherwise what happens is radioactive material simply gets scattered. And just a note for future reference, I prefer to keep WMD out of my RPs.
As for my anti-torpedo torpedoes, they're basically engines and a sensor system, they rely on sheer kinetic impact to destroy their targets.

(OOC: If its kinetic force that your anti-torpedo torpedo, then, the torpedo casing for the nuclear torpedo is strong enough to withstand a blow, unless your torpedo can accelerate beyond 200 knots...)

(OOC: If its kinetic force that your anti-torpedo torpedo, then, the torpedo casing for the nuclear torpedo is strong enough to withstand a blow, unless your torpedo can accelerate beyond 200 knots...)

Anti-torpedo torpedos, small, and very fast, designed specifically to defend against this type of threat.

OOC: Ok, Im up fo some of this, and since we allready have a Near future tech sub on the good guys side..

IC:
Leam Forrester slouched idly in his command chair, chewing non-comitally on a sandwich the galley had sent up. He was looking at the HUD overlay on the main bridge view screens, the XIDAR (X ray laser LIDAR) had built up a greyscale realtime image of the surounding enviroment, and Leam had been watching the happenings on and near the surface. All the time, the massive pirate capitol ship Wave Wraith (http://www.geocities.com/bishoplotus/anamecha6wavewraith) sat quite and hidden in a deep ravine on the sea floor.

"Sensors, do we have any more developments on that dd acoustic signature we picked up earlier?"

A small man wearing pirate leathers over his Aqua Stll Suit turned to face the captain

"No sir, all we know is it was a definate super cavitation signature of something very large."

Leam leaned foreward as he finished off the sandwich

"With that amount of protection there MUST be something worthwhile on those cargo shis.."

He grinned, it had been his idea to stray out of ANA border territory and into the Unknown, it seemed his gamble was bearing fruit.

"Get the Subfighter pilots to their stations, Helm, bring us on a slow circular track out of here and into a tailing position behind that convoy."

Slowely the massive sub eased silently out of the ravine, its MHD turbines quitely thrusting its huge form along its chosen path.

OOC: Sorry Grimdale for the lack of participation, the forums have been their usual bitch for me again.

IC:

"Bring us about, ninety degrees starboard! Load starboard tubes six thru ten with Shrike-A/1!" Captain Vansen shouted orders to her bridge crew as the heat of combat started.

The status of the Battlecarrier immidietly changed to full combat readiness and the starboard tubes that had been tasked for firing showed green.

"Tubes loaded, flooded and outer doors open Captain!" The tactical officer shouted from his station, a mere five meters away.

"Fire!"

Gouts of bubbles were exhausted from the tubes as pressurized air propelled the torpedoes out from the tubes, far enough for their internal hydrogen burning rocket thrusters to light up. Five supercavitating torpedoes were in the water, accelerating to their max velocity of over seven hundred knots and heading for their prey. Each of the torpedoes carried three hundred kilograms of heavy composite explosives. Enough to rip apart a traditional steel hull like a tin can.

"Bridge to VF-34, are you ready for launch?" Vansen questioned the Commander of Subfighter squadron Victor-Foxtrot 34.

"Roger that captain, we got our ordnance loaded and are ready to rock and roll." The voice of the Commander replied cheerfully.

"Then launch. And good hunting."

The under-belly heavy hangar doors of the battlecarrier opened, as the ship prepared to launch subfighters. Inside the hangars was several meters of water, so that subfighters could be launched while sub-merged and they could be moved and retrieved more easilly when inside, moon pools they were called.

Six shapes, vaguely resembling athmospheric fighters exited thru the opened hangar doors and to the vast ocean. Water distorted heavully behind them as they engaged their heavy hydrajet engines and shot forward towards their enemy.

The sensor man turned once more to Leam,

"Sir! Im registering subfighters and super cavitating weapons in the water!"

