NationStates Jolt Archive

Deep in the heart of an angry ocean storm, nestled in the waves of unclaimed international waters, a repeating distress signal was broadcast over and over again to all within range. Repeating tirelessly, again and again to summon any who might hear its call, the signal made its way across the sea. It conveyed no details, no further information - but it was a distress signal nonetheless, an automated cry for help.


*****

"All hands stand to, Captain on deck!"

Men and women on the bridge of the CNS Procellaridae rose from thier seats, snapping to attention as thier commanding officer strode into the command hub that was his bridge. A large, strapping man with skin the colour of dark coffee and a head shaven clean of any hair, Captain Peter Harrington waved a dismissive hand at his crew as he entered.

"As you were." he ordered as he made his way over to his command seat. Harrington's executive officer stood as the Captain approached and his crew returned to thier duties at hand. "What's going on Commander Kellen?" asked Harrington.

Commander Kate Kellen, second in command of the Virginia Class Cruiser, gestured at the massive flatscreen display mounted near the front of the bridge. A radar image of the local area was on the screen, with a red dot glowing near its far edge.

"Distress signal, sir." said Kellen. "We picked it up about ten minutes ago. Didn't want to disturb you from your rest until we knew for sure what it was."

Harrington scratched his chin. "What do we know about it?" he asked as he settled into his command seat.

"Not much, I'm sorry to say." replied Kellen. "It's an automated signal on open channels. No info on what the nature of the problem is, only that they request assistance. They haven't replied to our attempts at communication, sir."

"That's odd." said Harrington. "It's probably just someone having trouble in this storm though." he continued, making reference to the massive waves and high winds buffeting the crusier.

"Plot us a course and head in at maximum speed." ordered Harrington. "And inform Fleet Command of what's we're doing. This shouldn't take too long, but do report us in."

"Aye, Captain." replied Kellen as the crusier began to accelerate towards the distress signal that continued to repeat endlessly into the night.

The stormy seas rocked the armored hull of the Seasnake class destroyer "Armageddon". Waves lashed at the nearly-vertical sides of the bridge; pounding and pounding. It had been like this for three days, and the storm showed no sign of letting up.

Yet orders were orders, thought Captain James Sterling. He and his ship (which was fresh off the Intelligent Neighbor's assembly line), along with the crew, had been ordered to patrol along this sea, to prevent any possible enemy missile submarines some being too comfortable. James didn’t really think that was why he had been sent, though. He had recently irked a very high ranking officer, and this was probably the only way that officer could get back at him, short of killing him, which was too messy.

The captain sighed and focused his mind back to the bridge. He sat in an uncomfortable steel chair, surrounded by his inexperienced crew. Ahead, through the window, all was obscured by the heavy rain.

"Captain, sir. Were picking something up... appears to be a distress signal", said one of James’s more experienced crewman, Carl Browning. A distress signal, eh, thought James.

"Where is it, crewman Browning?" asked the captain. Carl made a big deal of looking at the various monitors that were sprinkled across the shiny bridge.

"It appears to be roughly 30 knots away, sir", came the enthusiastic reply.

"Very well, set course for the signal. Perhaps this little rescue mission will take enough time to keep us occupied during this ghastly storm."

OOC: It's open. Fully open. Backstory will present itself as the RP progresses, for now it's enough to know that it's a mysterious ocean distress signal. As the title of the thread might suggest though, things will get a bit strange. Perhaps describing this thread as an open MT horror/mystery would be accurate.

If your nation has ships, military, civilian or even criminal - feel free to answer the distress call and see who needs help in the middle of an ocean storm.

I was hoping thats what it would be. Ill send one of my new destroyers. Please understand that I just bought them, so I cant let it sink. Plus, I have to get off the computer soon (20 minutes, at most), but ill be back tomorrow.

Heres info on the Seasnake class: http://s7.invisionfree.com/Venom_Defense/index.php?showtopic=112

The CNS Procellaridae was lit by a pale flash of brightness as lightning danced in the thunderclouds in the skies above the vessel. On the bridge of the Colonial cruiser, Captain Harrington stood with a pair of binoculars pressed against his eyes as he strained to see in the darkness. Ahead of the Procellaridae was the shadowy shape of the distress signal. It was a huge vessel, that much was apparent even in the harsh nighttime weather, but details were scarce even as binoculars and cameras were directed at the floating hulk.

Commander Kellen, already a small and slim woman, seemed even more so as she stood with her Captain on the bridge trying to decipher what it was that had beckoned them here.

"I can't see anything through this rain, but that ship is massive." said Harrington in a quiet tone to his second in command. "The ship is certainly much larger than I'd expected to be."

"It didn't appear to be this large on radar, sir." agreed Kellen.

Harrington removed the binoculars from his eyes as he turned around to face the bridge's radar operators.

"Any luck figuring out what this thing is?" he asked.

"No sir." replied an officer grimly. "The vessel matches no known design in our database. We have no ID, Captain."

Harrington made a grunt of displeasure before speaking again. "Very well. Activate our spotlights." he ordered. "This thing's been silent since we've arrived. No communications from them yet... This is a strange situation. Light that ship up with spotlights so we can get a better look at it."

Harrington turned to face Commander Kellen.

"Commander, I want you to take a team aboard that ship, figure out what's going on over there. They're still broadcasting a distress signal, but it looks like no one's home. Take a security a team and a medical detail over, figure out what's going on."

"Aye, sir." replied Kellen as spotlights began to play across the massive hull of the vessel before them, revealing a hull coloured dull grey and what appeared to be a long, flat surface running the length of the ship.

"I think it's an aircraft carrier of some sort." Kellen said, gesturing at the flat surface. "I think that's a flight deck, sir."

"Big for a carrier." replied Harrington. "This thing looks to be twice as big as a Pax Magellanic Class... four times as large as a Nimitz Class."

The Captain raised his binoculars to his eyes once more as spotlights continued to dance across the surface of the vessel. He continued to examine the ship, trying to determine more about where it came from and what sort of distress it was in as Commander Kellen gathered together a team to go across and see for themselves what was going on aboard the ocean behemoth that bobbed in the waves ahead of them.

OOC: Anyone interested at all?