Clearing The Way
Sea of Fuchs
In order to deliver practical quantities of humanitarian aid to
Reichland, the sea lanes had to be open in order for the aid to
arrive through shipping routes. But the Sea of Fuchs was now a
confusing and dangerous jumble of rebel and imperialist submarines
playing a deadly game of silent cat and mouse. They attacked
anything that sounded vaguely hostile, be it an enemy submarine or
a cargo ship loaded with humanitarian supplies.
The first step of opening the sea routes for humanitarian aid to
arrive was to enforce security in the area, and removing the danger
from that area was a fleet of seven Alabaster hunter killer
submarines.
They detected the Reichen submarines, a motley collection
consisting mainly of a varied types of diesel electric submarines,
along with two ageing nuclear attack submarines acquired
second-hand from other nations long before the Reichen sonars could
even pick them up. It was impossible to tell who was on whose side.
But Xing Shiana was supposed to be neutral, so all it mattered was
that nobody fired on them. Spread roughly twenty nautical miles
apart, the seven Alabasters moved closer to the Reichen submarines,
which were spread over an area of roughly a fifty nautical miles.
Rebel and Imperialists subs fighting for the control of the all
important naval sea lanes that could tip the power at sea, a watery
war zone that the humanitarian aid had to pass through.
One of the Alabasters moved forward of the pack, drawing to about
five nautical miles and activating its powerful active sonar,
pinging all the subs in the area to let them know that Xing Shianan
naval power was in the area, neutral for now
that was if the
Riechens of both sides have gotten word of the Xing Shianan
humanitarian mission announcement, and most importantly, agreed
with it.
But apparently somebody did not; three torpedoes were launched,
nobody knew if from Imperialist or Rebel, at the lead Alabaster at
extreme range, which were deftly defeated when the Alabaster went
silent. Now the rules of engagement were changed. The secondary
orders were to remove the area of all possible threats if
engaged.
The seven Alabasters did so with extreme efficiency, launching
their Mk-1X hypercavation torpedoes at every contact they had.
Unlike normal torpedoes, which plowed through the water at most 60
knots, the 1X torpedoes skidded through the ocean at over 800
knots. Having more then 10 times the speed of normal torpedoes, and
five times the range, the Riechen submarines were by all practical
purposes, stationary as they turned and ran.
There was no time to react, over 34 Reichen submarines were killed
within half an hour. Only five diesel electric submarines made it
out from the fray. The entire Reichen submarine force, Rebel or
Imperialist, had been virtually destroyed.
Now the sea lanes were open. It was time to secure the
ground.