Pirate Commander Forrester raised an eyebrow in suprise

"Very well, weapons, I want suders (a torpedo designed to flood an area with a form of detergent that breaks down the surface tension that holds super cavitating bubbles together) loaded, arm tubes one to four and get some of our boys in the water, I want a screen up incase those subfighters see us. Helm, plot in a course to bring us nt othe baffles of the Sub Carrier!"

From bays alongside the roundel section of the Pirate Sub three groups of five each subfighters launched, two groups of Harassers (http://www.geocities.com/bishoplotus/anamecha6harasser) and one group of Hunters (http://www.geocities.com/bishoplotus/anamecha6hunter)

Leam turned to te weapons command console again.

"And cycle up the spercav cannons, I want both point defense and assault online!"

"Captain, sub fighters in the water, several from the Rubicon, we're also picking up several unknown fighters launching from the sea bed."
"Initiate active camouflage, Helm move to place us between the convoy and the hostiles, maximum flank. Weaps, load tubes one through six with Scatters, comms, warn the convoy."

The Tang simmered for a moment before suddenly vanishing from the visible spectrum, now both silent and invisible, only her minimal magnetic field betrayed her presence.

The Tsunami easily evaded the numerous torpedoes following it with its extensive and futuristic electronics equipment. As the battle was joined once more below the waves, the Tsunami quietly moved to a position north of the convoy, intent upon taking it by surprise...

A desperate call for assistance from the Werewolf was finally answered with the arrival of four P-34 Pelican anti-submarine aircraft.

Leam warned his helms officer

"Make sure you keep close to the sea floor.."

A rather confused sensor operator called over his shoulder.

"Sir.. one of the contacts has... well, done something funny.."

Leam raised both eyebrows and motioned with one hand for the man to continue.

"Its completely dissapeared from our Blue Green Lidar... we still have a very hazy intermittent contact on the X ray Millimeter wave Lidar.. but thats it.."

Leams brows knitted and he thought for a second before giving an order.

"Sensors, dedicate one of our arrays to trying to keep track of it.. in the meantime, order one of the Harrasser squadrons to move to its position and find out its intentions.."

One of the crimson red light subfighter squadrons peels off and makes heading towards the intermittent contact, the remaining two squadrons, one light and one medium head towards the opposing subfighters.

Captain Vansen grunted in dissatisfaction as the torpedoes missed their mark. The enemy had used EW to fool the torpedoes, but luckily, such things as adaptive targeting and aquiring system had been developed. The ATAS system analyzed the ECM the enemy had used, and automatically executed configurations to the torpedo seeking and targeting parameters, making them far more likely to stay on target.

"Dont lose them! Use the RD's to keep track of their position" Vansen instructed.

The underwater reconnaissance drones attempted to form an interlinked web of detection platforms to triangulate the position of the enemy. Their hyper-sensitive passive sonar systems sought out for the noise that the enemy was creating atleast in some magnitudes, as well as tracked the electro-magnetic spectrum for emissions.

As a result, they were able to pinpoint the position of the enemy with satisfactory accuracy, but hardly well enough to fight very effectively. In the mean time, the contact marks of incoming sub-fighters were closing in on VF-34. The hostiles outnumbered the six Chimaera sub-fighters, but Vansen had many many more that she could send out, which she did.

"Launch the 36th, 42nd and 57th." Vansen ordered.

More sub-fighters began to exit the hangar of the Rubicon. One more squadron of Chimaera's, but the remaining two were Raptor squadrons. The most maneuverable sub-fighter the Protectorate had. The eighteen additional subfighters joined their fellows that had allready exited and prepared for hostile contact.

As the lead squadron, the light Harrasser class subfighters got close to their area of engagement, Squadron Leader Krakov noticed the trails of bubbles and pings from his LIDAR.

"Oh S**t"

A hurried tightbeam transmission to the Wave Wraith was sent off.

On the Bridge Leam nodded.

