Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2014 3:39:22 GMT
February, 12, 2396, 08:30 A.M. USS Ticonderoga, Hope Base somewhere in the South Pacific.
"Make a hole!" Captain Nemo shouted, sailors scattered to either side as he barreled down the p-way. "Damn ONI calling an Emergency meeting at the last minute" he muttered under his breath, “couldn’t they have at least given me a couple of hours’ notice?"
He slowed as he approached the meeting room door, taking a moment to straighten out his uniform before entering.
"Good morning Sirs, I trust I didn't keep you waiting long?" he said with a wry grin to the room of bleary eyed Admirals. Taking a quick glance around the room he saw nearly all of the members of Fleet Command assembled the smell of pancakes and sausage along with freshly brewed coffee told him that he wasn't the only one to not get breakfast yet.
"Have a seat Nemo," said one of the Admirals, Nemo looked in the direction of the voice, Admiral Webster, head of Fleet Ops. grinned up at him "you're looking at the food the way a wolf looks at a herd of sheep."
Nemo smiled, and replied "Yeah and I see you've got your ever present Big Gulp Mug and a pitcher of coffee all to yourself as usual." Adm. Webster just grinned even broader at the riposte from his old friend.
As Nemo took his seat and helped himself to the steaming pancakes and coffee he asked "So where's Adm. Sandoval,", referring to the one empty seat in the room, "he called this meeting didn't he?"
"Yes, I did, didn't I?" replied a voice from behind Cpt. Nemo, Nemo almost choked on his coffee as the voice took him by surprise.
"Dammit Sandoval, would you not sneak up on people when their eating!" growled Adm. Savage, head of BuPers. The head of ONI smirked as he replied "Well if you didn't gobble your food like a starving Gromek you'd have heard me coming." Adm. Savage just growled at Sandoval and went back to eating.
"So..." said Nemo as Sandoval took his seat, "I assume you called us together for a reason other than for old squid week?" Nemo grinned as a communal groan rose up from the collected Admirals.
"I see your sense of humor hasn't changed a bit while I've been gone." a voice laconically drawled from behind Nemo. Nemo froze in mid-bite, his fork halfway to his mouth. Putting his fork down Nemo stood up and turned to face the person the voice had issued from.
"What the HELL are you doing here Senior Chief?" Nemo snarled. "Leaning against this door frame, I think?" replied Senior Chief (SW) Robert Daniels with strained smile on his face, "Good to see you too, Sir, It's been what? Eighty years since you and I last locked horns?"
"ENOUGH!!" bellowed Adm. Sandoval, “Both of you take your seats." he ordered.
"What is this deserter doing on this base?" Nemo shouted as he spun to face the Admiral.
"The Senior Chief is here at my request, Captain", Admiral Sandoval stated calmly, "as he is pertinent to the reason I called this meeting. All will be explained shortly, Captain, I assure you." "James bring in another chair for the Chief here, would you?" the Admiral enquired of the steward.
As the chair was being brought in and the plates cleared, Admiral Sandoval began, "The reason I asked the Senior Chief to attend this meeting is because he has just recently returned from the CS/Tolkeen battlefront where he and his team have been for the last four years gathering intelligence on the Coalitions States military capabilities, as a matter of fact for the past eighty years the Chief has been one of my primary field operatives in assessing exactly what forces are out there and what level of threat do they pose to us." "I've also asked the President to follow this meeting via video conference so as to get his opinion on the events that the Chief will be briefing us on."
Nemo glared at Sandoval, "Why wasn't I informed of this, Admiral?" he asked.
"Because I told Admiral Sandoval not to." another voice said quietly from behind Captain Nemo, "Hello, old friend, good to see you again after all this time."
Nemo turned, "Mr. President, John, I thought you were going to be on video conference?" he said, looking back at Admiral Sandoval.
"I am." President John Mathers (USN Ret.) replied "This is a new holographic projector that I asked to be installed, for this meeting and any future ones." "The Chief and Sandoval approached me five years ago before the start of the Tolkeen conflict and filled me in on all the details and I ordered them not to say anything until after we had seen who won the war."
"The information they presented to me this morning was shocking enough to cause me to have Sandoval call this meeting and brief all of you on it." "Gentlemen you may proceed." the President said.
The rest of the day was spent going over the Chief's notes on troop deployment, weapons capabilities, equipment, tactics, battlefronts, approximated casualties and the salient points of the causes leading up to the start of the Tolkeen conflict.
20:00 P.M. that day,
"Well, that was an excellent and informative discussion Chief," President Mathers stated, as the briefing wound down for the evening, "I recommend that we adjourn here for the evening and give all of us some time to assess the information at hand and to allow Admiral Sandoval and the Chief to get prepped for the rest. We will reconvene tomorrow at 09:00 hours to give everyone a little extra time to get here, that will be all gentlemen."
As the Presidents hologram winked out and the other Admirals filed out leaving Nemo, Sandoval and Daniels alone Nemo turned to the Chief, "So this is what you've been up to for the last five years, eh, Chief?", he asked.
"Yes Sir." the Chief replied formally.
"Oh, don't go all respectful on me now Chief we've known each other for what, 140 years now, is it?" Nemo laughed. "I knew you were up to something but I didn't know what, you always were one for keeping secrets when you had to, no matter how much pressure was put on you." "Which is exactly why I endorsed your entry into the SEALs in the first place. You might as well come clean and tell me what you've been up to the last 75 years since you 'retired'."
"Well, as I recall I didn't so much retire as call you a overly cautious grandmother, and you should "Get your head out of your rear end and be more pro-active in your approach to the world around you, you dumb@$$!!" after which I threw my rank insignia onto your desk and stormed out." replied Daniels grinning wryly at the memory.
"I was approached by Adm. Sandoval the next day and offered a position in ONI, when I asked what strings came with it he said "None, except you report back to me about every five or ten years while you're out seeing the world and getting your feet wet."
I said I'd think about it and call him in the morning, he replied that this was a one-time only deal, right here, right now." "I sat back and looked at him for about a minute and said 'Deal'. The next day I "deserted" and started exploring, I travelled earth for about a decade as a sailor and a pirate, got sucked through a rift and ended up in the "Palladium" world that so many of these Dimensional beings came from, it took me nearly 25 years to find my way back, during which I adventured and amassed a small fortune the pinnacle of which was when I found and old Terran pirate galleon called the Indomitable hidden in a cave, she was loaded with treasure from our Earths early colonial period and gems and gold from Palladium as well." "I spent some of the gold getting her refitted, during which I found detailed Maps and charts of Palladiums seas and continents, which I had copied and sold for even more money."
"After the refit was complete I hired a local mage to help open a Rift to home, once I got back home I stashed the treasure, sold the ship and reported back to Sandoval.
Suddenly, Admiral Sandoval yawned, blinked his eyes, and shook his head, "Sorry guys, guess the Sandman is calling my name, how about we save the campfire stories for after the final briefing, we've got a lot of info to cover tomorrow and the Chief and I have been up since the crack of dawn putting this together."
"Care to give me a clue as to what to expect?" asked Nemo.
The Chief, already on his way to the door, stopped and looked back at Nemo, "Sir," he said, slipping back into formal address. “the things I saw during the Tolkeen war give me nightmares still, after tomorrow I doubt anyone in Fleet command will sleep easy again."
The look in the Chief's eyes forestalled Nemo from asking any more questions, quietly he said "I've never known you to exaggerate either Chief, at least not over something serious, so I'll take your word for it and sincerely wish you pleasant dreams this night."
"Thanks, "Uncle", coming from you that means more than you could posiibly imagine at this point." the Chief replied equally quietly, "See you tomorrow." he said, and left, closing the door behind him.
Captain Nemo sat there, in the empty meeting room, for perhaps another hour, considering the look in his "nephew's" eyes, a look that bespoke volumes of terror and pain. Standing up he crossed over to one of the bookshelves along the wall and took down a book, one that looked as if it had been read repeatedly, the cover read, in faded letters, "Auschwitz Concentration Camp, January 1945". He opened the book to the inside front cover, there written in barely legible ink was a dedication, "To my son, Nemo, congratulations upon your graduating OCS. The road ahead may be difficult but I am certain you will prevail. I leave you this book as a reminder. All my love, Carl Dobson."
Underneath the dedication was a single sentence "Lest we forget man's inhumanity to his fellow man." Nemo opened the book to the center spread, and there looking back at him, from the pages of a book nearly 400 years old, was an emaciated skeleton of a man dressed in rags, with the same look of quiet terror and pain mixed with despair and resignation, that he had just seen in the eyes of a man he privately considered his son.
08:30 A.M. The next day.
The chief had arrived early to get a head start in setting up for the briefing, and was ready by the time all of Fleet Command arrived.
"Here a bit early aren't you, Chief?" asked Admiral Mathers, the first to arrive.
"Yes sir." the Chief replied, "I felt that getting set up early would save time as we have a lot to cover today, Sir."
"And What exactly will we be covering today, Chief?" asked the Presidents holographic image.
The Chief, seeing that everyone was present, stated, “Today, Sirs, I will cover the actual battles themselves, with some additional pertinent information towards the end of the day."
"What pertinent information, Chief?" Admiral Webster inquired.
Admiral Sandoval cleared his throat, turning all eyes toward him "As the Chief said it is pertinent information, but we decided to hold it until the end of the days briefing due to the nature of the material. I assure you gentlemen that you will find this information very important.", looking over at the Chief, "Any time you're ready Chief."
The rest of the day, until 21:00 P.M. is spent going over the beginning assault on Tolkeen and followed through to Gen. Holmes' decisive assault from the Hivelands.
At 21:00 hours, after he had finished describing the results of Gen. Holmes' actions, the Senior Chief paused, squared his shoulders and looked at his audience, Admiral Sandoval, The President and Captain Nemo nodded in assent to the coming presentation.
A quick nod in return the Chief began, "Sirs, The footage you are about to see is perhaps the most important part of this briefing as it shows us all exactly what the Leaders of the Coalition Staes are truly capable of."
The lights go down as scenes from the Coalition Death Camps play across the screen. The Admirals sit, stunned speechless, staring at the images of emaciated D-Bees and humans, Admiral Mathers, veteran of nearly 200 years of Naval service is reduced to vomiting, as the video displays the mutilated remains of a human in a blood stained room full of crude medical instruments, and even cruder cybernetic limbs and organs, some caked with the blood of humans and D-bees alike.
"The CS used these items to 'neutralize' prisoners with even the slightest amount of magical or psionic power, subjecting them to torturous cybernetic replacement procedures without the benefit of anesthetic or any anti-bacterial treatment, many of these prisoners either died on the table, or later on from disease, infections, or cybernetic organs that were incorrectly installed deliberately, others went insane and killed themselves trying to physically remove the cybernetic attachments." the Chief explained
The scene shifts again, this time we here people speaking. The Chief stopped the video for a moment.
"The people you are hearing in this section are CS Sgt. Deon Canton and General Micander Drogue, Gen. Drogue is the one responsible for these camps, and while both sides took prisoners of war the CS leadership allowed Drogue to set up these Death Camps and then tried to have the evidence erased, as you will see." The Chief let the video resume.
As the video played the Chief, again offered an explanation, "Sgt. Canton, as we see here, could no longer stand the way Gen. Drogue was treating these people and finally snapped under the weight of his conscience and freed these prisoners, leaving the camp intact, my squad and I met up with the prisoners and escorted them to a safe place where they could get medical aid. I was able to get some of them to tell me what happened to them, afterwards my squad and I returned to the camp and took the pictures you saw earlier."
Two grueling hours later, the footage ended. The entirety of fleet command and the President himself looked ill and sick at the horrors they had just witnessed.
"Is that everything?" asked Captain Nemo, a deep swallow let him keep control of his churning stomach.
"That is everything pertaining to the war and its immediate consequences, Sir." the Chief replied quietly.
Admiral Sandoval spoke up, saying. "As you can see the CS is willing to slaughter anyone whom they considered an enemy, whether they truly posed a threat or not." "Unfortunately we are not done yet; tomorrow we will discuss the minds behind much of the CS forces
and CS policy, with the Presidents permission we shall adjourn for the night and reconvene tomorrow at the same time."
The President merely nods in assent as his image winks out. As Captain Nemo and the rest of the Admirals begin to file out the Senior Chief motions to Adm Sandohval to stay behind for a moment.
"Sir, I'm going to have to call in some extra help on tomorrows briefing, unfortunately I think my expert is going to upset a few people."
said the Chief.
