NationStates Jolt Archive

The SNS Sturgeon, SSN-57 has sunk while on maneuvers off the Aleutian Islands. As of this time the cause of this disaster is unknown, but it is known that the wreck lies roughly 35 km South of Unimak Island in 90 meters of water. No crew have been recovered at this time and we would greatly appreciate any help in rescue from anyone with the capacity to do so.

Secret IC:
The Great Prophet Zarquon looked over his desk at Admiral Ragnar Franken, Commander in Chief of the Squornshelan Navy, and Captain Younis Mohammet, commander of the Sturgeon.
"Prophet, Operation: Todesengel has begun. The Sturgeon is in her covered dock and will remain there until a launch window can be found when she can exit the harbor out of sight of spy satellites," said Mohammet. "The Viento Santo operatives have completed their training and are being housed with the crew in a barracks adjoining the dock."
"Hull 133 was towed while submerged disguised as part of a convoy of freighters," Franken added, "She was then torpedoed and sunk by the Vogsphere. Explosives were placed in the bow to suggest an accidental torpedo discharge."
"Good," the Prophet smiled. "and I'm sure plenty of identifying articles from the Sturgeon were planted on board Hull 133?"
"Of course sir."
"Right, the Lurker will proceed to the base in Juneau as soon as it is safe to do so and then be at the disposal of Viento Santo. At that point, we will relinquish all control of it to them and wash our hands of the matter." He smiled again. "Except for you and your crew that is." Mohammet smiled as well.
"Since, we're dead, we are no longer members of the Squornshelan Navy are we?"


OOC: This is a fake. The Squornshelan Navy has faked the sinking of this sub with another sub hull in the same class that was never completed. The why will slowly become apparant, but keep in mind, it's all completely secret. The only people who know are the crew of the Sturgeon and a very small group of high up government and Navy officials. Viento Santo is a terrorist group operating out of Squornshelous.
I do not yet have a target in mind for this, I'm just setting up for the World War.

News Update Sent out to all major international news networks:

Squornshelan rescue and recovery vessels have arrived on scene after leaving from the naval base at Unalaska. Squornshelous again requests help in rescuing the crew and if possible the vessel itself from any nation.

Secret IC:
Moving quickly to exploit a 38 minute window between satellite passes, the Sturgeon left her covered dock at Valdez and submerged in Prince William Sound with a minute to spare. She then proceeded slowly and silently out into the Gulf of Alaska and made her way ibn the direction of Juneau.


OOC:
I'm basicly setting this up so that maybe a foreign rescue team finds something that we didn't want them to, or Squornshelous decides to blame another country for this. Someone could also have a spy satellite that we didn't know about and see the Sturgeon leaving Valdez. Anyone who can come up with a half-assed reason for their ships to be in the area can jump in on this.

OOC: I'd volunteer but that's so far away from me that me having a sub there is so unfeasible. :: sigh :: Oh well :( But I can watch can't it!

Layarteb News Network

In international news today, the Squornshelan government has announced that one of it's submarines has been sunk off the Aleutian Islands. While the cause is unknown, suspicious reasons are currently not on the table. And on to Tanuio where...

"Sir! We just got these images back from one of our spy satellites!"
The Jamiezomonian Secret Service director glanced at the report. 'You mean this was all a fake?, why would they want to do that?' he re-read the report hoping to find something he missed. 'Get the president to summon a meeting with ALL the Armed Forces Leaders. This may be something big'

Jamiezomonia, I welcome your participation, but this RP is based in Earth II, one of the real life nation claims threads, and you would have to control some sort of territory there to participate. You can find it here:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=373378

"...and the last order of business is the reports of a missing Squornshelan submarine. A nuclear one according to what we've got from official channels."

Emperor Thomas had listened to the daily intelligence briefing that the aide gave, half dozing off when he heard about the missing Squornshelan sub.

"Where was it lost?"

