Chapter 3
"Conn, sonar: Multiple contacts bearing 315! I think it's the fleet!" Sonar called over the headset to every officer in the room, each of them wincing at the sudden burst. It wasn't that early in the morning but it wasn't that late either. Jack had only just woken up an hour ago and gone to monitor the current situation. They had made progress faster than expected so it was still a few hours before the exercise was slated to start.
The last two nights had been an experience for the crew. The already small crew having to get used to being thinned out for their nightly shifts. Everyone was worked hard but as long as everyone knew their job and worked hard on it they were fine.
If anyone had to really complain it would be Nicholas. The poor guy was up next to non-stop due to him being the only designated pilot. He had traded off with an enlisted who had a decent idea of the controls. Not that that really made him feel much better, he would train the him until a level of proficiency was reached.
The 3 meals a day had been amazing, high quality food combined with a relatively competent chef, Buckman. The steak and mash potatoes from the first night were still fresh in everyone's mind. Jack had an idea to give the men a small treat once they 'sunk' their first ship. The goal would be at least 60,000 tons considering the technical superiority among other factors. Every 10,000 he would make sure they received another treat. If they somehow managed to reach the ungodly number of 100,000 then he would throw some sort of party. Unless they sank almost every ship their they would need to destroyer the Yamato class battleship Musashi along with a few screens.
Now by the rules that Jack was aware of, as soon as his submarine was 'sunk', he needed to surface. Upon this he would raise a white flag and head towards Yokosuka port. If he wasn't sunk then he could re-arm and continue until the end of the exercise, maintaining radio silence for most of the time.
Robert had taken the earlier shift and had been awake for a few hours before Jack, black coffee in hand. This new duty of being in control of men had taught them a few valuable lessons, one of which was always listen to the COB. David was their true connection with the enlisted crewmen and if a problem came up he would know about it. The basic structure of the submarine's command wasn't the only thing he had learned. The personality of a few crew members had changed being underwater, even for such a short period.
George seemed to get more and more crazy as the volts came and went. No one really knew what to say although he did seem to have a good friendship with Scotty. Sonar had become glued to the screen like a two-year-old watching cartoons, it was rare to see him not at his post. The corpsman, David, had begun checking peoples physical and mental conditions at the most random of times. Jack didn't bother to ask as long as he didn't have to deal with it. Jake and the torpedo room had begun tinkering with one of the Mk37s. He didn't really know what the goal was but as long as it didn't explode, he was cool with it.
"David can I get a reading?" Jack needed to know exactly what their depth, speed, and heading was for what he was about to do next.
"We're underway at a depth of 50 meters, 22 knots, and a heading of 340!"
"Good, good. Nicholas bring us up to periscope depth!"
"Periscope depth maneuvering aye!" Nicholas began fiddling with a series of buttons before the submarine began ascending. Within the minute they were cruising along normally. The only thing left was to throw up the periscope.
"Nicholas make speed 5 knots…up scope!" The periscope once again popped into the middle of the room as Jack flipped the handles down.
"Alright someone tell Sonar to keep an eye on that sonar. I'm going to let them know we're in the general area and heading out to sea." Jack knew their starting position was 50 miles away from the current position. There was also a few ships belonging to a German school somewhere out in the oceanic arena.
Looking around, Jack noticed a myriad of ships from the small destroyers and cruisers to the big battleships. A few Japanese submarine sails could be seen in the distance. The sea was relatively calm and the ships were clearly loud judging by Sonar taking off his headset and plugging his ears. Flipping a switch on the periscope he began to flicker the communication light in Morse code. It only took a few seconds before he got the attention of the main administrative Japanese ship, an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship.
The ship looked like something straight out of a sci fi film. From the angles making up the hull to the single Mk 45 Mod 4 gun in the front. Every piece on that ship served a purpose to its design no matter how ugly and Jack knew if they went up against one of those things in combat, they weren't making it out alive.
USS Pearl SSN-580 checking in! The message only took him a few seconds to relay before he got a reply. A simple Understood was all he got as he continued looking through the eye piece. He took most of the time looking at the destroyers and their ASW equipment, namely the depth charges. Other than that, there weren't really any dangers to his submarine as they would never have to surface.