"Send back, Engage the targets, as defensively as possible, then at my given command break and run for the Ravines on the sea bed. End transmission"

He peers at a digital map of the sea floor, his finger stabbing at several locations.

"I want Sea Cat Squadron and Jailbreaker squadron at these locations in the ravine, have two Hunter squadrons at these locations, here and here.. and I wnat one of those Hunters to go through the ravine and seed it with Suder mines, something gives me a sneaky suspicion those fighters are cavitators."

Back at the lead subfighter, squadron leader Krakov was still swearing at the communications readout after the last transmission.

So far it seemed good, there was no indication that the hostiles had detected the three matte black shapes. The Rubicon had launched three additional squadrons to support the VF-34, but, only a minute after the last subfighter of the reinforcement squadrons had launched, yet three additional shapes had exited the hangars. But these were different than the ones that had allready been launched.

Akira Manta-Ray's, stealth sub-fighters. Captain Vansen had figured that the four squadrons out in the sea could use some reconnaissance and if things went bad, some covert support. So, she had decided to deploy three of her nine Akira's.

The Manta-Ray's were small, a mere twelve meters in length and massing only a small portion of that what the larger sub-fighters did. The entire craft was coated with multiple layers of materials which's purpose was to bend and deflect emissions used for detection, such as LIDAR, as well as make the vessel move as smoothly as humanly possible in water. The hydrajet engines were small and their design such that their wake was abysmal. The fighter yet carried such sophisticated systems such as thermal masker which basically attempted to match the fighters outer temperature with the surrounding ocean as much as possible, as well as an electronic warfare package that could be used for a whole plethora of different tasks.

But all those capabilities came with a price. The combat capabilities of the Manta Ray were very limited, it didnt have a high operational range and it was relatively fragile compared to the other subfighters. But for this task, the Akira Manta-Ray was the perfect tool.

The three sleek-lined figures stood absolutely silently in the depths of the ocean, observing the hostile contacts more closely.

OOC: um.. hello? this thread taking a break?

OOC: Sorry, this thread disappered from my list and I thought it had been eaten by the forum. Only just found it again.

IC: "Captain, more hostile subfighters launching, the Rubicon's fighters appear to be heavily outnumbered."
Kane glared at the small holographic display a combination of sonar and bluelight underwater lasers produced. "Helm, intercept course for the hostile fighters, bearing 273, down angle fifteen degrees, Emergency Flank speed ahead!"

Like a charging bull elephant the Tang tore down on her miniscule opponents.

"Kill camouflage, torpedo room, maximum fire on all tubes, half scatters, half standard. Sonar, go active, lash them. All hands, brace for impact!"

The Tang's camouflage rippled away as she opened fire, less than half of a mile from the first group of enemy subfighters, her bow pointed straight at the center of not just their formation, but the following formations. At a rate of once every four seconds torpedoes lept from her forward tubes, half of them scatter torpedoes, designed to break into eight smaller torpedoes. Her sonar lashed out at full power, deafeningly audible to those in her path right through their hulls. Nailed to an invisible rail by her Captain, she rushed through the enemy formation on the heels of her torpedoes and aimed right for the next group, physically slamming aside anything that got in her path.

The squadron of five Harrassers that had been sent ot investigate the disapearing sub were taken by suprise as the Tang rippled back into exitance, heading for them at flank speed and spitting torpedoes. One Harrasser didn't even know wat hit him as a solid anti ship torpedo detonated against his nose, fragmenting the light fighter in an instant of bubbles and carnage. The other four Harrassers jinked and swerved out of the way leaving a storm of bubbling countermeasures in their wake.

The squadron leader made a leathal mistake, having powered his craft up and over the front of the Tang he was looking back to take stock of the situation, and therefore failed to notice the conning tower that collided with his fighter, almost bending it in two as it wrapped around the submarines sail.

The remainig three were left a little disorientated in the wake of the passing submarine as the pilots tuned down the supressors on their helmets, trying to block out the God aweful noise.