"Off the Aleutian Islands sir," the aide replied. "It is way off our territorial borders sir."

"I know that. Well, I don't presume that we have anything in the area, do we?"

The aide checked his papers quickly before shaking his head. "No sir. Not a thing. SSN-864 are off the coast of Pushkan California for a fleet visit sir. That's the closest we have in the Pacific."

"Very well. Keep a sharp eye out, and let me know if the situation changes." Emperor Thomas sat back in his chair, checking his schedule. He still had 20 minutes to spare. Enough time for a quick session of CS: Source. As the game loaded, he called after the aide. "Let's send a telegram to them showing that we are aware of the situation. Our hopes and prayers, etcetra. The usual stuff."

The aide merely replied "Yes sir," before he walked off.

------------------------

TO: Squornshelous
FROM: Cotland

BEGIN MESSAGE

"The Empire are aware of the missing submarine, and wish to offer our hopes and prayers for the safe return of your submariners. We cannot offer any support, as the closest submarine rescue equipment we have are on the other side of the Pacific. Still, we pray for the swift and safe return of your submariners. God be with them."

END MESSAGE

The Great Prophet Zarquon read over the brief messge from Cotland and smiled. "Perfect, we're being noticed, but not being given much attention," he leaned forward toward Admiral Franken, who had been a frequent guest in his office recently. "This is exactly what we want, the world feels well informed, but we are free to work alone on recovery and bring up our false evidence without interference."
"What is our course of action now Prophet?" asked Press Minister Peter Trakken.
"We will continue to ask for help from anyone who can, but don't make it too urgent. Keep up regular reports telling lots of trivial information, but not revealing anything of substance." He turned to Franken again, "What is the position of the Sturgeon at this time?"
Franken cleared his throat, "She is proceeding southeast through the Gulf about 500 km Northwest of the entrance to Chatham Straight."
The Prophet consulted his map and frowned, "Why doesn't she go through right here," he pointed, "just South of Glacier Bay?"
"The water is too shallow there sir, she could run submerged, but not deep enough to pass under the merchant traffic there. The Chatham Straight to the South is much deeper and she can easily pass under the freighters unnoticed."
"I don't like it," Zarquon's frown deepened, "the longer she remains at sea the more likely she is to be found, especially that close to Yelmish Territory."
"She'll stand a much better chance of getting through there than surviving a run through the other way, we really have no choice."
"Yes, yes, you're right. Proceed as planned."



Here is a map (http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=p5&ext=1618.837612,-922.799106,1726.337612,-852.799106&size=s&marker=1647.587612::-921.299106::Chatham%20Straight%20Entrance~~1687.087612::-852.299106::Glacier%20Bay~~1621.087612::-870.299106::Sturgeon) of the area.

Witzenberg looked over the newspaper reports. Submarine sinks - unknown casualties the headlines yelled. Witzenberg began to mull the situation and picked up the telephone. "Terry, you seen the headlines? Uh huh, have you got any available ships from the Okhotsk Fleet? I need you to get a ship 35 km South of Unimak Island and get permission from the Squornshelous government to take a peek. No sir, scrictly low key. The public doesn't find out anything. Yes, good. Goodbye."

----------------------------
To: Great Prophet Zarquon
From: Minister of Defence Terence McMullen
RE: Sub wreck

We've got a frigate available that has personnel aboard that can do a recon dive on the stricken submarine, see if there are any survivors etc. If you like, we can have it sent to the site and for them to take a look and to report the findings to you. It should help in the salvaging process. Of course, we'll leave the recovery up to you, if you do so wish.

tag

Zarquon read over the message from Andrehervia. "Andrehervia is one of our strongest allies, it would look extremely tacky and suspicious if we refused their offer." He turned to look at Admiral Franken, who had been called to Zarquon's office for discussion about his development. "Is the wreck credible enough to fool divers?"
Franken considered for a moment, "Yes, we've planted empty torpedo shells and an empty reactor casing, along with a large amount of scrap metal, and junk electronics on the site to make it appear legitimate. And if they do find anything, there's a little insurance waiting in the torpedo room."
"We will allow them to survey the wreck. but we need to go one step further to make it convincing."
"What is that Prophet?"
"Bodies, plunder 100 or so bodies from morgues and have them dressed in navy uniforms, then fly them out to the site and have the sub crew deposit them in and around the wreck."
"Yes sir."
"And hurry, they have to be there well before the Andrehervians arrive."



