The Killing Straits
Prussian Straits
It had been apparent from all the time-stalling and bargaining the
Prussian leader had no intention for an unconditional surrender and
disarmament, it was time for SENSE to act again.
The Prussian straits had been closed off to friendly forces since
the day the Prussian 4th High Seas Fleet had routed the SENSE fleet
in a naval disaster that had cut off sea-borne supplies coming in
to the troops of Pronamdy, it was thanks to the overworked
transport elements of the XAF that the invasion force was kept out
of serious supply trouble. But still, if a renewed offensive was
going to be supported, the Prussian Straits had to be open to SENSE
forces again. It was time for a rematch, this time with a much
larger force of the Xing Shianan Task Force Greg Paul and
Shingapooru 1st Central Fleet.
How times have changed. Now SENSE had the larger, plus more
advanced fleets in battle.
And Captain Ravi Kuman of the XSS Alabaster knew that full well, it
had been a busy 12 hours for those not involved in lying down and
keeping still and quiet while the submarine was on ultra quiet
mode. Inching about 450 feet under the dark waters at a 3 knots.
Tension hung in the air, almost palatable to all those on the
submarine. The ultra quiet had been called about half a day ago,
after they had reached their lurking positions following a two day,
15 knot dash. The Alabaster had been involved in the battle of the
Fuchs Sea, and scored amazingly well there, killing four enemy
submarines and damaging two other. Now rearmed and supplied, she
was ready for more action.
The XSS Alabaster, registry number NCC 1701 was the first of her
era, a new class of submarines to replacing the small fleet of
seven ageing Los Angles 688I subs they had managed to acquire
mothballed from the USN a few years back. The Alabaster class was
developed indigenously and introduced to the fleet just a year and
a half ago, with ten ships in service. And five of these Alabasters
were now screening a large area ahead of the SENSE fleet entering
the Prussian Gulf.
The Alabaster was a small submarine, just 95 meters in length and
crewed by forty-five, giving high priority to automation and
digitization to reduce required manpower. The form of the
triple-hulled submarine was smooth, with no abrupt angles with a
design that employed computer-calculated mimicry of the bodies of
fishes to reduce drag and the possibly of cavitation in rough areas
that would compromise stealth. The propulsion system dispensed with
the traditional screw and instead relied on pump jet technology, a
setup that sucked it and expelled water for propulsion more akin to
a jet engine then a prop that was far quieter.
And that stealth was now enhanced by the implementation of the
ultra quiet drill, a procedure in which all non-essential equipment
that would generate noise was turned off, everything that might
rattle, fall, break or otherwise make noise secured, and all crew
not necessary in the operation of the ship lie in their bunks and
make as little noise as possible. Crew working moved about moved
silently and carefully, and spoke to each other with hushed voices.
The only item on the menu during ultra quiet was sandwiches, which
didnt cost too much noise to prepare, and could be consumed
quietly. The Alabaster was a black hole of silence in the ocean, as
it crept forward silently, listening intently for anything out of
the ordinary.
But too much stealth could be a drawback, for the ocean was a bath
of natural acoustics, noise sources caused by biologics (biological
entities) or seismic activity. And one of the methods that involved
hunting an overly stealthy submarine would show up as a hole of
silence in the waters that moved about occasionally. The Alabaster
countered that by actively masking its acoustic hole with a
carefully moderating recording of ambient ocean sound levels being
emitted via the subs smart skin. The smart skin of the Alabasters
outer hull was a marvel of technology, containing Conformal
Acoustic Velocity Sonar (CAVES) arrays and various other sensors,
dispensing with the maintenanceintensive traditional hull sensor
arrays that required extensive rigging. The advanced skin of the
submarine acted as one gigantic underwater sensor for it, acting as
passive and soars, and even a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD)
array, giving the Alabaster unrivaled sensor ability and coverage
which was further enhanced by its more conventional systems like
the towed array.
The mission was simple, infiltrate the Prussian straits ahead of
the SENSE fleet, and take out any Prussian targets that presented
themselves, with subsurface targets as priority. It was a mission
Ravi was confident the Alabaster and her crew could accomplish,
with spectacular results.
Ravi was told to expect the Prussian 4th High Seas Fleet and
possibly more, plus a rag tag addition of whatever Prussian ships
from badly pounded fleets that no longer existed. But save for the
Prussian annihilation at the Sea of Fuchs, the Prussian subs were
still relatively intact, and that was all Ravi was told. Force
Integration and information sharing was starting to catch on the
surface navies, but it was another underwater. Besides having
regular updates on battle situations and intelligence through the
radio, the subs worked on a lot less ready information then surface
units, technology not yet being able to transmit the required
amount of data to underwater sources efficiently. The Xing Shianan
subs had to rely mainly on their advanced sensors and their
Commanding Officers, which had to make the best of whatever
information they received from the surface.
But that was probably why Hunter Killer SSNs like Alabaster worked
along, though sometimes they did work in packs. On this mission
though, the Alabaster was going in with a sister sub, the XSS
Bethlehem some seventeen thousand yards abreast on the port
side.
Conn sonar, we have new contacts, bearing 010 and 005, designate
Masters 22 and 23, The sonar operator reported. Range 68,000
yards, looks like we found our Prussian subs.
Ravi grinned. He had been tracking the noisy Prussian surface
elements for a long time now, which was streaming around at flank
speed heading out to engage the SENSE fleet which they had detected
on coming in on their radars. But his main targets were the
Prussian submarines. It was time to move into action.
The Alabaster carried Mk 96 ADCAP-D torpedoes, which had twice the
range of the Prussian Mk 48 ADCAP. In addition to superior speed of
eighty knots, the Prussian weapons did sixty at best.