"Down scope!" Jack had finished 'talking' to the Japanese instructor. They had two hours to get to their starting position before the exercise begun.
"Conn: the periscope is rigged and ready for dive!" David was technically the acting dive officer as they didn't have one. Jobs had to be combined and crewmembers taking greater responsibility, it would one day pay off.
"Steven, you alive?" The crew laughed as their chief navigator rubbed his eyes, he had fallen asleep.
"Captain, sad to report I'm still ticking!"
"Well give me a course to our starting area!" Jack didn't know the exact course and it would only take Steven a second do so.
"Can I give the order to Nicholas?" Everyone laughed once more at Steven's request as Jack tried to calm them all down.
"Fuck it, why not?" Steven had a look of delight on his face as he calculated their position with glee.
"Bring us to 030, pick her up to 22 knots and dive to 100 meters!" Steven's first orders were the most basic but he didn't care, he was having the time of his life. Jack knew it was against regulation but getting to issue orders to a nuclear submarine was a morale booster. That was something he wanted to keep high among the crew.
"Conn, helm: Come right to 030, helm aye!" Nicholas turned, sped up, and dove at the same time using his state of the art controls. The crew could feel the submarine take in water and speed up. While no issue of specific angle of dive was issued Nicholas had learned that the typical dive was around 5 degrees down bubble.
Jack sat down on his captain's chair before running a hand through his brown hair. Letting out a big breath of air he spoke.
"Crew of the Pearl, your first war game will be starting in less than two hours. Now while we only have two days together as a crew we have something the enemy doesn't. We have 2,850 tons of American nuclear ingenuity. I want you all to treat this like our great grandfathers did back in WW2! We will be the sole survivor of this exercise and remember, the admirals back home will be watching us!"
A cheer went among the crew as a chant began, USA, USA, USA! The feeling was ecstatic, any resemblance of fear wasn't to be seen in their eyes. In the minds of the crew they were representing America and a long-standing tradition of submarine warfare. Failure was unacceptable and each one of them was willing to go through hell to prove it.
The noise soon died down when Scotty popped over the comms.
"You know Captain I really wish we had a tear drop hull, we'd be quieter and faster." The officers laughed, no one knew how Scotty's mind had jumped from a speech about preparation to submarine design.
"Well we all do but this is the most advanced submarine a student could ever get. Do you not like her?" The atmosphere was somewhere between laughing and disappointed. Of course, they wanted something better, but this was the best they could get.
"I love her but there's just a few little things that make my job a pain sometimes."
"Scotty all of our jobs are a pain half of the time, care to explain?"
"The S4W reactor has a tendency to overheat when going at high speeds for an extended period of time. While our hull is an improvement over the Nautilus it doesn't have the same design as the later Skipjack class. To put it simply, our hull was designed for running on the surface and it wasn't till the Albacore showed us we were wrong that it was changed. In terms of the numbers were also a hell of a lot louder than the other diesel submarines we'll go against."
"I completely agree with you on everything you just said but if there now testing the feasibility of a Skate class what's stopping them from next year adding in a Skipjack class. Just like the Albacore we're a test and regarding how loud we are we do have an advantage. We can dive deeper and stay there forever and now we won't be traveling at high speeds since it is a patrol. Expect to be at 10 knots…oh and by the way with the new modern equipment we have we're actually as quiet as a Skipjack, 140 ish decibels at 20 knots!"
"You're right but still that is considered a noisy submarine and on the regards of the WW2 diesels they'll be around 120 decibels!"
"I know but that's not even when running silent, we can cut it down too around 120 ish decibels and remember these numbers are only the noise the hull creates a foot away. The farther you get out the quieter we are and considering their passive sonar is crap comparatively. There's also ambient noise, a surface duct and a thermal layer. Besides we have the best crew here!"
"Sorry for the worry Captain but it's my job to worry about anything engineering."
"Oh, trust me I know and I want you to keep worrying. If there's any modifications you think we can do to make us quieter then by all means let me know!"
