Remove ads

Belated Battleships (KanColle) [REHOST]

Reader mode
I wouldn't put it past Jersey to request extra deck for the sole purpose of more stern-waggling capability. :p
 
Honestly, it's not the overhanging stern that confuses me in the design plans.

It's that big gaping hole back there. There's a reason I closed it up on mine.
 
You know, I saw those TBFs in the reference drawing, but all I could think of were pregnant F4Fs. Whoever told me that comparison should suffer.
 
When Avengers were first introduced, the USN was understandably worried about their own pilots shooting down the unfamiliar-looking airplanes. So they handed out a simple memory device to fix the design of a TBF in a pilot's mind. "They look like pregnant F4Fs."
 
Iron is crossposting. Slight tangent, but... apparently the University of Arizona is going all out for their game against Hawaii with this year being the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
 
theJMPer said:
You know, I saw those TBFs in the reference drawing, but all I could think of were pregnant F4Fs. Whoever told me that comparison should suffer.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahhaha*cough hack wheeze* oh god I need to stop trying to evil-cackle.

For the record, the memory aid of describing them like that came from Midway, when the very first TBFs to go into combat were a squadron of Marine ones based on the island, and it came, apparently, out of frustration after many attempts at describing them to the pilots aboard the carriers. Apparently, it worked, since not only did none of the Marine TBFs get shot down by friendly fire (they just got massacred by Zeroes), the comparison seems to be permanently affecting people seventy-four years later, so...
 
All right, going to give this omake thing another go. This will however be a rather serious omake, with a bit of an epic fail as well. Not to mention Somber. However this is not canon unless @theJMPer says so. Anyway let's get this show rolling. I sincerely hope that this is better and if you don't like it, please don't grill the hell out of me for it. Constructive criticism welcome. Also I have very limited knoweldge of the nautical distances and the waters around Florida and the Bahamas, I am a College Student not a Sailor.

-|-|-|-|-

AN: Anyway this will focus on what happened in the early stages of the Abyssal War, it happens shortly after the Abyssals have attacked the USN inflicting massive casualties on the USN, roughly two days after that happened, because let's face it after you break the back of the Navy of a Superpower to then go after the civilians hard core it will take a bit of time, also the reason that it takes the better part of two days to for the Navy Brass to send that FLASH message out, is because let's face it, losing four Supercarriers, the majority of their air groups, and their escorts, plus having the other carrier groups that were at sea clobbered, well too many lost ships and brave men and women, not enough working brains. This story follows the USS The Sullivans and the action that the Guided Missile Destroyer and her crew did against the Abyssals to protect over 2,000 civilians that were on the Cruise Ship, the Carnival Sensation, this is that story.


Note, while the top speed for the Arleigh Burke class DDG is listed at roughly 30 knots officially, but reports say that it's true top speed is closer to 35 knots, which is more reasonable, considering these things have four LM2500 Gas Turbines and produce 108,000 horsepower and after the reduction gears do their thing, that power is transmitted to a pair of 17-foot variable-pitch propellers.


Also, massive Abyssal Derp Moments coming in, although granted with the way that the first group of Abyssals engages USS The Sullivans, you could contribute it to a degree to overconfidence in their own abilities and the fact that felt that they were invulnerable, particularly considering when this had happened.


-|-|-|-

The Defense of the Carnival Sensation​

-|-|-|-
Roughly 125 nautical miles off the East Coast of Florida

Onboard USS The Sullivans DDG-68

Commander Raymond Howard Commanding


"Captain! We got FLASH traffic!" A signals lieutenant said over the 6MC circuit.


"Go ahead Sparks, what is it?' Commander Dallas Howard, the commanding officer of the USS The Sullivans replied.


Dallas Howard was of average height, standing about 5 feet 5 inches tall, a powerful build similar to that of a Bobcat. He had sea green eyes and brown hair cut military short. He was wearing Navy Working Uniforms.


"Sir! You aren't going to believe this! But according to this message, it says that the John C. Stennis, the Ronald Reagan, the Carl Vinson, and the Nimitz have all been sunk, their strike groups utterly gutted, and their air wings almost completely destroyed! The other Supercarriers in the fleet have been attacked as well, but they have repulsed the attackers but have taken heavy casualties doing it. It says here that the enemy doesn't show up on radar and that Missiles don't work against them as well! The appearance that these enemy ships take on are ships from Warships from the era of the Great War, Pre-Dreadnoughts, Dreadnoughts, Armored Cruisers, Scout Cruisers, and shit. All ships are to assume a wartime footing ASAP, if possible find Civilian ships and try to escort them back to a safe harbor!" Sparks said, sounding incredulous, particularly about the types of ships that attacked the Carrier Strike Groups.


"Are you sure about that?" Howard asked with a grunt.


"Yes Sir, I sent back for confirmation and the message is genuine. This is not some asshole pulling a prank! This happened about forty eight hours ago, but we lost so many ships within roughly a span of three hours, it took this long for The Brass to get a message out. Probably because of the fact that there were too many dead and not enough working brains." Sparks replied quickly.


Howard blinked, then scowled and then he realized that the United States of America was at war. Worse four Supercarriers gone within three hours, no wonder it took the Brass this long to get a FLASH priority message out, too many ships lost and a lot dead, and not enough working minds. Still, the fact that the bastards who did it, wouldn't show up on radar set off alarm bells. The Sullivans main defense against incoming fire was her extensive electronic suite of various radars and sonars, the reason she didn't have any armor was because with her advanced sensor suite she could detect, analyze, and if needed blow the hell out of something that threatened the ship, before they could get close enough to hit her. If these bastards didn't show up on radar and worse since missiles had trouble acquiring targets that was most her advantages gone.


Thus, the solution at the moment was obvious. "Sound General Quarters! Someone get me a list of any and all civilian shipping that we can reach within one hour!" Howard roared into the 1MC, at the same time his mind was working on roughly a dozen different plans and how to implement them.


The rhythmic electronic sounding general quarters alarm resounded through the ship. The whole ship exploded into a flurry of activity, men and women running in either which way, getting the ship prepared to go into combat in needed. "All stations report manned and ready, sir!" A rating barked as the last division reported in.


Howard glanced at his watch and smiled, it took exactly two minutes ten seconds for The Sullivans to go from a peacetime footing to a wartime footing. However if they engaged whoever the hell these bastards were, how the hell were they supposed to hurt them, particularly if they encountered something that was big and armored? All that his ship had for weapons was a single 5in/54 Caliber Mark 45 Mod 2 Gun Mount, 90 Vertical Launch Cells with a mix of RIM-156B Standard Block 2 Missiles, RGM-109E Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, and RIM-162 ESSMs, eight RGM-84L Block II Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles, two M242 Bushmaster Chain Guns, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts, two Mk 32 Triple Torpedo Tubes, and lastly four M2 Browning Machine Guns.


Howard shook his head, his ship would likely hurt the bastards, no problem, because well it didn't matter if your ship was even a Dreadnought. Having a Tomahawk hit you would ruin your day, because having 1,000 pounds of explosive detonate against your flank would ruin anyone's day, even if it didn't do crippling or fatal damage, it would however screw over anything fragile like radars, fire control, and optics. But that was the problem, unless it was something like a Light Cruiser or a Destroyer they would struggle to scratch it with anything but their torpedoes and Tomahawks, even then the torps would be iffy because they had such a tiny warhead.


The 42MC squawked and the voice of the Executive Officer for The Sullivans, Lieutenant Commander Karina Holmes came over the circuit, bringing Howard out of his thinking spell. "Sir, we have a list of civilian traffic that we can reach within one hour, it's mostly fishing boats. However, there is something that we need to escort back to Port Canaveral, 50 nautical miles South of us is the goddamn Carnival Sensation, she's on I think a 3-night Cruise to Freeport Bahamas, either that or a 4-night Cruise to Nassau, Bahamas. She can have upwards of 3,554 people on board!" She said quickly.


"Son of a bitch! She will be a sitting duck for whoever the fuck these bastards are, because if they can go nose to nose with a full Carrier Strike Group and win, then for these guys shooting at something like the Carnival Sensation, it will be simply target practice." Howard snapped over the circuit, he then switched 1MC over to the circuit for the Communications shack.


