Remove ads

Against the Deep

Reader mode
Sorry about the mini rant but I have been on the go since 4:00am today and it's 6:30pm now.

On a slightly related topic I'm thinking of posting a story similar to Against the Deep but, and I say again BUT the start is different, plus some of the characters will be slightly AU or Alt-power.
 
Last edited:
From personal experience, it's fine to rant, as long as you let people know that it's a rant so as not to take offense at it from anything it could contain.

That said, i'm not sure how SV treats double/triple posts, but might consider shrinking them all into one using the edit function?

Just saying.
 
Sandy River DL said:
As of 1652 hours, the President has declared a national State of Emergency and requested a State of War declaration from Congress, citing massed assaults on coastal settlements by an unknown party. Furthermore, reports of similar attacks are coming in from across the globe. In light of this, full Truce conditions have been instated as per Endbringer Protocols due to the scale of the crisis.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So why would this be dangerous? Modern US has a lot of firepower to defend its shores. So far the attacks are being made by ships from WW2 - so likely minimal radar, sensors, defensive abilities, etc. A single squadron of high altitude bombers loaded with laser-guided bombs could have taken down that attacking force. That's if US did not decide to just use cruise and anti-ship missiles like Harpoons or something.

There is a reason why sea battles have not really been a thing in recent years. It is one area where technology has been progressing very quickly. By the time a ship is in range to attack with its guns, it has been in range of enemy missiles for hours.
 
ElimGarak said:
So why would this be dangerous? Modern US has a lot of firepower to defend its shores. So far the attacks are being made by ships from WW2 - so likely minimal radar, sensors, defensive abilities, etc. A single squadron of high altitude bombers loaded with laser-guided bombs could have taken down that attacking force. That's if US did not decide to just use cruise and anti-ship missiles like Harpoons or something.

There is a reason why sea battles have not really been a thing in recent years. It is one area where technology has been progressing very quickly. By the time a ship is in range to attack with its guns, it has been in range of enemy missiles for hours.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The problem is that they have to contend with BEAB (pronounced "babe", stands for Blasphemous Eldritch Abyssal Bullshit).

The storm that surrounds the Abyssal Fleet? That's no ordinary storm. It's full of magic that makes it impossible for modern weapons to get a positive target lock on the Abyssals.

All of the weapons developed since WWII? Completely useless as a result.
 
Remove ads
Abyssals and Modern Coastal Defense
  • Informational
    • ElimGarak said:
    So why would this be dangerous? Modern US has a lot of firepower to defend its shores. So far the attacks are being made by ships from WW2 - so likely minimal radar, sensors, defensive abilities, etc. A single squadron of high altitude bombers loaded with laser-guided bombs could have taken down that attacking force. That's if US did not decide to just use cruise and anti-ship missiles like Harpoons or something.

    There is a reason why sea battles have not really been a thing in recent years. It is one area where technology has been progressing very quickly. By the time a ship is in range to attack with its guns, it has been in range of enemy missiles for hours.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    The fact of the matter is, nobody has the forces to repel an assault of this magnitude IRL, let alone in Worm. Blood Week is the result of a naval force far greater than the combined might of all of WW2's belligerents launching strikes against thousands of locations across the world. And there's not really anything anyone can do about it because of two factors. One is that the only anti-armor weapons we have anymore are either designed to kill tanks, and really aren't that useful against a ship, or are ground penetrators like bunker-busters. The other being that Abyssals have the sensor signature of a ship but, like Taylor and Aisha, are much smaller, so getting a lock is possible but actually hitting is a 5d20 roll as a missile is liable to plow straight into the sea thinking it will hit. Basically the only weapon system that can actually pose a threat is the torpedo, and there simply aren't enough of them or their launch platforms to sink more than a fraction of the Abyssal forces. Really the only reason this is at all winnable is because most of the Abyssal assets are pre-WW1 vintage and they're overconfident due to not expecting shipgirls and having underestimated a number of higher-level capes like Eidolon and Dragon.

    In addition to this, most countries, the US included, do not maintain any kind of coastal defenses beyond whatever air and naval assets they have. Earth Bet has it worse, because they've been dealing with a slow economic collapse due to villains and the Endbringers causing widespread damage to infrastructure and, in the case of Behemoth and Leviathan, outright destroying natural resources. All this damage and the cost of both rebuilding and quarantining both Simurgh Zones and threats like Nilbog and the Machine Army, take a massive toll on an economy, leaving little for maintaining military readiness of any sort. Just look at Brockton Bay's Ship Graveyard, the Army Corps of Engineers really should have cleared that out ages ago, but with cape fights inevitably damaging things like flood control systems and Endbringer attacks decimating cities, they don't have the time or resources to do so despite their obligations including the maintenance of navigable waterways and harbors.
     