(The other squadrons are quite far away since this one was sent to specially investigate the Tang)

The helmsman watched as the needle on the Tang's pitometer, pushed on by the dive and the full unrestrained power of her redlined engines, passed 95kts, 100kts, stopped against the block, and then began to bend just as a loud crash came from overhead, shaking the sub. A pipe overhead burst and began spraying water before one of the sonar techs managed to shut the valve. Her reinforced sail, designed for bursting through heavy icepack impacted a little at the collision but refused to give. A section of the sea bottom flashed orange in Captain Kane's hologram, indicating that something didn't match the sea bottom topography recorded in the Tang's databanks. Cross referencing it with the estimated bearing from which the unknown fighters were emerging Kane bared his teeth in a wolf's grin.

"Torpedo room, this is the Captain, maintain fire, but save a full load of standard torpedoes, we're going to give this bastard a full salvo of fish right in his face."

"This is the engine room, Captain, I don't know how much longer she can take this, we're getting some massive flux from the power plant, and she’s going to burst herself if we keep this up."
"Just hold her together for a few more minutes Chief, we've got to scatter the remaining fighters to give the Rubicon's fighters some juicy targets and finish the big one off before we stop."
"Understood Captain, we'll hold her together somehow."

Seeing their chance, the twenty four subfighters shot forward at their maximum combat velocity attainable with their hydrajets. Streaks of disturbance ran thru the water as the subfighters raced forward towards their prey.

Lieutenant Erin Wellis glanced at her sensor read-outs. They had good fixes on the positions of the enemy subfighters. She selected a V-135 Torpedo from her armament inventory. A smaller version of the V-134 Shrike, the V-135 was a high-maneuverability supercavitating torpedo. Smaller in size than its big brother and with lesser payload and range, it was faster and more maneuverable, specifically designed for handling other subfighters or small underwater targets.

Her weapons control system sought out a target and the satisfying lock-on sound came from her helmet speakers as the weapon found its target. The range was still a bit long but the V-135's were fast, it wouldnt take them long to cover the distance.

"Weapons free, weapons free!" The command of the Squadron leader came thru the squadron comms net and Lieutenant Wellis pressed her trigger.

A single slick shape shot out from the Raptor subfighters weapons bay at high speed and engaged its rocket engine. The powerfull but short burning rocket began accelerating the torpedo extremely rapidly and the clear trail left behind by the torpedo streaked towards its target. Alongside that torpedo, twenty-three similar torpedoes were moving towards their targets.

"Launch decoys and engage ECM in deception mode!" Came another command thru the squadron net and Wellis obliged. Selecting one of her two decoys, and launching it. The rest of the subfighters followed suite. The decoys basically mimicked the emissions and sounds that the Chimaeras and Raptors were creating, essentially making it look like there were four dozen subfighters out in the water instead of two dozen. At the same time, every single subfighter in the strike force engaged its ECM.

And they raced on, towards the enemy in the wake of the decoys.

OOC: Looks around "Where have all the other bad guys gone?"

IC:

On the Waith Wraith bridge the sensor operator shouted out over her shoulder.

"Sir! I've got that intermitent contact down strong!"

Leam looked up

"Our array finaly lock it down?"

"No sir.. it pretty much announced itself to the world. and.. and Sir.. its coming this way at high speed!"

Leams eyes opened a fraction wider

"Ok, this should be interesting.. Weapons, cycle up the Supercav Cannons, and Helm, be ready to give me 120 percent on my mark.. at that speed her manouvering must be cut down something.. AND GET THE REST OF THOSE FIGHTERS IN THE WATER!!"

On the Wave Wraiths hull two large turrets turned to point at the incoming Tang, the two 200mm supercav Railguns in each humming with stored electrical power, other smaller phalanx like turrets cycled through their supercav gatlings, sensor tracking the surrounding water for hostile targets. From the roundel the remaining two heavy Subfighter squadrons speared out of their bays.