"Who do you need, and why is it going to cause problems Chief?" asked the Admiral, a sinking sensation growing in the pit of his stomach, "It better not be who I think it is.”
"I'm afraid so, Sir, I need Lt. Davis in on this Sir." the Chief replied.
"You know that's not going to go over well with Nemo." Sandoval said.
"When has anything Davis done go over well with the Captain, Sir?" the Chief asked, a note of tired resignation in his voice.
"He's the strongest field agent we have and the info he can bring to bear tomorrow is crucial."
"Fine." said Sandoval, "I'll have him come in tomorrow and fill in the gaps. Just start as usual and we'll deal with Davis when he shows up."
"Yes sir" replied the Chief gratefully.
08:30 A.M. Final day of the briefing.
The Chief is setting up for the day when a tall (6'2") man with long, flowing white hair wearing a Marine Officers uniform walks in grabs a chair, reverses it and sits down, "So how's it going Chief? Hit them over the head with the Big One yet?"
The Chief, who was facing away from the main doors, turns, a smile lighting his face, "Doc you old SOB how ya been? How's being a samurai treating you these days?"
"Oh, you know; serve the Empress, slay Oni, and keep the people happy blah, blah, blah... SSDD." "You didn't answer the question though Did You Hit Them over the Head with the Big One Yet?" Lt. "Doc" Tanner Davis (USMC) asked patiently.
"Sort of," replied the Chief, "I just finished showing them the Death Camp footage last night, I called you in to help deliver the final blow, personalities of CS Hierarchy and the rest, and your connection to the New Diet in The Japanese Republic as an official ambassador from the Imperial court of Japan."
"You realize what Nemo's going to do don't you, he's going to try and call security and have me arrested and put in lock up and I'm going to put him through a bulkhead and break his jaw again." Doc drawled laconically, as if he didn't care one bit that he had just threatened to deck the most Senior and generally well respected officer in the entire New Navy.
"You just live to annoy Nemo don't you Doc?" answered Daniels.
"Well, we wouldn't be in this situation if he'd listened to us, now would we? We wouldn't be trying to play catch up to a militarily superior bunch of scum sucking Nazi's now would we?" Doc said sarcastically, "We'd have made contact with the Tech cities of Japan right after they appeared instead of waiting 20 years and started rebuilding our fleet and actually expanding out into the world again and if he'd listened to you 80 years ago we'd have more than a measly two thousand Sea Titans to work with while doing it. But noooo, he wanted to take the long road and play "Let's wait and see." so now we're behind the eight ball and have to play catch up to damned CS while they get to swallow even more territory and gear up to take on Lazlo and New Lazlo." Doc finished angrily.
"I know Doc, Adm. Sandoval has briefed General Solis on your presence and we'll keep things from getting out of hand and keep Nemo from storming out too, this is just too important for us to let get all cocked up at the last moment, Doc." Daniels replied.
At that moment, the Chiefs comlink beeped, "Daniels here, go ahead." he answered, Admiral Sandoval’s voice issued from the link, "We're on our way Chief, is your "guest" all set?"
"Yes sir, he's here and ready sir, is everything set on your end Sir?" the Chief asked.
"Alles in ordung." Sandohval replied, "See you in fifteen, Chief, Sandohval out."
Fifteen minutes later, 09:00 A.M. The members of fleet command filed in and took their seats, Captain Nemo, the last to enter stopped cold when he saw Doc, "Just what in the HELL is this excuse for an officer doing here!" "SECURITY!!" he bellowed, glaring at Doc, who pointedly ignored him.
"I requested his presence here Sir," the Chief replied, stepping between Doc and Nemo, “as I stated last night he has information that is important to the rest of this briefing, especially as he was instrumental in my being able to get close enough in to get the videos you saw last night sir. Just listen to what we have to say and try to put aside your dislike."
"Dislike isn't the word Daniels," Doc said, snidely, "Disgust, probably, but not dislike."
As Nemo lunged for Doc, General Solis, the Chief and Admiral Sandohval all stepped in and kept the Captain and Doc from each other,
"STAND DOWN, ALL OF YOU!!" General Solis shouted, as the Presidents hologram appeared, "Stop acting like a bunch of kids on a damned playground and start acting like the professionals you are!" "Sorry about this sir," the General said, speaking to the President, "It won't happen again." he finished his apology in a steely voice, looking at Doc. "Will it Lieutenant?"
"No sir!" replied Doc with a carefree grin.
"Shall we begin, now?" said the President, looking expectantly at the Chief.
"Yes sir!" the Chief replied quickly, turning to Doc, "Lt. Davis, you've had many run ins with some of the CS high command, how would you describe them?"
"In a word, Megalomaniacal, the Emperor thinks he's going to save humanity by killing D-bees, his son displays nearly a carbon copy of his father’s attitude, and nearly all the CS Generals are of the same opinion as evidenced by the actions of the late General Drogue, Gen. Kalpov of Lonestar, is willing to anything it takes to win even if it means sacrificing his soldiers in pointless and bloody battles. Gen. Kashbrook is only moderately better in that she doesn't waste troops, but unless you're a CS citizen, she could care less about you, Dr. Desmond Bradford the head of Genetics at The Old Tex Am complex has access to Pre-Cataclysm levels of genetic knowledge that he has apparently used to extend the lifespans of everyone in the Cs High command, estimates say that the Emperor and his son will both have lifespans of up to 140 years, possibly longer depending upon medical care." Doc said simply.
"So what does all this mean exactly, Lt., and how can we be sure that what you say is accurate." Captain Nemo asked.
Doc just looked at Nemo and looked over at the Chief with a look that said "Spell it out for the idiot so I don't have to."
The Chief looked back at Doc and repeated Nemo's question.
Doc sighed and began to explain, "First we have more video footage of both Kalpov and Kashbrook in action, secondly it means that both Proseks and most of the current High Command are going to around and still calling the shots for the better part of the next two hundred years." "We are all aware of the significant levels of genetic engineering that went on during the latter part of the 21st century and the benefits our own military medicine reaped from that. They have access to all of that plus the manufacturing capabilities of Lonestar and the Northern Gun/Iron Heart area as well as having made peace with Free Quebec."
"We also have reports that Dr. Bradford is actively ignoring Karl Proseks orders concerning human experimentation and has created a force of super natural humans he calls Janissaries, we also have video evidence of this as well, plus genetic samples from his early experiments into this field, a mercenary group called the Greeks, that was founded by a small number of Bradford’s superhumans who are a little insane, but actively oppose Bradford and his Janissaries." (Authors note, refer to Rifter28 for further details)
The Chief stepped up at this point, as Doc sat back down, "Joseph Prosek suspects that Bradford is going too far but has no concrete proof yet, if he did have the proof we have it would at the very least cause Karl to rethink his appointment of Bradford and cause him to remove Bradford from command of the TexAm Genetics facility while he does a full investigation.” This helps us by getting Karl to terminate the Janissary project and the Janissaries themselves, especially as the Janissaries are raised in a completely non-social environment, no social contact at all at any stage of their development and have their growth rate accelerated so they come to full physical maturity in four years. This in addition to the CS military buildup and the CS's recent actions regarding Naval developments, of which you are all aware, makes the CS a long term threat that we must deal with."
Everyone was silent for a while as the assembled members of fleet command took in this info, after about ten minutes, the President spoke up and asked, "So what do you propose we do about all of this, Gentlemen?"
"What we propose, sir, is One, with Doc's help we approach our old allies, The Republic of Japan and form an alliance with them, with their technological support we can give our current fleet the upgrades it needs, and we can build more fleet assets to help expand our capabilities, Two, we actively expand our holdings by establishing colonies on the west coast of the American continent, thus giving ourselves more land for bases as well as the resources to help fuel our expansion and colonization efforts as depicted in these charts. Three we approach the Lemurians, finally, and at the very least try to put to rest this level of distrust between our two groups, with their help we could effectively drive the Nautyll away from the areas they control now and secure them."
The Chief starts handing out colony and military growth charts to everyone.
"And how do you expect to accomplish all this with our present fleet Chief?" asked Nemo, "We don't even have the equipment to take the Horune base in Okinawa."
The Chief and Doc grinned simultaneously, "We were hoping you'd ask that sir." the Chief replied happily, "Not too long ago Doc became the local Daimyo for a territory in the New Empire of Japan and because of his unique status has been acting as a go between for the Empire and the Republic of Japan, and during my absence Admiral Sandoval sent myself and a team of SEALs into Hiroshima to assess their condition, I discovered that the Tech cities are running fine and have a standing army in the millions and do indeed have the capability to help us in the areas of medicine, cybernetics, electronics, and power armor technology especially as Arma tech industries is there too. They even have the ability to help us build an entirely new fleet of surface vessels that can actually be an effective force on the oceans."
"Let me show you Tenryo Fleet as we like to call it, the fleet consists of eighteen vessels, specifically; one battleship, one amphibious warfare vessel, two missile cruisers, eight destroyers and six supply ships, all ships will have complements of power armor troops for defense and offense aboard and all are armed to the teeth." The Chief displayed the schematics for each vessel on the video screen and spent the next five hours detailing each vessels capability, with occasional technical explanations from Doc, as the fleet designer. The situation with the Lemurians will take time, but unless we start first, we will always be distrustful of them."
Doc spoke up at this point; "I personally recommend that Captain Nemo be the one to contact the Lemurians, as he is the most senior officer among us. That mission is too important to entrust to anyone lesser, that and as a close personal friend to the President he can speak with full authority."
At the end of the presentation all the Admirals and the General were discussing the possibilities, when Nemo spoke up and asked, "How do you intend on keeping the fact that you're American a secret, or do you, and where will you be based? If you keep returning to here the CS will track you down eventually."
"We've already given that some thought Sir," the Chief replied, "We can act as privateers and not fly a flag at all or we can fly the Jolly Roger, as far as a base we can make port in Tritonia and Japan as needed, and we will have other random ports far away from CS territories, mostly along the west coast in areas where the Nautyll presence is small and we can clear some of them out and secure those areas for continued use."
"And how do you know that the Republic of Japan will go for this Chief?" the President asked, "Or that the Lemurians will even talk to us at all?"
The Chief laughed, "Web polls sir, when my team and I were in Japan I paid a Psi-Tech Hacker to post a blog about what if the U.S. Navy were to show up and offer an alliance and the results were incredible, while there were some nay sayers, most responders were in favor of it, one positive responder we later found out was the current prime minister of Japan, a Hosuke Obata, who is a descendant of a 20th century sword master named Toshishiro Obata, who founded a Martial Arts School based upon Japanese swordsmanship."
'He said, and I quote "If the damned U.S. Navy were to show up on my doorstep I would welcome them with open arms then smack them upside the head and say 'What took you stupid gaijin so long." and immediately get down to the business of signing a mutual defense treaty. To do anything else would be stupid."
"Then there is the fact that the current Empress of Imperial Japan has taken a shine to Doc and made him her official ambassador to the Republic of Japan especially as he has saved her life from assassins on more than one occasion makes him very well respected in the Imperial court right now." "Honestly speaking sir, now is the time to do this, especially as I believe you're in an election year now aren't you sir?" the Chief enquired. "As far as the Lemurians are concerned my experiences as a rouge sailor has had me encounter them from time to time, often enough to now that they are just as if not, more, scared of us than we are of them, but they realize that they are getting to a point where they may need outside help, and we are a far better choice than any other group out there."
"How can you be so sure of this?" asked Nemo, "We've never had any real contact with the Lemurians before."
"The only other Naval forces on this planet besides pirates and us are the CS, The NGR, and the Splugorth, which one of them would you like to deal with?" Doc said angrily.
Grinning, the President shook his head at the Chief, "You win. I’ll do it. But first I'm getting you back for putting me through all this, Admirals, I would like your agreement on my promoting Senior Chief Robert Daniels immediately to the rank of Naval Captain and putting him in charge of the Tenryo fleet, with now Major Davis as his Chief engineer, are we all in agreement?"
A chorus of Aye, aye's come from the Admirals and General, only Nemo was silent.
"Nemo?" the President asked "Do you agree?"
"They'd better not screw it up and I want full personnel and equipment lists on my desk before this fleet launches." Nemo said, "So I'll go along with it and see what these two nut jobs come up with."