"Thank you, Captain, means a lot." It almost sounded as if Scotty was sniffling over the mic. The room now had an uneasy tension as Jack's mind wondered about what to say. Thankfully Robert came to his rescue with a myriad of questions.
"Alright Steven get a topographical map of the area plus any readings as to what the layers are. I also want forecasts of the weather for the next month plus an idea as to what's near us!"
"Yes sir!" Steven and the 2 other members of the navigation department began racing to figure out their location's information. This was one of those things where a department had to take on the job of another due to the small crew compliment.
There was still an awkward silence for about a minute until the department had the requested information.
"Ok so most of the arena will be at around 100-300 meters in depth and is around the Izu islands. Around 35 miles away bearing 255 we get water around 1,000 m. Around 25 miles away from us bearing 070 it'll actually shoot down to 8300 meters as we enter the Izu-Ogasawra trench." The officers' minds twisted around the problem as they began analyzing the various data in front of them. Jack knew that as the Captain he should take charge.
"We can hunt in the areas of around 300 meters. I want us to try and use the terrain to our advantage so let's stay around the edges of the map. Are the maps of the trench hyper accurate?"
"Yes, the Japanese have spent decades doing so and they have it down to a foot. We'll have enough clearance that the foot won't matter anyways."
"Alright Robert get me the known fleet composition of all enemy forces. Steven do you have the weather readings?"
"Well there should be a nice 5-knot southwesterly wind for the next 3 days. On the 4th day there is a predicted storm so that'll cover our current half of the arena for 3 days with a northeasterly up to 27 knots and with heavy rain. The air temperature will be in the 50s to 60s then entire time with a possible low of the mid 40s. The water is unusually cold and will be in the 40s. A strong thermocline layer is present almost everywhere until you get to 100-200 meters of water."
"Good, keep that handy. I have a really strong gut feeling we'll need it!" Steven knew that meant his job was done and he went back to his station. Now all he could do was wait for any new orders, a gut-wrenching feeling.
"I have a list here of all known enemy ships! 6 2,540-ton Kagero class destroyers, 36 type 2 depth charges each since their late model with a speed of up to 35 knots. 5 of them were sunk during WW2 by American submarines so if we have the element of surprise and close range we should put a torpedo into them. 1 72,809-ton operational Yamato class battleship, it has a type 0 hydrophone system with no ASW capabilities. Top speed of 27 knots so I would recommend we give it 3-4 torpedoes if given the chance."
"Got it what else? I know I saw a few submarines and there's also our German friends."
"Yea um…2 30,000-ton Kongou class battlecruisers capable of 30 knots and another basic hydrophone system. No ASW capabilities so I would recommend we give it 2-3 of our torpedoes."
"They don't have any normal cruisers?"
"Not that I know of Captain, if they did it would be a 5,800-ton Sendai-class at 35 knots and 56 mines. Now the submarines are a different story, most of them will be an assortment of German U-boats but there will be 3 1,503-ton Japanese I-201 class submarines. They're a fast attack sub capable of up to 19 knots under with the fastest torpedo of WW2, the type 95 which can get up to 51 knots although it's not a problem for us."
"And the Germans subs?" Robert flicked through the separate screens of his iPad so fast one could wonder whether or not he was actually reading them.
"They're bringing 15 subs to the party, 10 type 7Cs, 3 type 9Cs, and 2 type 21s. Now those 21s we really need to be careful about, part of the Pearl's design was after those. They're 17 knots under and a hell of a lot more advanced than anything else, quietest things out there."
"What about the torpedoes? I heard the Germans are starting to use acoustics and ditch the old gyroscopic ones."
"Yea about that, I don't know. Let's say worse comes to worse and they do have them. They'll be packin the G7es which can hit us up to 5700 meters away at a speed of 24 knots. They were designed to sink convoys but I heard they modified them to work on subs. They're really sensitive so if we make even the slightest noise we're fucked."
"Fuck…we do have noisemakers, right?" If the Germans really did have acoustic torpedoes then an effective countermeasure was needed.
"Yea we have 20 of them."