To: Minister of Defence Terence McMullen
From: Great Prophet Zarquon
RE: Sub wreck

We welcome your assistance in this matter. Your frigate has been cleared through all Squornshelan checkpoints in the Aleutians and will be given a Coast Guard escort and right of way over all other traffic. We have a rescue submersible en route which will work in conjunction with your divers.

At about 1 am that night, a submarine surfaced just outside the naval harbor at Juneau. If anyone had seen it from the shore, his last thought before a snipers bullet perforated his skull would have been that it was odd to find no numbers painted on the hull. The Sturgeon was completely black, melting in and out of the night on its way to a covered dock. The process took 24 minutes. It would have been faster with a tug, but the secrecy of the mission demanded that there be no witnesses at all, not even dead ones. Even if a spy satellite had been overhead, it would have only picked up the heat and magnetic signatures of the sub moving through the harbour, indistinguishable from any of her 56 sister ships.

At the wreck site, everything was ready for the arrival of the Andrehervians, the bodies had been planted and now, the submersible began bringing them up a few at a time, as if in a recovery effort. Meanwhile, the actual submarine had finished its resuply in Juneau. Enough food and fresh water for a two year tour had been loaded on and the uranium fuel rods in the reactor had been replaced with fresh ones. The submarine was also going to leave port with fully charged batteries and a brimming tank of diesel fuel, in the unlikely event of reactor failure. All of her magazines were full, and the crew was ready for their mission. The mix of Viento Santo operatives and Squornshelan Navy Personnel boarded the vessel. Of course, no Squornshelan uniforms were present on board, all crew members were dressed in gray and red Viento Santo fatigues.
Captain Younis Mohammet conferred with his cheif officers; Andre Pescador, the highest ranking terrorist on board was his executive officer, with Suqornshelan Navy lieutenants filling the Chief Navigator, Chief Sonarman, and Chief Tactical Officer positions. "After clearing the islands and entering the Gulf of Alasksa," Mohammet began, "We will set a course due South through the Pacific Basin." He sketched a line on a chart in the Sturgeon's planning room. Andre stood up and examined the plan, "This is perfect," he exclaimed, "The Pacific Basin is the most remote area on Earth, between here and the Marquesas the closest we'll come to land is 2000 km east of Hawaii."
"That is the idea Andre, that is the idea."

A map of the planned route is here (http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=100&size=l&maplayers=Roads%20and%20Railroads%3A%3AT%7E%7EPlaces%3A%3AT%7E%7EPolitical%20Boundaries%3A%3AT&state=&ext=-180,-117.209302,180,117.209302).

As the clock struck midnight, the AHS Gigantua, one of the Type-23 vessels of the 58th Frigate Division, slid gracefully out of the Okhotsk Fleet naval base. Fully loaded with ammunition, supplies and a full complement of men, the vessel's destination and mission was to be an easy one. Home in time for breakfast, as the base's commander so cheerfully put it.

In charge of the ship was one Igor Treville, a dedicated Naval man since the age of 18 and in thirty years had become the captain of the Gargantua. The ship's personnel, now added to the group by 18 professional divers, were active, bright and loyal men. Treville was proud to call the ship his second home.

Igor Treville doubled checked the maps spread out in front of his desk. 35 km South of Unimak Island. The island, part of the Aleutian chain of islands in Alaskan waters, was a remote and barren area of land. Shrugging off this challenge, he stared out of the bridge's windows towards the cold, dark water in front and the starry sky above before heading to his quarters for a few needed hours of sleep.