"Then it's done," the President said, turning to face Davis and Daniels, "Good luck and Godspeed Gentlemen, do your country proud and help give us the kick start we need, you can both go to the Prime Minister and let him know the Navy and Marine corps are back and ready to kick some @$$, later gators." and his hologram winked out.
"We're really in it now aren't we Doc?" he said in a whisper.
"It's your fault Daniels and I'm going to make you suffer for it too." Doc replied
Daniels just groaned in reply.
"So, Captain Daniels, when will this fleet be ready to set sail?" asked Admiral Webster
"Within the next seven to twelve months Sir, we even have our first target picked out sir, the Horune base in Okinawa, we take that and we'll have something else to give to the Japanese as gesture of goodwill." the Chief(now Captain ) replied.
"Well then you'd better get cracking, now, and get the show on the road." said Nemo, "This meeting is officially adjourned."
Forty eight hours later onboard the Ticonderoga.
Captain Daniels approached the door to Nemo's cabin, just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, Nemo called out, "Come on in and have a seat Daniels, I'm just finishing up some paperwork."
Daniels entered Nemo's cabin and took a seat on one of Nemo's couches, "How'd you know it was me?" he asked.
"You're not the only one who knows how to use a hand communicator, Rob." Nemo replied with a grin.
Daniels winced in mock agony, "Touché, Sir , you got me dead to rights on that one. Who squealed?"
"Sandoval" Nemo said with an answering grin, "And don't call me "Sir", we're of equal rank now Rob."
"You know you haven't called me "Rob" since I graduated SEAL School, Nemo." Daniels shot back, as he stretched out on Nemo's couch.
Nemo grimaced slightly at the reminder, " I didn't want people to think I was playing favorites when it came to you, I felt I had to be just as hard on you as was on everyone else."
Daniels nodded in reply, "So what else did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
"Well, I had some extra questions about your time out there and your pick of forces for the new fleet. I understand that you did quite a bit of dimension hopping while you were working for ONI." Nemo said, "Where did you go?"
“Hmmm, that's a long tale.", Daniels answered "To make it short for now, I wound up in the Naruni home dimension for a bit, came back with some samples of the tech from that Dimension. After I got back Sandoval sent me to Europe to check up on it, during that op I found the Wolfen Republic in Italy as well as the Splugorth backed Phoenix Empire in Egypt, fought my way back to the US via another Rift which sent me to a dimension where humans settled on Mars and revived a Martian race, managed to get their help in getting home, and spent the rest of the time checking out the US, Japan and South America only to finally wind up on the Tolkeen Front watching the CS trash their opponents."
Nemo smiled, "Sounds like there's a lot behind those adventures, I look forward to hearing about them in depth later on, when we've got some down time to kill."
Daniels barked a short laugh, "Us, have down time? Two career men like us? Nope not buying it." " At least not now with this recent surge of activity that all the mages says is coming , quite literally, from Hell itself. We're looking at being busy for a while, 'course so is everyone else." Daniels added with a far off look in his eyes
"All too true.", conceded Nemo, "So do you really think you and Doc can pull off this Fleet of yours, especially in so short a time frame?" Nemo asked, “Getting all those personnel won't be easy, even with the support of the Japanese government."
"We've got that covered, Doc and I plan on hiring four mercenary companies for the initial op, as well as bringing in about a dozen or so of the Cargo Cult Shamans for the extra, magical "oomph" we'll need." Daniels responded, glancing at Nemo's shocked expression out of the corner of his eye, "Surprised, Nemo?" he asked.
"Aside from the fact that this is what I'd expect from that arrogant jerk Doc. No not really. One question, Why Mercenaries?" Nemo asked quizzically.
"You mean why’d I lie to fleet command about the force disposition of the Tenryo fleet? Technically I didn't, the numbers and unit types I listed will be our standing force, once they're trained to Navy standards, which we are working on as we speak, but right now we need people who are combat ready and used to working in odd conditions and who have a lot of fire power to bring to bear right away. So I chose these four," Daniels said as he casually placed a PC-2020 Field Identifier unit on Nemo's desk, "they’re all in there."
Nemo quickly started the unit up and began skimming rapidly through the files, "Braddock's Bad Boys under Janet Braddock, Crow's Commandoes, Demon Busters and ... the Wolf Pack?" "I understand Demon Busters and Crow, but Janet Braddock and this new one the Wolf Pack?" Nemo asked looking up at Daniels.
"Janet is a competent and able commander who's looking to take over for her dad and wanted to run the Boys by herself, she has almost no ties to the CS and she keeps her word, so she's not a threat. The Wolf Pack is a division of rogue CS Dog Pack soldiers from the Tolkeen Front, they were to slated to be used as cannon fodder by General Drogue but instead decided that being free was worth more. Doc and I encountered them while we were investigating a rumor that Titan Arms had sent some weapons to Tolkeen."
"We found, not just weapons, but 12 Behemoth explorer vehicles converted in to walking factories with 144 tons of material ready for use, the Leader of the Wolf Pack, a Wolfen named Kanor Greymane, who along with many other Feral Dog boys had been picked up and retrained as Dog Pack for the war, was also out investigating the rumor in the hopes he could use it to his advantage or at least keep it put of CS and Tolkeen hands." "We crossed paths and after a short skirmish, managed to come to an agreement, they would distract the Cs troops in the area while Doc and I sorted out the factories. We ended up destroying half of them to keep them out of Cs or Tolkeen hands and, with Kanor's help, made off with the other half and 60% of the materials."
Suddenly, Admiral Sandohval yawned, blinked his eyes, and shook his head, "Sorry guys, guess the Sandman is calling my name, how about we save the campfire stories for after the final briefing, we've got a lot of info to cover tomorrow and the Chief and I have been up since the crack of dawn putting this together."
"Care to give me a clue as to what to expect?" asked Nemo.
The Chief, already on his way to the door, stopped and looked back at Nemo, "Sir," he said, slipping back into formal address. “the things I saw during the Tolkeen war give me nightmares still, after tomorrow I doubt anyone in Fleet command will sleep easy again."
The look in the Chief's eyes forestalled Nemo from asking any more questions, quietly he said "I've never known you to exaggerate either Chief, at least not over something serious, so I'll take your word for it and sincerely wish you pleasant dreams this night."
"Thanks, "Uncle", coming from you that means more than you could possibly imagine at this point." the Chief replied equally quietly, "See you tomorrow." he said, and left, closing the door behind him.
Captain Nemo sat there, in the empty meeting room, for perhaps another hour, considering the look in his "nephew's" eyes, a look that bespoke volumes of terror and pain. Standing up he crossed over to one of the bookshelves along the wall and took down a book, one that looked as if it had been read repeatedly, the cover read, in faded letters, "Auschwitz Concentration Camp, January 1945". He opened the book to the inside front cover, there written in barely legible ink was a dedication, "To my son, Nemo, congratulations upon your graduating OCS. The road ahead may be difficult but I am certain you will prevail. I leave you this book as a reminder. All my love. Carl Dobson."
Underneath the dedication was a single sentence "Lest we forget man's inhumanity to his fellow man." Nemo opened the book to the center spread, and there looking back at him, from the pages of a book nearly 400 years old, was an emaciated skeleton of a man dressed in rags, with the same look of quiet terror and pain mixed with despair and resignation, that he had just seen in the eyes of a man he privately considered his son.
Here's the first of the Tenryo fleet, the flagship, the battleship Tenryo;
The Tenryo is the first of a series of ships built and manned jointly by the New Navy and the Republic of Japan, named after the mythical (?) Muramasa demon blade, and built using an upgraded Pre-Rifts design the Tenryo is designed for one purpose; To Kill Her Enemies. To accomplish this goal she mounts four, 16 in. railgun cannon turrets, and one, 36 in. railgun cannon turret, anti-missile defenses, anti-air defenses and two companies of assault borders for seizing ships or defending the Tenryo from hostile boarding actions Along with a company of Dolphins/Killer Whales to defend from/engage in water based assaults.
Name: USS Tenryo
Class: Battleship/Command and Communications.
Crew: 1,600 total, 14 officers(Captain, Pilot/XO, 2 Gunnery officers, 1 Marine/Air officer, 5 Communications/Sensor officers, 2 medical doctors, 2 engineering officers), 20 NCO's(5 CPO's), 1,566 enlisted crewmen(non-NCO's), Including assault crew.
Troop Capacity: 200 Assault/boarding crew, typically Marines or Navy SEAL's, can also support 100 Dolphin/Killer Whale power armor units.
M.D.C. by location
16 in. turrets (4):1100 ea.
16 in. Gun Barrels (12): 220 ea.
36 in. Turret (1): 1500
36 in. Gun Barrels (3): 700 ea.
Command Tower: 5,300
Upper Hull/Main deck: 25,000
Triple Catamaran Hulls (2): 18,000 ea.
CIWS (13): 350 ea.
Counter missile Batteries (18): 1,000 ea.*
Crew Served Guns (100):110 ea.
Forward Power armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea.
Mid ship Power Armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea. (Between Hulls) **
Aft Power Armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea.
Moon Pool Doors (2): 5,000 ea.
Ducted Hydro RamJet propulsion (20): 2,000 ea.***
* Small target to hit, built into hull. One must penetrate hull armor over missile batteries, or hit them while deployed, -5 to strike
** These systems are mounted between the two primary hulls; to strike them effectively one must be between the hulls, -7 to strike.
***Ensconced in the bottom of the hull and protected by the hull itself, -7 to hit due to size, location and movement of the ship.
Speed:
Land/Air: N/A
Water:60 knots
Underwater: N/A
Statistical Data:
Height: 210 ft.
Width: 350 ft.
Length: 1,450 ft.
Weight: 1.5 million tons
Power System: Four Hydrogen Fusion plants and an new, experimental Plasma Induction Furnace (Plasma Soliton wave) providing unlimited power equal to that of a star.
Market Cost: 200-300 Billion credits, this level of technology can only be copied by Triax, and the Splugorth after Months of intensive study, unavailable elsewhere in Rifts Earth.
Weapon System:
1) 3 barreled 36 in. Railgun Cannon Turret; This Turret fires three different loads, Fragmentation, Depleted Uranium, and Nuclear tipped rounds. Powerful enough to force even an Alien Intelligence or Major Deity from the field of battle with severe wounds if not outright killing them.
A.) Fragmentation: 3d6x100 M.D. to a 120 ft. diameter area.
B.) Depleted Uranium Core Round: 2d6x1000 M.D. to Target.
C.)5 kiloton Nuclear tipped round: 5d6x1000 M.D. to target, 3d6x100 M.D. to a 1 mile radius around target.
Primary Purpose: Anti-Fortification/Infantry
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Ship
Rate of Fire: 1 blast per 5min.
Payload: Frag: 100 rounds, DU: 200 rounds, Nuclear Tipped: 10 rounds, firing at speeds of Mach 10
Range: 500 miles
Power System: Independent Fusion plant.
2.) 16 in Railcannon Turrets(4); Fires three, 2 ton solid steel rounds at a speed of Mach10, and can decimate a mountain range or any fortification/ship in mere moments. Combined with on-site targeting these cannons are able to hit their targets with near pinpoint accuracy.
Mega Damage: 1d4x1000
Primary Purpose: Anti-Ship
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Fortification
Rate of Fire: 2 rounds per cannon per minute (6 shots every four melee rounds), firing at speeds of Mach 10.
Range: 500 miles
Power System: Independent Fusion Plant.
Payload: 1,800 rounds per turret
3.) CIWS USN 100 Gatling railguns(13): 50 mm. Tri-barreled Gatling railguns firing at relativistic speeds.
Mega Damage: 1d6x100
Primary Purpose: Anti-Missile
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
Rate of Fire: 5 attacks per melee
Range: 50 miles
Payload: 50,000 rounds per unit.
4.) Short-range missile Launchers (18): Built into the hull of the ship these launchers are extremely hard to hit (-7). These ten tube launchers are distributed evenly over the main deck of the ship and are used to interdict missiles or power armor troops.
Mega Damage: Varies by missile type
Primary Purpose: Anti-Missile
Secondary Purpose: Anti-troop/Aircraft
Missile Type: Short Range missiles only.
Range: 5 mile.
Payload: 2,000 per launcher
5.) Crew served guns (100): Dual USA-40R's used to fend off power armor troops attempting to board the Tenryo, these guns are the same as the ones used by the Silver Eagle SAMAS and are manned by the crew when the Tenryo is in battle.
Mega Damage: 1d6x10 per barrel, 2d6x10 for a dual blast/burst.