"Sparks, you alert someone shore side in Florida, it could be the any of the NAS Stations, Mayport, I don't fucking care if you have to start raising hell on Zoomie or Air National Guard frequencies! You get someone who can put planes in air on the horn and notify them of the situation and that some aircraft scouting for us would be rather nice! Particularly since these bastards don't show up on radar!" Howard barked sharply.


"Yes sir!" Sparks replied before disengaging the circuit.


Howard then switched back to the 42MC again. "XO, get me an exact bearing for the Carnival Sensation, and the bearing she will be on within one hour. I am not going to stand idly by and allow whoever the hell managed to destroy several Carrier Strike Groups be able to destroy that Cruise Ship!" He snapped.


"Yes sir! Give us a few minutes to work on it!" Holmes said briskly.


"Very well, alert me as soon as you figure it out!" Howard said quickly.


Howard was worried, he had a feeling that getting to the Carnival Sensation would be the easy part. But escorting the big Cruise Ship back to Port Canaveral was going to be hair-raising at best or suicidal at worst. Mainly because the Carnival Sensation is a Fantasy class Cruise Ship, she is 855 feet long, has a beam of 103 feet, and a draft of 25 feet 7 inches. She also weighed in at 70,967 Gross Tonnage, and unlike the last two ships in the Fantasy class, she didn't have Azipods just regular propellers which meant that she wasn't the most agile thing for her size, although her bow thrusters would help with that. Not to mention, most Armored Cruisers, Dreadnoughts, Pre-Dreadnoughts, and Scout Cruisers from World War I could catch her, Carnival Sensation only had a top speed of about 21 knots, unlike the some ships like the RMS Queen Mary 2 which for short bursts can do 30 knots and her normal cruising speed is 26 knots.


The squawk of the 42MC brought Howard out of his thoughts about how he was going to get both his ship and the Carnival Sensation to the safety that was Port Canaveral in one piece with little loss of life. "Sir, we got it! In one hour the Carnival Sensation will be on bearing 330!" Holmes reported quickly.


"Good to hear number one! Helmsman! Make your course 330! Ahead flank!" Howard ordered sharply.


"Yes sir!" The helmsman replied as he turned the wheel to bring the American Guided Missile Destroyer onto a new course. He then slammed the throttle lever to the stops. The deck rumbled under Howard's feet and The Sullivans shot forward as her four Gas Turbines pushed as much horsepower through her shafts as an American Treaty Heavy Cruiser had. However unlike one of those Heavy Cruisers, The Sullivans was slightly lighter than said ship and a little shorter, but her propellers were massive for a ship her size, being 17 feet across. The ship took off like a sprinter, quickly reaching her top speed of roughly 35 knots. However even at The Sullivans' impressive speed, it would still take her roughly ninety minutes to arrive at the intercept point to meet up with the Carnival Sensation and begin escorting her back to Port Canaveral and safety.


-|-|-|-

One hour twenty-five minutes later


Howard smiled as he peered through his binoculars at the Carnival Sensation, he was relieved that the Cruise Ship was still intact and underway. The deck quivered under his feet, as if The Sullivans herself was sighing in relief at the fact that they had found the Carnival Sensation intact and underway and not running for her life from something.


The Circuit for the comms shack squawked and Spark's voice came through. "Captain, I got some good news, Mayport has responded, and they alerted Jacksonville Air National Guard Base, I just got confirmation that they have launched four F-15Cs, two have four GBU-10s and four AIM-9s and the other two have four AIM-7 Sparrows and four AIM-9 Sidewinders. However they won't be here for a while, thirty minutes at least. Still we got some airborne support, which is good I guess." Sparks said quickly.


"That is damn good news! At least something is going right today. Alright, time to alert the Carnival Sensation." Howard said.


"Understood sir!" Sparks said and then closed the circuit.


Howard grabbed the talker for Talk-Between-Ships and started speaking. "Attention Carnival Sensation, this is the United States Navy Guided Missile Destroyer The Sullivans, acknowledge." Howard said with the full authority that a Commander in the United States Navy and the CO of an Arleigh Burke class Destroyer could muster.


After a few moments a rough voice with a distinct male Montana accent came back through the speakers. "This Captain Matthew Turner, Captain of the Carnival Cruise Liner Carnival Sensation. I have to ask Commander, why does a United States Navy Guided Missile Destroyer suddenly have an interest in my ship?" The Captain of the Carnival Sensation asked.


"Captain Turner, a situation has developed over the course of the last fifty and half hours. One that requires the Carnival Sensation to return to Port Canaveral immediately. This isn't a request either." Howard said without a hint of emotion.


"Alright, now I am confused. What sort of situation would require me to turn the Carnival Sensation around? I do that Commander, management will have my head on a pike you do realize that right." Turner said, it was obvious he didn't want to well be busted down to janitor inside Carnival Cruises.


"Captain, roughly six hours ago. My ship received a FLASH message stating that forces of unknown origin have attacked the United States Navy, the ships that they used don't show up on radar, modern weapons struggle to lock onto them, and lastly the ships they used are from fucking World War I! The damage they have inflicted is already incredible, the USN lost four Supercarriers and the majority of their escorts, plus heavy losses sustained to their air groups. The other Supercarriers in the United States Navy were hit as well and had their escort screens gutted and their air groups decimated and are currently limping for home. Considering they had just dealt major damage to the United States Navy, merchants are probably next on the menu. The strike on the Carriers happened two days ago, probably too many dead and lost ships and not enough brains working. Whoever the hell these bastards are, if they can sink a fucking Nimitz class which are built to take one hell of a battering. Then they can easily send your Cruise ship to the bottom of the ocean with heavy loss of life!" Howard barked in reply.


The comm line was silent for several minutes before Captain Turner found his voice again. "My god. Commander Howard, I don't care what management says, I am turning the Carnival Sensation around. However my ship can only go twenty one knots there about, if we push it we might be able to squeeze some extra speed but not much out of her. She is twenty-two years old after all, even with the refit she had 2009 I am not expecting to get much extra speed out of her." Turner said.


"Don't worry Carnival Sensation, we will give you an escort back to Port Canaveral." Howard said.


"Roger that, turning around now, just over halfway to Nassau and then this happens. Still why escort us to Port Canaveral instead of Freeport?" Turner asked curiously.


"The answer is simple, Freeport doesn't have any form of solid cover, granted neither does Port Canaveral, but unlike Port Canaveral which has only one way in or out, Freeport has about ninety different ways to enter with a good-sized warship, and it's a similar story with Nassau. Not to mention those islands are pretty damn flat, no cover whatsoever from Naval Bombardment. Whereas with Port Canaveral while you don't have any solid cover, you can get out of range of whatever the hell is doing the bombarding." Howard replied.


"Makes sense to me. Alright, we will follow your lead Captain." Turner replied.


Roughly thirty minutes later saw both ships making twenty-three and half knots, making a run for Port Canaveral, but what they didn't know was that several ships from this unknown group that was responsible for attacking several American Carrier Groups had placed themselves between the two ships and Port Canaveral.


-|-|-|-

An hour later


The 42MC squawked suddenly. "Sir, radar is beginning to act up in a way that I have never seen a radar screen act up before in my life." Holmes reported.


"Oh? What do you mean by that? Which one of our radars have suddenly gone on the fritz?" Howard asked, praying that it was just one of the short-ranged radar sets that had suddenly gone all funky.


"All of the radars that we got with the exception of the fire control radar. However SPY, SPS-67, and SPS-73 have started acting funky. Not to mention they are all saying the same thing as well, they are all showing fleeting radar contacts along bearings 385 to bearing 015, can't make heads or tails of them." Holmes replied, sounding somewhat amazed and stumped as to why three separate radars would suddenly malfunction and for the same reason as well.


"That's bizarre as hell. I have never heard of three separate radars all of a sudden acting up for the exact same reason. Think we got a something out there?" Howard asked curiously, not to mention cursing whatever god had decided to have Port Everglades come under attack from forces unknown, causing the F-15s that had been flying top cover to go and defend that port.


