18 December 2020 0800 hrs

With the sun slowly rising from the eastern horizon, the USS Republic sailed majestically with her bow pointed towards the open Atlantic ocean with what little land still visible quickly disappearing over the horizon, the destroyer had docked in Gibraltar the night before to top off her tanks and it now had in it, more than enough fuel for the trans-Atlantic voyage, Captain Anna Kristiansen was sitting on the captain's chair aboard the vessel's bridge looking down at shipwide status reports and weather updates on her iPad with a frown on her face…

"something doesn't seem to add up" she thought.

Walking up towards his captain from the chief navigator's station, a concerned looking Commander Kristoff Bjornman noticed his captain's frown.

"Everything Alright captain?"

Anna Swiveled her chair around to face the first officer and replied in a casual tone. "Peachy commander, it's just that… look at this" Anna handed the XO her iPad; when he looked down at it, Kristoff saw a North Atlantic weather map and squinted his eyes in confusion."Uuh.. captain, this is a satellite weather reading"

"Yes it is commander '' said Anna with a pointed look on her face. a satellite reading of an area that we've been monitoring for days". She pointed her finger at a red blur on the weather radar about 200 kilometers in diameter, and about 120 nautical miles ahead of them, the red blur indicated a very low-pressure area, or in other words, a large storm. "You see this LPA right here right in the middle of our planned route? that entire weather system wasn't there 20 minutes ago"

Commander Bjornman looked incredulously at his Captain while handing back her iPad.

"With all due respect captain, What do you mean it wasn't there?, LPAs don't just form out of nowhere, if there was a storm brewing in the Atlantic, we would've noticed it forming before we left Taranto."

"Exactly commander" replied Captain Kristiansen. "Especially a weather system of this magnitude". added the captain while Looking down and furiously tapping on the iPad. "200 kilometers in diameter, and sustained winds of up to 160 kph."

"Look Commander Bjornman, Category 2 hurricanes don't just appear out of nowhere, especially ones of such sheer size, AND the fact that it's smack in the middle of our projected course, meaning there's no way that we could've simply missed it, so either both the weather satellite feed and weather radar is broken, or something isn't right about this storm, and frankly commander, I'm leaning towards the latter."

Kristoff made a gesture to Anna to hand him the iPad, which she promptly did. Kristoff then tapped the playback button for the weather radar and set it back about 20 minutes. And sure enough, the iPad showed clear skies over the entire North Atlantic until the giant storm in question genuinely appeared out of thin air about 18 minutes ago.

"What in the…" mumbled a confused Kristoff while constantly replaying and refreshing the weather radar feed.

"See commander, that storm appeared out of nowhere, and we are now heading straight into it. By my estimate, we'll enter the outer edges of the storm in about 5 and a half hours"

"Alright captain, said Kristoff in an exasperated voice. I stand corrected". "Anyways, strange or not, there's no denying that we're headed straight into a category 2 hurricane, what's our next course of action ma'am?"

Anna pondered for a minute, according to the weather radar, she could expect up to 20 ft waves near the eye of the storm, nothing an Arleigh Burke destroyer like the Republic couldn't handle, and they'd only have to go through the outer disk of the hurricane, where the storm's effects should be even more tame. She could keep going on, and face a really rough ride, or change course and add an extra few days to their trip.

"This storm is nothing the Republic can't shrug off commander, I'm certain we'll be fine" replied the captain to her XO.

Anna then turned to face the navigator. "lieutenant Olaf, maintain course and speed"

"aye captain"

Anna walked back towards a microphone to make another ship wide announcement

Attention crew of the Republic" Began Anna in her captain voice. " this is the captain speaking, we'll be passing through the outer edge of a category 2 hurricane at around 1330 hours, so expect a rough ride, ETA at Norfolk will be unaffected. Outer doors and hatches will be closed at 1300 hours, and all crew are to be inside by then. Captain Kristiansen Out.

Anna placed the mic back in it's slot, walked back to her station, and sat down on the captain's chair.

18 December 2020 1400hrs

The USS Republic had entered the storm. According to the weather radar, the sustained winds were now at 50 mph at the ship's position, and the seas were getting visibly choppier, Anna was passing time sitting on the captain's chair, and looking out of the bridge windows with a mug of tea held in her right hand while the rest of the bridge crew sat at their usual stations doing their jobs with nothing out of the ordinary worth reporting.

No one aboard the ship was really worried about the storm, except for a few newly enlisted, the crew understood that a destroyer like the Republic has taken on and shrugged off much larger storms than the one they were in, so save for a few seamen who were about to throw-up from seasickness, the mood onboard the naval vessel was pretty calm as is rode the waves heading westwards while being pushed going up and down, and side to side.

After another 30 minutes in the storm…

"What the hell…" said Anna in a startled voice,she quickly stood up from her chair and looked out of the window in complete shock. The Captain's reaction was mirrored all over the bridge as the bridge crew stopped everything that they were doing and looked out of the windows with baffled looks on their faces. Down below, crew members also began to look out of their nearest portholes with disbelief.

The storm that was causing 20 ft waves and rocking the 500 foot, 9000 tonne destroyer like a rag doll, registering as a category 2 hurricane with winds of up to 100 miles per hour… just disappeared right before their eyes. Leaving behind a blue and sunny sky, and no signs that it had ever been there.

Lieutenant Sven" Ordered commander Kristoff Bjornman, "display the satellite weather feed, and activate the ship's on board weather radar"

"Aye commander" lieutenant sven quickly tapped a few icons on his display screen, and two separate windows popped out: one was a live satellite feed that displayed a map of the North Atlantic with several tiny colored smudges showing weather systems, and the other was a traditional radar display showing any weather disturbances around the ship.

Both of which showed clear skies all around, as if the storm that the ship was in had never happened. Captain Anna and Commander Kristoff stared at the screen in disbelief…

"How could this- ...mumbled Anna

"I have no idea ma'am…" replied Kristoff

"BLOOP…. BLOOP…. BLOOP… BLOOP… BLOOP…"

Suddenly Another alarm sounded, the whole bridge crew turned their heads towards the station that was making the offending noise. That sound turned out to be from the OTF Radar that is used to detect other ships around the vicinity of the destroyer.

The officer at the radar was obviously alarmed, yelled in a loud voice that echoes throughout the bridge

"CAPTAIN, MULTIPLE UNKNOWN VESSELS DETECTED ON RADAR!