Primary Purpose: Anti-troop
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
Rate of Fire: Equal to gunners Hand to Hand attacks.
Range: 4,000 ft.
Payload: 8,000 round drum magazine
6.) Depth Charge Launchers (2): Tenryo also carries two depth charge launchers for anti-submarine warfare located in the rear of the ship to avoid the possibility of "Friendly Fire".
Primary purpose: Anti-ship/submersible
Secondary purpose: Anti-sea monster
Maximum Range/Depth: Two miles automatically explodes at two miles (or any depth between 200 and 10,500 feet)
Mega Damage: 2d6x10 M.D. to a 100 foot radius and 5d6 M.D. to an additional 30 foot radius beyond that. These depth charges are a variant of the Type Two fusion block explosives.
Rate of fire: One at a time or volleys of two. One or a pair can be launched three times per melee round.
Payload: 20 per launcher are available at a moment’s notice. An additional 400 are stowed inside the ship.
Assault Boarders: The Tenryo carries an Assault Boarding crew of two hundred Marines or SEALs in Semper Fi power armor with jet packs, Chromium Guardsman power armor (up to 40 suits) or, in the case of Sea Titans, Modified Heavy Borg armor with attachable jet packs. Defenses include an underwater defense/assault crew of 100 Dolphins/Killer Whales and their assorted power armors. At any time 50 of these Marine/SEAL troops are pulling shipboard security duty, patrolling the main deck and internal compartments, regularly checking for possible intruders.
Sensors of Note: Radar: 500 mile range. All other systems are equivalent to the Ticonderoga. The Tenryo's ducted ramjet system is completely silent, this, combined with the Ticonderoga's stealth system, makes the Tenryo invisible to modern sensor systems, allowing her to have the element of surprise (unless spotted visually) in most engagements. Once Tenryo opens fire she loses the stealth systems due to the massive shockwave generated by the main guns. Though not designed for underwater travel, the Tenryo can submerge herself up to a point of neutral buoyancy and can be carried along with the currents or towed, magically, by four or more pods of whale singers. The ship also contains two full surgical suites packed with the best medical equipment out of Japan from the Time before the Rifts. Med Bay One is for standard surgeries, while Med Bay Two is primarily meant for Cybernetic surgeries, but can double as an extra surgical ward in case of high casualty rates.
Tenryo's Captain:
Captain Robert Daniels
Age: 140 years
Race: Human Sea Titan
O.C.C.: Navy SEAL
M.D.C.: 104
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 210 lbs.
I.Q.:20
M.E.: 19
M.A.:20
P.S.: 33(supernatural PS)
P.P.:21 (also supernatural)
P.E.: 24(supernatural)
P.B.:20
Spd.: 29
Skills of note: Intelligence 78%, SCUBA 98%, Sniper, Pilot Boats/Ships 90%, Pilot Military Warships 86%, Disguise 81% Pilot Submersibles, Boxing, Weightlifting, Running, Climbing. Athletics, cooking, Underwater Demolitions and Demolitions Disposal 98%, Naval History, 86%, Pre-Rifts History, 70%.
Robert Daniels is, despite his differences with Nemo, a well-respected leader, an accomplished soldier and seaman. Daniels served under Nemo's command for 20 years before supposedly deserting, during which time he was awarded the Medal of Honor, Two purple Hearts(occasions where he lost a limb, or was grievously wounded in action), the Navy Cross, and the Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism, and attained the rank of Senior Chief. He is an expert marksman, and a certified trainer for the SEAL BUDS program.
After an argument with Captain Nemo over Nemo's policy of caution regarding the surface world, Daniels was approached by Adm. Sandoval and offered a position in ONI as a long range scout for the Navy, thus giving him an opportunity to gather the evidence to disprove Nemo's policies. Daniels has spent the last 115 years exploring Rifts earth, the Palladium realm, and even Phase World and the Three Galaxies, most recently he and a team of SEALs with Doc, were tasked to observe and report on the CS military buildup prior to their assault on Tolkeen, as well as the results and effects of the war. The information he brought back was instrumental in altering the Navy high command's opinions of the CS.
SS Sekigahara
Class: Amphibious Warfare Vessel
Named for one of the bloodiest battles in Japanese history, the Sekigahara is a departure from traditional amphibious warfare ships, instead of launching troop transports from a well deck the Sekigahara will, instead, charge a beachhead at full speed and upon reaching an under keel depth of 60 ft. or less will engage a series of Hover jets to propel her at a speed of 80 miles per hour all the way onto the shore, where the front of the ship opens up and extends two deployment ramps allowing for nearly immediate deployment of its complement of 2,400 troops onto the battlefield. Though this tactic seems to leave the ship vulnerable to ground assaults, the ships own defenses and 1,200 troops and armor are more than enough to defend against all but the most determined of assaults. Any such assault must first contend with the First 1,200 troops and the directed fire support of the Fleet as well.
Crew:1,110; 100 officers, 70 Chief Petty officers, 930 enlisted
Aicraft Capacity: 70; 12 Naginata Strike Fighters, 24 Flame cloud Borgs, 10 Kunai Rocket cycles, 5 Kitsune Electronic Warfare SAMAS, 5 Kamikaze SAMAS, 14 Nidhogg Assault Choppers.
Troop Capacity: 2,400 total embarked troops, 2 SEAL platoons (40 ea.), 200 Robot Pilots (20 CG, 40 Hellhound, 40 Direwolves, 100 assorted), 1,360 Infantrymen in Power armor or Exo suits armed with heavy weapons, 760 soldiers in Heavy (120 M.D.C.) Body Armor armed with EIPP weapons or copies of current CS weaponry.
1 Armored Cavalry Battalion of 40 Tanks; 10 Mjolnir Heavy Hover tanks, 30 Wakizashi Tanks.
One Mechanized Air Infantry Battalion: 100 Flame Cloud Cyborgs, 100 Kitsune E.W. SAMAS, 300 Kamikaze SAMAS, 240 Nodachi SAMAS.
Speed: 30 Knots at Sea
Hover: 80 mph, only viable in 60 ft. or less of water, used for beach landings only. Takes one full melee round (15 seconds) to switch between propulsion systems, as the hover jets take in air to prepare for full thrust.
M.D.C. By Location:
Mini-Missile Launchers (4): 200 ea.
CIWS-100(6): 350 ea.
240 mm Howitzers (4): 400 ea.
Quad Pulse Lasers (50): 250 ea.
Hull per 50 ft. area: 70
Flight Deck: 1,500
Bridge: 2,500
Ducted Hydro Fan Ramjets (20): 2,000 ea. **
Hover Jets (18): 800 ea. **
Main Hull: 15,000
Notes: ** concealed within the hull of the ship behind armored blast doors.
Statistical Data:
Draft: 40 ft
Width: 110 ft
Length: 1,100 ft
Displacement: 75,000 tons
Cargo: Enough cargo can be brought aboard to supply the ship for 8 months at sea.
Power System: 2 fusion Plants and 1 Plasma Induction Furnace.
Weapon Systems:
1). Mini-Missile Launchers (4): Used primarily for close ship defense
Primary purpose: Anti-Infantry
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
M.D.C.: Varies with missile type
Payload: 2,000 ea.
Range: 1 mile.
Rate of Fire: One at a time or volleys of 2, 4, 8, or 10.
2). 240 mm USA-200 EIPP (Electronically Induced Plasma Propellant) Howitzers (4):
An upgraded version of the GAW-155 incorporating stolen Australian EIPP Tech for a more damaging defensive system. These Howitzers are attached to the sides of the flight deck and are manned by the ships crew during combat operations.
Mega Damage: Plasma 4d6x10 to a 30 foot blast radius
High Explosive 3d6x10 to a 15 foot blast radius
DP Fragmentary 2d6x10 to a 30 foot blast radius
AP Fragmentary 1d6x10 to 50 foot blast radius
Range: 20 miles
Rate of fire: 4 rounds per minute
Crew: 3 total
3). USN-20 Quad Pulse Laser (50): A four barreled pulse laser turret designed for ship defense
Range: 4,000 ft
Rate of fire: equal to hand to hand attacks of gunner, can fire in bursts or sprays.
Mega Damage: 5d6 M.D. per barrel, 2d6x10 for all four combined.
4). CIWS-100(4): Same as on Tenryo
5). Ramming: The Sekigahara can ram fortifications in hover mode inflicting a flat 1,000 M.D.C. to the structure.
Only useful in a straight line assault from 10 miles out to shore. Once the Sekigahara has beached itself, it can act as an assault fortification and seize control of the beach line for other landing /assault craft.
The next ship of the Tenryo Fleet, the aircraft carrier Masmune!!
The Masamune represents the next level of Naval Air superiority. Boasting a catamaran style hull and triple tiered flight decks allowing the Masamune to launch an average of 300 sorties an hour, making it the single most powerful aircraft carrier in the history of Rifts Earth to ever be deployed. Its ability to launch 30 fighter craft simultaneously gives the Masamune an unprecedented ability to fully overwhelm even the best efforts of the New Navy's Ticonderoga, the New German's Poseidon and the Coalitions rebuilt Nimitz class carriers as well as the CSS Chi-town. Its continuous sortie and recovery systems combined with the Pre-Rifts "pit stop" concept and automated resupply systems allows for what is probably the fastest turn around and recovery system ever created.
The Masamune also employs an experimental defensive system called "The Hurricane Shell". An experimental weather control device onboard the Masamune allows the ship to generate a localized Class 5 Hurricane defensive shell that protects the ship from most weapon systems for a limited period of time.
CVP-Masamune (Carrier Vessel Plasma)
Class: Carrier Vessel
Crew: 100 officers, 2,100 enlisted (1,000 assigned to flight ops), 500 pilots.
Troop Capacity: One embarked Air division comprised of 500 assorted aircraft.
M.D.C by Location:
Laser CIWS (6): 150 each
Dual C-50R's (10): 110 each
Flight Decks (3): 8,000 each
Hull per 40 ft area: 90
Island/Bridge Structure: 3,000
Main Body/Hull #1: 20,000
Main Body/ Hull #2: 20,000
Speed:
Driving on the ground: Not possible.
Flying: Not possible.
Water Surface: 40 mph (64.3 km/h, 34.4 knots)
Statistical Data:
Height: 170 ft.
Width: 400 ft.
Length: 1,600 ft.
Weight: 100,000 tons
Cargo: Can carry an extra 18,000 tons of extraneous cargo.
Power System: 2 Fusion power plants feeding into a single Palsma induction furnace.
Market cost: 12 billion credits in development costs, the Coalition would pay billions more to get their hands on this vessel. Unavailable on the Black Market.
Weapon Systems:
1). Ion Pulse Cannon: This is the same type of weapon as found on the Ticonderoga. It is mounted underneath the forward end of the second flight deck it can only fire forward and in 45 degree arc left or right.
2). Laser CIWS (6): These CIWS were built using the designs from the Iron Heart Air Castle bomber.
Primary Purpose: Anti-missile.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft.
Mega-Damage: 3d6x10
Rate of Fire: Each turret has 6 attacks per melee round.
Maximum Effective Range: 4,000 ft.
3). Dual Barreled C-50R's (10): These railguns are actually based off of the original Silver Eagle SAMAS railgun and are crew served.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Troop
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Armor.
Rate of fire: Equal to gunner's Hand to Hand attacks.
Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 for a dual barreled burst.
Maximum Effective Range: 4,000 ft.
4) Hurricane Shell Generator (1): This experimental unit generates a localized Class 5 Hurricane around the ship, completely obscuring it from all forms of conventional detection and all radar. The shell also blocks most forms of incoming weapons fire and magical attacks. While the shell is active the Masamune cannot move and must remain stationary.
Primary Purpose: Defense
Secondary Purpose: None.
Rate of Fire: 17 uses total for a maximum use of 102 hours. Once deployed the shell last for 6 hours and requires a one hour cool down time. However, the ships Chief Engineer may attempt a roll at the end of the initial 6 hour period to keep the generator running for an additional 6 hours. The Engineer may only do this 16 more times in totality.
Penalties: 20% chance of not working on initial activation. Cumulative +5% chance of failure for every additional 6 hours of operation beyond the first 6 hours. If the generator is actually used for the full 102 hours it will require a complete tear down and repair for an entire week before it may be used again.
EDIT: The Hurricane shell IS vulnerable to high level weather magic such as "Calm Storm" and similar spells of that nature. However the mage must roll under 30% to successfully dispel the storm.
