NationStates Jolt Archive

Nakón-Hel Harbour, Northwestern Zaheran
09.00

Rear Admiral Hans Strauber looked out over the gray waters of the bay as his carrier group silently moved out of the harbour. The submarines had left two hours earlier, heading for their positions.
The exercise would be a large one, with large forces deployed. A tricky one, too. His force would'nt participate in part one, the game between the submarines and the Colstream carrier group. No, for now they would just observe, of course hoping that their compatriots in the subs would manage to win and "sink" the target, a Colstream carrier. Then, in part two, it would get very interesting. A battle between two carrier groups. Strauber smiled. His men were eager to prove themselves, and if he managed to win, he could look forward to a promotion.

Suddenly his adjutant walked into the bridge, making a snappy salute. "Good morning, sir. Everything is ready for Exercise Sea Lion. The subs are in position and waiting for the Colstreamians to appear".
The admiral nodded. "Very well. One of the reconnaissance planes have reported that they are on their way and should be in position soon. Everything else working okay?"
"Yes, only some small engine problems aboard Wulfenstein, nothing serious".
"Good. Tell me if something happens. Dismissed".
The young man saluted and left the room. Strauber turned back to the window.


Aboard the HMS Tieferwald
09.30

Captain Friedrich Schmere studied his maps. He knew this part of the Zacheri Sea well, having been a submariner for thirty years, and he intented to use the "terrain" to his advantage in the upcoming exercise. His index finger hit a spot on the map. There. Warm, shallow water, in a heavily trafficked area. He smiled. The Colstream Navy would have a hard time finding him there, especially with this sub. He looked at his watch. 09.30. It was time for his speech. He lifted the microphone. "This is your captain speaking. Exercise Sea Lion has begun.Our orders are to seek out a Colstream carrier group and "sink" the carrier. Our adversaries will of course try to stop us. You are one of the beast crews I have ever had, so I expect every man to do his best". He stopped for a moment, waiting for the words to sink in. "If we suceed in "sinking" the carrier undetected, each man on this boat will get a paid holiday on Medeva, for a week!" The crew members laughted and cheered. "From now on, we will maintain strict radio silence. All unnecessary noise is forbidden. It is not an easy task that we have ahead, but the rewards for success will be high indeed. We will show the Colstream Navy who is the best!"

The Colstream Carrier Fleet left Ashland Naval Base. Escorting the carriers was 15 "Viper Class" Destroyers. They started to move towards the start positions and commence the exercise. As they entered deep waters just inside Colstream Territorial Waters, the destroyers fired a salvo from their 12 inch guns to clear the lubricant from the chamber. Also they fired 1 depth charge easch. As they entered into International Waters, they changed course towards the start positions.

A reconnaissance airplane discovered the carrier group and relayed the information to Admiral Strauber on the giant Galileo-class carrier Oceanus. No attempt was made to contact the submarines, they had orders to observe complete radio silence. Still, it was interesting to for Strauber to see the red symbols slowly move across the map, coming closer and closer to his subs. His officers stood around him, taking notes. The move pattern might give them a hint about Colstream naval tactics, information that would keep the intelligence services busy for a while.

As they passed the start positions the carriers were ordered to swing north and move away from the estimated positions of the Zaheran Subs dipicted by the military analysts.

Day 2: 8am

A message came though on the bridge of the CSC Blackheart. 3 of the 8 carriers involved had to pull out of the exercise and head back east to support a Fleet helping Colstreams Ally The American Privateer. That means only 5 carriers would take part in the campaign. The good thing was that they had using heavy encription on the new coding machines that meant that the Zaheran forces would be confused making it a even more interesting exercise.

Aboard HMS Tieferwald

"A group of ships to the east, Captain", a sonarman said. "I believe it's those we are looking for. The signatures corresponds to the charts".
Schmere nodded. "Two-thirds speed!", he ordered. "Come left twenty degrees. We might have the bastards".

The Tieferwald responded, turning east after the carrier group.

One of the carriers heading away from the main group suddenly heard a ping in its sonar system. As they came into view, CSC Tigerlily began a clear and precise message to the pursuing Zaheran Ships.

TO ZAHERAN SHIPS:
FROM CSC TIGERLILY

THESE CARRIERS ARE NOW HEADING TOWARDS AN CONFLICT AREA. THESE CARRIERS ARE NO LONGER IN THE EXERCISE AND ARE HEADING BACK TOWARDS THE COLSTREAM MAINLAND TO REPLACE OUR TRAINING BOMBS AND MISSILES FOR LIVE ORDINANCE IN PREPERATION OF HEADING INTO A WAR TORN AREA. THESE SHIPS ARE NO LONGER VIABLE TARGETS. SORRY FOR THIS OCCURING.

END OF MESSAGE:

"Damn", Schmere swore. "Wrong target!". He raised his voice. "Okay, boys, those guys are no longer part of the exercise. We'll head north from here".

TO CSC TIGERLILY
FROM HMS TIEFERWALD

UNDERSTOOD. APOLOGIES FOR DISTURBING YOU. HAVE A NICE WAR.

END OF MESSAGE.

The submarine turned north, continuing it's search for the target carriers.

The main carrier fleet heard the exchange on the airwave scanners and couldn't believe their luck. They increased their speed to increase distance and the escorting destroyers fired several dummy Tomahawk Missiles at the position where they now knew where they were coming from. Cameras on the noses of the missiles would help the operators aim them as they moved.

The submarine dived quickly, hiding under a layer of warm water which would confuse the attacker's sonars.

Another nearby submarine noticed the main carrier group when it speeded up. Hoping that the group's active sonars would be inoperable because of the high speed, it followed the group in it's wake, waiting for a opening in the screen of destroyers.

Aboard CSC Blackheart, a confusing noise was heard in the Operations Room. The Captain, Admiral Harry Trauer decided to keep formation and fire several depth charges to amke sure the echoes were not a submarine. He also ordered that the Destroyers move closer to the Carriers but enough for aircraft to take off.

The Tomahawks beared down on the Zaheran Ships. The camera operators began to see distant shapes on the surface. There was now only 2 miles to go before they hit the positions.

The depth charges didn't trouble the submarine captain much. They were way of target, but it was clear that they suspected something. The destroyer screen had moved closer to the carriers, so his chance of slipping through to take a shot at the valuable ships had diminished. Well, he could wait. Sooner or later they would tire.

The missiles, likewise, didn't do much harm. Crashing harmlessy into the sea, the sound waves from the explosion couldn't disturb the sonars aboard the submarines, which were beginning to gather around the carrier group like a pack of wolves. Two were already at the site and had been engaged, and the other five were travelling at high speed towards the area.

The Fleet began to move northwards and then decreased their speed to check their sonars. Also a storm had started. They only had 50% of their fuel here and the carriers they had sent away were not coming back. The exercise had already cost them real damage with one sailor being washed overboard.

Around 3pm in the afternoon a fire started to rage in CSC Grelic's forward magazine putting the ship at risk from exploding. The ships fire control began to fight the fire thinking there was no live ammunition in there. The ship moved to the rear of the convoy to minimise any threat to the other ships.

At 3:45, Without warning the forward magazine of CSC Grelic exploded in a huge fireball. The ship suddenly went dead in the water. The other ships swung round breaking formation to help the ship which now was down by the Bow. The crew of the stricken ship was evacuated as the ship started to sink with a huge hole in the startboard side. At 4:30pm the ship was half submerged in water. The ship finally sank at 4:55pm taking 120 out of 300 with her. The ships around the wreckage held their position so if the Zaheran Subs were nearby, they would know what had happened.