Afterward:
Never thought you were going to get educated by a fan fic eh? How was the ending?
To make clarifications to start off with, the measurements are a little off...well, way off, about 700kms off as an overshoot to be exact. But I kept the original distant from the mainland to Angel Island to help build the tension of time constraints plus, help Aleutian and Knuckles bond. And the reason why I did it in Kilometers rather than English, for Kilometers is way better to do calculations with than English rule, for me anyways.
The Plunger is a type VIIC German U-boat. I wanted to use an allied submarine being that I really don't like what Germany, at the time of the "Battle for the Atlantic," stood for. But unfortunately, the games I've played, movies I've watched, and pictures and accounts I have read, the type VIIC is the sub that I know most about. Seeking some accuracy to this story, I wanted to use something that I had great knowledge about, and in the end, better to describe it. But...I added creature comforts: future weaponry and computers (It's in the future anyways) and allied tools and words. I could have used a modern sub, but the teamwork factor in this wouldn't have been utilized to its full effect.
The reason why I wanted to use an old German U-Boat, or World War II sub in itself, is because; you had to deal with an old clunker that broke down and for the crude technology that they had onboard. Compared to today's subs that are mostly driven by nuclear power, and computers. Granted I did put a GPS and autopilot onboard but, again, it's the future. And lastly, I wanted to use the U-Boat for the teamwork. I did my best in having everyone doing something that was very important to the success in the mission. I sat back for hours, trying to pick out the characters who I thought would benefit in helping with the mission, and to keep the number low in the process. )Not to mention the math.)
And to add more tension to the plot, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix had to learn on the fly, plus, put their feelings of going under the water into something that moans and groans for the first time. But I added the notion that Eggman didn't have any idea of its existence, except by few rumors. Robotnick during the time of The Great War did help put it together, but later, didn't have a say so in its operation. Only King Max did.
The real story behind the World War Two subs: they did smell like diesel all the time, hence, one of their nicknames they had was "diesel boats." But what I left out, and to Knuckles and the gang's benefit: rotting food, bad body odor, and the dampness. Imagine going on a patrol that could last for a month, with that smell lingered around you the whole time. Then imagine about fifty sailors in the same boat. This was true for all nation's submariners during World War II.
By now, you should know that a sub needs to add water to dive below the surface. Ships float because their bouncy equals that of the weight of the water they are displacing. Same holds true to a surfaced submarine. But in order to go down, a sub needs to add weight. In doing so, air is released from the inside the ballast tanks and then flooded with water in the process. After the initial dive, the sub doesn't need to take on anymore water to dive deeper. Instead, they use the dive planes, (or correctly called to Hydroplanes), to either ascend or descend to new depths. If the sub wants back on the surface, the water is blown out of the tanks and up it goes. Most times, a sub would dive down periodically to do trim dives. This was to keep the sub leveled at all times in case of an emergency dive. What trim dives did was move ballast, either it be water of fuel, around the tanks to keep a steady bouncy throughout the sub.
The Plasma torpedo is fiction along with the "snaps" that were heard when the torps set themselves up. This was intended for pure dramatization, but the basis of the targeting computer is not. The LCD monitor, of course, didn't exist but, the depth, speed, heading and bow angle of an "enemy" ship (depending on what country the sub was from) could be plotted in to the TDC or Torpedo Data Computer. This would help set the torpedoes to where they needed to intersect the target at. For both the Germans and Americans at the outset of the war, they had faulty torpedoes. For the Germans, theirs either didn't go off, or sank too low in the water and passed under the ship. And sometimes they would go off prematurely. For the American submariners, they had the same problems but, sometimes a torpedo would go off in a different direction on its own. One of the 52 subs that were sunk throughout the whole war on the American side was taken out by it's own torpedo as it did a 270 degree turn that impacted the side of the boat. The Germans on the other hand would leave with a full 14 torpedo load and only four or five in that load would actually work.
The main purpose of the submarines in the war was to sink enemy merchant tonnage. And the Germans were very good at it, sinking 14.69 million tons of shipping. But that came with a very heavy rice. Out of the 1,158 constructed and operated subs the Germans had; 798 were lost, mostly to the Allies. And by mid-war, the U.S. was building more ships than the Germans could sink.
On the other side of the globe, the United Sates had 288 subs on active patrol through out the war, and only lost 52. But they only sank about 5.6 million tons. One; the Japanese at the time couldn't overproduce what the Allies were sinking, so that made for fewer targets. Second; American Subs were sent on a variety of search and rescue missions for down pilots (George Bush Senior was rescued by a Submarine) and others sent on daring missions that involved transporting commandos to beaches undedicated. But even with this, the American Silent Service accumulated about 55 of all Japanese shipping sunk in the Pacific. Course the Japanese sank the U.S.S. Indianapolis with a submarine, just after the battleship dropped off the Atomic bomb. I myself have held a sea chart that was on that sub, after being taken off it before the U.S. scuttled her after the war.
By the way, you cannot get asphyxiation from an overabundance of hydrogen. Again, I wanted to use that for dramatic purposes. But poor Vector will be having ulcers though because of being exposed to the hydrogen build-up.
Books for more information, or to help you to get to sleep at night:
"Final Patrol" by Don Keith.
"Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner.
"The Influence of Sea Power Upon History" by Alfred Mahan
Movies to see:
"U-571" of course.
"Run Silent, Run Deep" great black and white film.
"The Enemy Below" with Robert Minchum
Games:
"Silent Hunter 3 and 4".
And check out to see where all German U-boat sinkings are, plus a brief history of the boats themselves
For me now, I am starting on the next part already. For Aleutian, there is only one way...and that is out. How he gets there is the question.