"Unknown sir. I have never seen anything like this for radar contacts. I have no clue if there is anything out there right now. However the range is with those fleeting specters is decreasing steadily. If you ask me, that means something is out there. The question is, what the hell is out there?" Holmes said.


"I have no idea XO, but keep at it. If the radar picture firms up let me know ASAP." Howard replied.


"Can do sir!" Holmes replied.


So naturally it came as a big surprise when ten minutes later the Carnival Sensation suddenly hailed The Sullivans.


"Captain Howard, one of my lookouts has spotted something at bearing 375. I just took a look at it myself and I have never seen anything like it. Could you please investigate it?" Turner said over the TBS, sounding shaken by something he had seen.


"Roger Carnival Sensation, we will investigate. Your lookouts are a lot higher than even our highest cameras, plus we are a bit out of position to investigate, however were on it." Howard replied quickly, suddenly having a ball of sickening dread having formed in his gut, even as he ordered the helmsman to maneuver The Sullivans into a position where they could investigate the mysterious contact that a lookout on the Carnival Sensation had spotted.


When the powerful, angular lines of The Sullivans managed to get around the great bulk of the Carnival Sensation and got into position to see what the Cruise Ship had seen. What they saw surprised the entirety of the bridge crew.


"What the fuck is that!?" The helmsman cried as he spotted the three ships that were slugging through the waves with a purpose. Each one was short and squat, with a single twin turret forward, not much of a superstructure or conning tower for that matter, with three short and squat funnels spewing thick and gritty black smoke, however something was wrong about these ships, they were twisted undoubtedly evil, they reeked of hatred, malice, and anger, and they were all a black that was so dark it was unnatural to the extreme, the way the two masts shone in the Florida afternoon sun it was as if they were made of bone, combined with the fact that it appeared as if there were jagged teeth along the waterline it made them simply sickening to look at.


"I have no fucking clue what that is, I have never seen anything like it in my life!" The OOD added, baffled at what he was looking at, however there was also a hint a revulsion in his voice at the sight of the ships.


That's when a fresh faced lookout, a poor greenhorn spoke up. "Sir, I swear to god! Those look like goddamn Bogatyr class Protected Cruisers! I should know, I play World of Warships and I would recognize that thing just about anywhere!" She shouted briskly.


Before anyone had a chance to respond, the twin gun turrets on what were apparently Bogatyr class Protected Cruisers, erupted. Fire and smoke exploded from the gun barrels and spat hatred at the two ships.


"Holy Christ! Ahead flank!" Howard yelled, even as The Sullivans gathered every bit of speed her 108,000 shaft horsepower could produce and began to accelerate like a bat out of hell.


Thinking fast Howard engaged the 42MC. "XO, please tell me you got a missile track or something on those things! They have opened fire and if we don't figure out how to respond Carnival Sensation is fucked six ways to Sunday!" He barked sharply into the mic.


"Negative skipper! No joy for missile tracks, hell, not even the fire control radar for Mount 51 can lock-on! The TAO is working on a way to figure out to get around that, but how do you want to engage?" Holmes replied quickly.


Thinking fast Howard found his solution. "XO, engage those bastards with Mount 51 in local control! Once you figure out how to get me some missile tracks let me know, but engage with the 5in!" He barked as splashes began to bracket his destroyer.


"Aye sir! Mount 51 released, engaging in local control!" Holmes barked.


"Helmsman! Bring us about, we need to unshadow our gun and for Christ sakes chase splashes! We can't afford to take that many hits!" Howard barked.


"Yes sir!" The helmsman replied and The Sullivans heeled over sharply as she turned sharply at over 30 knots. At the same time the singular 5in/54 Caliber Mark 45 Mod 2 Gun mount traversed, till it was on the same bearing as the closest Cruiser, raised up and fired, sending a 67 pound High-Explosive Point Detonating fused round down range, the gun fired again and again. Barking furiously, the first couple of shots missed, but several impacted, detonating into greasy fireballs as the rounds impacted the thing. It showed some damage was being dealt with each hit but not much, this was not good that thing was tough as hell.


"XO, I need a missile track now. We are barely hurting that bastard! Give me something workable here!" Howard barked furiously as the 5in gun kept pounding away at the enemy ship and The Sullivans zig-zagged like her life depended on it.


"TAO thinks he has a solution, we might be able to kill this thing with SM-2s in Semi-Active Mode." Holmes said as the Arleigh Burke class Destroyer came out of a particularly tight bracket of shells. The three enemy cruisers were still focusing on her, Howard was about to open his mouth to reply when suddenly there was a ringing crash and everyone on the bridge staggered as The Sullivans shuddered like a thing possessed.


"Report!" Howard yelled.


"I am trying to figure that out sir! Near as I can figure, we have just been hit by four or five AP rounds from one of those Cruisers! They didn't explode, but just over-penetrated us! I am not surprised though, we are big enough to be a Cruiser after all!" The bridge talker said.


"CIC, you are cleared for release on SM-2s riding a radar beam! Hit that son of a bitch!" Howard barked, he was furious these motherfuckers had just scratched up his ship, his girl was hurting, all because of these malevolent motherfuckers from hell!


"Roger sir! Weapons free on SM-2s with Semi-Active Homing, birds away!" Holmes replied curtly. Moments later about twenty hatches on the foredeck opened and then it was bathed in fire and two dozen SM-2 Missiles leaped out of their Vertical Launch tubes and screamed toward the first enemy ship, chasing the beam of invisible radio energy that The Sullivans was projecting toward that enemy cruiser, hoping to give the SM-2s something to acquire lock on. However, despite the fact that The Sullivans was guiding her missiles to the target, a depressing number of them either landed short or screamed right past the enemy ship, out of the two dozen RIM-66M-2 Standard Missiles launched, only three slammed into the side of the enemy ship, and having their 250 pound continuous expanding rod warheads explode into vibrant fireballs, but the sides of these ships weren't that well armored, thus the powerful warheads in the SM-2s tore impressive wounds into the hull and ignited the coal underneath, flames began to lick outward from the wounds the missiles had carved into the hull.


Before Howard could even order it, the 5in gun which had still been blazing away for all its worth began to direct fire into the wounds that the missiles had opened up.


"CIC! Again! Hit that malevolent fucker from hell again with the SM-2s! Same method as before, guide them in on the radar beam!" Howard barked fiercely into the 42MC.


"Yes sir! Birds away!" Holmes replied, while on the foredeck, with the 5in gun was still blazing away as more hatches opened, a few on the forward VLS, but the majority on the aft VLS and another volley of SM-2s screamed toward the enemy ship, again with similar results, most of the missiles missed, but four did impact and this time, they tore the enemy ship wide open, moments later an enormous explosion convulsed the ship, a huge fireball racing upward, pieces of flaming coal was hurled skyward as well, it was clear that coal dust had ignited, causing the large explosion. The ship proceeded to begin to capsize, considering it had just been ripped apart by a tremendous detonation, damn right it should have been.


Suddenly there was a tremendous boom and The Sullivans shook horribly, everyone not strapped in or hanging on to something found themselves on the deck. All the windows on the bridge shattered as three 152mm High Explosive shells impaled The Sullivans and exploded.


"Damage report!" Howard yelled as the Helmsman swung the destroyer around, the 5in gun traversed and engaged the next target, throwing shells toward the next Protected Cruiser that it had spotted.


"We just took three maybe four 152mm High Explosive rounds from one those enemy cruisers! From what I can make out, it tore the hell out of the Superstructure!" The bridge talker said once he managed to understand what was going on elsewhere in the ship.


"Understood!" Howard barked as The Sullivans resumed chasing splashes like her life depended on it. The two remaining Bogatyrs continued to blaze away at the American Guided Missile Destroyer which surged forward, with a tremendous bone in her teeth. The 5in gun continually barking at the closer of the two enemy ships.


Howard got on the 42MC "Prepare for Harpoon missile attack, set our birds to bearing only! You will only have a few seconds so make sure you have a fast trigger finger!" He barked, this needed to end soon, mainly because he knew, just knew in his gut, that there were more of these bastards out there waiting for their chance to strike at the Carnival Sensation and the 2,245 men, women, and children who were aboard her.


