X-293
Europe In Ashes
The year is 2123, and of Europe is in complete chaos. All the governments have been overrun. A countless number of riots have ensued and terrorist attacks between once allied countries have caused all pre- existing governments to collapse on themselves. Seeing their opportunity, well-funded and well lead radical terrorist groups from Africa have entered the scene to wreak havoc on the crumbling countries. To show their power to the world, they hunted down and killed all of the remaining government officials. With the leaders dead, the terrorists take control of each of the countries. Every day, hundreds of innocent civilians are dragged into the street and shot. By this time, World War III has come and gone, but during the brutal war, the Europeans and their allies stole nuclear weapons from the United States and Russia. With this power now under their command, the terrorists hold the entire world at gunpoint. With their own weapons aimed at themselves, the former nuclear superpowers can do nothing but sit and watch in fear. All of the stolen weapons are ready to be fired at a moments notice, should anyone try to make a move. Hope of overthrowing and killing the terrorists seems impossible. But a new submarine technology developed could make a liberation of Europe possible. An American veteran sub captain from World War III has been put in charge of the Top Secret sub, with the burden to train his crew to the best that they can be for their mission, which will decide whether the human race will live to see the third millennium.
Training
"Chief of the Watch, signal dive."
"Close the hatch."
"Hatch is closed."
"Twenty degrees down on the planes."
"Planes down at twenty degrees.
"Flood the main tanks."
"Main tanks flooded."
"Make your depth two-five meters."
"Making depth two-five meters"
"All ahead Two thirds."
"All ahead Two thirds."
"Hold heading of Two One Zero Degrees."
"Holding at Two One Zero Degrees."
"Raise the scope."
"Raising scope."
"Deck is awash."
"Depth at five meters."
"Depth at one-zero meters."
"Depth at one-five meters."
"Depth at two-zero meters."
"Depth at two-five meters."
"Level the planes."
"Planes level."
Suddenly, the radio crackled, "Captain, this is the Engine room. We are having a problem in here! The nuclear core is melting down! We have only five minutes until meltdown!" Then the radio went dead. Immediately, the captain started his stopwatch.
"Lower the scope, make your depth 200 meters. Hold heading. Thirty degrees down on the planes." Yelled the captain. "Chief of the watch, announce Red Alert. All hands forward." The ship's speaker squawked, "Red Alert, Red Alert! All hands forward."
One of the bolts broke letting water into the sub. "Someone stop that leak," ordered the Captain. Then another broke, and another, and another. There seemed to be no end to the steady stream of water that was entering the sub. Finally, when the captain was up to his waist in water, he calmly reached for the radio saying, "End the drill, we have sunk, pull us out." And he stopped his watch.
The crane activated, and the training sub was pulled out of the pool.
"Men, this is the captain, now I know that this was our first drill, but we only lasted twenty-eight seconds from the time of the alert to sinking. Now, had this been real, we would have just destroyed any and all vessels within a 25 mile radius. We must be able to reach a depth of 200 meters in order to avoid damaging other vessels in the water. Sinking will not get us down there fast enough. Now you all know, again, that if this were not a drill, and we had a nuclear meltdown, it would mean giving your lives to save those of others. I, of course, commend you for being willing to do so, but, unless we reach a safe depth in which the sub will be destroyed without damaging other vessels, our efforts are in vain. And the whole project would be a waste of time and resources. To be able to reach 200 meters within four and a half minutes, we must be sure that our bolts are securely in so that leaks are not so easy. And, we need to have a better job of fixing leaks that do occur. Finally, one more item we need to work on is getting all available hands to the front of the sub. If you don't already know, this will help us dive faster.
Now go change and meet me in the debriefing room at 1500 hours. Crew dismissed." At this the Captain saluted the XO, and sighing, opened the hatch. Pulling himself out of the sub, he crossed a small bridge, lowered during his speech and exited the training facility.