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Behind the Tang, the three remaining Harrasser Subfighters regained control and streaked after her, their MHD turbines sqealing in protest as they kept up, each fighter unloading its four mini torpedoes and lashing out with their light cavitator cannos, trying to hit engines , manouvering, anything..

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The ten fighter engaging the Rubicons subfighters didn't give a damn if their were 24 or 48 enemies, overmatched was overmatched, and Krakov had allready had enough, flicking a switch Krakov gave a predetermined order, and as one all ten subfighters released a cloud of decoys, then unloaded all their torpedoes, 140 in all, but these were Pirate manufactured and hat limited guidance at best. Hoping the decoys would take care of the incoming torpedoes and praying that by sheer numbers some of the torps would strike hom on the opposing subfighters, Krakov didn't wait to see what happened as he spun his fighter around and slammed the throttle foreward, aiming for the ravine.
Behind him, two of his squadron were to slow, or to eager, and didn't turn in time, and ended up being struck by several of the V-135 torpedoes, their now shattered hulls adding to the mess created by the decoys.

*A passing dolphin releases a supercavitating BUMP*

"Captain, sensors are reading a massive magnetic surge ahead of us, I think it's from that enemy sub, multiple torpedoes, inbound from aft!"

"All Hands, standby for pulse." Captain Kane flipped up a plastic cover and mashed down the button that was underneath. Every system on the Tang suddenly shut down in self preservation as the Tang's magnetic bottle released an incredibly powerful EMP burst that would disable anything electronic within several miles.

The Wave Wraith, with the majority of her computer systems all being optical based wasn't that badly hit, but the pulse had struck in some ways.

on the bridge a worried systems officer looked up from his console.

"Commander! all the electric based systems have just lost their charge! the capacitors holding the energy for the main cannons have just disharged, we have no firing vectors for them."

Leam swore a blue streak.

"Ok, get those things powered up, I want the cannons ready to fire ASAP, and maintain target tracking!
If that sub has just released an Emp pulse, its probably taken her sensors offline, Helm, give me that power NOW, set a course at a diagonal from ours, then recurve, I want that sub in firing arc when the turrets come back online.."

The weapons officer turned

"There is one good thing sir, that pulse took out all hostile inbound weapons.."

"Allways a silver lining, thanks Weapons, while your at it, prime two Vogel Hunter Torpedoes, and send them at an oblique angel to intercept."

Twin tubes on the underside of the Waive Wraith ejected two large torps that fired up their MHD engines and swerved onto their alloted course.

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The subfighters following the Tang didn't fair so well, yes, their computer systems were optical but some of the control systems on the 'cheap to produce' Pirate fighters were not, as a result the three fighters were locked into their trajectory, thrusting forewards at maximum plus velocity.
One slammed into the rear of the Tang, the other two passed by on both sides, the pirate pilots franticaly pulling the 'reboot' switches.
The torpedos they had launched earlier being simple gyro controled units stayed on course, unfortunately their arming mechanisms were electrical, and being this close to the Pulse died instantly, making all the warheads duds.

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The ten subfighters streaking away from the Rubicons fighters didn't care that their manouvering systems had been locked into 'foreward, engines full', anything that helped them get away from the incoming torpedo storm was good for them. Those that noticed started flicking the reboot switches, the three light fighter pilots that didn't notice, and didn't pull the switches had allready doomed themselves to a crushing death as their fighters would plow into the side of the ravine.

Menawhile in the ravine the ambush squadrons franticaly tryed to regain control as they sunk, their manouvering systems temporarily offline.

A hit from somewhere aft rocked the Tang, still moving on momentum, as lights and systems gradually came back on.
"Damage report."
"The usual after a pulse sir, several of the primary systems have been knocked out, secondaries are coming up, something hit us from the rear, compartment thirty-five reports they've got a good sized dent in the ceiling and the Chief is advising we not push much past test depth until we can ascertain how much damage was done to the pressure hull. Also our cloaking system is toast until we can get a new layer applied. Otherwise we should be fully functional in a few seconds sir."