"Yes sir!" The XO replied quickly.


The Sullivans was still zig-zagging as quickly as she could, the shells landed around her constantly causing her to shake and vibrate. In his head Howard was counting down when to have The Sullivans turn and unleash her Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles, however he was wishing he had Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles at his disposal, they packed a much bigger punch than a Harpoon, but alas they were slated to enter service in the Navy in the year 2019, but hopefully that would be moved up, the LRASM would certainly inflict more damage on these bastards than a Harpoon thanks to its 1000 pound warhead, plus they would be able carry more of them, since it is a VLS capable missile. Anyway time to make do with what he had.


Now. He thought "Hard to starboard!" Howard bellowed and with all the grace that some 9,000 tons of American fighting steel had, The Sullivans heeled sharply into a turn.


"Birds away! Birds away!" Holmes bellowed over the 42MC and amidships on the American Destroyer was bathed in fire as four Harpoon missiles hurled themselves out of their launchers and screamed toward the closer of the two Cruisers with all accuracy that their guidance systems could muster. The attack had surprisingly mixed results, two barely missed, with one screaming over the forward turret with inches to spare, the fins actually scraped against the top the turret and sent the missile out of control, it plunged into the sea and exploded, the second missile that missed went screaming between the forward mast and the forward funnel and went screaming into the distance, the third missile impaled the third funnel and turned the thing into fragments, sending steel scything in all directions, with lethal fragments raining down on the deck, the fourth missile punched into the ship, the thing didn't have an armor belt instead the protection to the machinery spaces was thanks to about forty feet of coal bunker and a slanted armored deck that separated two coal bunkers. By the time the fuse realized that oh I have hit something, the missile had penetrated a good way into the coal bunker above that armored deck that separated two coal bunkers.


A large detonation convulsed the Protected Cruiser and the ship shuddered violently. A huge ball of fire blew a tremendous wound into the Protected Cruiser's side, the area where the Harpoon had impacted, the ship stopped as if its legs had been taken out from under it and quickly developed a heavy list.


"Oh fuck!" A lookout suddenly cried, The Sullivans was continuing her turn, to turn away from the remaining demon, when its guns barked out a ragged broadside. Shell splashes erupted around the destroyer and there was an enormous explosion that sounded aft and a huge fireball vomited skyward from the destroyer, at the same time the ship shuddered violently. Once again everyone who wasn't strapped in went tumbling to the deck.


"Report!" Howard shouted as he got to his feet, having been tossed from his chair.


"Sir! We have just been hit aft by multiple shells, from the sound of it the Seahawk exploded in its hanger! We have a major fire there, damage control is responding!" The bridge talker said.


"Very well!" Howard said before engaging the circuit for the Comms shack.


This was getting worse by the second, worse these were just Protected Cruisers, he shuddered to imagine how effective their weapons would be against ships that were better than this.


"Sparks, I want you to start squawking again, try and get us some air support! I don't care if it has to come from the fucking Zoomies, just get me something!" Howard ordered sharply.


"No problem skipper!" Sparks replied.


With that done, Howard switched to the 47MC. "Prepare for torpedo attack! Port side mount!" He barked.


"Yes sir!" The chief torpedo man aboard The Sullivans said quickly.


However a few moments later Sparks' voice came back over the circuit for the radio room. "Uh sir, radio is kaput, I think that last salvo fucked it up. Sorry sir, no dice on finding out when we will be getting support." He said grimly.


He stepped out onto the port side bridge wing and looked aft and promptly grimaced, The Sullivans had her superstructure ripped to hell, smoke and flames were trailing aft from the Destroyer. Frowning he stepped back inside the bridge, he realized the damage was going to be bad to his beloved destroyer.


"Ready sir for torpedo attack!" The chief torpedo man said over the 47MC.


"Roger." Howard said, however they had now opened up enough distance that now the three Mark 54 Mako Lightweight Torpedoes would have a good chance at hitting.


"Helmsman ten degrees to port." Howard ordered calmly, he then engaged the 47MC. "Fire portside torpedo mount as they bear, fire in salvo! Fire one… fire three...fire five!" He boomed.


"Yes sir! Firing as we bear, fire one...fire three...fire five!" The chief torpedo man said, in the background three loud screeches could be heard as torpedoes were hurled from their tubes and into the water.


You could imagine his surprise when two minutes later, two muffled booms reached their ears. Moments later the 47MC squawked and an absolutely jubilant sounding chief torpedo man's voice came over the circuit. "Holy shit! Two direct hits sir near the stern! That bastard is currently in the process of flopping over like a dying duck, we must have ripped her wide open!" He cried jubilantly.


Howard smiled, his ship had done good work, got a bit banged up but had protected a helpless ship, and he ordered a sprint to catch up with the Carnival Sensation. The American Destroyer, battered though she was, easily caught up with the lumbering Cruise Liner. If anything Howard considered it a miracle during their three vs. one brawl the hard way, that none of those demons decided to break combat from The Sullivans and attack the Carnival Sensation. In fact he had never seen gunnery so bad, granted trying to hit a wildly maneuvering target that was sailing at 30 plus knots is hard as fuck.


-|-|-|-


They could almost taste safety, the two ships dashed into a line of squalls. They were literally roughly an hour and half out from Port Canaveral and safety. "XO how is the radar picture looking?" Howard asked.


"Not much, we still got two maybe three of those damn fleeting specter contacts on radar, range is closing too. I think we have two maybe three more of those malevolent motherfuckers from hell with us in this storm. However, judging by the size of the returns we are getting from whatever the hell these things are, we got one big, one small, and possibly one medium. I mean Jesus we took a pounding from just three Protected Cruisers I shudder to think what else they got up their sleeves." Holmes said gruffly.


"I agree with you there, hang on, we are breaking out of the squall we are in. What does radar say for weather?" Howard asked.


"After this squall, there is just one more between us and safety. Either way, I think we are in the clear. We should be breaking out of this squall rather soon, probably next ten minutes or so." Holmes said.


"Roger, thank you XO." Howard replied. He smiled as he felt an immense sense of relief come up in him. They had faced an unknown enemy, taken damage but had sent them to the bottom with extreme prejudice, and had protected over a thousand defenseless civilians.


Sure enough, roughly eleven minutes later, The Sullivans battered though she was, surged out of the squall, the fires that had ravaged her stern having been extinguished a while ago. A few moments after the American Destroyer surged out of the squall, the Bahamian Flagged Carnival Sensation appeared out of the squall a few moments later. The Cruise Liner having somehow survived the action that The Sullivans had done against whatever the fuck those things were, without a scratch.


Of course, that's when everything decided to go to hell.


"Captain look!" A bridge wing lookout said, panic and fear gripping his voice. Howard looked up just in time to see two more of those demonous bastards from hell appear out of the squall that was ahead of them. One was small, probably a destroyer, it had two small gun turrets forward of a squat pilothouse, however even if the ship looked small, it was positively dwarfed by what it was 'escorting'. The ship that the destroyer was 'escorting' was a monstrous warship, it had two tall masts, low freeboard, two massive turrets each mounting three powerful looking naval rifles, the monster had a platform built around its funnel that mounted several searchlights, it started just above its bridge. There was no doubt about what type of warship the second bastard was, it was clearly a Battleship, the damn thing probably weighed 20,000 tons, and those guns would easily decimate the Carnival Sensation and The Sullivans with ease. Even if that destroyer wasn't there, the danger it represented was miniscule compared to the hulking monster that lay in front of them, despite the fact that it had guns and torpedoes.


"Holy fuck, that's a goddamned battleship!" The OOD breathed amazed and horrified at what he was seeing.


The TBS Squawked "Sullivans come in." Turner onboard the Carnival Sensation said, sounding scared out of his mind.


"I know, we see it too! Listen up Carnival Sensation, you see that big old squall about five nautical miles to our north?" Howard said.


"Yeah, I see it. What's your plan?" Turner asked.


