FIRST BLOOD

August 29, 2003 0200GMT

USS Thorn SSDN 988 7th fleet Sea Wolves Multinational force, in the south Atlantic near the Falkland Islands.

“Captain on deck!!” The Chief of the boat announced as Commander (LCDR) Adui entered the control room.
“ As you were gentlemen. Officer of the deck, what is the status on that TR1700 sonar has been tracking off and on? I know we are on good terms with Argentina, but that sub was acting a bit strangely.” Having been on patrol for 3 weeks, and under orders to hold radio silence except to check in once weekly, Thorn had not yet been advised that only hours before Argentina declared the intent to defend their “sovereign right “ to the Falkland Islands with force. LCDR Adui, FC of the sub, had a bad feeling. With no evidence of wrong, he couldn’t justify a more combative stance.
“ Well sir, they had her for a good hour and a half, she went to the surface, ran diesels for a bit, and presumably transferred radio traffic. Then she dove and just vanished.”
“ Darn, electric boats are next to impossible to hear if they don’t want you too. Where’s the Flying Fish?” Thorns brother in arms, the USS Flying Fish of the 12th fleet, part 2 of the Bad Passives combat team designated K-12 was on patrol with them. However, the two crews had always been competitive. Ever since they began diving together during the two Boat commanders SOAC course months back. So in times of peace, and relative safety, they played cat and mouse to further the skills of the crews.
Last time we had solid track on her she was 25nm NE of us sir. But that was nearly an hour ago”
Adui let a grim chuckle, “ Knowing that crew of pirates they are sneaking in on us now to ping off our hull from 5kyds or less! Tell sonar to redouble their efforts to find her.”


Just another day in Paradise!

Edited by - Adui on 9/10/2004 10:34:41 PM

“CON SONAR!!” the loud speaker piped in as the over excited sonar man blurted out his message, “ Torpedo in the water!! Torpedo in the water bearing 200 hot!!”
“WHAT!!” Adui exclaimed “ Helm make course 110 speed 16. Diving officer. Depth 550 feet smartly” Then clicking the intercom switch while the various control stations repeated orders and come to, “Sonar Con! I want to know where that fish is headed and who fired it and I want to know it 3 minutes ago!! On my way!”
“ Con Sonar! Torpedo now bears 205!” The loudspeaker blared As LCDR Adui headed out of the control room for sonar shouting over his shoulder, “ Deck officer; battle stations!! Sound general quarters! I will be back momentarily!”
“ Torpedo now bears 208 “ Blared the speaker drowning out the officer of the decks reply and subsequent orders to the chief of the boat.
The claxon began its call as Adui made for the sonar door.” Now hear this! “ The speaker yelped “ General Quarters General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! Go up and forward on the starboard side, down and aft on the port side! General Quarters General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! I repeat.. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!”
“Dino, “ Adui addressed his 1st class sonar man by the mans nick name as he entered the sonar room. “ What the heck fired on us?!”
“ Don’t know yet sir, but I can tell you this. That fish is being guided to us; it’s a 53cm thermal and its pinging right on our bearing. “
“ Aye, who’s? Get a message out on underwater comms the fish needs to know what’s up”
“ Don’t know whose sir but it wasn’t NATO. It looks like an older Russian design on narrow band. As for the UWC message, we don’t know for sure which way to broadcast, and the fish is probably still too far out to hear it.”
“ Right” Clicking the intercom then “ Radio, this is the captain. Prep a message buoy with our status, advise command we are returning fire! “Adui switch the channel without waiting for a reply, “ Fire control, sonar is about to send you their best position guess on the target, fire a spread of 4 active passive sets 5 deg arc separation across the bearing.” Clicking it off Adui turned to the sonar man and ordered the info transfer. Then ran back to control.
“ Diving officer put us within 30 feet of the floor and hold till I say different.. Do it now, helm come right hard to course 000 speed 17kts. Fire control CM’s full spread active passive mix in case there a nasty surprise with that active tracking us!”