Briefing
The "captain", as he was known to most of the enlisted men under his command for this mission was Captain Lucas Ronoh. He was by far the most liked and highly respected captain in the navy, and was liked by officers and enlisted men alike. Luke, as he was know when not on duty, put a high priority on getting to know those under him on a best friend basis, and if any of the men, or women, had a problem, he was ready to help. But, one had to be careful to not get on his bad side, because once you did, you had a hell of a job cut out for you to get back on his good side.
"Captain Ronoh reporting as ordered, sir." He said as he saluted the Admiral.
"At ease. Have a seat, Captain. Would you like a drink?"
"No, sir. Thank you."
"You sure? I've tea, coffee, Coke and-"
"No thank you sir, I just finished lunch."
"Suit your self Captain," said Admiral Hunter as he grabbed a Coke from the refrigerator, and grabbed a cup of ice.
"Now," he said sitting behind his desk, "how did your boys do today in the trainer?"
"Well, they did two things right. We were able to dive to 25 meters without incident," said the Captain with a chuckle.
"And the second?"
"They did a darn good job in getting my lower half soaking wet."
At this the Admiral, always enjoying a good laugh, broke into a business like chuckle. "No, seriously, how did it go?"
"We have a heck of a lot to work on, sir. But, they are doing better that I expected, after only being notified for this assignment three days ago. I was surprised that you wanted me to be the one to execute this anyway. Sir, if I may speak freely."
"Of course, Captain."
"Why did you choose me for this assignment?"
"Captain, in World War III, you sailed thirty-seven missions that included the launch of tactical nuclear weapons. You completed every single one of the missions without any major problems. You have sunk twenty-one subs and eighteen surface ships. You are the best Captain in the entire Navy right now. You know how many captains in this military would love to be in your shoes?"
"I am sorry, sir."
"I was hoping that you would be. Now, lets discuss why you are here. You are the only captain who knows of what you have been asked to do, along with only the top military personnel in this government. I expect you to keep it that way. Not even your crew is to know what they are doing until you are long underway. You will personally brief your XO, Lieutenant Steele. I expect you two to keep this confidential. Is that understood, Captain?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. You may debrief your crew. Dismissed."
The two saluted, and Captain Ronoh left the office. As he did, he heard the Admiral ask for Lieutenant Steele to enter.
***
Lieutenant Erin Steele walked into the Admiral's office. She was a fit, attractive, skilled officer of 27. She had shoulder length, brown hair and blue eyes that would scare even the toughest of men when she stared them down. She was new to submarines, and was eager to start the mission, what ever it entailed.
"Lieutenant, thank you for coming. Please take a seat. Would you like a drink?"
"No, sir. Thank you."
"You submariners, never accept anything," mumbled the Admiral under his breath. "I know that you have no idea what you are training to do. That is why I wanted to speak with you."
"Of course, sir. What is it?"
"Well, I'll be brief so that you may help the Captain debrief your crew. Lieutenant, do you know what Top Secret means?"
"Yes sir, I do. It is the kind of mission where you do something that has never been done before, and it is the kind of mission where you are given medals, except the medals are given to your relatives."
"Is that what they taught you at the Naval Academy?" he said with a chuckle.
"No, sir."
"Really," he said. "That sounds like something a graduate would say. Now, I have ordered Captain Ronoh to brief you. I want you to give me your word as an officer that you will not tell anyone once you find out. No one at all. Is that understood? The captain will brief the enlisted men once you are underway. This must stay confidential or this will all be a waste of time."
"Understood, sir."
"Good. Thank you Lieutenant, that will be all."
"Aye aye, sir." She said saluting the Admiral, and she turned and left the room.
Night Scope
There was a soft rustling among the foot long grass; one so soft that you would think that there was a slight evening breeze. The rustling was followed by as soft click, which was not even noticeable without complete silence. Out of the silence came a yard long muzzle flash and the report of a sniper rifle. In the same instant, a watermelon burst into shreds at the impact of a 7mm magnum 180-grain hollow point bullet.