  • Informational
    • Yeah, while many all the old coastal defenses fortresses and batteries still exist at least in the US, they've generally have been turned into museums, monuments and historical sites while some other more isolated ones were simply left to the wildlife as with the advent of missiles and so forth there hadn't really been a need for coastal defense artillery and fortifications since World War II though before that the US pretty much put more effort and time into building such things than perhaps any other country on the planet.
     
    Not to mention Cauldron in the background sabotaging anything that could remotely have even the slightest possible chance of improving the world. Hoping contessa gets hit with a naval shell and Becky bites it. Maybe without the wannabe cerberus/Illuminati/whatever the heck they think they are killing or villanizing anyone who doesn't follow there precious path, they'll actually have some improvements in the world. Seriously, CERBERUS is more competent than them and they cant Even hammer a nail without it trying to kill the galaxy.
     
    BB-Leviathan said:
    Not to mention Cauldron in the background sabotaging anything that could remotely have even the slightest possible chance of improving the world. Hoping contessa gets hit with a naval shell and Becky bites it. Maybe without the wannabe cerberus/Illuminati/whatever the heck they think they are killing or villanizing anyone who doesn't follow there precious path, they'll actually have some improvements in the world. Seriously, CERBERUS is more competent than them and they cant Even hammer a nail without it trying to kill the galaxy.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    What, and let them get off easy? I've already reduced Becky to being a reusable KKV by getting an indefinite Truce going and sidelining the PRT in favor of the Navy. Contessa? PtV doesn't work anymore because of the scale of the new blindspot, so all Fortuna's getting is 'get drunk and cry in a corner' from the Shard.
     
    Sandy River DL said:
    What, and let them get off easy? I've already reduced Becky to being a reusable KKV by getting an indefinite Truce going and sidelining the PRT in favor of the Navy. Contessa? PtV doesn't work anymore because of the scale of the new blindspot, so all Fortuna's getting is 'get drunk and cry in a corner' from the Shard.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I'm still holding out hope for Battleship Dinah. There's just something funny about the adorable tiny girl being the biggest gun in the room.
     
    Honorguard Ra said:
    I'm still holding out hope for Battleship Dinah. There's just something funny about the adorable tiny girl being the biggest gun in the room.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I'd prefer Halsey's youngest daughter, if I didn't already know Awakenings in this au are unbuilt ships, taking cv-6 out of the running.

    Maybe one of the two cancelled Iowa's? While battleships are somewhat mobile artillery platforms, they at least have speed. Carriers all the way though. So I'd prefer the proposed carrier conversion of bb65 and bb66
     
    Last edited:
    Sandy River DL said:
    What, and let them get off easy? I've already reduced Becky to being a reusable KKV by getting an indefinite Truce going and sidelining the PRT in favor of the Navy. Contessa? PtV doesn't work anymore because of the scale of the new blindspot, so all Fortuna's getting is 'get drunk and cry in a corner' from the Shard.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ….ok that's true. But what I was talking about was giving them the deaths they deserve, that being comic relief thats quickly forgotten and is as stupid as they are. Or even Alex getting exposed for the person she really is since she's breaking just about every single law she pushed into place and rubbing everyones face in it by being the director of the PRT when by her own laws is illegal. oh wait, i forgot. She's to stupid to think beyond her own ego and compromised agent. Other people can make choices without her, but her ego won't let her not be in control, so she screws everyone else over and justifies it as her making the hard choices when she can't even tie her shoes without checking said comprised agent!!

    …..That kind of turned into a rant, sorry about that. I hear these kinds of things all the time and it's turned into kind of a sore spot since people this stupid are unfortunately real and I hear about it all the time. Moms a court reporter so these types of stories are unfortunately easy to come by.
     
    jmcdavid said:
    So yeah, any attempts to engage with modern weaponry would only result in a case of Rock Beats Laser.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Which is funny, because there is a lengthly list of real world examples of just this happening. And it still happens. In fact, one of the examples:

    The reason that the US Navy held onto the Iowa class battleships for so long wasn't because they were invincible, but because it forced the Soviet Union to invest in weapons that could counter them. The sinking of the Italian battleship Roma proved the guided armor piercing missiles were an effective counter to battleships and the pacific proved appropriately armed aircraft could do the same. So everyone phased out battleships and as a consequence, everyone phased out anti-battleship weapons. So America just dusted its own battleships off, strapped missiles on them, and showed them off to a world that had no counter to battleships.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Note, everyone phased out anti-battleship weapons. That would include coastal defensive batteries. So it's plausable for abyssals to be practically immune to modern weapon systems even before you factor in the mystical aspects.
     