"When I say mark, you are going to have your engineering team scrape up every ounce of power that your ship can generate and send it to the shafts. You are then going to bolt for that squall. Once you are in it, run like hell to Port Canaveral and don't stop until you get there, when I say don't stop, I mean don't stop. Even if you see us dead in the water, on fire, and sinking. It would put too many lives at risk." Howard said briskly.


"Roger that Sullivans. Give them hell!" Turner said.


"Will do Carnival Sensation. Alright ready for this?" Howard asked.



"As ready as we will ever be!" Turner said.


"Roger, alright, three...two...one…mark!" Howard barked before cutting the connection.


"ALL AHEAD FLANK! We are going to get in close and ram our last three Mark 54s into that bastard's side! As well as everything we got left in our arsenal I don't care if we have to hit it with the goddamned kitchen sink!" Howard roared, moments later The Sullivans gathered every possible ounce of speed that her aging and battered hull and engines could produce and shot forward, racing toward the Battleship and the Destroyer, her 5in/54 caliber gun barking like mad, sending shells streaking toward the battleship, the shells impaled the thing and didn't do any damage, which didn't surprise Howard at all.


The battleship slowly turned to port to unshadow it's entire broadside, even as it did so, the secondary guns spat hatred toward the Burke class Destroyer as they bared against her. However the turn also revealed other details about this monster, it had two funnels and the platform that started at the bridge and went aft, ending at the second funnel, the thing also had four squat turrets. Those turrets swung out toward the Carnival Sensation, it was ignoring The Sullivans knowing that there was bigger fish to fry and that The Sullivans would have to get in close in order to hurt it and that meant it could take its own sweet time first dispatching Carnival Sensation and then sinking The Sullivans.


No way, no fucking way! Not if I can help it! Howard thought as he hit the 42MC "XO! The bastard is going after the Carnival Sensation! You need to do something to divert his attention to us!" He barked quickly, knowing that all it would take would be just one penetrating hit and that Cruise Liner's interior would look like a charnel house, but he also knew that with that order he was going to be putting his ship directly in harm's way.


"Roger sir! Firing our remaining SM-2s! Birds away following Semi-Active Homing." Holmes replied quickly. Hatches opened and roughly thirty SM-2 Missiles roared away from The Sullivans, the missiles screamed through the air, their rocket motors sounding furious as they streaked after the radar beam that was guiding them. The majority fell short or missed, but about a dozen detonated against the battleship's belt armor, barbettes, turrets, and deck, one flew high and impaled it's forward funnel were that platform was, the fireball sent shrapnel everywhere and swept the platform.


That did get the Battleship's attention as it turrets swung toward The Sullivans, the black maws of those large naval rifles pointing right at his tin can. He would reflect later, that he had never felt more alive than he did looking down the barrels of that Battleship's main battery, although it was also the scariest as well. The 5in gun was still barking like crazy. When suddenly fireballs raced down the side of the battleship as the main guns salvoed, the force of those naval rifles discharging blew great concaves into the water, then the sound of the guns firing hit them and it made the 5in/54 Caliber gun that The Sullivans was armed with sounding like a pop-gun. Moments later the shells roared in, sounding like a Heavy Freight Train on Run 8. Then Commander Raymond Howard, his crew, and his ship were plunged straight into The Jaws of Hell.


The battleship's first salvo was a tight bracket around the American Destroyer, towering columns of water as tall as the mainmast surrounded the ship. The helmsman had nerves of steel and began throwing slight course adjustments at random intervals every few seconds to throw off the aim of that battlewagon even as shells reached out from the Battleship's secondary battery, splashes continuously erupted around the destroyer. However the Destroyer started shuddering as well, as rounds began to find their marks. Twelve hatches popped open on the aft VLS, just before the unit was bathed in fire, it revealed RIM-162 ESSMs, better known as the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, and each VLS cell contained four of the things. Then the engines engaged and forty-eight missiles leaped away as another thunderous salvo bracketed the ship, they raced toward the battleship. Most of them missed either falling short or flying past the battleship but at least eight actually hit, their pathetic warheads splashing across the belt armor and really only serving to further piss the battleship off.


In return, during the Battleship's next salvo, a main battery round impaled the destroyer, it slammed into the destroyer and plunged deep into the ship, slamming into a turbine and tripping the fuse. The ensuing detonation and utter annihilation of the engine room thanks to the fireball and storm of flying steel, an explosion detonated outward from the hull of the destroyer, while from her forward stack, soot, smoke, and a bit of fire exploded upward as it had gone rushing up the uptakes. The instant that engine room was destroyed The Sullivans lost a large amount of her horsepower and she staggered and slowed to half speed.


"Someone get me a damage report!" Howard bellowed, as he got back to his feet, to find that the bridge was in shambles, piping and conduits were all dangling from the ceiling some of it sparking, emergency red lighting switched on.


"Working on it sir! From what the chief engineer is telling me! We have just lost one of our engine rooms, had a shell detonate inside of it. Won't be able to get it back, not without a yard and about five months, as it stands we are being taken apart and will likely need a nice long stay in dry dock anyway! She also thinks it blew out a good section of the hull, because the engine room is flooding, but the watertight doors and pumps are staying ahead of it, but she says don't have any more big holes punched into her." The Bridge Talker reported, holding a hand to his forehead.


"Understood" Howard said with a deep frown, The Sullivans was being brutally taken apart, he just knew that she was.


"Birds away! Birds away! Tomahawks released!" Holmes said over the 42MC, moments later the four of the remaining or so hatches on the forward VLS that hadn't opened at some point during the first engagement, opened revealing the cruise missiles, unlike the SM-2s and Evolved Sea Sparrows which had a 250 pound warhead or a 86 pound warhead respectively, these things had 1,000 pounds of American High Explosive. The missiles screamed up and away, before rocketing toward the Battleship, they were damn close, under five nautical miles to the point that it was a good thing that the Tomahawks launched for two reasons, the first being that any closer and the missile would struggle to actually hit the damn thing and secondly because the last missile had literally just cleared it's hatch and was hurtling toward the battleship, skimming over the wave tops when a salvo from the big guns on that Battleship impaled the destroyer, the shells crashed through the steel of the destroyer, the Armor-Piercing rounds cleaving through her hull, punching vast holes into the ship with their sheer mass, and then went hurtling out the other side having torn tremendous wounds in the hull and superstructure of the destroyer, and worse of all rendering the remaining Tomahawk missiles incapable of being launched, due to shock damage from a shell that passed right through for the most part empty 29-cell VLS.


"Steady as she goes, get ready to turn." Howard said as The Sullivans was almost constantly quivering and shaking as rounds from the secondary's slammed into the destroyer, taking the ship apart. Three enormous fireballs suddenly detonated to life across the water line belt armor and where the secondary battery casemate guns were, while another fireball erupted a little higher on the battleship, with a rending crash the aft funnel collapsed, taking a large part of the searchlight platform with it. That had most certainly left some bumps, he was about to order another salvo of Tomahawks when CIC reported that remaining Cruise missiles couldn't be fired, they had suffered damaged in some way.


"Now! Hard to Starboard!" Howard barked, and The Sullivans began to turn, sluggishly. That was a bad sign, the destroyer had been clobbered by that salvo. The Sullivans continued shuddering and shaking as more shells impacted and detonated.


"Sir! The Carnival Sensation is breaking out of that squall you ordered her to duck into!" A bridge wing lookout barked, pointing out the Cruise Liner as she sprinted for safety with all the power her diesel engines could produce.


"God fucking damnit! We need to stop this motherfucker right now, else the Carnival Sensation is doomed!" Howard snarled before engaging the 47MC and barking "Fire torpedoes!" He didn't hear the sounds of a torpedo launch, not in this combat situation, over the shriek of shells, the rapid-fire booming of the 5in/54 Caliber Gun, the sharp staccato barking of the battleship's secondary battery, the thunderous roar of the 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts, the thunderous crash of shells impacting targets, and the constant sounds of a mortally wounded ship struggling to pull past a lumbering goliath on the Battlefield.


"Sir! Look at that!" The Helmsman yelled and gestured wildly to something. Howard looked and paled, the enemy destroyer forgotten until now, had maneuvered around the considerable bulk of the enemy dreadnought and was now moving in to engage The Sullivans, its four guns barking angrily at the American Destroyer. "CIC! Kill that thing right now! It's getting ready to launch its fish at us!" He barked into the 42MC.