OOC: I'm leaving their fate to you, OK Squornshelous?

OOC: Where the hell are the Aleutian Islands? This is looking good.

OoC: Off the coast of Alaska I think.

OOC: Where the hell are the Aleutian Islands? This is looking good.

They're the long Island chain that stretches out from Alaska. Here's a map (http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=100&size=l&maplayers=Roads%20and%20Railroads%3A%3AT%7E%7EPlaces%3A%3AT%7E%7EPolitical%20Boundaries%3A%3AT&state=&ext=-180,-117.209302,180,117.209302).

Sure Andrehervia, I'll RP their arrival and stuff. Post will be up later tonight.

The Gargantua slowly drifted to a stop alongside the Squornshelan recovery vessels Sparen and Schutzengel. The ship had been through a long journey, and had been escorted by 6 different ships. First, two coast guard frigates had met the Gargantua in the Sea of Okhotsk, bringing her through the Kuril Islands, later two navy destroyers from the base at Petropavlovsk escorted her haflway across the Pacific, where they handed her off two another pair of destroyers based at Unalaska, roughly 160 km East of the wreck. Captain Treville was invited aboard the Schutzengel by Captain Hans Becker, who as in charge of the recovery effort.
"If your divers are ready to go, we'd like to get them down there as soon as possible, there's only so many things one can do froma submersible."
"Have you found any survivors?" asked Treville.
"No, we have recovered about 31 bodies to this point and have seen no indication that anyone lived through the event."

Within an hour or so, Andrehervian divers were descending to the wreck, accompanied by both Squornshelan subs. Over the radio, Becker instructed all of them. "Now that we have divers, we can send people inside parts of the wreck to see what might have caused it. However, I don't want to lose any more people, so be careful down there."


OOC:
Andrehervia it's up to you if they find anything suspicious.
Here's a map (http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=100&ext=-167.917274,52.780064,-162.516041,55.769096&size=l&maplayers=Roads%20and%20Railroads%3A%3AT%7E%7EPlaces%3A%3AT%7E%7EPolitical%20Boundaries%3A%3AT&poilayers=Country%20Profile%3A%3AF&marker=-163.908593::54.090874::Wreck%20Site~~-164.165783::54.78386::Unimak%20Is.~~-166.602555::53.839132::Naval%20Base) of the wreck site (you can zoom in and out to see detail).

OOC: Hmm, that'll take some thinking about. Anyway, I'll start it off.

IC: The 10 divers slid down into the cold, grimy depths of the Pacific Ocean. The other 8 divers were still on the Gargantua as relief when the others came back up.

After what seemed like hours, the submarine eventually materialised into sight. The ship was indeed a mess. The vessel seemed to have twisted into two and gigantic holes could be seen on the second half of the sub. The first half, whilst having recieved some minor damage, appeared to still be watertight, although the pressure was gradually crushing the weakened hull and it wouldn't be long before it eventually caved in. The divers agreed to split into two teams of 5, with the first team going to see if there was anything salvagable from the second half and the second team to see if anyone was still alive in the first half. With at least two hours of oxygen in each of their tanks, the divers began their search.

The second team entered the first half of the wreck. It was a write-off, the entire thing was flooded with heavy damage to the equipment inside. No corpses could be found, with the exception of a floating limb or two. The team decided that this was likely to be the source of the explosion and were to delve further.

The first team in the second half noticed that the door was still sealed and decided to enter the vessel using one of the holes already in the hull. After investigating each possible entry, the team figured out that there was still wightertight areas in the hull and that trying to enter it at this stage could flood whatever's left and kill any survivors and decided to leave this part alone, pending investigations for signs of movement or life and to investigate the first half with the second team.