"Target achieved, preparing to returning to base." came a voice over the radio. Another rustle in the grass, this one larger than the first that continued at a slow, yet steady pace in one direction. This line continued for 400 yards, until the "breeze" reached a camouflaged barracks. This was the first time that the outline of a person was even slightly visible. The barracks' door opened and a person went inside.
"Eh, Hood, that you crackn' away out there?"
"Yah, why? Could you hear it?"
"Hood, you're firing a 7mm mag. Hell yeah I could hear it."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Datts, did I interrupt your beauty sleep?"
"Don't you know it. Anyone else gonna kill some melons tonight?"
"Nah, to cold now."
"Hey, Hood, Datts, shut up and get to bed will ya?"
"Yes, mother." two said in unison.
At that, Sergeant Louis Hood shut up and went to the men's room. He was starting to feel his shoulder hurting. Although he was the best sniper in World War III, still managed to take one to his right shoulder while running to take cover. The round broke his collarbone, and severely damaged his right shoulder, fracturing it into five separate parts. He was just getting used to firing a high power sniper rifle again, having moved up from the less powerful .243 and .308 training rifles.
The sergeant was still in his thirties, and very tall. He was liked by all of the Allies of the Americans, which was for pretty obvious reasons, and was hated by their enemies. He had grown up around firearms and hunting and had developed a great skill for marksmanship. He had gained a reputation that was, in a nutshell, if he had you in his sights, you might as well stop where you are and pray, because you could bet that he would nail you right between the eyes, no matter how fast or hard you were running.
"Sergeant Hood," came a stern voice from the door of the barracks. "Geez, can't a man get any sleep around here?" mumbled one of the men from his bunk. Finally after a moment without an answer, the man at the door flipped on the lights. This earned the man a lot of vulgar comments, and there was a round of swearing around the room, but it stopped when the men saw it was their superior officer. "Okay men, I know it is late, all I need is Sergeant Hood and y'all can go back to bed. Where is he?" the officer asked.
All the men looked at Sergeant Datts. "He's in the men's room, sir. I will let him know you were here." He said after a moment of thought. "No soldier, I must see him personally." was the reply.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to the tired men, Sergeant Hood came out. "Sergeant," the officer said. "I need to discus something. My office in ten minutes." The man said in a very stern voice. "Yes, sir." Hood said with a sigh. He had a tingle down his spine like he had done something wrong. It couldn't have been the firing. The cease-fire time was 10:30 PM. It was now 10:00. Had he fired at the wrong target? Did he hit another barracks on accident? Or even worse, had he hit another man? He couldn't have. The first thing that hunting had taught him was to be sure of your target and backstop before you even thought about firing.
But it had been dark when he had fired. Perhaps he missed something through the night vision goggles. No, he couldn't have. He was sure of it. He had even called in his position and target's position over the radio. All of the units that were out had reported that they were safely out of the area. If it wasn't that, what was it? He would have to wait and see.
New Orders
"Sergeant Hood, reporting as ordered," he said a soon as he walked into the door. "You're two minutes late, why." Came the heavy voice from behind the desk. It was dark outside, so no light was coming in through the windows behind the desk. The only light in the room came from the desk light on the desk, and because it was pointed down, ht could only see the numerous medals on the man's uniforms.
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't have a reason." If he were in trouble, he didn't want to make it any worse by lying to cover being late. "I'll excuse it for this time, but-" "It will never happen again, sir. I assure you." Hood cut him off. "Good, now, I apologize for dragging you out this late, but I have to talk to you about something of great urgency. I received a letter," the officer started. "There's always a letter," Hood mumbled under his breath. "You are being transferred. To where I don't know, but you are to report outside your barracks at 0600 hours. There, a Jeep will pick you up and take you to the airstrip. Hood, its h been good to have you around, we are really going to miss you." He said, and for once the intensity of his voice was almost gone. "Thank you, sir. It has been good to be here." Hood replied. "Gather your things, and be ready by 0600. Dismissed."