But it was no time to be complacent, the Alabaster currently had
the advantage, and Ravi intended to use it to its full advantage.
At his command, the Alabaster increased speed and started making
maneuvers to gain more sonar information on their targets.
Conn sonar, we have addition contacts, bearing 015 and 013,
designate Master 24 and 25. Masters 22, 23, 24 and 25
The sonar
operator paused. They are Prussian Virginia SSNs sir, blade count
indicates theyre doing about twenty five knots, headed straight
our way.
The Prussian submarines were moving along with the surface fleet as
they charged down the Prussian Straits towards the Alabaster and
Bethlehem, using the noisy surface fleet to mask their own sonar
signatures. It worked, to an extent. But had they known about the
capabilities of the Alabaster class sonar abilities, they would
have been better of lurking around on ultra quiet. They never got a
chance to learn that tip. The noise of the surface fleet drowned
their own capable sonar suites and they never heard the Alabasters
already targeting them.
Another twenty minutes passed, the fleet was about 40 nautical
miles away from them, well within the ADCAP-Ds 80 mile
range.
Generate firing solutions on Masters 22 to 25. Ravi said. Rig
ship for depth charge. Prepare tubes one through four for
electrical firing. Open the muzzle doors when ready.
At that command, the TMA operator worked to compute the optimal
firing solution while the weapons crew primed the ADCAP-Ds for the
firing. The tube was pressurized to outside pressure and the muzzle
doors open, exposing the weapons to the outside sea. The torpedoes
would be fired electrically, swimming out of the tube on their own
power rather then usually being launched nosily out via compressed
air. They were just a step away from firing.
Firing solution ready. The Target Motion Analysis operator
announced.
Very well, match generated bearing and fire tubes 1 through 4.
Ravi gave the order to shoot. The Otto fuel engines of the
torpedoes came to life, powering their pump jets and they swam out
of the tubes, spearing at a leisurely rate of 20 knots through the
waters of the Prussian Straits.
Tubes launched sir, units are running normally. The weapons
operator said.
Trailing a fine guidance wire, the ADCAP-Ds swam towards the
approaching fleet with a combined speed of 45 knots. It took about
the good part of an hour for the units to meet the fleet, traveling
over 40 nautical miles. They had not detected it until it was too
late.
Torpedoes have acquired targets. Reported the weapons operator.
The ADCAP-Ds had found the enemy submarines with their own sonars
and no longer needed to be guided by Alabasters fire control
system via their guidance wires.
Cut the wires, shut the outer doors, and reload tubes one through
four. Ordered Ravi.
The ADCAP-Ds powered up to full attack speed and bore down on their
targets at over eighty knots. The Prussian Virginias detected the
now-extremely noisy torpedoes, got off hasty snapshots down their
bearing with their own weapons, and turned tail to run, zig-zagging
and popping off decoys and gas generators in an attempt to fool the
torpedoes homing on three times their speed. It was futile; the
ADCAP-Ds ignored the countermeasures entirely and bore straight
into the hulls of the Prussian subs.
Conn, sonar, multiple explosions, bearing 010.
They could hear the sounds of the dying submarines as they strained
their reactors, their rapidly spinning screws trying to fight the
downward pull of water it entered their ruptured hulls. It was
futile. Not too long later came the screeching of steel as the
viselike grip of the Prussian Straits crushed the pressure vessels
of the Prussian subs as they sank below their crush dept. Their
desperate return snapshots, fired in the thick of their own fleet
all fell short. Worse, one found a friendly target, a destroyer,
and destroyed it.
Ravi was satisfied, another four more kills for the Alabaster. The
Bethlehem scored a few minutes later, downing another three
submarines, two of them the ones Ravi had damaged in the Sea of
Fuchs, their damaged screws making the noise of a gravel truck as
they tried to run from the torpedoes. The two Alabaster subs spent
the next few hours sowing panic amidst the Prussian fleet as they
fired torpedo after torpedo at them, going for the anti-air
elements like the Aegis cruisers, effectively removing them. The
Prussian fleet launched anti-submarine helicopters and pinged the
area with active sonar on full, but the submarines were already
moving away, having done their part. The Prussian fleet had lost
its submarine and aegis support, and it was to get worse.
As they headed towards what they could see on their radar as the
SENSE fleet consisting of Shingapooru fleets, they came under
missile attack and air attack from the undetected Xing Shiana Task
Force Greg Paul hiding some distance behind the Shingapooru fleet.
The Prussians had been lured into a trap. Lacking their aegis
systems and outranged by the Xing Shiana missiles and aircraft,
plus Shingapooru carrier aircraft. The Prussians tried their best
to make it within their own missile launch range, charging through
the kill zone of cruise missiles and planes, fighting all the way.
It was useless, the Prussian 4th High Fleet plus the rag tag
additions were set aflame. Losing over two hundred ships without
even making it halfway near enough to launch their own weapons, so
effective was the SENSE attack that they took not a single
casualty. As they sailed past what was once the Prussian fleet,
they picked up survivors. There were not many, so sudden was their
destruction that few had chance to abandon their ships. The
firepower being put out by SENSE forces five times what was used in
the Battle of the Sea of Fuchs. Only 360 Prussian sailors were
rescued, a staggering 43,000 plus Prussians lost their lives in the
last desperate attempt to stem the tide. The Prussian navy was
finished.
The Prussian Straits now belonged firmly to SENSE, the Pronamdy
supply line reopened again. Fresh numbers of supplies, troops and
instruments of war started to pour in within twelve hours of the
naval victory, and their number rapidly grew.