The second team continued to investigate until they got to a heavily damaged room with the door hanging off the frame. The notice 'Torpedo Room' confirmed the team's thoughts and they entered the charred, blackened mess. Meanwhile, a specialist explosives team was on the Gargantua above watching the divers actions on various monitors dotted around the bridge connected to the cameras of the divers.

The divers entered the destroyed room. Not a single construct was left intact, rubble of various shapes and sizes were either floating in the weightless sea or piled ungracefully in corners and on the floor. It wasn't long before the team found the blast site, a side room labelled 'Torpedo Storage Room' where the blast occured.

A gaping hole, bigger than all the others encountered in the submarine, was to be seen in the left of the room and in the centre a blackened pile of charred metal lay. The specialist team in the Gargantua watched the events with curiousity.

"So," said the lead Specialist Explosives member, "How exactly did the sub sink?"

"We've told you," the Sqournshelan officer began, "The submarine was struck by a torpedo from another sub which led to the torpedoes in the storage room accidentally arming themselves and blowing up which-"

"Well why did the safety systems fail? These things are designed not to go off in the case of an explosion." the specialist asked forcefully, "And do you know which country torpedoed this thing?"

Meanwhile, the Sturgeon continued to work its way South, traveling at an average of roughly 10 knots. She was roughly even with Hawaii in a latitudinal sense, but still in the middle of the biggest nowhere on Earth. She hadn't had to do much n the way of avoidance. Once or twice as she crossed a shipping lane, big freighters were heard thundering overhead, and the speed was cut to 6 knots, well below her rated "silent" speed of 12. Even with the advanced anti-detection technology on the sub, Captain Mohammet was taking no chances. He wen't over the next stage of the journey with his top officers.
"After we pass Hawaii, we will continue South until we are even with Christmas Island, then we will alter course slightly West, to pass North of the Marquesas and The Society Islands, while staying South of Samoa."
He indicated the path on the mapboard.
"After passing South of Polynesia, we will turn due South and wait in the Southern Pacific Basin until we decide the time is right."

Here is a link (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=350527) to the Sturgeon's specs. And here is a link to yet another map (http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/viewandcustomize.html?task=getMap&themeId=100&ext=-211.813953,-44.427906,-67.813953,27.572094&size=l&maplayers=Roads%20and%20Railroads%3A%3AT%7E%7EPlaces%3A%3AT%7E%7EPolitical%20Boundaries%3A%3AT&marker=-148.967442::-18.697674::Tahiti~~-158.567442::1.172094::Christmas%20I.~~-172.011249::-12.999459::Samoa~~-139.367442::17.35814::Sturgeon~~-140.208199::-8.845342::Marquesas~~-140.260465::7.423257::%20~~-144.948837::0.055815::%20~~-151.869767::-6.641859::%20~~-157.451163::-12.446511::%20~~-161.916279::-18.251162::%20~~-165.488372::-25.618604::%20~~-166.604651::-36.781394::%20Planned%20Route) of her position and planned route.

bump for visibility, Andrehervia and I are working out the next event.

BUMP for finished post.

OOC: Just a clarification here, the crews of the two recovery ships, includer Captain Becker himself is not privy to the conspiracy, although the pilots and technicians operating the submersible are.

IC:
Lieutenant Commander Peter Torin heaved a sigh. "I don't know all of the details, but the submarine was involved in a live-fire training excercise, when a torpedo broke loose of its guidewires and trageted the Sturgeon She attempted to evade it but was struck on the hul just outside a torpedo storage room."
"How could something like that happen."
"I tould you , I don't know all the details, but apparantly this torpedo was a new prototype being tested."
Torin wasn't enjoying himself as the Squornshelan officer selected to work with the Andrehervians. These guys were acting like he was trying to hide something. Sometimes, he though, torpedoes explode when another one goes off next to them.

