NationStates Jolt Archive

The PWS Gregorian drifted slightly off course. The Praetonian destroyer was returning from Belgium, it's paint scarred, a smoking hole in it's side, thanks to a SSM missile. Several of the crew had been killed, and the destroyer's radar was fried. Apart from a couple of missile batteries, the destroyer was defenseless, and ignorant of the the three ships coming in from it's side.

Crewman McKinely stood on deck, looking out at the sea. He'd served on the PWS Gregorian for two years, and knew the ship better than he knew himself. He sighed at the lovely view. Then something caught McKinely's eye. Looking off to his right, he saw two Praetonian Gunboats, and a destroyer exactly like the Gregorian. He was about to call one of the left tennants down when he saw the flags each ship beared, which was one no Praetonian had seen before. He watched the ships get closer and closer. He then watched all three ship's missile batteries turn to the Gregorian. McKinely stood there in horror. A cluster of missiles were launched. He watched as their spiralled toward the ships. He then realised they'd hit the posistion he was standing in. But he was too late...

The Gregorian rocked violently as the top right hand side of it was blown through. Klaxons blared throughout the ship as it began to sink. The one operational missile battery on the Gregorian whirred around, and found it's target. A missile shot out of the battery, and hit the enemy destroyer, creating a hole in the ship's side. The destroyer rocked slightly, but returned fire. The remaining missile battery was vapourised.

The ship was now half submerged, all the lower decks full of drowned crewmen and sea water. The gunboats, pulled up by the Gregorian, and harpoons were shot into the deck. Masked soldiers slid down the ropes, and landed on the deck. Getting weapons out similar to the AK rifle, they began to disperse. A few seconds later, gunshots resounded throughout the ship.

A few minutes later, the Praetorian flag was lowered off it's mast, and the masked soldiers returned to their gunboats. With them they had logs, papers neccessary to get them access to a Praetonian port, the Praetonian flag, and some supplies. The gunboats returned to their destroyer, and all the neccessary things were transferred. The destroyer took it's flag down, and the flag soon found itself floating on the water, while the Praetonian flag was raised.

Captain Mayhew smiled as he gunboats left the destroyer. Their illusion was complete, they could now begin phase one. Pulling his cap down, he clapsed his hands together.

"For Outer Heaven MK II, and Neo-Praetonia..."

Satisfied with himself, he turned on the intercom.

"Helm, full speed, take us to Praetonia. Engineering, set the 'Wrath of Neo-Praetonia's timer to ten seconds, and wait for my signal to begin countdown."

After getting the proper acknowledgements, Mayhew smiled, and watched as the destroyer began to move.

As the destroyer left, the Outer Heaven MK II flag floated over to the Gregorian, it stayed there for a few seconds, before being thrown upwards. The sea erupted violently, followed by a small fireball, and some debris.

Phase one was complete.

Iuanua Imperialis Gunboat Station

Rear Admiral Hafius Jupitus surveyed the arrayed radar displays in front of him. All the data from several Dragoon Class Hydrofoil Corvettes, powerful shore radar arrays and AWACs planes from an area 250km wide along the Praetonian coast were collated here. As could be expected from a dressed-up data trunk station, nothing ever happened.

"Has the Gregorian showed up on radar yet," asked one of his junior Commodores.

"No, sir," replied one of the many radar operators, "they've probably had engine troubles, sir."

"Yes, thankyou Midshipman," said the Commodore, obviously disapproving of the rating's attempt to analyse the situation.

'As if it even mattered,' Jupitus thought to himself, 'soon that enthusiasm will be drummed out of him.'

"Have we still got communications with the Gregorian?"

"No, sir, we lost them a few hours ago, but they were sporadic anyway..."

"Right," interupted the Commodore, cutting off the radar operator. The Commodore yawned, and sat down in front of one of the radar screens.

OOC: Sort of a TAG and a ... post, as I dont know anything's happened yet.

After a few seconds, a blip appeared on the radar.

