NationStates Jolt Archive

"How far 'till Cherry Ridge?"

"One hundred-fifty seven miles."

The men stood on deck. The vessel was one they were unaccustomed to, a far cry from their usual Frigate. The marine research craft was old but stable. No national flag hung from it's mast, no guns were on deck. The men, all highly recommended by their supervisors, were still fearful. No air support, no armour and a few hidden caches of weaponry meant they were dead if their intent was recognised. And they held a certain terror for the army of Cherry Ridge, with their public and well-documented history of uncompromising brutality.

The strategists had done their best to mask the intent. All men had done a short crash-course in geography and geology prior to the mission, and a handful of experts on board were to seem to outsiders as the decision makers. The ship was not registered to Slaytanicca, and it was to seem to outsiders as a small independent geographical survey. This was a fairly dismal guise, of course, if Cherry Ridge knew exactly where the missiles had landed. As they invariably would. The soldiers were to recover just the warheads, and store them in a shielded strongroom in the hull.

"First should be twenty miles away, dude. They'll be readying the sub now."


OOC: I don't know if you'll go along with this, man. I mean, we can't just leave those nukes there :) And yes, I've seen The Abyss..

( OOC comments welcome.. even slammings.. )

"Sir, we have an unauthorized ship heading for our waters, towards the nulear warheads"
"Thats too bad, as we are recovering them for our arsenal"

Transmission to research SHip
"We know you are coming to get the nukes. How do we know this? Unarmed ship, no flag, heading straight for the nukes. Obvious. We have a CR navy team out there as I type this recovering them for our arsenal. Turn around at once. If you do not do this, your men will be captured, and sent to prison. if you resist, your men will be slaughtered. There are 2 crusisers and 5 Coast guard ships guarding it. Turn around"

The men on deck cheered and whooped as the small submesible dropped the final few feet of it's descent into the water. Slowly, it sank under the waves, beginning its journey to the ocean floor..


The radio operator's face went a sickly greyish shade at the transmission. Jabbing a button at his desk, he called the captain.

"Cherry Ridge! On the radio. They know where we are and they know why we're here. What.. Shit! You fucking tell them!"

Transmission:

Cherry Ridgian coastguard,

We are confused by your transmission, as we know of no such thing. We are a group of independent geographers, investigating a recent anomaly in the radioactive content of the rocks in this region. We are outside of your waters, and request we be allowed to collect a small number of samples unmolested.
We will gladly share our data with you, in order to prove why these anomalies are most certainly not caused by the prescence of any nuclear warheads. We humbly inform you of your mistake, and will continue our task as planned. This expedition has already cost an unprecendented amount of money to our organisation, and as such we cannot afford to simply turn back. We hope you can understand.
We will of course cooperate withy your ships on their excersise, and will respect any request they make of us.

Darren Thellor, Captain of the Stonecutter, Geological Research Vessel.

"Sir, we have detected a submersible"
"Drop Depth Charges"

Radio transmission to ship-
"This is the captain of the CRS gregory. My name is Captain Williams. What is your captains name? You are still unauthorized, and you have one more chance to turn around This is you last warning. Depth Charges are being dropped above your submersible, and in her course. We will not hesitate to commandeer the ship, and send you to prison. LAST WARNING"

ooc-is your main ship in my waters yet? how about the sub? depth charges have been dropped regardless wheather it is in my waters or not.

A charge detonated meters away from the craft, blowing a motor off and holing its hull. With its electrics shorted, it spiralled into the deep before imploding, killing the occupant almost instantly.

Turmoil ensued on the ship. The enemy had appeared from nowhere, most likely due to the inefficient passive systems used for stealth purposes. Half the troops on board tooled up and retreated to the shielded strongroom in case of a boarding action. Ten men ran up to the deck. The captain ordered an international distress signal.

"Our vessel is under attack by pirates, at <Coordinates>. The enemy are exceptionally well equipped, and are claiming to be of the Cherry Rigian navy. They have killed a crewman and destroyed our submersible with depthcharges. They have not fired on us, nor have they made demands."

Moral had flatlined. The men had no desire to fight to the death, but they certainly didn't want removal to Cherry Ridge where execution was sure to await them.

OOC: My guys aren't in your waters dude, no.

Transmssion to ship
"We are the Cherry ridge Coast Guard. We have destroyed your submersible. TURN AROUND. IF you do not do so, we will commandeer your vessel. I now ave word what fate will await your men. Impressment into the CR Navy. Turn around at ONCE!"

ooc- im out for the night

Bump

ooc - is this open??

"What the fuck? We've lost the submarine, they've got the nukes anyway, and they're letting us go! Fucking turn around!"