"Make a hole!" Captain Nemo shouted, sailors scattered to either side as he barreled down the p-way. "Damn ONI calling an Emergency meeting at the last minute" he muttered under his breath, “couldn’t they have at least given me a couple of hours’ notice?"
He slowed as he approached the meeting room door, taking a moment to straighten out his uniform before entering.
"Good morning Sirs, I trust I didn't keep you waiting long?" he said with a wry grin to the room of bleary eyed Admirals. Taking a quick glance around the room he saw nearly all of the members of Fleet Command assembled the smell of pancakes and sausage along with freshly brewed coffee told him that he wasn't the only one to not get breakfast yet.
"Have a seat Nemo," said one of the Admirals, Nemo looked in the direction of the voice, Admiral Webster, head of Fleet Ops. grinned up at him "you're looking at the food the way a wolf looks at a herd of sheep."
Nemo smiled, and replied "Yeah and I see you've got your ever present Big Gulp Mug and a pitcher of coffee all to yourself as usual." Adm. Webster just grinned even broader at the riposte from his old friend.
As Nemo took his seat and helped himself to the steaming pancakes and coffee he asked "So where's Adm. Sandoval,", referring to the one empty seat in the room, "he called this meeting didn't he?"
"Yes, I did, didn't I?" replied a voice from behind Cpt. Nemo, Nemo almost choked on his coffee as the voice took him by surprise.
"Dammit Sandoval, would you not sneak up on people when their eating!" growled Adm. Savage, head of BuPers. The head of ONI smirked as he replied "Well if you didn't gobble your food like a starving Gromek you'd have heard me coming." Adm. Savage just growled at Sandoval and went back to eating.
"So..." said Nemo as Sandoval took his seat, "I assume you called us together for a reason other than for old squid week?" Nemo grinned as a communal groan rose up from the collected Admirals.
"I see your sense of humor hasn't changed a bit while I've been gone." a voice laconically drawled from behind Nemo. Nemo froze in mid-bite, his fork halfway to his mouth. Putting his fork down Nemo stood up and turned to face the person the voice had issued from.
"What the HELL are you doing here Senior Chief?" Nemo snarled. "Leaning against this door frame, I think?" replied Senior Chief (SW) Robert Daniels with strained smile on his face, "Good to see you too, Sir, It's been what? Eighty years since you and I last locked horns?"
"ENOUGH!!" bellowed Adm. Sandoval, “Both of you take your seats." he ordered.
"What is this deserter doing on this base?" Nemo shouted as he spun to face the Admiral.
"The Senior Chief is here at my request, Captain", Admiral Sandoval stated calmly, "as he is pertinent to the reason I called this meeting. All will be explained shortly, Captain, I assure you." "James bring in another chair for the Chief here, would you?" the Admiral enquired of the steward.
As the chair was being brought in and the plates cleared, Admiral Sandoval began, "The reason I asked the Senior Chief to attend this meeting is because he has just recently returned from the CS/Tolkeen battlefront where he and his team have been for the last four years gathering intelligence on the Coalitions States military capabilities, as a matter of fact for the past eighty years the Chief has been one of my primary field operatives in assessing exactly what forces are out there and what level of threat do they pose to us." "I've also asked the President to follow this meeting via video conference so as to get his opinion on the events that the Chief will be briefing us on."
Nemo glared at Sandoval, "Why wasn't I informed of this, Admiral?" he asked.
"Because I told Admiral Sandoval not to." another voice said quietly from behind Captain Nemo, "Hello, old friend, good to see you again after all this time."
Nemo turned, "Mr. President, John, I thought you were going to be on video conference?" he said, looking back at Admiral Sandoval.
"I am." President John Mathers (USN Ret.) replied "This is a new holographic projector that I asked to be installed, for this meeting and any future ones." "The Chief and Sandoval approached me five years ago before the start of the Tolkeen conflict and filled me in on all the details and I ordered them not to say anything until after we had seen who won the war."
"The information they presented to me this morning was shocking enough to cause me to have Sandoval call this meeting and brief all of you on it." "Gentlemen you may proceed." the President said.
The rest of the day was spent going over the Chief's notes on troop deployment, weapons capabilities, equipment, tactics, battlefronts, approximated casualties and the salient points of the causes leading up to the start of the Tolkeen conflict.
20:00 P.M. that day,
"Well, that was an excellent and informative discussion Chief," President Mathers stated, as the briefing wound down for the evening, "I recommend that we adjourn here for the evening and give all of us some time to assess the information at hand and to allow Admiral Sandoval and the Chief to get prepped for the rest. We will reconvene tomorrow at 09:00 hours to give everyone a little extra time to get here, that will be all gentlemen."
As the Presidents hologram winked out and the other Admirals filed out leaving Nemo, Sandoval and Daniels alone Nemo turned to the Chief, "So this is what you've been up to for the last five years, eh, Chief?", he asked.
"Yes Sir." the Chief replied formally.
"Oh, don't go all respectful on me now Chief we've known each other for what, 140 years now, is it?" Nemo laughed. "I knew you were up to something but I didn't know what, you always were one for keeping secrets when you had to, no matter how much pressure was put on you." "Which is exactly why I endorsed your entry into the SEALs in the first place. You might as well come clean and tell me what you've been up to the last 75 years since you 'retired'."
"Well, as I recall I didn't so much retire as call you a overly cautious grandmother, and you should "Get your head out of your rear end and be more pro-active in your approach to the world around you, you dumb@$$!!" after which I threw my rank insignia onto your desk and stormed out." replied Daniels grinning wryly at the memory.
"I was approached by Adm. Sandoval the next day and offered a position in ONI, when I asked what strings came with it he said "None, except you report back to me about every five or ten years while you're out seeing the world and getting your feet wet."
I said I'd think about it and call him in the morning, he replied that this was a one-time only deal, right here, right now." "I sat back and looked at him for about a minute and said 'Deal'. The next day I "deserted" and started exploring, I travelled earth for about a decade as a sailor and a pirate, got sucked through a rift and ended up in the "Palladium" world that so many of these Dimensional beings came from, it took me nearly 25 years to find my way back, during which I adventured and amassed a small fortune the pinnacle of which was when I found and old Terran pirate galleon called the Indomitable hidden in a cave, she was loaded with treasure from our Earths early colonial period and gems and gold from Palladium as well." "I spent some of the gold getting her refitted, during which I found detailed Maps and charts of Palladiums seas and continents, which I had copied and sold for even more money."
"After the refit was complete I hired a local mage to help open a Rift to home, once I got back home I stashed the treasure, sold the ship and reported back to Sandoval.
Suddenly, Admiral Sandoval yawned, blinked his eyes, and shook his head, "Sorry guys, guess the Sandman is calling my name, how about we save the campfire stories for after the final briefing, we've got a lot of info to cover tomorrow and the Chief and I have been up since the crack of dawn putting this together."
"Care to give me a clue as to what to expect?" asked Nemo.
The Chief, already on his way to the door, stopped and looked back at Nemo, "Sir," he said, slipping back into formal address. “the things I saw during the Tolkeen war give me nightmares still, after tomorrow I doubt anyone in Fleet command will sleep easy again."
The look in the Chief's eyes forestalled Nemo from asking any more questions, quietly he said "I've never known you to exaggerate either Chief, at least not over something serious, so I'll take your word for it and sincerely wish you pleasant dreams this night."
"Thanks, "Uncle", coming from you that means more than you could posiibly imagine at this point." the Chief replied equally quietly, "See you tomorrow." he said, and left, closing the door behind him.
Captain Nemo sat there, in the empty meeting room, for perhaps another hour, considering the look in his "nephew's" eyes, a look that bespoke volumes of terror and pain. Standing up he crossed over to one of the bookshelves along the wall and took down a book, one that looked as if it had been read repeatedly, the cover read, in faded letters, "Auschwitz Concentration Camp, January 1945". He opened the book to the inside front cover, there written in barely legible ink was a dedication, "To my son, Nemo, congratulations upon your graduating OCS. The road ahead may be difficult but I am certain you will prevail. I leave you this book as a reminder. All my love, Carl Dobson."
Underneath the dedication was a single sentence "Lest we forget man's inhumanity to his fellow man." Nemo opened the book to the center spread, and there looking back at him, from the pages of a book nearly 400 years old, was an emaciated skeleton of a man dressed in rags, with the same look of quiet terror and pain mixed with despair and resignation, that he had just seen in the eyes of a man he privately considered his son.
08:30 A.M. The next day.
The chief had arrived early to get a head start in setting up for the briefing, and was ready by the time all of Fleet Command arrived.
"Here a bit early aren't you, Chief?" asked Admiral Mathers, the first to arrive.
"Yes sir." the Chief replied, "I felt that getting set up early would save time as we have a lot to cover today, Sir."
"And What exactly will we be covering today, Chief?" asked the Presidents holographic image.
The Chief, seeing that everyone was present, stated, “Today, Sirs, I will cover the actual battles themselves, with some additional pertinent information towards the end of the day."
"What pertinent information, Chief?" Admiral Webster inquired.
Admiral Sandoval cleared his throat, turning all eyes toward him "As the Chief said it is pertinent information, but we decided to hold it until the end of the days briefing due to the nature of the material. I assure you gentlemen that you will find this information very important.", looking over at the Chief, "Any time you're ready Chief."
The rest of the day, until 21:00 P.M. is spent going over the beginning assault on Tolkeen and followed through to Gen. Holmes' decisive assault from the Hivelands.
At 21:00 hours, after he had finished describing the results of Gen. Holmes' actions, the Senior Chief paused, squared his shoulders and looked at his audience, Admiral Sandoval, The President and Captain Nemo nodded in assent to the coming presentation.
A quick nod in return the Chief began, "Sirs, The footage you are about to see is perhaps the most important part of this briefing as it shows us all exactly what the Leaders of the Coalition Staes are truly capable of."
The lights go down as scenes from the Coalition Death Camps play across the screen. The Admirals sit, stunned speechless, staring at the images of emaciated D-Bees and humans, Admiral Mathers, veteran of nearly 200 years of Naval service is reduced to vomiting, as the video displays the mutilated remains of a human in a blood stained room full of crude medical instruments, and even cruder cybernetic limbs and organs, some caked with the blood of humans and D-bees alike.
"The CS used these items to 'neutralize' prisoners with even the slightest amount of magical or psionic power, subjecting them to torturous cybernetic replacement procedures without the benefit of anesthetic or any anti-bacterial treatment, many of these prisoners either died on the table, or later on from disease, infections, or cybernetic organs that were incorrectly installed deliberately, others went insane and killed themselves trying to physically remove the cybernetic attachments." the Chief explained
The scene shifts again, this time we here people speaking. The Chief stopped the video for a moment.
"The people you are hearing in this section are CS Sgt. Deon Canton and General Micander Drogue, Gen. Drogue is the one responsible for these camps, and while both sides took prisoners of war the CS leadership allowed Drogue to set up these Death Camps and then tried to have the evidence erased, as you will see." The Chief let the video resume.
As the video played the Chief, again offered an explanation, "Sgt. Canton, as we see here, could no longer stand the way Gen. Drogue was treating these people and finally snapped under the weight of his conscience and freed these prisoners, leaving the camp intact, my squad and I met up with the prisoners and escorted them to a safe place where they could get medical aid. I was able to get some of them to tell me what happened to them, afterwards my squad and I returned to the camp and took the pictures you saw earlier."
Two grueling hours later, the footage ended. The entirety of fleet command and the President himself looked ill and sick at the horrors they had just witnessed.
"Is that everything?" asked Captain Nemo, a deep swallow let him keep control of his churning stomach.
"That is everything pertaining to the war and its immediate consequences, Sir." the Chief replied quietly.
Admiral Sandoval spoke up, saying. "As you can see the CS is willing to slaughter anyone whom they considered an enemy, whether they truly posed a threat or not." "Unfortunately we are not done yet; tomorrow we will discuss the minds behind much of the CS forces
and CS policy, with the Presidents permission we shall adjourn for the night and reconvene tomorrow at the same time."
The President merely nods in assent as his image winks out. As Captain Nemo and the rest of the Admirals begin to file out the Senior Chief motions to Adm Sandohval to stay behind for a moment.
"Sir, I'm going to have to call in some extra help on tomorrows briefing, unfortunately I think my expert is going to upset a few people."
said the Chief.