As the diver teams swarmed over the wreck, they were framed by a powerful set of lights. The submersible had descended for another dive. Working together with the divers, the technicians inside used its powerful claws and thrusters to pull debris aside to allow the divers to enter. In the back of the submarine, a very nervous man sat, watching views from the cameras on the outside of the sub. His hand tapped and fidgeted as he carefully monitered the progress of the divers. Specifically, he was watching to see if they found anything, inappropriate. A small control with a single red button sat in front of him. It was connected to a radio transmitter, which was tuned into a very specific frequency. Recieving on that same frequency, was a bundle of explosives sitting in front of a torpedo in one of the "Sturgeon's" torpedo tubes. If necessary, the submersible would be sacrificed to preserve secrecy.

The specialist quietly stared at the Lieutenant. He didn't trust what the man said, but he didn't have anything to go on and basic finger-painting wouldn't have made the situation any better. He slowly turned away from the soldier and picked up a radio placed next to the bank of monitors.

"How much oxygen do you have left in there?" he asked.

"About an hour's worth, Sir." The diving team leader responded.

"Good, keep searching. Come back when you have just enough oxygen to get back."

The diving team leader confirmed what he'd heard and continued the search of the submarine.

I still find it suspicious why they'd hold live-fire test exercises with their own subs. The specialist resigned to himself to a chair in the room and peddled his grey matter for a solution.

=========================================================

With thirty minutes left on their oxygen tanks, the team leader gave the order to surface and the eighteen divers clambered aboard a small vessel which was to get them back to the frigate. The specialist was there to meet them.

"Did you find anything out?" the lead diver asked.

"A few things," the specialist responded, "Though it'll need more analysis before we reach any conclusions."

"That last section," the diver spluttered out, exhausted from his dive, "I want tests on it, I want to see that there's anyone down there. As soon as you get an answer I want to be back down there immediately to search the rest of it."

"Yes, it will be done." the specialist told the diver. He nodded to the skipper to head back to the Gargantua and the small boat sped away towards the metal behemoth.

OOC: The searching has dragged on long enough now, I think we should come to some kind of conclusion now and move on.

OOC: Agreed, and I havethe perfect way to finish the search.

The Squornshelan submersible stayed at the wrecksite for about half an hour after the divers began their ascent. The men inside listened over their radios to determine when the Andrehervian divers were safely out of the water, they didn't need to create an international incident here. After turning the submarine to the Southwest, in the approximate direction of Makkah, they held a brief prayer session. The sub then turned toward the front of the sub, and proceeded to explore a hole in the torpedo room with its arms. In the back, A finger came down on the red button.
On board the Schutzengel, no one suspected a thing, the radio message came up loud and clear that the crew were doing a last bit of exploration at the nose of the sub when there was a burst of static. A second or so later, and area of water near the trio of ships seemed to jump and a deep rumbling sound was heard.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the front half of the fake Sturgeon was almost completely obliterated, along with the submersible.

A deep rumbling sound shook the Gargantua deep to its bowels. The vibrations grew stronger and stronger as the blast wave got closer to the ship. The Gargantua swayed to and fro, getting more violent by the second. Materials were knocked off shelves, men fell to their feet and an eerie silence engulfed the ship when the vigour fell calm.

Captain Igor Treville rose from the ground, having been shock off his chair from the force of the wave. Picking up his composure, he paced to the bridge, where the hydrographic equipment was operated. The operators in there were too struggling to get back to their positions. Treville looked out of the Bridge towards the sunset, though there was nothing out of the ordinary. He turned back into the bridge.

"What was that?" Treville demanded, "You there, get a hydrographic picture of the seabed, now!"

The operator, sitting at a computer showing a hydrographic program, merely nodded. Treville stepped to the radio that was to keep them and the submersible in contact.