Europe In Ashes
The year is 2123, and of Europe is in complete chaos. All the governments have been overrun. A countless number of riots have ensued and terrorist attacks between once allied countries have caused all pre- existing governments to collapse on themselves. Seeing their opportunity, well-funded and well lead radical terrorist groups from Africa have entered the scene to wreak havoc on the crumbling countries. To show their power to the world, they hunted down and killed all of the remaining government officials. With the leaders dead, the terrorists take control of each of the countries. Every day, hundreds of innocent civilians are dragged into the street and shot. By this time, World War III has come and gone, but during the brutal war, the Europeans and their allies stole nuclear weapons from the United States and Russia. With this power now under their command, the terrorists hold the entire world at gunpoint. With their own weapons aimed at themselves, the former nuclear superpowers can do nothing but sit and watch in fear. All of the stolen weapons are ready to be fired at a moments notice, should anyone try to make a move. Hope of overthrowing and killing the terrorists seems impossible. But a new submarine technology developed could make a liberation of Europe possible. An American veteran sub captain from World War III has been put in charge of the Top Secret sub, with the burden to train his crew to the best that they can be for their mission, which will decide whether the human race will live to see the third millennium.
Training
"Chief of the Watch, signal dive."
"Close the hatch."
"Hatch is closed."
"Twenty degrees down on the planes."
"Planes down at twenty degrees.
"Flood the main tanks."
"Main tanks flooded."
"Make your depth two-five meters."
"Making depth two-five meters"
"All ahead Two thirds."
"All ahead Two thirds."
"Hold heading of Two One Zero Degrees."
"Holding at Two One Zero Degrees."
"Raise the scope."
"Raising scope."
"Deck is awash."
"Depth at five meters."
"Depth at one-zero meters."
"Depth at one-five meters."
"Depth at two-zero meters."
"Depth at two-five meters."
"Level the planes."
"Planes level."
Suddenly, the radio crackled, "Captain, this is the Engine room. We are having a problem in here! The nuclear core is melting down! We have only five minutes until meltdown!" Then the radio went dead. Immediately, the captain started his stopwatch.
"Lower the scope, make your depth 200 meters. Hold heading. Thirty degrees down on the planes." Yelled the captain. "Chief of the watch, announce Red Alert. All hands forward." The ship's speaker squawked, "Red Alert, Red Alert! All hands forward."
One of the bolts broke letting water into the sub. "Someone stop that leak," ordered the Captain. Then another broke, and another, and another. There seemed to be no end to the steady stream of water that was entering the sub. Finally, when the captain was up to his waist in water, he calmly reached for the radio saying, "End the drill, we have sunk, pull us out." And he stopped his watch.
The crane activated, and the training sub was pulled out of the pool.
"Men, this is the captain, now I know that this was our first drill, but we only lasted twenty-eight seconds from the time of the alert to sinking. Now, had this been real, we would have just destroyed any and all vessels within a 25 mile radius. We must be able to reach a depth of 200 meters in order to avoid damaging other vessels in the water. Sinking will not get us down there fast enough. Now you all know, again, that if this were not a drill, and we had a nuclear meltdown, it would mean giving your lives to save those of others. I, of course, commend you for being willing to do so, but, unless we reach a safe depth in which the sub will be destroyed without damaging other vessels, our efforts are in vain. And the whole project would be a waste of time and resources. To be able to reach 200 meters within four and a half minutes, we must be sure that our bolts are securely in so that leaks are not so easy. And, we need to have a better job of fixing leaks that do occur. Finally, one more item we need to work on is getting all available hands to the front of the sub. If you don't already know, this will help us dive faster.
Now go change and meet me in the debriefing room at 1500 hours. Crew dismissed." At this the Captain saluted the XO, and sighing, opened the hatch. Pulling himself out of the sub, he crossed a small bridge, lowered during his speech and exited the training facility.