"Who do you need, and why is it going to cause problems Chief?" asked the Admiral, a sinking sensation growing in the pit of his stomach, "It better not be who I think it is.”
"I'm afraid so, Sir, I need Lt. Davis in on this Sir." the Chief replied.
"You know that's not going to go over well with Nemo." Sandoval said.
"When has anything Davis done go over well with the Captain, Sir?" the Chief asked, a note of tired resignation in his voice.
"He's the strongest field agent we have and the info he can bring to bear tomorrow is crucial."
"Fine." said Sandoval, "I'll have him come in tomorrow and fill in the gaps. Just start as usual and we'll deal with Davis when he shows up."
"Yes sir" replied the Chief gratefully.
08:30 A.M. Final day of the briefing.
The Chief is setting up for the day when a tall (6'2") man with long, flowing white hair wearing a Marine Officers uniform walks in grabs a chair, reverses it and sits down, "So how's it going Chief? Hit them over the head with the Big One yet?"
The Chief, who was facing away from the main doors, turns, a smile lighting his face, "Doc you old SOB how ya been? How's being a samurai treating you these days?"
"Oh, you know; serve the Empress, slay Oni, and keep the people happy blah, blah, blah... SSDD." "You didn't answer the question though Did You Hit Them over the Head with the Big One Yet?" Lt. "Doc" Tanner Davis (USMC) asked patiently.
"Sort of," replied the Chief, "I just finished showing them the Death Camp footage last night, I called you in to help deliver the final blow, personalities of CS Hierarchy and the rest, and your connection to the New Diet in The Japanese Republic as an official ambassador from the Imperial court of Japan."
"You realize what Nemo's going to do don't you, he's going to try and call security and have me arrested and put in lock up and I'm going to put him through a bulkhead and break his jaw again." Doc drawled laconically, as if he didn't care one bit that he had just threatened to deck the most Senior and generally well respected officer in the entire New Navy.
"You just live to annoy Nemo don't you Doc?" answered Daniels.
"Well, we wouldn't be in this situation if he'd listened to us, now would we? We wouldn't be trying to play catch up to a militarily superior bunch of scum sucking Nazi's now would we?" Doc said sarcastically, "We'd have made contact with the Tech cities of Japan right after they appeared instead of waiting 20 years and started rebuilding our fleet and actually expanding out into the world again and if he'd listened to you 80 years ago we'd have more than a measly two thousand Sea Titans to work with while doing it. But noooo, he wanted to take the long road and play "Let's wait and see." so now we're behind the eight ball and have to play catch up to damned CS while they get to swallow even more territory and gear up to take on Lazlo and New Lazlo." Doc finished angrily.
"I know Doc, Adm. Sandoval has briefed General Solis on your presence and we'll keep things from getting out of hand and keep Nemo from storming out too, this is just too important for us to let get all cocked up at the last moment, Doc." Daniels replied.
At that moment, the Chiefs comlink beeped, "Daniels here, go ahead." he answered, Admiral Sandoval’s voice issued from the link, "We're on our way Chief, is your "guest" all set?"
"Yes sir, he's here and ready sir, is everything set on your end Sir?" the Chief asked.
"Alles in ordung." Sandohval replied, "See you in fifteen, Chief, Sandohval out."
Fifteen minutes later, 09:00 A.M. The members of fleet command filed in and took their seats, Captain Nemo, the last to enter stopped cold when he saw Doc, "Just what in the HELL is this excuse for an officer doing here!" "SECURITY!!" he bellowed, glaring at Doc, who pointedly ignored him.
"I requested his presence here Sir," the Chief replied, stepping between Doc and Nemo, “as I stated last night he has information that is important to the rest of this briefing, especially as he was instrumental in my being able to get close enough in to get the videos you saw last night sir. Just listen to what we have to say and try to put aside your dislike."
"Dislike isn't the word Daniels," Doc said, snidely, "Disgust, probably, but not dislike."
As Nemo lunged for Doc, General Solis, the Chief and Admiral Sandohval all stepped in and kept the Captain and Doc from each other,
"STAND DOWN, ALL OF YOU!!" General Solis shouted, as the Presidents hologram appeared, "Stop acting like a bunch of kids on a damned playground and start acting like the professionals you are!" "Sorry about this sir," the General said, speaking to the President, "It won't happen again." he finished his apology in a steely voice, looking at Doc. "Will it Lieutenant?"
"No sir!" replied Doc with a carefree grin.
"Shall we begin, now?" said the President, looking expectantly at the Chief.
"Yes sir!" the Chief replied quickly, turning to Doc, "Lt. Davis, you've had many run ins with some of the CS high command, how would you describe them?"
"In a word, Megalomaniacal, the Emperor thinks he's going to save humanity by killing D-bees, his son displays nearly a carbon copy of his father’s attitude, and nearly all the CS Generals are of the same opinion as evidenced by the actions of the late General Drogue, Gen. Kalpov of Lonestar, is willing to anything it takes to win even if it means sacrificing his soldiers in pointless and bloody battles. Gen. Kashbrook is only moderately better in that she doesn't waste troops, but unless you're a CS citizen, she could care less about you, Dr. Desmond Bradford the head of Genetics at The Old Tex Am complex has access to Pre-Cataclysm levels of genetic knowledge that he has apparently used to extend the lifespans of everyone in the Cs High command, estimates say that the Emperor and his son will both have lifespans of up to 140 years, possibly longer depending upon medical care." Doc said simply.
"So what does all this mean exactly, Lt., and how can we be sure that what you say is accurate." Captain Nemo asked.
Doc just looked at Nemo and looked over at the Chief with a look that said "Spell it out for the idiot so I don't have to."
The Chief looked back at Doc and repeated Nemo's question.
Doc sighed and began to explain, "First we have more video footage of both Kalpov and Kashbrook in action, secondly it means that both Proseks and most of the current High Command are going to around and still calling the shots for the better part of the next two hundred years." "We are all aware of the significant levels of genetic engineering that went on during the latter part of the 21st century and the benefits our own military medicine reaped from that. They have access to all of that plus the manufacturing capabilities of Lonestar and the Northern Gun/Iron Heart area as well as having made peace with Free Quebec."
"We also have reports that Dr. Bradford is actively ignoring Karl Proseks orders concerning human experimentation and has created a force of super natural humans he calls Janissaries, we also have video evidence of this as well, plus genetic samples from his early experiments into this field, a mercenary group called the Greeks, that was founded by a small number of Bradford’s superhumans who are a little insane, but actively oppose Bradford and his Janissaries." (Authors note, refer to Rifter28 for further details)
The Chief stepped up at this point, as Doc sat back down, "Joseph Prosek suspects that Bradford is going too far but has no concrete proof yet, if he did have the proof we have it would at the very least cause Karl to rethink his appointment of Bradford and cause him to remove Bradford from command of the TexAm Genetics facility while he does a full investigation.” This helps us by getting Karl to terminate the Janissary project and the Janissaries themselves, especially as the Janissaries are raised in a completely non-social environment, no social contact at all at any stage of their development and have their growth rate accelerated so they come to full physical maturity in four years. This in addition to the CS military buildup and the CS's recent actions regarding Naval developments, of which you are all aware, makes the CS a long term threat that we must deal with."
Everyone was silent for a while as the assembled members of fleet command took in this info, after about ten minutes, the President spoke up and asked, "So what do you propose we do about all of this, Gentlemen?"
"What we propose, sir, is One, with Doc's help we approach our old allies, The Republic of Japan and form an alliance with them, with their technological support we can give our current fleet the upgrades it needs, and we can build more fleet assets to help expand our capabilities, Two, we actively expand our holdings by establishing colonies on the west coast of the American continent, thus giving ourselves more land for bases as well as the resources to help fuel our expansion and colonization efforts as depicted in these charts. Three we approach the Lemurians, finally, and at the very least try to put to rest this level of distrust between our two groups, with their help we could effectively drive the Nautyll away from the areas they control now and secure them."
The Chief starts handing out colony and military growth charts to everyone.
"And how do you expect to accomplish all this with our present fleet Chief?" asked Nemo, "We don't even have the equipment to take the Horune base in Okinawa."
The Chief and Doc grinned simultaneously, "We were hoping you'd ask that sir." the Chief replied happily, "Not too long ago Doc became the local Daimyo for a territory in the New Empire of Japan and because of his unique status has been acting as a go between for the Empire and the Republic of Japan, and during my absence Admiral Sandoval sent myself and a team of SEALs into Hiroshima to assess their condition, I discovered that the Tech cities are running fine and have a standing army in the millions and do indeed have the capability to help us in the areas of medicine, cybernetics, electronics, and power armor technology especially as Arma tech industries is there too. They even have the ability to help us build an entirely new fleet of surface vessels that can actually be an effective force on the oceans."
"Let me show you Tenryo Fleet as we like to call it, the fleet consists of eighteen vessels, specifically; one battleship, one amphibious warfare vessel, two missile cruisers, eight destroyers and six supply ships, all ships will have complements of power armor troops for defense and offense aboard and all are armed to the teeth." The Chief displayed the schematics for each vessel on the video screen and spent the next five hours detailing each vessels capability, with occasional technical explanations from Doc, as the fleet designer. The situation with the Lemurians will take time, but unless we start first, we will always be distrustful of them."
Doc spoke up at this point; "I personally recommend that Captain Nemo be the one to contact the Lemurians, as he is the most senior officer among us. That mission is too important to entrust to anyone lesser, that and as a close personal friend to the President he can speak with full authority."
At the end of the presentation all the Admirals and the General were discussing the possibilities, when Nemo spoke up and asked, "How do you intend on keeping the fact that you're American a secret, or do you, and where will you be based? If you keep returning to here the CS will track you down eventually."
"We've already given that some thought Sir," the Chief replied, "We can act as privateers and not fly a flag at all or we can fly the Jolly Roger, as far as a base we can make port in Tritonia and Japan as needed, and we will have other random ports far away from CS territories, mostly along the west coast in areas where the Nautyll presence is small and we can clear some of them out and secure those areas for continued use."
"And how do you know that the Republic of Japan will go for this Chief?" the President asked, "Or that the Lemurians will even talk to us at all?"
The Chief laughed, "Web polls sir, when my team and I were in Japan I paid a Psi-Tech Hacker to post a blog about what if the U.S. Navy were to show up and offer an alliance and the results were incredible, while there were some nay sayers, most responders were in favor of it, one positive responder we later found out was the current prime minister of Japan, a Hosuke Obata, who is a descendant of a 20th century sword master named Toshishiro Obata, who founded a Martial Arts School based upon Japanese swordsmanship."
'He said, and I quote "If the damned U.S. Navy were to show up on my doorstep I would welcome them with open arms then smack them upside the head and say 'What took you stupid gaijin so long." and immediately get down to the business of signing a mutual defense treaty. To do anything else would be stupid."
"Then there is the fact that the current Empress of Imperial Japan has taken a shine to Doc and made him her official ambassador to the Republic of Japan especially as he has saved her life from assassins on more than one occasion makes him very well respected in the Imperial court right now." "Honestly speaking sir, now is the time to do this, especially as I believe you're in an election year now aren't you sir?" the Chief enquired. "As far as the Lemurians are concerned my experiences as a rouge sailor has had me encounter them from time to time, often enough to now that they are just as if not, more, scared of us than we are of them, but they realize that they are getting to a point where they may need outside help, and we are a far better choice than any other group out there."
"How can you be so sure of this?" asked Nemo, "We've never had any real contact with the Lemurians before."
"The only other Naval forces on this planet besides pirates and us are the CS, The NGR, and the Splugorth, which one of them would you like to deal with?" Doc said angrily.
Grinning, the President shook his head at the Chief, "You win. I’ll do it. But first I'm getting you back for putting me through all this, Admirals, I would like your agreement on my promoting Senior Chief Robert Daniels immediately to the rank of Naval Captain and putting him in charge of the Tenryo fleet, with now Major Davis as his Chief engineer, are we all in agreement?"
A chorus of Aye, aye's come from the Admirals and General, only Nemo was silent.
"Nemo?" the President asked "Do you agree?"
"They'd better not screw it up and I want full personnel and equipment lists on my desk before this fleet launches." Nemo said, "So I'll go along with it and see what these two nut jobs come up with."
"Then it's done," the President said, turning to face Davis and Daniels, "Good luck and Godspeed Gentlemen, do your country proud and help give us the kick start we need, you can both go to the Prime Minister and let him know the Navy and Marine corps are back and ready to kick some @$$, later gators." and his hologram winked out.
