NationStates Jolt Archive


Fishing for trouble.(Story/showoff of new toy)

Crimmond
01-06-2005, 01:00
Climbing into the sky behind Sergeant Bela Szabo was the city of Avalon. Work crews had completed half of it so far and now the first colonists, which were mostly Trade Guild persons, were arriving to not only populate teh city, but help ready the city for a full scale population.

It was the first time Dracula(he only went by Bela on paper or with high on the hog superiors) had ever heard of a whole city being prefabricated. But there were no conquored cities in Gholgoth, so it was that or live off the land as peasants. He smirked at that thought as he strode down the docks of the marina towards several other Marines.

"Heya Dracula, we're all ready to go here." one of his men said as he came up, ignoring rank even though he was a Private and Szabo a Sergeant. Which was how Bela prefered his command. Less spit and polish and more get the job done. The men didn't salute or state rank unless the officers were around, but they followed orders and did their jobs well. In the end, that was all that counted to Szabo.

"Good. Let's take the Coastals out to the Monitor and escort her in, then... well, I think of that when we get there." he said, sliding into one of the XCP(Experimental Coastal Patrol) craft, staring the powerful hydrgen turbine, which was the quietest engine he'd ever heard, outside the ship they were going to go meet.

The five one-crew boats skimmed across the water's whitecaps like skipping stones, the fireteam enjoying the outing greatly. Despite the four heavy machineguns and the single torpedo that sat in the belly of the craft, it felt like a big toy when you got in it, speeding at more than 45 knots at full clip on still ocean. At half that, it was still fun and manuverable as hell. "Thar she blows!" a voice crackled over his headset.

The CSS Monitor was a big sub. Somewhere between the normal attack and boomer sizes, it was built to attack and haul cargo. From the conning tower, two officer's waved and Dracula fishtailed in response, before powering back, the rest of the fireteam surrounding the sub as it headed towards the large port of Avalon.

The trip in was a lot less fun than the trip out and Szabo closed his canopy and switched on his climate control. It was too hot to idle in(at only 10 knots, the high tuned engine was practicly doing so). So the fireteam started talking between each other. "Gotta love these new hydrgen engines. All they need is power and water. With the sun and ocean... hell, one could cross the Pacific on Autopilot, I bet." "Don't give them ideas. Next they'll make an unmanned Coastal and we'll be out of a-" He was about to say 'job' when the conning tower of the Monitor got a hole big enough to drive an 18 wheeler through in it. "DIVE!" he shouted and did just that.

The Coastal was a very versitial craft and all five Marines slipped under the waves. "Anyone see what hit the sub?" He called, picking up speed as he leveled off and hed around the back of the sub. "Missile came in from a fishing boat, Sarge." Dracula smirked at the title. "Allright. Let's pay them a visit."

The fishing boat had cut away it's nets, he saw as he surfaced enough to get a look at it. "He cut his nets. Spread and pin the bastards!"

Dracula's Coastal nosed under as bullet fire pock marked the water around it. Moments later, he surfaced again, at a 60 degree angle and launched himself like a catapult over the boat, slamming into the water on the other side and slipping beneath again. While he was in the air, he saw the Monitor. It was dead in the water, but it's crew was busy keeping the fire under control.

Bela's eyes narrowed as he came around and let fly his torpedo. "Fish in the water! Catch THAT you bastards!" He shouted, before a yell came over the radio. "Shit! We got two more ships shoo-" the next couple words were garbled by a shockwave. His torpedo was still three seconds from the boat though. "-onitor! They got the sub! She's going down fast!"
Crimmond
01-06-2005, 04:10
As the Monitor's surviving crew went into the chilly water, they saw a dark shape go under the sinking craft. Then two others.

The first fishing boat's spine snapped in a spectacular explosion, and it sank allmost immediatly. The other two though... they were spared being sunk. The torpedos meant for them struck the cast away nets full of fish and detonated.

"Damn fish! Surface and give them a taste of 30 cal!" Dracula ordered, popping his Coastal up. He lined up one of the boats and fired. Bullets spat out from the four weapons, which were custom made for the Coastals to endure seawater and not malfunction. Wood splintered, glass shattered. Men had their insides spread over the deck. His fire team was doing the same as him. All had converged on one though... "Corporal! Break off and hit the other. I'll assist." "Right Dracula."

Another five minutes of diving, surfacing, shooting and dying and the last 'fisherman' started to wave a white flag. "Hold fire." Szabo said, rounding his Coastal on the boat, which was starting to sink. The canopy slid back and Dracula stood up with the skill of a man who had good sea legs. He looked at the other coastals, who were lurking around it liek a pack of sharks.

The man on the boat kept waving that flag and shouting that he surrendered. He begged for mercy and rescue. Szabo finally answered after another two minutes, as the water started to slosh barely a foot below the deck. "What's your name?" he asked.

"I... I'm Alac Himmel!" the desperate man shouted back. "Who are you?"

Szabo smirked, then grew serious. "Why did you attack the Monitor?"

"I... I was just following orders! I'm the mechanic! I didn't have anything to do with the attack, I swear!"

"I don't care what you do on that boat. Why did it attack the Monitor?!" he shouted, causing the man to cringe.

"Don't kill me! I only know that we were hired to do it by some rich guy! Named... uh..." He seemed to rack his brain for the name. "Danathos!"

Bela hmmed. "Danathos? I don't know of... Wait. Was it din'Athos?"

"Yeah... Yeah! That's it!" he said, looking relieved.

Szabo didn't. Apparently there was still some purging to be done. "You asked my name, didn't you. I'm Sergeant Bela Szabo of the Imperial Crimmond Marine Corps." he paused. "But my men here... they call me Dracula." he grinned and looked around. After a second, he gave Himmel the finger and sat down. Before he could even strap in, the Coastals had fired three long bursts at the boat.

"Let not one survive..." Dracula murmered as he sealed up. "Sir?" "Lets go pick up those crewmen before they freeze or bleed to death."