"Good, status report on the targets."
"All the sub fighters appear to have gone ballistic, and the main target, now designated Alpha Three is attempting to manuver for a shot, CIC computer reports that the enemy submarine mounts some kind of underwater cannon, 57% probability it's a magnetic accelerator of some sort. Hostiles in the water, two torpedoes inbound."
"Fire counter torpedoes, Helm, intercept course for Alpha Three, get us under the firing arc of those cannons. We'll hit her from below."

The Tang, once again under power, continued driving towards the sea bottom as a quartet of counter torpedoes ripped out towards the incoming torpedoes.

OOC: I shall wait for other players replies before posting.

OOC: Sounds good.

(OOC: Hold on a second, who is on whose side?)

Lieutenant Wellis swallowed a lump in her throat as her threat indicators lighted up and the sensors painted the incoming torpedoes to her screen. Hundred and forty total, nearly six times more than what the six squadrons from Rubicon had launched. The enemy subfighters must have emptied their entire payloads.

The computers on her Raptor analyzed the missile target seeking patterns carefully and her ECM adapted to provide the most efficient jamming against the torpedoes in question. The decoys ahead of the real subfighters sent out their seductive emissions, and with them being quite a bit ahead of the real subfighters from the Rubicon, many of the incoming torpedoes were sucked in on the decoys. But not all, and against those the ECM of the subfighters went to work and they commenced evasive maneuvers. The seekers on these torpedoes seemed to be a bit on the crappy side Wellis noted as her computer fed data regarding the incoming torpedoes to her screen.

The amount of torpedoes had been massively reduced by the time they got thru both the decoys and ECM of the subfighters, now the only defenses left were evasive maneuvers and interception fire with the supercav cannons of the subfighters. Raptors used their vectored thrust capability to their full extent, executing insane seeming maneuvers underwater with trails of supercav rounds going out towards the torpedoes. A few torpedoes were caught by a 20mm supercavitating round and they detonated, more simply missed due to a rapid evasive maneuver in the part of their target and lost their lock. But five got close enough to detonate. Three Chimaera's and a single Raptor disappeared to an detonation and the ensuing pressure wave and were shattered as the torpedoes practically detonated on hull contact, one more Raptor was more lucky and survived since the torpedo had detonated further away but it had gotten hurt badly enough to return back to the Rubicon. The combat power of the subfighter force had been effectively reduced by almost one fifth.

But now it was time to strike back, due to the torpedoes, the primary subfighter element couldnt realistically catch the fleeing enemy subfighters anymore, but the three Akira Manta-Ray's had been following the bogies closely for the whole time.

The three matte black shapes approached the fleeing enemy subfighters in an intercepting vector. Their launch bay tubes opened and each of them launched two V-135 torpedoes. The range was very low, with the torpedoes having to travel a mere six seconds to reach their targets. But the Manta Ray's had no intention of peeling off after firing the torpedoes. They armed their supercavitating cannons, their plan to quickly slash thru the enemy formation, firing their cannons on targets of opportunity and then fleeing as quickly as possible.


Meanwhile, the massive battlecarrier Rubicon was allready vectoring towards the known position of the enemy capital ship.

"Arm point-defense batteries and load fore tubes one thru fourteen." Captain Vansen ordered calmly as the battlecarrier headed towards the enemy.

OOC:

5CN: Im protecting Grimdale's convoy and Aqua Nation Atlantica is attacking it as are you if im not mistaken.

OOC: Clairmont, I was wanting to know what effect the EMP pulse had had on you. if any! (I seem to remember the Angelus class supercav carrier being resistant)

OOC: erk. this might cause a problem ,I will be going away for two weeks, and unlike i hoped, the place Im going to does not look like it has internet access..