Briefing
The "captain", as he was known to most of the enlisted men under his command for this mission was Captain Lucas Ronoh. He was by far the most liked and highly respected captain in the navy, and was liked by officers and enlisted men alike. Luke, as he was know when not on duty, put a high priority on getting to know those under him on a best friend basis, and if any of the men, or women, had a problem, he was ready to help. But, one had to be careful to not get on his bad side, because once you did, you had a hell of a job cut out for you to get back on his good side.
"Captain Ronoh reporting as ordered, sir." He said as he saluted the Admiral.
"At ease. Have a seat, Captain. Would you like a drink?"
"No, sir. Thank you."
"You sure? I've tea, coffee, Coke and-"
"No thank you sir, I just finished lunch."
"Suit your self Captain," said Admiral Hunter as he grabbed a Coke from the refrigerator, and grabbed a cup of ice.
"Now," he said sitting behind his desk, "how did your boys do today in the trainer?"
"Well, they did two things right. We were able to dive to 25 meters without incident," said the Captain with a chuckle.
"And the second?"
"They did a darn good job in getting my lower half soaking wet."
At this the Admiral, always enjoying a good laugh, broke into a business like chuckle. "No, seriously, how did it go?"
"We have a heck of a lot to work on, sir. But, they are doing better that I expected, after only being notified for this assignment three days ago. I was surprised that you wanted me to be the one to execute this anyway. Sir, if I may speak freely."
"Of course, Captain."
"Why did you choose me for this assignment?"
"Captain, in World War III, you sailed thirty-seven missions that included the launch of tactical nuclear weapons. You completed every single one of the missions without any major problems. You have sunk twenty-one subs and eighteen surface ships. You are the best Captain in the entire Navy right now. You know how many captains in this military would love to be in your shoes?"
"I am sorry, sir."
"I was hoping that you would be. Now, lets discuss why you are here. You are the only captain who knows of what you have been asked to do, along with only the top military personnel in this government. I expect you to keep it that way. Not even your crew is to know what they are doing until you are long underway. You will personally brief your XO, Lieutenant Steele. I expect you two to keep this confidential. Is that understood, Captain?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. You may debrief your crew. Dismissed."
The two saluted, and Captain Ronoh left the office. As he did, he heard the Admiral ask for Lieutenant Steele to enter.
***
Lieutenant Erin Steele walked into the Admiral's office. She was a fit, attractive, skilled officer of 27. She had shoulder length, brown hair and blue eyes that would scare even the toughest of men when she stared them down. She was new to submarines, and was eager to start the mission, what ever it entailed.
"Lieutenant, thank you for coming. Please take a seat. Would you like a drink?"
"No, sir. Thank you."
"You submariners, never accept anything," mumbled the Admiral under his breath. "I know that you have no idea what you are training to do. That is why I wanted to speak with you."
"Of course, sir. What is it?"
"Well, I'll be brief so that you may help the Captain debrief your crew. Lieutenant, do you know what Top Secret means?"
"Yes sir, I do. It is the kind of mission where you do something that has never been done before, and it is the kind of mission where you are given medals, except the medals are given to your relatives."
"Is that what they taught you at the Naval Academy?" he said with a chuckle.
"No, sir."
"Really," he said. "That sounds like something a graduate would say. Now, I have ordered Captain Ronoh to brief you. I want you to give me your word as an officer that you will not tell anyone once you find out. No one at all. Is that understood? The captain will brief the enlisted men once you are underway. This must stay confidential or this will all be a waste of time."
"Understood, sir."
"Good. Thank you Lieutenant, that will be all."
"Aye aye, sir." She said saluting the Admiral, and she turned and left the room.
Night Scope
There was a soft rustling among the foot long grass; one so soft that you would think that there was a slight evening breeze. The rustling was followed by as soft click, which was not even noticeable without complete silence. Out of the silence came a yard long muzzle flash and the report of a sniper rifle. In the same instant, a watermelon burst into shreds at the impact of a 7mm magnum 180-grain hollow point bullet.