He didn't hear a response but the 5in gun forward traversed and then opened fire at the destroyer, that fucker was blocking their escape and angling to get into a position to launch her torpedoes at them -which Howard was grateful for, if that thing had launched them at Carnival Sensation, then the Cruise Ship would have been in a shit ton and a half of trouble- so ironically this was the best thing that could have happened. However unlike the Battleship whose armor simply laughed at 5in gunfire and Protected Cruisers which while the 5in gun was effective, due to the way they were built it would take a while to inflict real meaningful damage, but against this target, the 5in gun was a real deadly sonuvabitch. The ship shook visibly as the shells tore into the thing, flames exploded into existence, the forward 20mm CIWS mount unleashed hell, a stream of 20mm cannon shells spewed into the sky, the insane rate of fire, combined with the tracers making it look like a laser beam, it reached out and raked across the destroyer, it's fire focusing on the bridge area.


With a shriek of rending metal, the main mast was cleaved in half, by a shell from the battleship, as if to remind everyone that it was still there, its remains fell across the superstructure aft. Suddenly just as a huge ball of fire exploded upward from the enemy destroyer, there was a quartet of four small flashes aft, just forward of the second funnel and just aft of it as well, the thing shook visibly and slowed dramatically from probably over 30 knots down to about 5 knots, crippled and out of the fight. "Hydrophone effect! Enemy torpedoes in the water!" The 42MC squawked suddenly.


"Hard to port! Squeeze as much power out of our engines as you can!" Howard yelled. It was time to disengage and run like the devil was behind them.


"XO, time till our torpedoes hit?" Howard barked as The Sullivans, turned away from the enemy battleship, with all the grace that she still carried despite being thoroughly wrecked, however they now needed to turn away and then come in for another run, just get their remaining Harpoons off, and then they would have to disengage on the count that they would have nothing else that had a semi-decent chance at hurting this thing. There was an ear shattering bang, followed by a tremendous detonation and a ball of fire exploding on the foredeck, as a 15cm shell impaled the gun mount and exploded. Shrapnel flew in every direction as the mount was simply annihilated, Howard as did everyone else on the bridge tumbled to the deck, while some shrapnel went flying into the bridge area.


Howard felt his heart drop into his stomach and he scrambled back to his feet, the only weapon that The Sullivans had left were four RGM-84L Harpoons, plus the torpedoes that were in the water, after they hit the bastard with those, all they would be down too would simply be throwing insults at the damn thing, unless of course he wanted to play kamikaze and ram that thing.


"Fifty seconds till our torpedoes impact, but we are going to be cutting it close with those enemy fish! Four torps in the water!" The XO reported, his voice rattling with the almost constant impacts that were drumming the ship. The plumbing that The Sullivans was taking just to defend a big civilian Cruise Ship might be enough of a pounding just to write the Guided Missile Destroyer off, even Howard could tell that, just by the constant pounding the ship was taking from the two or three remaining secondary guns that could still bear on the destroyer, the ones that hadn't been knocked out by the SM-2s or the Tomahawks. The aft 20mm CIWS mount was roaring away at the enemy warship, 20mm API rounds sparkling all over the armor, just scratching it, maybe leaving a miniscule dent in the armor, maybe, but doing nothing more.


"I swear man! I didn't sign up for this shit! Fighting a malevolent fucker from hell that is taking on the form of a motherfucking dreadnought and we are knife fighting with the bastard like it's fucking 1943!" The OOD barked as he held on for dear life.


"Yeah! No shit dude! I didn't sign up for this shit either, however tough fucking luck!" The Helmsman snapped as he held onto the wheel with an iron grip, holding The Sullivans steady.


"Oh Christ! I can see torpedo tracks! We are going to take a torpedo, maybe two!" A bridge wing lookout bellowed suddenly.


Howard hit the 1MC. "All hands brace for impact!" he yelled and at the same time he nodded to the OOD who then engaged the Collision Alarm, the distinctive tone of the collision alarm resounded through the battered hull of the destroyer. Howard first ordered the Helmsman to turn into the torpedoes, he then went to the Bridge wing to watch the torpedo tracks race in, the first two missed by a considerable distance, the third torpedo barely missed the hull of the destroyer coming so close, Howard could actually see the thing lance by her hull. The fourth torpedo slammed into The Sullivans just aft of where the bridge was, a tremendous plume of water was thrown skyward and the ship shook so violently Howard thought that the ship was going to tear itself in half from the force of the detonation of that torpedo.


A few minutes later the voice of Lieutenant Commander Alisa McCoy, the Chief Engineer for The Sullivans came over the 26MC. "Captain, I think that's done it! As it stood before that torpedo hit us, the pumps were struggling to stay ahead of flooding! Now thanks to that hit, we are most certainly going to lose her! I can give you three more hours, possibly three and half but she's done for. The old girl has just had enough." She said, her words quiet and meek, which was totally unlike herself, which was always very happy, but they had the effect of someone shouting a very interesting series of curse words. Howard felt as if someone had just suckered him with a baseball bat to the stomach, The Sullivans was doomed to sink into the depths of the ocean, lost forever unless they could kill this bastard and then get some nice shallow water under her.


Suddenly, right along the flank of the Battleship, with three glorious plumes of water erupting upward as the three remaining torpedoes that The Sullivans had fired slammed into the hull of the dreadnought and tore it's Torpedo Defense System open with far more explosive power than it could ever hope to hold back, three somewhat impressive wounds were torn into its hull. The battleship slowed down instantly, flames taking the aft two turrets in its embrace. Several men on the bridge cheered with joy at seeing those three shock plumes.

"Bring us about! We have to finish this fight! Let's fire our remaining Harpoons into that bastard and finish him off." Howard said as the enemy battleship took on a heavy list, it was clearing that it was flooding heavily. Those Mark 54s had just done an enormous amount of damage, maybe more than they should have done.


"Yessir!" The Helmsman said as he maneuvered The Sullivans so that her remaining Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles could be launched at the bastard. When that was done, the remaining turret that could still fire, the number two turret in that thing's main battery, erupted, the three gun barrels that it had spat anger and hatred at The Sullivans, as if the dreadnought itself was enraged that The Sullivans had inflicted crippling damage to it preventing it from being able to catch its prey, three enormous columns of water exploded around the destroyer, shaking it brutally.


"Harpoons set for bearing only! Birds away!" Holmes said over the 42MC circuit as four missiles leaped from their launchers, and sped toward the enemy battleship, impaling the thing, however only two Harpoons exploded against the demon's side, the others missed.


"Well that's that, we have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at that bastard. Either way he is crippled and not going anywhere any time soon. Let's get as far away from this bastard as humanly possible, before abandoning ship." Howard said before nodding at the helmsman who nodded, they seriously needed to get away from that thing. Howard felt saddened, he didn't want to abandon The Sullivans, but he could tell just from the way that her deck was groaning under his feet that she was done for.


"Sir!" The remaining bridge wing lookout cried fearfully, panic evident in his voice. Pointing to something that was coming out of a nearby squall that was in the East Coast Sea Breeze to the south, sailing broadside on to The Sullivans, was yet another one of those demons, this one was like the others in how it appeared in terms of visual appearance, but the ship that it took on was different. It was lean, probably slightly longer than the slowly dying Arleigh Burke class Guided Missile Destroyer, it had two funnels, surrounding the aft funnel was a platform that had two visible searchlights on it, just aft of said funnel was a platform that was semi-enclosed, just aft of that was another platform that served as the base for a mast and it had two smallish naval rifles on it, forward it had a tripod mast with three separate levels, forward the thing had two super firing single gun mounts, amidships was another single gun mount, and aft there was three more single mounts, they were all swung out and pointed at The Sullivans.


"Bridge, CIC here. It's been one hell of a ride sir. It's been an honor to serve with you commander. We certainly gave them a couple of hard knocks!" Holmes said, her voice with determination and defiance in the face of looming death.