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The destroyer moved towards the Iuanua Imperialis Gunboat Station at a slow pace, giving off the appearance it was damaged. Grinning, Captain Mayhew sent out an S.O.S. on all channels.

The blip was quickly picked up at Iuanua Imperialis, and three Dragoon Class Hyrdofoil Corvettes were dispatched to escort it into port. At the head of the group of the PWS Florianus, cruising at a low 20knts in hull-borne mode. The ship's 4.5" gun was activated, but the VLS cells were not, and the crew was not expecting anything other than a gentle welcome and rescue mission. As they approached the PWS Gregorian, they hailed it using morse code via signal light.

Welcome home, Gregorian. We will escort you to drydock just outside
Iuanua Imperialis. Maintain present course.

A crewman, after recieving orders off the Captain, went up to the 'Gregorian's' Search light, and flashed back a morse code message.

Confirmed.

At that precise moment, the Captain hit the intercom.

"Engineering! Turn hard East towards towards the Trade Port, and termporarily jam the rudder!"

The Captain got his response when the ship careened East. The Captain shouted to the crewman operating the Search light, "Tell them that the rudder's jammed, and that we can't change course!"

The crewman nodded, and sent the message to the Florianus.

Captain Foria, commander of the small flotilla of hydrofoils, looked worried. The Gregorian was now heading towards the trading port and its busy dockland area. Hundreds of ships would be loading coal, steel and tea on and off, and any kind of delay would cost millions of Praefelis in lost revenue.

Gregorian, we are coming up beside you. We will attempt to tow. If
possible, please shut off engines.

The crewman conveyed the message to the Captain. He grinned.

"Thank you crewman, you are relieved of duty."

The Captain them removed a Desert Eagle from his pocket and shot the crewman in the head, the crewman falling off the side rung. The Captain was a brutal man, and that crewman would have died soon anyway. The Captain hit the intercom.

"Engineering, engines to maximum speed! They're going to tow!"

The ship jolted as it began to gain speed...

Captain Foria looked on in dismay. He ordered the hydrofoil fleet to keep up pace with the Gregorian and attempt to tow, but it the ship was moving too fast, and her engines were too powerful. It seemed as though very little could be done.

"Lieutenant, how far are they to the trading port?"

"Three miles, sir, we only have 7 or 8 minutes before they hit it..."

"Hmmm... there doesnt seem much we can do. Radio the port and tell them to evacuate, and bring all weapon systems on line. Target the Gregorian.

Gregorian - we have no choice but to have you adandon ship and hope to
destroy it before you hit the trading port. Stay in the water. We will pick you up
as soon as possible. Good luck.

The Captain scowled as he read the message. He hit the intercom.

"Gunnery crews, to your stations! The Hydrofoil's are going to fire on us! Engineering, push those engine's to their limit! This ship is only good for this run, so make the most out of this ship!"

Within a minute, the 'Gregorian's' weapons turned towards the hydrofoils, and began to open fire...

Meanwhile, the engine's were put into overdrive, and the ship, creaking slightly in protest, began to move faster, cutting through the water more hurriedly.

"What the hell?" Foria looked on as the Gregorian's 6" forecastle gun began to rotate to face his hydrofoil.

Gregorian. St~~~

The gun fired, sending a slab of high explosive straight into the bridge of the PWS Florianus. The flames vented out through the windows, which shattered spraying the deck with glass, and down the corridors of the ship and into other compartments, melting the thin metal on either side. The explosion ripped through the deck and hit the magazine and fuel supplies, blowing the ship apart. The other two hyrofoils broke off, readied their missiles and each fired a 4.5" shell from their low-velocity deck guns...

The Gregorian rocked slightly as it took hits from the remaining Hydrofoils, and then shuddered as it's own weapons went off. Captain Mayhew smiled as the Port came closer and closer.

Soon, we'll marked down as the worst terrorists in Praetonian history...

Captain Mayhew left the bridge, and stood out on deck. He smiled, felt the sea-breeze through his hair, the noises of a peaceful and busy port...