"Target achieved, preparing to returning to base." came a voice over the radio. Another rustle in the grass, this one larger than the first that continued at a slow, yet steady pace in one direction. This line continued for 400 yards, until the "breeze" reached a camouflaged barracks. This was the first time that the outline of a person was even slightly visible. The barracks' door opened and a person went inside.
"Eh, Hood, that you crackn' away out there?"
"Yah, why? Could you hear it?"
"Hood, you're firing a 7mm mag. Hell yeah I could hear it."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Datts, did I interrupt your beauty sleep?"
"Don't you know it. Anyone else gonna kill some melons tonight?"
"Nah, to cold now."
"Hey, Hood, Datts, shut up and get to bed will ya?"
"Yes, mother." two said in unison.
At that, Sergeant Louis Hood shut up and went to the men's room. He was starting to feel his shoulder hurting. Although he was the best sniper in World War III, still managed to take one to his right shoulder while running to take cover. The round broke his collarbone, and severely damaged his right shoulder, fracturing it into five separate parts. He was just getting used to firing a high power sniper rifle again, having moved up from the less powerful .243 and .308 training rifles.
The sergeant was still in his thirties, and very tall. He was liked by all of the Allies of the Americans, which was for pretty obvious reasons, and was hated by their enemies. He had grown up around firearms and hunting and had developed a great skill for marksmanship. He had gained a reputation that was, in a nutshell, if he had you in his sights, you might as well stop where you are and pray, because you could bet that he would nail you right between the eyes, no matter how fast or hard you were running.
"Sergeant Hood," came a stern voice from the door of the barracks. "Geez, can't a man get any sleep around here?" mumbled one of the men from his bunk. Finally after a moment without an answer, the man at the door flipped on the lights. This earned the man a lot of vulgar comments, and there was a round of swearing around the room, but it stopped when the men saw it was their superior officer. "Okay men, I know it is late, all I need is Sergeant Hood and y'all can go back to bed. Where is he?" the officer asked.
All the men looked at Sergeant Datts. "He's in the men's room, sir. I will let him know you were here." He said after a moment of thought. "No soldier, I must see him personally." was the reply.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to the tired men, Sergeant Hood came out. "Sergeant," the officer said. "I need to discus something. My office in ten minutes." The man said in a very stern voice. "Yes, sir." Hood said with a sigh. He had a tingle down his spine like he had done something wrong. It couldn't have been the firing. The cease-fire time was 10:30 PM. It was now 10:00. Had he fired at the wrong target? Did he hit another barracks on accident? Or even worse, had he hit another man? He couldn't have. The first thing that hunting had taught him was to be sure of your target and backstop before you even thought about firing.
But it had been dark when he had fired. Perhaps he missed something through the night vision goggles. No, he couldn't have. He was sure of it. He had even called in his position and target's position over the radio. All of the units that were out had reported that they were safely out of the area. If it wasn't that, what was it? He would have to wait and see.
New Orders
"Sergeant Hood, reporting as ordered," he said a soon as he walked into the door. "You're two minutes late, why." Came the heavy voice from behind the desk. It was dark outside, so no light was coming in through the windows behind the desk. The only light in the room came from the desk light on the desk, and because it was pointed down, ht could only see the numerous medals on the man's uniforms.
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't have a reason." If he were in trouble, he didn't want to make it any worse by lying to cover being late. "I'll excuse it for this time, but-" "It will never happen again, sir. I assure you." Hood cut him off. "Good, now, I apologize for dragging you out this late, but I have to talk to you about something of great urgency. I received a letter," the officer started. "There's always a letter," Hood mumbled under his breath. "You are being transferred. To where I don't know, but you are to report outside your barracks at 0600 hours. There, a Jeep will pick you up and take you to the airstrip. Hood, its h been good to have you around, we are really going to miss you." He said, and for once the intensity of his voice was almost gone. "Thank you, sir. It has been good to be here." Hood replied. "Gather your things, and be ready by 0600. Dismissed."