    Alane1 said:
    Yeah, while many all the old coastal defenses fortresses and batteries still exist at least in the US, they've generally have been turned into museums, monuments and historical sites while some other more isolated ones were simply left to the wildlife as with the advent of missiles and so forth there hadn't really been a need for coastal defense artillery and fortifications since World War II though before that the US pretty much put more effort and time into building such things than perhaps any other country on the planet.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    A note about coastal defenses and roads... In the US all coastal defenses are leased to the state in question... Every single one has a clause that says basically 'Defenses may be re-activated at the discretion of the Department of Defense and/or Executive Office' they are Federal property and may not be sold.... As for roads, areas permitting vehicular traffic are owned by the state with the exception that military vehicles have the right of way... And the first thing I would have done when Leviathan showed up? Activate each and every shore defense battery.
     
    Wolf470 said:
    A note about coastal defenses and roads... In the US all coastal defenses are leased to the state in question... Every single one has a clause that says basically 'Defenses may be re-activated at the discretion of the Department of Defense and/or Executive Office' they are Federal property and may not be sold.... As for roads, areas permitting vehicular traffic are owned by the state with the exception that military vehicles have the right of way... And the first thing I would have done when Leviathan showed up? Activate each and every shore defense battery.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Except there was concrete evidence that doing so was not effective. Why reactivate every shore defensive battery when you already know that the military is incapable of doing anything other then getting themself killed by the monster?
     
    Wolf470 said:
    And the first thing I would have done when Leviathan showed up? Activate each and every shore defense battery.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Declaring shore batteries reactivated is easy, but getting them operational is a whole other beast. The lack of functional battleship caliber weapons would see them outfitted with guns between 5" and 8" and miscellaneous tinkerteck systems. They'd then be deactivated again piecemeal as the PRT gains power and use the lack of effect against Leviathan to gobble up that budget.
     
    Sandy River DL said:
    Why Modern weapons (especially Earth Bet's) are less than effective on Abyssals than one would hope
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    It also doesn't help that Modern naval weapons are actually lower-yield than the massive shells that BBs used to lob.
    The Yamato and Musashi were the two biggest, strongest, most armored battleships ever built... And each was sunk by US aircraft peppering them with bombs, rockets, and torpedoes. Musashi at Leyte, and Yamato in the Japanese's last stand (where only 10 US aircraft were shot down, out of hundreds). Their armor was effectively useless against the sheer numbers that aviation could provide: Destroyers could fire a few torpedoes at a time, and cruisers or battleships could have maybe a dozen guns pointed at you. a carrier could have dozens of planes (with rockets, machine guns, bombs or torpedoes) in the air at once, while staying far enough away to be safe from surface fire, and render your main guns useless.
    With heavy armor being of little use against planes, damage avoidance became the new meta, so to speak. Anti-Air and Anti-Missile defense, as well as radar avoidance became more important than actual armor, and if you're already avoiding damage, your armor is just slowing you down (and adding to materials costs).

    Less armor means that modern naval weapons just don't need to have that level of punch anymore. Why hit a ship with a 3,000 pound shell (Yamato/Musashi's shells)- much less a nuclear shell such as the "Katies" designed for the four Iowa-class battleships- when a rocket with half (if that) of the explosive yield will do just as well? Especially when you need to unleash a swarm of said rockets to overcome the enemy's defenses anyway.

    ... With that said, there are some people looking at putting guns back on ships. Namely railguns.

    Honorguard Ra said:
    I'm still holding out hope for Battleship Dinah. There's just something funny about the adorable tiny girl being the biggest gun in the room.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    No, no. Dinah shouldn't be a Battleship... She should be one of Taffy 3's ships.
    Why? Just imagine Coil having captured her, and brought her into his base... Only for her to tear through his defenses like paper. Then, once she's free, he finds out that she's not even a full-on destroyer; "just" a destroyer escort.
     
    Last edited:
    I personally suspect Coil is salivating at the idea of getting the two known warships working for him by any means necessary. And has Dinah even triggered yet? This is right after the school year started, so long before the Locker would have happened. And I think Dinah's trigger was some point after the Locker Event of January 3rd 2011 in canon. In fact, it may have been a week or two before Taylor's first time out in costume in canon.
     
    FaerieKnight79 said:
    I personally suspect Coil is salivating at the idea of getting the two known warships working for him by any means necessary. And has Dinah even triggered yet? This is right after the school year started, so long before the Locker would have happened. And I think Dinah's trigger was some point after the Locker Event of January 3rd 2011 in canon. In fact, it may have been a week or two before Taylor's first time out in costume in canon.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah I can see the reaction of Coil threatening either of the warships families... "We are in a Truce situation and you break both the truce and the rules by threatening families? Kill order confirmed"
     
    "Poi?"

    Yeah, I don't see it either, Yuudachi.

    Coil's the type who prefers subtle strategies and operating through third parties. Making sure nothing he ordered could be traced back to him was his key to lasting as long as he did.

    Warships? They ain't subtle at all, and it would start a manhunt if anyone caught so much as a whisper of someone trying to force a shipgirl to serve them.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top