"The honor was mine, you are right in that regard XO. We certainly did give them a couple of hard knocks and it certainly has been one hell of a ride." Howard said as he gave that demon from deep, abyss, hell, or wherever these fuckers came from an angry glare.


Its main battery flashed, fire pulsing from end to end as the Demon from the deep salvoed its main battery.


-|-|-|-|-|-

The next day


Captain Matthew Turner of the Carnival Cruise Lines, commanding officer of the Carnival Sensation looked at his ship. He was amazed that she had made it to port unscathed particularly when he found out that five other Cruise Ships hadn't been so fortunate and having been attacked and sunk by those Devils of the Deep as he liked to call them, whom after three days previously smashing the United States Navy in terms of its effectiveness as a fighting force, had then consolidated their forces, and then starting slowly yesterday, but really peaking last night, striking commercial shipping hard fast, sinking god only knows how many ships in territorial waters and even within sight of land and attacking several harbors, including Port Everglades, HMNB Portsmouth, San Diego, Shanghai, and Manila.


Among the losses at Portsmouth had been the historical HMS Victory having been hit by a stray shell and having the entirety of her stern and bridge area utterly demolished, with her Mizzen-mast toppling over the back of the smashed stern of the British Ship of the Line. As far as he knew the British were beyond pissed off about that, however on the flip side, somehow the Mary Rose Museum and the HMS Warrior had both somehow survived the attack unscathed, even though the majority of the port facilities had been pounded into smoldering piles of rubble.


However even he knew that The Sullivans likely wasn't going to arrive. He sighed as he realized that the only reason that the Carnival Sensation had made it back to Port Canaveral at all, was thanks to valiant sacrifice that the crew of that Guided Missile Destroyer had done to make sure they could make it. More incredibly, several passengers and crew had filmed The Sullivans' first engagement against those bastards, as well as part of the second engagement that the Guided Missile Destroyer had performed just to protect the Carnival Sensation. Even now as it stood The Sullivans had achieved best kill to death ratio of the entirety United States Navy and all other navies in the world, sinking three enemy Protected Cruisers and one Destroyer, plus throwing everything but the kitchen sink at a dreadnought and crippling the damn thing. It was last seen under tow by a Heavy Cruiser making about three knots heading out into the Atlantic Ocean.


However, Turner frowned as he realized what had happened to The Sullivans. The crew of the USS The Sullivans had probably prevented his ship and all onboard from being killed by those bastards that the destroyer had valiantly managed to fight off, not once but twice, which was incredible in itself. Particularly considering the beating that The Sullivans took during the first engagement, her superstructure badly mangled by shells, her hangar area on having been shredded and engulfed in flames, but the destroyer hadn't given a flying fuck about that situation.


Then during the second engagement, the Guided Missile Destroyer had gone and pulled a charge against a dreadnought that was reminiscent of the charge done by the American Destroyers at the Battle off Samar. The last glimpse he had seen of The Sullivans before they had entered that squall that succeeded in allowing them to get to safety, had been of seeing an enormous plume of water explode upward against her flank, likely from a torpedo impaling her, and then he hadn't been able to see anything else, as the Carnival Sensation had then made it into that squall.


Still it hurt, mainly because he wasn't going to be able to meet the United States Navy Commander that had saved his life and his ship and everyone onboard. But, he supposed that luck is a fickle thing in war. He shook his head, it was clear that The Sullivans had been sunk during that final engagement against that Battleship, with no survivors.


Shaking his head he turned and walked away from the quay, he decided that he would resign from his post and join the United States Navy, mainly because as it stood his livelihood was completely shot until whoever the hell these things were, had been cleared from the Ocean. Not to mention the Navy had lost a lot of ships and experienced seamen and captains. He guessed that the Navy would be happy to have them, besides he considered it as sort of a debt that needed to paid, after all he wouldn't be here if The Sullivans had found them and given them escort back to Port Canaveral, the Carnival Sensation likely would have ended up like one of the Cruise Ships that had been sunk or had returned to port having been absolutely clobbered, with a lot of dead and injured.


He sighed, something told him as he got in his car, pulled out his Smartphone, and punched into his google maps app asking for directions to the closest Navy recruiting station that this was going to be a long war against whoever the hell these guys were. Before he departed for the Navy Recruiting station however, he did submit a letter of resignation, stating his intention to leave Carnival Cruise Lines and join the United States Navy.


However, something told Captain Matthew Turner, that it was going to be a long war against whoever the hell these guys were. Not to mention, it would be the type of war, where strange shit occurring, like three Protected Cruisers, a ship type that hadn't sailed since World War I, coming out of nowhere and attacking without provocation would become commonplace. But he had no idea how right he was in that regard.


-|-|-|-|-


AN: Besides the three Protected Cruisers that The Sullivans sank, the reason being that her guns and missiles inflicted such incredible damage is because they don't have an armored belt, the Battleship that The Sullivans engaged and crippled is an Austro-Hungarian Tegetthoff class Dreadnought Battleship, to be specific it was an Abyssal SMS Szent István which was very different in terms of machinery from her sisters in that she only had two turbines and two propellers, other differences include that searchlight platform, and a modified ventilator truck in front of the mainmast, she was also the only member of her class that didn't have torpedo nets installed.

The destroyer that The Sullivans crippled, most likely sank was a Dutch Destroyer, a Admiralen class Destroyer. The one special thing that they have about them, is that they can carry a Seaplane, a rather novel feature for a destroyer from the 20s, but they didn't have an impulse catapult, they had to slow to like five knots to launch the plane because they had to lower it into the water.

Also the Cruiser that, while we didn't see it happen, but it's implied that it did sink The Sullivans is a Hawkins class Heavy Cruiser. Which apart from her main battery guns which was composed of seven 7.5in guns in single mounts, and the fact she was the basis for the maximum cruiser limit for the Washington Navy Treaty nothing really special about the class.

Also, this story explains why HMS Victory was able to come back as a Ship Girl, it's because her hull was basically decimated during an Abyssal attack on Portsmouth.

End.

Again not Canon unless @theJMPer says that it is.
 
Last edited:
Thorthemighty said:
Also I have very limited knoweldge of the nautical distances and the waters around Florida and the Bahamas, I am a College Student not a Sailor.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm going to start off that this does not preclude you from simply opening up Google and searching for the information yourself. This is not a justification for sloppy research.

Thorthemighty said:
AN: Anyway this will focus on what happened in the early stages of the Abyssal War, it happens shortly after the Abyssals have attacked the USN inflicting massive casualties on the USN, roughly two days after that happened, because let's face it after you break the back of the Navy of a Superpower to then go after the civilians hard core it will take a bit of time, also the reason that it takes the better part of two days to for the Navy Brass to send that FLASH message out, is because let's face it, losing four Supercarriers, the majority of their air groups, and their escorts, plus having the other carrier groups that were at sea clobbered, well too many lost ships and brave men and women, not enough working brains. This story follows the USS The Sullivans and the action that the Guided Missile Destroyer and her crew did against the Abyssals to protect over 2,000 civilians that were on the Cruise Ship, the Carnival Sensation, this is that story.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You would think that the Navy has contingency plans just in case an event like this does happen. now, sure, reports would be coming in that ships are sinking as fast as a rock getting thrown into a pool would, but remember, the Pentagon exists to have, as you put it 'working brains'.

And I don't like author notes that spell out the entire plot of the story. That's poor storytelling.

Thorthemighty said:
Note, while the top speed for the Arleigh Burke class DDG is listed at roughly 30 knots officially, but reports say that it's true top speed is closer to 35 knots, which is more reasonable, considering these things have four LM2500 Gas Turbines and produce 108,000 horsepower and after the reduction gears do their thing, that power is transmitted to a pair of 17-foot variable-pitch propellers.


Also, massive Abyssal Derp Moments coming in, although granted with the way that the first group of Abyssals engages USS The Sullivans, you could contribute it to a degree to overconfidence in their own abilities and the fact that felt that they were invulnerable, particularly considering when this had happened.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Again, I don't like author notes that basically summarize the plot in the first paragraph. If you want someone to read the story, you don't feed them the entire plot in the first sentence.