Edited by - Adui on 9/10/2004 10:36:11 PM

“ Torpedo now bears 245 and closing sir!!”
Crap, thought Adui, where the hell is the Flying Fish; as if in answer. “ Con sonar I have a new contact bearing 045 closing us at flank, it’s the Fish and she’s fired a full spread! “ Darn fool is trying to pull the torpedo off us! Adui was thinking but wisely said nothing.
Con Sonar 4 tubes fired all units running normally. Torpedo bearing 248 is homing 2 second pings sir!”
“ Con ahead flank, diving officer surface now! FC another spread of CM please. Chief sound all hands brace for shock!”
The Thorn screamed ahead as the torpedo closed, the Flying fish racing toward them to try and help, and the enemy now had 8 MK 48 ADCAPS to run from.
!!!BOOOOOM!!!
Thorn rocked violently, as the inbound weapon hit a CM near to port. Already in an emergency surface blow, Thorn rocketed upward even as the reports of flooding in the engine room came in.
“ Damage control how bad are we hit? “ Adui nearly screamed over the groans and shudders the battered boat made as it rocketed out of the water momentarily then crashed back down throwing waves about.
The damage was serious but not fatal, Thorn lost her towed array sonar, and the flooding damaged some auxiliary equipment. But it was contained within 15 minutes. The engines would be down for about 2 hours his Engineer said. But diving would be risky, and below 200 feet they would probably flood again, worse.
“Con Radio Flying fish is requesting a status report” The speaker blared.
“What??” Adui was a bit confused; the Fish should be relentlessly pursuing the enemy. “ Get me a secure channel to them now please”
Moments later the all to familiar sound of LCDR Griphon, Flying fish’s CO was on the speaker by the captains chair. “ Tell me how bad are you off Terry?” Adui and Griphon had become more than teammates and often used first names.
“ Well Chris, we aint gonna be skimming the floor any time soon, but cheng (Chief engineer) says he can give me engines in about 2 hours, can you screen us that long in case that SOB comes back??”
“Obviously your sonar was hit then, shortly after you took the near miss the poor fool who shot at you took six of the 8 we sent his way. Not enough left of that boat to make a tin can from! The other 2 were mine, they plowed the bottom trying to follow the pieces down”
“ Aye, excellent.. Now to figure out how I tell CINCPAC I put another dent in there boat…”


Edited by - Adui on 9/10/2004 10:37:56 PM

A note to the moderators.. I believe my stories were written in at the least, PG-13 wording, and have reedited anything I thought might be flagged even there, as I know this is a family oriented site with kids on sometimes.
If in this post or any others I make you feel i dont meet that obligation please let me know, I assure you it will be unintentional and I want only to share my writings with your readers.

I like this guy

I like this guy, and the story ^_^

I EAT ROOKIES FOR BREAKFAST IN MY TITAN!
"You tag 'em, we frag 'em."-Jules Gonzalez, Mech Warrior 4
Let's give the Corsairs a big hand for making the best ships in Sirius!
"Now how do we turn this Tinker Toy into a weapon?"-Casper Orillion, The Order, Planet Toledo, Omicron Minor
THE GATEWAY TO HELL IS OPEN: PUSH 'EM THROUGH
"And so I says, answer THAT and stay fashionable!"-Wraith Pilot, StarCraft
"See? These Zerg ain't so tough! They bleed like everyone else!"-Marine, StarCraft
"He has come to disect our internal organs and feed them to the minions of Hades!"-Ed, from Ed, Edd, and Eddy

Since it appears you liked it I will post its sequel. First though, I realized that many of you have no clue what many of my military rank indicators mean so i will post them here:
CINCPAC = Commander in Chief pacific Fleet
CINCLANT = Commander in Chief Atlantic fleet
FADM = Fleet Admiral, in charge of all Sea wolves
VADM = Vice Admiral
RADM = Rear Admiral upper half
RDML = Rear Admiral lower half
CAPT = Captain ( Ok that one was obvious but just being safe)
CDR = Commander
LCDR = Leitenant Commander
LT = Leitennant
LTJG = Leitenant junior grade
ENS = Ensign
FC = Fleet Commander
CO = Commanding officer

And now, the next chapter!