"Did you feel that? Do you know what's going on?" Treville asked into the microphone, his only reply being static. "Is anyone down there? Can anyone hear me?" he repeated, but only got the same answer as before. Confused, he turned towards Lieutenant Commander Torin, who had only just arrived in the room to see what was going on, and approached him. "Okay, I've had nothing but strange incidence after strange incidence and I want to know if there's anything weird going on that I need to know about, tell me now!"

"Sir!" The tension in the room was pierced by a voice coming from the hydrographic terminal. Treville rushed over to the operator.

"What's going on? Have you found anything?" Treville asked fiercely.

"Sir...the submarine...it's gone..." the operator replied, dumbfounded.

He was right. The wireframe model of the seabed was missing the front half of the Sturgeon and the submersible that had shown on many hydrographies was missing. Treville looked up from the screen, stared at the Lieutenant Commander and asked, almost quietly;

"Just what the hell is going on?"

I don't know!" exclaimed Torin. The expression on his face was halfway between fear and confusion. "Captain Becker reports that we've lost contact with the submersible. It was exploring the bow of the wreck when it just disappeared. He thinks it somehow set off a second explosion." Torin moved to the hydrograph screen and stared at it. "It's just gone!"
A radio message came thorugh for Captain Treville. "Just before that shockwave, our hydrophones registered a large explosion," said Becker. "We believe that the submersible ay hav set off additional torpedoes that were destabalized by the initial blast."

Captain Treville sighed in resignation. Those poor survivors...

Treville slowly looked up from his contemplation and addressed the bridge. "Ladies and gentleman, the search is now over. All we need is for the second half to be salvaged and we can all go home." He then slowly walked over to the telephone on the other side of the bridge and dialled.

"Hello? Yes, Commander, the search is over. I'll give you a thorough briefing when we get back. A supply ship? Yes, that'll be needed. We'll meet it on the way back. The only thing we need to do is rise the rest of the wreckage. We already have one of those ships here, it won't take long. Yes. Thank you. Goodbye, Commander."

He placed the phone back on the receiver and returned to his quarters to plan the journey back.

At the Wrecksite:
On the seafloor, a twisted mass of mangled metal lay in a new crater pockmarking the landscape. The stern of the submarine, if viewed seperately, appeared to be in good shape, but about 1/3 of the way forward, it abruptly ended and was replaced by twisted wreckage. Almost nothing forward of the reactor room was recognizable as being part of a complex submarine.
As the Andrehervian divers prepared to go down and attatch clamps and wires to raise what was left of the sub to the surface, the squornshelan vessels continued to map the site with a towed sonar array, compiling information about the new layout of the seabed.

4000 km East of New Zealand:
The Sturgeon floated motionless 1200 feet below the surface of the waves. She had been waiting there, occasionally coming to periscope depth to monitor radio waves and determine her next course of action. As developements across the world began to affect the Squornshelan Empire, her target possibilities became clearer and clearer. However, time would still be needed to know where her missiles would strike.

Late at night, Igor Treville watched quietly as the surviving wreckage of the Sturgeon was lifted up from the sea bed, whatever being left being in pieces or completely vaporised. He sighed and returned to the bridge, rubbing his hands from the cold and beginning to enter coordinates into a computer. He was to return to the Okhotsk Fleet naval base with the other ships from Squornshelous, where a supply ship would be deployed to meet them halfway there. She would be refuelled and restocked and the Andrehervian and Sqournshelan ships would go their seperate ways.

Treville yawned and returned to his quarters. It would be a long morning.

OOC: Just a final rounding off post.

After the departure of the Gargantua, hte Squornshelan vessels wasted little time in returning to the base at Valdez. The report that all had gone well was in Zarquon's office before they were halfway home.
"It is a great pity that we were forced to sacrifice the submersible pilots, but they were volunteers, and knew the necessity of secrecy."
"We will offer prayers for them this evening," replied Admiral Franken.
"Operation Todesengel is considered a perfect success then, added Zarquon, "Viento Santo now has a submarine in the South Pacific that doesn't exist anymore as far as the world is concerned."