"Good although I'm worried that might not be enough, can we jerry rig any?" Roberts mind tried to figure out his Captain's question, then it hit him. If he wanted the answers to something that could be classified as a weapon why didn't he just ask the weapons officer?
"No idea Captain. I recommend you ask Jake, he's the weapons officer so he should know."
"Someone go get Jake!" Jack didn't even respond or look up as he gave orders. He could hear someone run down the passageways of the submarine, not a word being said.
"I do however have some information on the one German ship." A few second pause was all that happened as Jack looked up with a confused face.
"C'mon man, if you say you have information speak it!" Everyone laughed as Jack wiped his brow, even with the air-conditioned room he seemed to be sweating.
"Right, the 14,890-ton armored cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. She can go 28.5 knots but doesn't have any ASW capabilities. If we get a chance I would recommend we give her 1-2 torpedoes although I can guarantee she'll have a sub escort."
"Sonar get your ass down here!" This time it was David who yelled as the crew laughed. Sonar ran from his position like Usain Bolt before sliding down the ladder and saluting, hitting his head in the process.
"Yes, Master Chief?" He still seemed a bit in shock from hitting his head although no one decided to press that.
"You have your sonar iPad…right?" Jack wasn't sure what David had planned but whatever it was it would be good.
"Of course!"
"Well then get it the fuck out!" This time the crew in the conn died as Sonar went into overdrive taking the iPad out and turning it on.
"Got it!"
"Ok I'm going to give you a list of ship and sub classes, make sure we have them documented!"
"Shoot!"
"Alright, Kagero, Kongou, Musashi, I-201, Sendai, U-boat type 7Cs, U-boat type 9Cs, U-boat type 2, and the Admiral Graff Spee!" Sonars fingers moved so fast that if he was 50 feet tall he would of caused a tornado. His only response was yes, yes, yes much to the relief of David.
"Is that it?"
"Yes, now go home!" Sonar saluted once more before sprinting up the ladder and back into his little room. The crew at that point were pretty much done laughing although a few were still wiping away a few tears.
"Jesus dude, you didn't have to be that hard on the poor guy." Jack showed a bit of his soft side as he too wiped away a tear.
"Yea I know but It was fucking hilarious." And he was completely right, it had to be one of the funniest moments on board the submarine so far. Although so far didn't really explain much as this was only their third day out to sea.
"True but remember, that guys our sonar operator and can fuck this whole thing up for us. Give the poor guy a break sometimes."
"Yes Captain, I'll make sure not to bust him 100% of the time. Only 90% of the time!" Jack gave him a disapproving look causing him to reiterate.
"80%...50%...argh fine only 20% of the time! You happy?" All David got back was a slight smile from Jack as David gave an annoyed look. There was a few seconds of silence before Jack finally spoke with a big sigh.
"I'm going to address the crew." Jack, turning on his headset, moved the hat into a more comfortable position atop his head before speaking once more.
"Crew of the USS Pearl its your Captain speaking once again. Thank you for taking this submarine as your preferred method of travel, the United States thanks you! Now if you look to your left you'll see metal, if you look too your right you'll see more metal…fascinating! Nah I'm just fuckin with y'all, onto the real reason were here. In less than 20 minutes our exercise will be starting so I want everyone to get ready. We will be facing a myriad of surface ships from the small but deadly Kagero class destroyers to the big, dumb, and juicy target of the Yamato class battleship Musashi. Aside from the ASW capabilities of the destroyers we're going to have to deal with the probability of 15 U-boats equipped with acoustic torpedoes. Get ready to go on are first patrol, combat could come at any second. Captain Jack out!"
The atmosphere turned heavy as the boys steeled their nerves. In less than 20 minutes they would begin their first ever war game. Combat was certain and the chance that something could turn bloody was there, no matter how low it still worried a few. If it the atmosphere really hit anyone it would have to be Jack. If anything happened to the crew he could be held responsible and as the Captain probably would be.
The United States Navy and various high school programs had a history of scapegoating a ship's captain no matter how obvious it was that it wasn't his fault. An 'arm chair admiral' was the most dangerous thing in his opinion and the fact that could ruin one's life disgusted him.