"We're really in it now aren't we Doc?" he said in a whisper.
"It's your fault Daniels and I'm going to make you suffer for it too." Doc replied
Daniels just groaned in reply.
"So, Captain Daniels, when will this fleet be ready to set sail?" asked Admiral Webster
"Within the next seven to twelve months Sir, we even have our first target picked out sir, the Horune base in Okinawa, we take that and we'll have something else to give to the Japanese as gesture of goodwill." the Chief(now Captain ) replied.
"Well then you'd better get cracking, now, and get the show on the road." said Nemo, "This meeting is officially adjourned."
Forty eight hours later onboard the Ticonderoga.
Captain Daniels approached the door to Nemo's cabin, just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, Nemo called out, "Come on in and have a seat Daniels, I'm just finishing up some paperwork."
Daniels entered Nemo's cabin and took a seat on one of Nemo's couches, "How'd you know it was me?" he asked.
"You're not the only one who knows how to use a hand communicator, Rob." Nemo replied with a grin.
Daniels winced in mock agony, "Touché, Sir , you got me dead to rights on that one. Who squealed?"
"Sandoval" Nemo said with an answering grin, "And don't call me "Sir", we're of equal rank now Rob."
"You know you haven't called me "Rob" since I graduated SEAL School, Nemo." Daniels shot back, as he stretched out on Nemo's couch.
Nemo grimaced slightly at the reminder, " I didn't want people to think I was playing favorites when it came to you, I felt I had to be just as hard on you as was on everyone else."
Daniels nodded in reply, "So what else did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
"Well, I had some extra questions about your time out there and your pick of forces for the new fleet. I understand that you did quite a bit of dimension hopping while you were working for ONI." Nemo said, "Where did you go?"
“Hmmm, that's a long tale.", Daniels answered "To make it short for now, I wound up in the Naruni home dimension for a bit, came back with some samples of the tech from that Dimension. After I got back Sandoval sent me to Europe to check up on it, during that op I found the Wolfen Republic in Italy as well as the Splugorth backed Phoenix Empire in Egypt, fought my way back to the US via another Rift which sent me to a dimension where humans settled on Mars and revived a Martian race, managed to get their help in getting home, and spent the rest of the time checking out the US, Japan and South America only to finally wind up on the Tolkeen Front watching the CS trash their opponents."
Nemo smiled, "Sounds like there's a lot behind those adventures, I look forward to hearing about them in depth later on, when we've got some down time to kill."
Daniels barked a short laugh, "Us, have down time? Two career men like us? Nope not buying it." " At least not now with this recent surge of activity that all the mages says is coming , quite literally, from Hell itself. We're looking at being busy for a while, 'course so is everyone else." Daniels added with a far off look in his eyes
"All too true.", conceded Nemo, "So do you really think you and Doc can pull off this Fleet of yours, especially in so short a time frame?" Nemo asked, “Getting all those personnel won't be easy, even with the support of the Japanese government."
"We've got that covered, Doc and I plan on hiring four mercenary companies for the initial op, as well as bringing in about a dozen or so of the Cargo Cult Shamans for the extra, magical "oomph" we'll need." Daniels responded, glancing at Nemo's shocked expression out of the corner of his eye, "Surprised, Nemo?" he asked.
"Aside from the fact that this is what I'd expect from that arrogant jerk Doc. No not really. One question, Why Mercenaries?" Nemo asked quizzically.
"You mean why’d I lie to fleet command about the force disposition of the Tenryo fleet? Technically I didn't, the numbers and unit types I listed will be our standing force, once they're trained to Navy standards, which we are working on as we speak, but right now we need people who are combat ready and used to working in odd conditions and who have a lot of fire power to bring to bear right away. So I chose these four," Daniels said as he casually placed a PC-2020 Field Identifier unit on Nemo's desk, "they’re all in there."
Nemo quickly started the unit up and began skimming rapidly through the files, "Braddock's Bad Boys under Janet Braddock, Crow's Commandoes, Demon Busters and ... the Wolf Pack?" "I understand Demon Busters and Crow, but Janet Braddock and this new one the Wolf Pack?" Nemo asked looking up at Daniels.
"Janet is a competent and able commander who's looking to take over for her dad and wanted to run the Boys by herself, she has almost no ties to the CS and she keeps her word, so she's not a threat. The Wolf Pack is a division of rogue CS Dog Pack soldiers from the Tolkeen Front, they were to slated to be used as cannon fodder by General Drogue but instead decided that being free was worth more. Doc and I encountered them while we were investigating a rumor that Titan Arms had sent some weapons to Tolkeen."
"We found, not just weapons, but 12 Behemoth explorer vehicles converted in to walking factories with 144 tons of material ready for use, the Leader of the Wolf Pack, a Wolfen named Kanor Greymane, who along with many other Feral Dog boys had been picked up and retrained as Dog Pack for the war, was also out investigating the rumor in the hopes he could use it to his advantage or at least keep it put of CS and Tolkeen hands." "We crossed paths and after a short skirmish, managed to come to an agreement, they would distract the Cs troops in the area while Doc and I sorted out the factories. We ended up destroying half of them to keep them out of Cs or Tolkeen hands and, with Kanor's help, made off with the other half and 60% of the materials."
Suddenly, Admiral Sandohval yawned, blinked his eyes, and shook his head, "Sorry guys, guess the Sandman is calling my name, how about we save the campfire stories for after the final briefing, we've got a lot of info to cover tomorrow and the Chief and I have been up since the crack of dawn putting this together."
"Care to give me a clue as to what to expect?" asked Nemo.
The Chief, already on his way to the door, stopped and looked back at Nemo, "Sir," he said, slipping back into formal address. “the things I saw during the Tolkeen war give me nightmares still, after tomorrow I doubt anyone in Fleet command will sleep easy again."
The look in the Chief's eyes forestalled Nemo from asking any more questions, quietly he said "I've never known you to exaggerate either Chief, at least not over something serious, so I'll take your word for it and sincerely wish you pleasant dreams this night."
"Thanks, "Uncle", coming from you that means more than you could possibly imagine at this point." the Chief replied equally quietly, "See you tomorrow." he said, and left, closing the door behind him.
Captain Nemo sat there, in the empty meeting room, for perhaps another hour, considering the look in his "nephew's" eyes, a look that bespoke volumes of terror and pain. Standing up he crossed over to one of the bookshelves along the wall and took down a book, one that looked as if it had been read repeatedly, the cover read, in faded letters, "Auschwitz Concentration Camp, January 1945". He opened the book to the inside front cover, there written in barely legible ink was a dedication, "To my son, Nemo, congratulations upon your graduating OCS. The road ahead may be difficult but I am certain you will prevail. I leave you this book as a reminder. All my love. Carl Dobson."
Underneath the dedication was a single sentence "Lest we forget man's inhumanity to his fellow man." Nemo opened the book to the center spread, and there looking back at him, from the pages of a book nearly 400 years old, was an emaciated skeleton of a man dressed in rags, with the same look of quiet terror and pain mixed with despair and resignation, that he had just seen in the eyes of a man he privately considered his son.
Here's the first of the Tenryo fleet, the flagship, the battleship Tenryo;
The Tenryo is the first of a series of ships built and manned jointly by the New Navy and the Republic of Japan, named after the mythical (?) Muramasa demon blade, and built using an upgraded Pre-Rifts design the Tenryo is designed for one purpose; To Kill Her Enemies. To accomplish this goal she mounts four, 16 in. railgun cannon turrets, and one, 36 in. railgun cannon turret, anti-missile defenses, anti-air defenses and two companies of assault borders for seizing ships or defending the Tenryo from hostile boarding actions Along with a company of Dolphins/Killer Whales to defend from/engage in water based assaults.
Name: USS Tenryo
Class: Battleship/Command and Communications.
Crew: 1,600 total, 14 officers(Captain, Pilot/XO, 2 Gunnery officers, 1 Marine/Air officer, 5 Communications/Sensor officers, 2 medical doctors, 2 engineering officers), 20 NCO's(5 CPO's), 1,566 enlisted crewmen(non-NCO's), Including assault crew.
Troop Capacity: 200 Assault/boarding crew, typically Marines or Navy SEAL's, can also support 100 Dolphin/Killer Whale power armor units.
M.D.C. by location
16 in. turrets (4):1100 ea.
16 in. Gun Barrels (12): 220 ea.
36 in. Turret (1): 1500
36 in. Gun Barrels (3): 700 ea.
Command Tower: 5,300
Upper Hull/Main deck: 25,000
Triple Catamaran Hulls (2): 18,000 ea.
CIWS (13): 350 ea.
Counter missile Batteries (18): 1,000 ea.*
Crew Served Guns (100):110 ea.
Forward Power armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea.
Mid ship Power Armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea. (Between Hulls) **
Aft Power Armor Bay Doors (2): 600 ea.
Moon Pool Doors (2): 5,000 ea.
Ducted Hydro RamJet propulsion (20): 2,000 ea.***
* Small target to hit, built into hull. One must penetrate hull armor over missile batteries, or hit them while deployed, -5 to strike
** These systems are mounted between the two primary hulls; to strike them effectively one must be between the hulls, -7 to strike.
***Ensconced in the bottom of the hull and protected by the hull itself, -7 to hit due to size, location and movement of the ship.
Speed:
Land/Air: N/A
Water:60 knots
Underwater: N/A
Statistical Data:
Height: 210 ft.
Width: 350 ft.
Length: 1,450 ft.
Weight: 1.5 million tons
Power System: Four Hydrogen Fusion plants and an new, experimental Plasma Induction Furnace (Plasma Soliton wave) providing unlimited power equal to that of a star.
Market Cost: 200-300 Billion credits, this level of technology can only be copied by Triax, and the Splugorth after Months of intensive study, unavailable elsewhere in Rifts Earth.
Weapon System:
1) 3 barreled 36 in. Railgun Cannon Turret; This Turret fires three different loads, Fragmentation, Depleted Uranium, and Nuclear tipped rounds. Powerful enough to force even an Alien Intelligence or Major Deity from the field of battle with severe wounds if not outright killing them.
A.) Fragmentation: 3d6x100 M.D. to a 120 ft. diameter area.
B.) Depleted Uranium Core Round: 2d6x1000 M.D. to Target.
C.)5 kiloton Nuclear tipped round: 5d6x1000 M.D. to target, 3d6x100 M.D. to a 1 mile radius around target.
Primary Purpose: Anti-Fortification/Infantry
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Ship
Rate of Fire: 1 blast per 5min.
Payload: Frag: 100 rounds, DU: 200 rounds, Nuclear Tipped: 10 rounds, firing at speeds of Mach 10
Range: 500 miles
Power System: Independent Fusion plant.
2.) 16 in Railcannon Turrets(4); Fires three, 2 ton solid steel rounds at a speed of Mach10, and can decimate a mountain range or any fortification/ship in mere moments. Combined with on-site targeting these cannons are able to hit their targets with near pinpoint accuracy.
Mega Damage: 1d4x1000
Primary Purpose: Anti-Ship
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Fortification
Rate of Fire: 2 rounds per cannon per minute (6 shots every four melee rounds), firing at speeds of Mach 10.
Range: 500 miles
Power System: Independent Fusion Plant.
Payload: 1,800 rounds per turret
3.) CIWS USN 100 Gatling railguns(13): 50 mm. Tri-barreled Gatling railguns firing at relativistic speeds.
Mega Damage: 1d6x100
Primary Purpose: Anti-Missile
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
Rate of Fire: 5 attacks per melee
Range: 50 miles
Payload: 50,000 rounds per unit.
4.) Short-range missile Launchers (18): Built into the hull of the ship these launchers are extremely hard to hit (-7). These ten tube launchers are distributed evenly over the main deck of the ship and are used to interdict missiles or power armor troops.
Mega Damage: Varies by missile type
Primary Purpose: Anti-Missile
Secondary Purpose: Anti-troop/Aircraft
Missile Type: Short Range missiles only.
Range: 5 mile.
Payload: 2,000 per launcher
5.) Crew served guns (100): Dual USA-40R's used to fend off power armor troops attempting to board the Tenryo, these guns are the same as the ones used by the Silver Eagle SAMAS and are manned by the crew when the Tenryo is in battle.
Mega Damage: 1d6x10 per barrel, 2d6x10 for a dual blast/burst.
Primary Purpose: Anti-troop
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
Rate of Fire: Equal to gunners Hand to Hand attacks.