Thorthemighty said:
Dallas Howard was of average height, standing about 5 feet 5 inches tall, a powerful build similar to that of a Bobcat. He had sea green eyes and brown hair cut military short. He was wearing Navy Working Uniforms.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Unnecessary information. Do we really need to know what the man looks like?

Thorthemighty said:
"Sir! You aren't going to believe this! But according to this message, it says that the John C. Stennis, the Ronald Reagan, the Carl Vinson, and the Nimitz have all been sunk, their strike groups utterly gutted, and their air wings almost completely destroyed! The other Supercarriers in the fleet have been attacked as well, but they have repulsed the attackers but have taken heavy casualties doing it. It says here that the enemy doesn't show up on radar and that Missiles don't work against them as well! The appearance that these enemy ships take on are ships from Warships from the era of the Great War, Pre-Dreadnoughts, Dreadnoughts, Armored Cruisers, Scout Cruisers, and shit. All ships are to assume a wartime footing ASAP, if possible find Civilian ships and try to escort them back to a safe harbor!" Sparks said, sounding incredulous, particularly about the types of ships that attacked the Carrier Strike Groups.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Swearing is detrimental and useless in a serious situation like this. Now, you could tighten up this entire section very easily. "Sir, you're not going to believe this!" his voice cried out. "Four supercarriers have been sunk, with elements of the (whatever fleet you want to have survive) being attacked as well! Reports are coming in, looks like the aggressors are Second World War-era vessels. Dreds, cruisers... they're attacking civilians. Orders are to retrieve as many as possible and escort them home."

That's how you would cut down that lengthy exposition down to say one or two sentences.

Thorthemighty said:
"Yes Sir, I sent back for confirmation and the message is genuine. This is not some asshole pulling a prank! This happened about forty eight hours ago, but we lost so many ships within roughly a span of three hours, it took this long for The Brass to get a message out. Probably because of the fact that there were too many dead and not enough working brains." Sparks replied quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Unnecessary if you rework it like I had. And again, swearing is unnecessary in situations like these.

Thorthemighty said:
Howard blinked, then scowled and then he realized that the United States of America was at war. Worse four Supercarriers gone within three hours, no wonder it took the Brass this long to get a FLASH priority message out, too many ships lost and a lot dead, and not enough working minds.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes, yes, we get it, "not enough working minds." Nevermind that it just doesn't make sense -- you would be able to contact regional commands and have them help out with the glut of information assaulting them. They'd know what ships were still afloat, and they'd be able to react much quickly than what you're implying here.

Now, supercarriers is not a capitalized noun because it's not a specific thing. It's referring to a whole classification of carriers that dwarf the earlier fleet carriers in size and capabilities. If for instance you're referring to a specific vessel named 'Supercarrier', then you'd capitalize the noun because it's referring to a specific object. Here, it's improper to capitalize it.

Thorthemighty said:
The Sullivans main defense against incoming fire was her extensive electronic suite of various radars and sonars, the reason she didn't have any armor was because with her advanced sensor suite she could detect, analyze, and if needed blow the hell out of something that threatened the ship, before they could get close enough to hit her. If these bastards didn't show up on radar and worse since missiles had trouble acquiring targets that was most her advantages gone.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You could again spare us the lengthy exposition and just say that her electronic warfare suite made missiles hard to hit. She wasn't built to fight up close and personal, because no one used guns to shoot at anything bigger than a motorboat, etcetera...

Thorthemighty said:
The rhythmic electronic sounding general quarters alarm resounded through the ship. The whole ship exploded into a flurry of activity, men and women running in either which way, getting the ship prepared to go into combat in needed. "All stations report manned and ready, sir!" A rating barked as the last division reported in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Now here is a section where you could actually expand. Show us the cool efficiency of the crew's training, how they're still orderly despite scrambling into their action stations.

Thorthemighty said:
Howard glanced at his watch and smiled, it took exactly two minutes ten seconds for The Sullivans to go from a peacetime footing to a wartime footing. However if they engaged whoever the hell these bastards were, how the hell were they supposed to hurt them, particularly if they encountered something that was big and armored? All that his ship had for weapons was a single 5in/54 Caliber Mark 45 Mod 2 Gun Mount, 90 Vertical Launch Cells with a mix of RIM-156B Standard Block 2 Missiles, RGM-109E Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, and RIM-162 ESSMs, eight RGM-84L Block II Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles, two M242 Bushmaster Chain Guns, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts, two Mk 32 Triple Torpedo Tubes, and lastly four M2 Browning Machine Guns.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Too much information, and as such it would cause the reader to simply ignore this. We don't need to know their specific names; common names are enough that the reader doesn't need to be bombarded with their full designation to understand what you mean.

Thorthemighty said:
Howard shook his head, his ship would likely hurt the bastards, no problem, because well it didn't matter if your ship was even a Dreadnought. Having a Tomahawk hit you would ruin your day, because having 1,000 pounds of explosive detonate against your flank would ruin anyone's day, even if it didn't do crippling or fatal damage, it would however screw over anything fragile like radars, fire control, and optics. But that was the problem, unless it was something like a Light Cruiser or a Destroyer they would struggle to scratch it with anything but their torpedoes and Tomahawks, even then the torps would be iffy because they had such a tiny warhead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Actually, you'd be surprised at how sturdy armour is. Anti-ship missiles are designed to attack the top of the ship, where the deck armour is generally the weakest. The sides are usually too thickly armoured for the explosive warhead of the Anti-ship missile to do anything other than minor spalling damage. And the spalling would be caught by parts of the armour designed to stop spalling.

Thorthemighty said:
The 42MC squawked and the voice of the Executive Officer for The Sullivans, Lieutenant Commander Karina Holmes came over the circuit, bringing Howard out of his thinking spell. "Sir, we have a list of civilian traffic that we can reach within one hour, it's mostly fishing boats. However, there is something that we need to escort back to Port Canaveral, 50 nautical miles South of us is the goddamn Carnival Sensation, she's on I think a 3-night Cruise to Freeport Bahamas, either that or a 4-night Cruise to Nassau, Bahamas. She can have upwards of 3,554 people on board!" She said quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Specific numbers should be instead be said as such. "She can have upwards of three-thousand people onboard!" sounds a lot better than saying "upwards of 3,554 people on board!" Not to mention that that kind of precision would, again, be unnecessary in a situation like these where having (roughly) three-thousand lives at risk is already enough weight for the reader to process.

And the swearing. I really, really don't think professionals would swear this much while on duty.

Thorthemighty said:
"Son of a bitch!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I really don't think captains would swear this much.
 
Well it's certainly long.

I'd also advise against trying to justify stuff by other authors, it can get frustrating when people og "but wait, [x] happened! This is different Why?" when the original author gets around to it.
 
Look, it isn't the best written piece I've ever read, but it's not truly 'bad'. The grammar is pretty decent, the spelling is good, and it doesn't commit any of the writing sins that I truly deplore (it sticks to a consistent tense, it sticks to a consistent style, and it uses proper grammar/spelling). While he can work on the content, and should, for somebody who isn't a professional writer and 'only' a college student it's a solid effort.
 
LordSunhawk said:
Look, it isn't the best written piece I've ever read, but it's not truly 'bad'. The grammar is pretty decent, the spelling is good, and it doesn't commit any of the writing sins that I truly deplore (it sticks to a consistent tense, it sticks to a consistent style, and it uses proper grammar/spelling). While he can work on the content, and should, for somebody who isn't a professional writer and 'only' a college student it's a solid effort.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thank you, I tried my best, and I think it's a lot better than my first attempt. However if anything, one thing that can be agreed on is that the USS The Sullivans threw pretty much everything but the kitchen sink at that Abyssal Dreadnought and they only managed to hurt the thing and not sink it. However they did succeed in their objective which was allowing the Carnival Sensation to make it to Port Canaveral.
 
And that's how you improve, Thor, just keep on writing. You can take all the classes on writing you want, but in the end, the only way to learn how to write well is to write, write, and write some more. Your early efforts may well draw nothing but jeers and mockery, but keep at it and if you just improve a little each time, eventually you'll have good work. Listen to the feedback people give, follow it as best you can, learn how to research, how to outline, how to write, and you'll be fine.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top