NationStates Jolt Archive

The air was stale. Everything stank of salt, iron and men. Every sub in the Panteran fleet was state of the art and well-maintained, the equal of any sub-fleet in the world, and vastly superior to most, but for the moment, the filtration systems had been taken off-line, so the atmosphere became stuffy and reeked of bad breath.

The largest of Pantera's submarines was Crimmond built, nuclear powered, and capable of dreadful destruction. It was crewed by the best sub-men in the Reaver fleets, every single one hand chosen by the Fleet Lords. It was called Lunacy, and the ship's name had become a talisman for it's crew, it's Captain, a man known simply as Dag, and for the Panteran nation as a whole.

For the moment, Lunacy sat silent, only thirteen feet above the sea's floor. A dozen similar Crimmond-built, Reaver manned subs were scattered along the lip of the Gouge, a massive chasm in the bed of the East Sea. Their plan was to strike at their foe savagely and then slip over the edge of the chasm, into the inpenetrable blackness of the Gouge.

And the first, soft ching sounded. The sonar panels came to life, and the low-pitched voices of those who manned them began to chatter. Lunacy's captain nearly purred as the submarines of his foe came closer, cautious.

"Now." His voice sounded, and his second-in-command echoed his order, and the fore tubes on the thirteen Panteran ships expelled their guided torpedoes. The order given, the Reaver boats came to life. Orders were shouted, engines released, and the battle had begun.

The newly-installed display panel made itself known on the bridge of the Nautilus-class attack submarine HNS Thakchuk, sounding a blaring siren blast. Captain Philip Morrison's head snapped around to the sonar operator, whose panel it was. "What the hell was that?" he snapped.

"Sonar ping. Dummy torpedo inbound, bearing north twenty degrees west."

"Damn!" Morrison shouted, kicking the air futilely. "Helm, hard right. Try and get us out of the way before 'impact'. What's the status on our enemies?"

"Sonar is reading ten ... twelve ... thirteen ... thirteen submarines. Big ones, bigger than us, all with torpedoes launched. I've already relayed all this to the others."

As the submarine began to turn, Morrison swore several more times under his breath. As the lead submarine, he'd been keeping a close eye out, but apparently the Panterans had managed to sneak up on him anyway, and had gotten the drop. Oh sure, he could see them on sonar now, but he would have to surface and admit defeat if the dummy torpedo reached him. Of course, the others would carry on with the wargames, but his sonar operator was reporting more dummy torpedoes launched from the Panteran subs against the slightly smaller Harakian force of ten Nautilus submarines. The Panterans had most likely already won this one.

Another siren from the sonar operator's console informed Morrison of his destruction at the hands of a Panteran torpedo hit to the aft port bulkhead, impacting at a 50 degree angle as the Harakian sub turned. He sighed, and gave the order to surface, broadcasting a message to the rest of the Harakian sub squadron that he had been destroyed.

The other nine were more lucky. As Morrison's HNS Thakchuk had been the lead submarine, they had had more warning and more time to evade, and only one had been hit and was on its way to the surface. Reorganizing themselves and finding their targets with sonar, the eight remaining Harakian subs got off their own response volley of torpedoes, trying to blanket the area to keep the Panterans, at bay until reinforcements could arrive.

Commodore Jeremy Stokes' submarine squadron was also in the area, also searching for the Panterans, and a quick radio call would bring his fifteen submarines in as reinforcements. All the eight Harakians had to do was hold on until an effective counterattack could be launched.

Lunacy's captain allowed himself to enjoy a brief moment of triumph as a single 'kill' was confirmed, but the business at hand required his undivided attention.

His force broke apart under the Harakian's return volley, one section of six boats attempting to slip back and over the lip of the Gouge. This exposed them for a few crucial seconds, and in those moments three seperate impact-sirens blared. The three subs full of 'dead' Reavers surfaced, admiring the swiftness of the Harakian counter attack and vowing that the next scenario would see them come out on top.

Below, the three remaining ships in the attacked group were finally into the murky depths of the Gouge and were coming about, preparing to defend their stretch of chasm.

Sixty feet above, the other group of Panteran subs was scattered, but still engaged. Dummy torpedoes were slicing through the waters between the two rival groups.

Almost two miles away, a third, smaller sub-group of four boats was en-route. These subs were smaller, more agile, and they came swiftly, arming their tubes and preparing to take the Harakian force in the 'flank', unaware of the second Harakian battle-group that was also bound for the action.

Commodore Jeremy Stokes moved swiftly through the command room on his submarine, the HNS Trevica. Reports back from the lead group had given him all the information he needed. The Panterans were aiming to make a stand, or a fighting retreat, at the edge of the Gouge, and most likely retreat back into it the way half their force had already. What made him think was just what the others were trying. The Panterans had split their force, half retreating into the Gouge and half staying to engage in fierce combat with the eight remaining Harakian subs.

He was currently talking to the deputy leader of the lead group, the captain of the HNS Casion, and by association the entire group. "Captain, I want you to continue engaging the Panteran sub group until we can arrive, but be very careful. Those that retreated into the Gouge are unlikely to stay there; the Reavers won't want to split their forces like that. Either they're all retreating and they're going to make us chase them into the Gouge, or those that retreated are going to come back and engage you, using the Gouge to gain tactical positioning and outmaneouvre you. I want you to continue engaging those above the Gouge, try and take out as many as possible, and watch out for a flank attack out of the Gouge. If they retreat, pursue them but stay clear of the Gouge until I reach you. I don't want to be sending you into unfamiliar territory hunting a larger and better-outfitted force, you'd be ambushed and destroyed."

The message was relayed, for the captain to absorb in bits and pieces as he continued the fight.



The Harakian submarines glided smoothly through the water, the calmness of their individual actions not betraying any of their dangerous purpose and ambition. They were doing their best to stay in some form of formation, and use their centralized position to their advantage against the Panteran submarines, which were scattering but still returning fire.

Still, their centralized position also meant that they were more at risk of strikes from their flanks. They could bring more fire to bear at once, but could also be fired on from more directions than was good for them. As such, a flank attack by two opposing submarines managed to bring down two of the Harakians, which surfaced, barely having had time to even react. The same flank attack later claimed another sub, as one of the submarines turning to properly engage the two flanking submarines was properly led by a Panteran dummy torpedo which impacted near the bow.

The order was given to break formation and scatter. it had served its purpose; now the goal was for every submarine possible to stay alive until Stokes could arrive, force the Panterans to retreat and give the Harakians time to reform, then use superior numbers to hunt down every opposing sub.