Range: 4,000 ft.
Payload: 8,000 round drum magazine
6.) Depth Charge Launchers (2): Tenryo also carries two depth charge launchers for anti-submarine warfare located in the rear of the ship to avoid the possibility of "Friendly Fire".
Primary purpose: Anti-ship/submersible
Secondary purpose: Anti-sea monster
Maximum Range/Depth: Two miles automatically explodes at two miles (or any depth between 200 and 10,500 feet)
Mega Damage: 2d6x10 M.D. to a 100 foot radius and 5d6 M.D. to an additional 30 foot radius beyond that. These depth charges are a variant of the Type Two fusion block explosives.
Rate of fire: One at a time or volleys of two. One or a pair can be launched three times per melee round.
Payload: 20 per launcher are available at a moment’s notice. An additional 400 are stowed inside the ship.
Assault Boarders: The Tenryo carries an Assault Boarding crew of two hundred Marines or SEALs in Semper Fi power armor with jet packs, Chromium Guardsman power armor (up to 40 suits) or, in the case of Sea Titans, Modified Heavy Borg armor with attachable jet packs. Defenses include an underwater defense/assault crew of 100 Dolphins/Killer Whales and their assorted power armors. At any time 50 of these Marine/SEAL troops are pulling shipboard security duty, patrolling the main deck and internal compartments, regularly checking for possible intruders.
Sensors of Note: Radar: 500 mile range. All other systems are equivalent to the Ticonderoga. The Tenryo's ducted ramjet system is completely silent, this, combined with the Ticonderoga's stealth system, makes the Tenryo invisible to modern sensor systems, allowing her to have the element of surprise (unless spotted visually) in most engagements. Once Tenryo opens fire she loses the stealth systems due to the massive shockwave generated by the main guns. Though not designed for underwater travel, the Tenryo can submerge herself up to a point of neutral buoyancy and can be carried along with the currents or towed, magically, by four or more pods of whale singers. The ship also contains two full surgical suites packed with the best medical equipment out of Japan from the Time before the Rifts. Med Bay One is for standard surgeries, while Med Bay Two is primarily meant for Cybernetic surgeries, but can double as an extra surgical ward in case of high casualty rates.
Tenryo's Captain:
Captain Robert Daniels
Age: 140 years
Race: Human Sea Titan
O.C.C.: Navy SEAL
M.D.C.: 104
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 210 lbs.
I.Q.:20
M.E.: 19
M.A.:20
P.S.: 33(supernatural PS)
P.P.:21 (also supernatural)
P.E.: 24(supernatural)
P.B.:20
Spd.: 29
Skills of note: Intelligence 78%, SCUBA 98%, Sniper, Pilot Boats/Ships 90%, Pilot Military Warships 86%, Disguise 81% Pilot Submersibles, Boxing, Weightlifting, Running, Climbing. Athletics, cooking, Underwater Demolitions and Demolitions Disposal 98%, Naval History, 86%, Pre-Rifts History, 70%.
Robert Daniels is, despite his differences with Nemo, a well-respected leader, an accomplished soldier and seaman. Daniels served under Nemo's command for 20 years before supposedly deserting, during which time he was awarded the Medal of Honor, Two purple Hearts(occasions where he lost a limb, or was grievously wounded in action), the Navy Cross, and the Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism, and attained the rank of Senior Chief. He is an expert marksman, and a certified trainer for the SEAL BUDS program.
After an argument with Captain Nemo over Nemo's policy of caution regarding the surface world, Daniels was approached by Adm. Sandoval and offered a position in ONI as a long range scout for the Navy, thus giving him an opportunity to gather the evidence to disprove Nemo's policies. Daniels has spent the last 115 years exploring Rifts earth, the Palladium realm, and even Phase World and the Three Galaxies, most recently he and a team of SEALs with Doc, were tasked to observe and report on the CS military buildup prior to their assault on Tolkeen, as well as the results and effects of the war. The information he brought back was instrumental in altering the Navy high command's opinions of the CS.
SS Sekigahara
Class: Amphibious Warfare Vessel
Named for one of the bloodiest battles in Japanese history, the Sekigahara is a departure from traditional amphibious warfare ships, instead of launching troop transports from a well deck the Sekigahara will, instead, charge a beachhead at full speed and upon reaching an under keel depth of 60 ft. or less will engage a series of Hover jets to propel her at a speed of 80 miles per hour all the way onto the shore, where the front of the ship opens up and extends two deployment ramps allowing for nearly immediate deployment of its complement of 2,400 troops onto the battlefield. Though this tactic seems to leave the ship vulnerable to ground assaults, the ships own defenses and 1,200 troops and armor are more than enough to defend against all but the most determined of assaults. Any such assault must first contend with the First 1,200 troops and the directed fire support of the Fleet as well.
Crew:1,110; 100 officers, 70 Chief Petty officers, 930 enlisted
Aicraft Capacity: 70; 12 Naginata Strike Fighters, 24 Flame cloud Borgs, 10 Kunai Rocket cycles, 5 Kitsune Electronic Warfare SAMAS, 5 Kamikaze SAMAS, 14 Nidhogg Assault Choppers.
Troop Capacity: 2,400 total embarked troops, 2 SEAL platoons (40 ea.), 200 Robot Pilots (20 CG, 40 Hellhound, 40 Direwolves, 100 assorted), 1,360 Infantrymen in Power armor or Exo suits armed with heavy weapons, 760 soldiers in Heavy (120 M.D.C.) Body Armor armed with EIPP weapons or copies of current CS weaponry.
1 Armored Cavalry Battalion of 40 Tanks; 10 Mjolnir Heavy Hover tanks, 30 Wakizashi Tanks.
One Mechanized Air Infantry Battalion: 100 Flame Cloud Cyborgs, 100 Kitsune E.W. SAMAS, 300 Kamikaze SAMAS, 240 Nodachi SAMAS.
Speed: 30 Knots at Sea
Hover: 80 mph, only viable in 60 ft. or less of water, used for beach landings only. Takes one full melee round (15 seconds) to switch between propulsion systems, as the hover jets take in air to prepare for full thrust.
M.D.C. By Location:
Mini-Missile Launchers (4): 200 ea.
CIWS-100(6): 350 ea.
240 mm Howitzers (4): 400 ea.
Quad Pulse Lasers (50): 250 ea.
Hull per 50 ft. area: 70
Flight Deck: 1,500
Bridge: 2,500
Ducted Hydro Fan Ramjets (20): 2,000 ea. **
Hover Jets (18): 800 ea. **
Main Hull: 15,000
Notes: ** concealed within the hull of the ship behind armored blast doors.
Statistical Data:
Draft: 40 ft
Width: 110 ft
Length: 1,100 ft
Displacement: 75,000 tons
Cargo: Enough cargo can be brought aboard to supply the ship for 8 months at sea.
Power System: 2 fusion Plants and 1 Plasma Induction Furnace.
Weapon Systems:
1). Mini-Missile Launchers (4): Used primarily for close ship defense
Primary purpose: Anti-Infantry
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft
M.D.C.: Varies with missile type
Payload: 2,000 ea.
Range: 1 mile.
Rate of Fire: One at a time or volleys of 2, 4, 8, or 10.
2). 240 mm USA-200 EIPP (Electronically Induced Plasma Propellant) Howitzers (4):
An upgraded version of the GAW-155 incorporating stolen Australian EIPP Tech for a more damaging defensive system. These Howitzers are attached to the sides of the flight deck and are manned by the ships crew during combat operations.
Mega Damage: Plasma 4d6x10 to a 30 foot blast radius
High Explosive 3d6x10 to a 15 foot blast radius
DP Fragmentary 2d6x10 to a 30 foot blast radius
AP Fragmentary 1d6x10 to 50 foot blast radius
Range: 20 miles
Rate of fire: 4 rounds per minute
Crew: 3 total
3). USN-20 Quad Pulse Laser (50): A four barreled pulse laser turret designed for ship defense
Range: 4,000 ft
Rate of fire: equal to hand to hand attacks of gunner, can fire in bursts or sprays.
Mega Damage: 5d6 M.D. per barrel, 2d6x10 for all four combined.
4). CIWS-100(4): Same as on Tenryo
5). Ramming: The Sekigahara can ram fortifications in hover mode inflicting a flat 1,000 M.D.C. to the structure.
Only useful in a straight line assault from 10 miles out to shore. Once the Sekigahara has beached itself, it can act as an assault fortification and seize control of the beach line for other landing /assault craft.
The next ship of the Tenryo Fleet, the aircraft carrier Masmune!!
The Masamune represents the next level of Naval Air superiority. Boasting a catamaran style hull and triple tiered flight decks allowing the Masamune to launch an average of 300 sorties an hour, making it the single most powerful aircraft carrier in the history of Rifts Earth to ever be deployed. Its ability to launch 30 fighter craft simultaneously gives the Masamune an unprecedented ability to fully overwhelm even the best efforts of the New Navy's Ticonderoga, the New German's Poseidon and the Coalitions rebuilt Nimitz class carriers as well as the CSS Chi-town. Its continuous sortie and recovery systems combined with the Pre-Rifts "pit stop" concept and automated resupply systems allows for what is probably the fastest turn around and recovery system ever created.
The Masamune also employs an experimental defensive system called "The Hurricane Shell". An experimental weather control device onboard the Masamune allows the ship to generate a localized Class 5 Hurricane defensive shell that protects the ship from most weapon systems for a limited period of time.
CVP-Masamune (Carrier Vessel Plasma)
Class: Carrier Vessel
Crew: 100 officers, 2,100 enlisted (1,000 assigned to flight ops), 500 pilots.
Troop Capacity: One embarked Air division comprised of 500 assorted aircraft.
M.D.C by Location:
Laser CIWS (6): 150 each
Dual C-50R's (10): 110 each
Flight Decks (3): 8,000 each
Hull per 40 ft area: 90
Island/Bridge Structure: 3,000
Main Body/Hull #1: 20,000
Main Body/ Hull #2: 20,000
Speed:
Driving on the ground: Not possible.
Flying: Not possible.
Water Surface: 40 mph (64.3 km/h, 34.4 knots)
Statistical Data:
Height: 170 ft.
Width: 400 ft.
Length: 1,600 ft.
Weight: 100,000 tons
Cargo: Can carry an extra 18,000 tons of extraneous cargo.
Power System: 2 Fusion power plants feeding into a single Palsma induction furnace.
Market cost: 12 billion credits in development costs, the Coalition would pay billions more to get their hands on this vessel. Unavailable on the Black Market.
Weapon Systems:
1). Ion Pulse Cannon: This is the same type of weapon as found on the Ticonderoga. It is mounted underneath the forward end of the second flight deck it can only fire forward and in 45 degree arc left or right.
2). Laser CIWS (6): These CIWS were built using the designs from the Iron Heart Air Castle bomber.
Primary Purpose: Anti-missile.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Aircraft.
Mega-Damage: 3d6x10
Rate of Fire: Each turret has 6 attacks per melee round.
Maximum Effective Range: 4,000 ft.
3). Dual Barreled C-50R's (10): These railguns are actually based off of the original Silver Eagle SAMAS railgun and are crew served.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Troop
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Armor.
Rate of fire: Equal to gunner's Hand to Hand attacks.
Mega-Damage: 2D6x10 for a dual barreled burst.
Maximum Effective Range: 4,000 ft.
4) Hurricane Shell Generator (1): This experimental unit generates a localized Class 5 Hurricane around the ship, completely obscuring it from all forms of conventional detection and all radar. The shell also blocks most forms of incoming weapons fire and magical attacks. While the shell is active the Masamune cannot move and must remain stationary.
Primary Purpose: Defense
Secondary Purpose: None.
Rate of Fire: 17 uses total for a maximum use of 102 hours. Once deployed the shell last for 6 hours and requires a one hour cool down time. However, the ships Chief Engineer may attempt a roll at the end of the initial 6 hour period to keep the generator running for an additional 6 hours. The Engineer may only do this 16 more times in totality.
Penalties: 20% chance of not working on initial activation. Cumulative +5% chance of failure for every additional 6 hours of operation beyond the first 6 hours. If the generator is actually used for the full 102 hours it will require a complete tear down and repair for an entire week before it may be used again.
EDIT: The Hurricane shell IS vulnerable to high level weather magic such as "Calm Storm" and similar spells of that nature. However the mage must roll under 30% to successfully dispel the storm.