The captain's eye muscle twitched. "We have no guns" he said slowly. "Who's to say they won't shoot us anyway? We've got more chance of surviving a boarding action. Let's at least wait for the response from HQ.
"Put me on the radio."

Transmission

Cherry Ridge,

We have lost contact with our submersible. Please allow us to re-establish contact, so we may recover it any get out of your way. We don't know why you're threatening us, as we are not in your waters and are unarmed, but we'll turn the boat around as soon as our submarine is recovered.

Thankyou,
Captain Darren Thellor


OOC: Draganovia, we didn't plan this, I posted it when I was tired and CR kindly humoured me. If you want to do anything it's fine by me at least man!

ooc- yeah, join in
ic-
Transmission to ship
You won't find your submersible. It was destroyed by our depth charges. We warned you. This is your last chance to turn around before you are boarded, and impressed into our navy. TURN AROUND. We guarentee your safty if you do turn around. If not, we can no longer do that.
End Transmission

"Prepare the boarding party, just in case they dont turn around. get them ready."

"Aye AYE SIR"

"Word from HQ! They say to pull out, but to start recording.. Audio, visual, transmissions, tachograph, everything. Say they'll sort out the.. um, more trivial aspects of our expedition as we return."

"Very well. Fire up the engines, and start turning her round. Start recording immediately. And please, get me back on the radio would you?"


- Transmission -

Cherry Ridge,
We are turning our vessel around. We will be moving shortly. We request name and rank of your commanders, and authorisation if you would. We also wish to enquire why our crewman has been murdered, and why our submersible was destroyed. We reiterate that we are not on your waters, are unarmed, and have given you our legal reason for being here. We request immediate response, and will leave as you have demanded, under threat, as soon as this is resolved.
In peace,
Captain Darren Thellor, The Stonecutter

(OOC: naturally the transmission from HQ was encrypted, and in codephrases. Sure you could decode it after the fact but for now would it be fair to say you didn't get it for now at least? Also I doubt you could trace it to the ship unless you capture the radio equipment.. up to you though)

Transmission
"Our captains name and rank is Captain John Michaels, got authorization from the CR naval high command, and we attacked your sub becasue they were heading towards our waters, even after we warned you not to."

*Warning Shots fired above research ship* as the ship appears on the horizon.

"Do not be alarmed, they are just warning shots, now leave, we are a cruiser"

ooc- my ship can see you ship, you should be in sight of it now.

Grand Field Marshal flipped through his folders of morning report. He had just sat his coffee down when he read of the incident of Slaytanicca and Cherry Ridge. He pulled his keyboard out from under his desk and began typing a telegram.

Cherry Ridge,

We condemn your actions you have taken on a peaceful vessel. You have taken a forcefully act on a foreign vessel in peacetime that posed no immediate threat to the military, people or government. If it had been a Nycton vessel, this would have meant war, but thankfully for you, it is not. Be advised that a better reaction must take place before any warlike stances, or the Nycton military will be forced to take a 'police action' on the nation of Cherry Ridge.

The terror in the captain's voice did not need to be faked.

"We had stopped our course and were hoping to conduct our research here. The submersible was not heading towards your waters - such a model does not have the range, should we have wanted to.
Such details are irrelevent. We are leaving now, as our submersible has been destroyed and a dear friend killed by your actions. We beg you to fire no more on us, our vessel is turning now."

The small ship labouriously began carving an arc in the waters. Several men on board were apparently forgetting to breath.

ic- "Thank you for leaving." the Captain said to the departing vessel

The vessel finished it's turn and accelerated away from the navy ships. No further transmission was made.


In the war office of Slaytanicca, officials were strangely calm. They were embarassed by the ineffectualness of the recovery mission, and deeply resented Cherry Ridge taking the warheads. However, new sources had ensured they would be replaced easily, albiet expensively, enough. More importantly, the devices were accounted for. Cherry Ridge, a dangerous nuclear power, taking them was bad enough, but they had been spared the horror and certain PR disaster of the warheads falling into the hands of a small, non-nuclear nation such as Tailva, or perhaps a terrorist organisation.
Time would tell if Cherry Ridge knew of their attempt. Perhaps those weapons would come back to haunt, or possibly destroy them...



OOC: Thanks for humouring me there dude.. figured a real nation wouldn't exactly leave 100 n00ks in the sea, and I couldn't exactly ask for them back nicely.

OOC: Thanks for humouring me there dude.. figured a real nation wouldn't exactly leave 100 n00ks in the sea, and I couldn't exactly ask for them back nicely.
ooc- No problem