Just another day in Paradise!

09-03-03 0800 hours Eastern.
Atlantic Fleet Head quarters, Norfolk Virginia.


Most of the senior staff officers of SW had already assembled in the conference room. “ Attention on deck!” commanded VADM Waltsinger as FADM Wardog entered the room.
“As you were please. Admiral Waltsinger, please begin.”
“ Aye sir.” He began, “ As you all know, Argentina has taken a far more aggressive stance than expected regarding the Falklands. Most of you are aware of the incident regarding the 7th Thorn, and the 12th Flying fish, while on observation patrol in the area.” He paused measuring the looks of the officers, all of whom were awaiting something new and ominous. “ What you don’t know, is that the reporting of the sinking of an Argentine sub was a bit incorrect. Yes, Thorn and Flying fish hit an Argentine owned submersible vessel. However. It was not one of there 3 combat submarines.” Pausing again VADM Waltsinger noted the surprised expressions surrounding the table. “ Apparently they purchased a civilian submarine a while back. It had been outfitted to emit sounds mimicking the TR 1700 that they use for combat patrol. This means that the attack on Thorn and her teammate was not only unprovoked; but it was also premeditated. A deliberate ruse, apparently designed to show the world that Argentina has a competent and lethal submarine force.”
There were several hushed comments and some groaning from the assembled officers.
“Gentle men, Argentina has issued a press statement stating that no force, even ours, is welcome in what they deem there sovereign waters. Any uninvited vessel will be subject to attack and or seizure by the Argentine naval forces. To emphasize this 2 civilian vessels, a car carrier and a box carrier, were sunk for quote violating the sovereign waters of Argentina.”
Waiting for the news to set in, the Admiral looked at each of the officers in the meeting.
“ We have sent the Carrier Enterprise, with a battle group from the 23rd fleet SWSD commanded by RDML Tarner to blockade the argentine coast in the waters off the Falklands until Argentina ceases these hostile actions. Attached to the group are the subs of K4 commanded by CAPT Uzo and RDML Sparks. In addition we have reluctantly agreed to let the 12th Flying Fish resume combat patrol wit the CBG.”
The FADM Stood up, “ Gentlemen, this is rapidly becoming a shooting war. Until further notice set DEFCON 2 and prepare for war. All SW vessels are authorized to take any reasonable measures in defense of themselves or civilian bystanders.
Any questions?”
CAPT Goucho, 7th FC lifted his hand. CAPT, go ahead..”
“ Sir. What is the status of the Thorn and her crew?”
“ Bad new is this sir, she took a harder hit than originally assessed. She can’t rotate the shaft without causing flooding. She’s currently in tow and protected by a couple of destroyers from the Atlantic fleet, as well as an Akula on loan from the soviets.”
Casualties sir?”
“Light, and no deaths. Those injuries that were sustained are recoverable. Amazingly her crew was able to stop the flooding in the main engine room. LCDR Adui has put several of his damage control crew in for medals.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes sir,” CINCPAC began, “ The Flying Fish has a capable crew sir, no one will deny that. However, Thorn is her team ship in the K fleet. Given LCDR Griphon rather aggressive style under normal conditions is it wise to let them go back into a combat zone?”
“ Way ahead of you, I have reserved the right to recall them. Besides, LCDR Griphon has a good crew, and he may be foolishly aggressive at times.. But he’s a damn fine sub driver. He will be ok.”…

one note,

I have at least three more prewritten, if you want me to I will post them all at once.. just say so..

Just another day in Paradise!