Other than that, he seemed relatively at ease, yet his mind was at war. A war filled with a thousand different battlegrounds and a million different tactics. He could try and skirt around the trench to use its depths as cover with the added bonus of the walls helping mask an active sonar trace.
"Captain do we have an idea as to what our course will be?" Steven called over the intercom, an important question in mind.
"I think so…we're going to patrol southward along the outside of the Izu-Ogasawra trench at a depth of 200m. We'll continue along that course unless we receive a trace of an enemy. Assuming we don't we'll cover it till we get 5 miles away from the border. When that's done set a course bearing 270 which we'll continue until we make contact. I have a feeling that if they're not along this trench then they'll be at the bottom."
"Yes, Captain plotting a course right now!" A small smirk came across his face. He believed that was the best course of action and if anyone wanted to contest him they'd be welcome to do so. No one said a word until Jake came up from the torpedo room. What on earth had taken him so long? Jack didn't know but he decided there were more pressing matters ahead.
"Captain!" A salute in the most fashionable manner was given causing a few of the crew looking over to smirk.
"Jake you're in charge of the noise makers, right?"
"Sort of…one of my enlisted guys is really in charge of it although I'm head of the department."
"Well do you know how they work and so forth?" Jack really didn't want to have to send him back and get someone else on the conn. This should have happened earlier but due to some mysterious delay, didn't.
"I know everything that can be jettisoned from this sub Captain."
"Good! Then if we run out of noisemakers can we make new ones if resupply isn't available?" Jake scratched his head for a few seconds as his mind tried to piece together its chromosomes.
"They won't be as effective but yeah we can probably make a few out of some of the equipment on board. Bit worried what'll happen if we run out of that stuff though."
"Well then let's make sure that doesn't happen."
"Yes Captain!" Jake saluted once more and turned to leave, Jack stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Hey about that one 'work in progress' Mk 37. What are you guys doing with it?"
"Well we're mostly trying to see if we can improve anything on it. You know speed, range, target acquisition, and general noise characteristics. It's kinda like open heart surgery though so results will be dependent on work which will take a while. We don't want to risk setting the damn thing off, even though it's a training torp it's still dangerous."
"I see although if there's anything you're gonna work on make it the general speed of the torpedo. The range is fine and the passive running on the thing is quiet, only 120 decibels. You'll never be able to make the 230-decibel active run quieter so don't try. If you can get the damn thing into the 40-50 knot range then were cooking with Crisco!"
"Got it, although…with the Otto fuel engine we will need to do some possibly combustive chemistry to make it so. If the Navy guys in the cold war couldn't do it then I'm not sure we can either."
"Don't think that way, we now have half a century worth of data regarding the fuel mixture with us. Just take some of that and tweak it a little, please though don't reduce the range, I'm happy where it's at."
"The chemistry side of this, my department is good but were not that good."
"Ok I'll send some help over from engineering, one of them has to know a little something about chemistry or owns a book about it. If not then I'll put out a ship wide call, if your new design works then we might be able to hit the Japanese destroyers from range!" An excited tone could be heard. Jack knew that it wasn't the fact that it would help them win, but the fact that if this worked out then they could present it to the academy. They would be stoked about it and the influential crew members could possibly receive awards. Awards would have to wait though as Jake turned around and headed towards his post. Something caught his mind though as he once again turned his head around back towards Jack.
"Hey if its ok with you can we paint a shark's face on the torpedo?"
"Will it there be any negative effects?"
"Not that I'm aware of. It'll just take a little too dry so we'll only do a few at a time."
"Then sure! I'll check in sometime to see it!"
"Alright then thanks Captain!" With that he once again continued back to his post. No further interruptions were to be had this time, much to Jack's relief.
"Starting in 5 minutes Captain!" David could clearly be seen looking down at his wrist, a G-shock with a timer evident.
"Alright I want all final preparations made, chop, chop!" Jack looked over at David he knew the plan. The Master Chief taking over the job of dive officer once again.
"Nicholas set depth 200 meters, ahead 2/3, start patrol bearing 165!"
"Set depth 200 meters, ahead 2/3, start patrol bearing 165, maneuvering aye!" The submarine slightly shifted as Nicholas pushed the airplane like controls down. Jack chuckled in the background causing both David and Robert to look at him.