...All to be annihalated when a certain timer went to zero.

Shaking his head, Mayhew went back to the bridge, and hit the intercom.

"Engineering, start the timer..." He waited until the Gregorian was just close enough, "NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

In the bowels of the ship, a large device activated. A screen activated, and a timer of ten seconds began to count down. The Enginners were happy, they were about to go to heaven, and they wouldn't feel a thing...

Lieutenant Karius looked around to see the Gregorian, seemingly spinning away as his ship maneuvered. Just out to aft, the ex-Praetonian warship was readying to fire again. A missile shot from its VLS batteries, ramming into the hydrofoil some distance to the West, sending a shower of metal and other debris flying for hundreds of meters. Both of the other ships had now gone down beneath the waves, and he felt suddenly alone.

"Turn us about!" His ship began to maneuver back into position to fire upon the Gregorian. His hydrfoil loosed a 4.5" APFSDS shell into the back of the Gregorian, shooting right through but seemingly doing nothing. He saw as two of the crewmen of the Gregorian turned her two 30mm cannon towards his bridge and fired. Dozens of shells slammed into the bridge, quickly bukling the thin hull and shredding the Bridge. He ducked under the radar desk, but the shells were exploding all around him and a splinter lodged in his arm. He looked down to see blood blossom into his uniform as the Gregorian's 6" gun turned to fire again. He saw the muzzle flash, but nothing else. All was black.

Captain Mayhew closed his eyes, and breathed in for the last time. The Port went past the Gregorian, and the ship shook as it hit land and rose a little.

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In Engineering, a beep emitted from the large device. On the timer, 00:00 flashed for a second, before everything was engulfed in light, The light burst through the ship, and blinded the see-goers at the port. Then the device imploded on itself, the hard metal casing rupturing and crumpling up, like some old tin foil. Then the Gregorian, in mid-air, vapourised, along with the port. The sea was sucked upwards, and a large cloud materialised and exploded outwards. Everything in five miles of the port caught fire, and was engulfed by the resulting explosion. Radioactive particles were blown north by the sea breeze, inward into Praetonia.

The explosion continued for a few seconds more, and when it stopped, a deep scorch mark, 7 miles in radius, was all that was left of Iuanua Imperialis and the surrounding area. The sea slowly filled the crater left by the explosion, and the corpses of hundreds of sea animals washed up onto beaches across Praetonia. Other sea animals were either mutated or saturated with radiation. Slowly, the cloud dissapated, but not a person in Praetonia missed the flash and the vapourisation of Iuanua Imperialis and the surrounding land...

The crew of the surviving hydrofoil looked on for another second in stunned disbelief, before disappearing into the void of oblivion. The waterfront of the city had also been vapourised, but further in people met a much worse fate. As the massive overpressure wave sped towards them, cars and trees were blown in walls that crumbled like matchsticks under the immense pressure put upon them. People were lifted up like ragdolls and thrown in some cases for miles. On the outskirts of the city, people began receiving huge doses of radiation.

"This is a PBC News Bulletin. We apologise for interupting this program. A large explosion has been detected in the Iuana Imperialis area. Casualties are as yet unknown, and details are sketchy, but the Imperial Government has ordered the closure of all airports, the ceasation of trading on the stockmarkets and freezing of all prices on essential goods.

"Suspicions are rising as to the possiblity of a nuclear explosion, as scientists in a Praeton laboratory picked up seismic waves some two thousand miles away from the source. The Government has also advised all citizens to remain inside for the time being, and not to attempt to stockpile food, water or fuel. There have been repeated assurances that there is no immediate threat to any other part of the country."

Fire engines and amulances streamed into Iuanua Imperialis, carrying hundreds of people in hazmat suits, as well as the entire home military's decontamination corps. Helicopters and trucks poured in, and survivors poured out. For the first few days anyway. Then it started to be bodies, bodies and more bodies non-stop. The radiation, luckily, was blown largely out to sea, but this too caused damage and mutated and dead fish began washing up on beaches for hundreds of miles.