"Do you think that when there's a torpedo close by and we need to react within the second that we should say flood depth control, down on the planes?" The officers all mentally scratched their heads and in the case of Jack physically as they wondered what the exact procedure would be.
"I don't see why not and I'll give you an update on depth every 50 meters, every 10 once we approach crush depth!" David was the first to reply as Robert made his way to the nearest ladder.
"I'm going to go notify one of the engineers about the whole torpedo situation." That was all he said before climbing up the ladder. Jack laughed at this sudden shift in attitude as he turned his attention back towards David's wrist watch.
"2 minutes Captain, ya nervous?" There was a bit of uneasiness in David's voice. Jack now knew for sure they were all nervous but who wasn't. This up and coming series of events could judge their life and what happens later on in it.
"You know it although I do kinda want to give both the Japs and Nazis a torpedo!"
"Hey as long as the torpedo doesn't come back I don't care where it goes!"
"You know it…although I do have one question." Jack seemed to have a knack for asking questions right before important events, this was no exception.
"Shoot!"
"Are we allowed to go after merchant vessels if they belong to the various schools?"
"Merchant vessels? Like supply and repair ships?" The question was a bit of an odd one though important.
"There isn't a rule that says were not allowed too although how will we know if it's a school ship?"
"I bet sonar and his iPad can tell the difference. What other vintage WW2 ships would be going around?"
"Alright then that settles it, we can target them if we get the chance."
"Cool although I don't want to use more than one torpedo on them. We're already gonna be cutting it tight depending on who we run into. Which…by the way…who do you want to make contact with first?" David was quiet for a few seconds as he thought of an answer. It wasn't in an important question, just one that would require personal preference and thought.
"The Germans!" He held his finger about a foot away from his chest as he pointed into the air.
"Why?"
"Well I think that it'll be great for us to get some sub to sub combat. Also, since they're the biggest threat to us I'd like to get them out of the way early on so we can have relatively free reign over the Japanese." It was true their biggest danger was the German U-boats and their acoustic torpedoes. The Japanese really only could challenge them with depth charges and while effective the sub could simply speed away. All they would have to do is get to a depth where cavitation wasn't a problem at full speed and then motor it away. The depth charges would take a while to sink to the certain depth and by that time they sub would already be out of the area of effect.
"Makes sense, makes sense. Alright one more question…what should we do for the crew when we get kills or reach landmarks? You know like something every 10,000-tons sunk. I'm thinking a nicer dinner but I want your opinion."
"Sure, I think we should have a nicer dinner as well but for every major landmark like the first 25,000 we should make some sort of ceremonial drink, possibly bug juice!" Now bug juice was a sugary drink made of a mysterious powder in the US Navy. Whether or not it actually has any real fruit or sugar is debatable.
"If we make 100,000 tons I think we should throw a party when this is over, even more so if we win!" Jack was still sort of ecstatic at the prospect of winning their first war game.
"Hell yeah! Let's make sure it happens and when it does we'll finalize plans!" The two boys both laughed and patted each other on the back only to be interrupted by a sudden beeping. They both looked around for the source of the noise until David realized where it was coming from, his watch. It only took a second after for Jack to realize the same and he immediately straightened up as Robert returned to the conn. Not a single second was wasted as he got onto the intercom.
"Attention…attention…the war game has begun. I repeat the wargame has begun. Prepare for a general quarters class at any moment, over!" The human noise of the submarine stopped that instant as every member on their post begun working. Those few not on the job returned to their respective bunks and what not with a new-found quietness. The air was tense with the shallow breathing of the crew. Even though they weren't running silent the crew acted like they were. Jack only said one thing before sitting down, that one thing seemed to echo through the passageways of the sub.
"Into the depths we go…God bless our souls."
That's it for Chapter 3! I hope you guys liked it as much as I did. I will be away for about a week mountain climbing so I'm sorry if the next chapter of Ghost Pilots of Saunders is delayed a little. If there is anything you wan't me to know please leave a review!
As always I do not own Haifuri
