Lifeline_MD
11-07-2011, 05:46 PM
Well, after getting about two years into my first Joeverse (Heros and Terrorists) I have decided to start writing a second. I don't have as much freedom with this one, but it allows me to play with a completely different set of dynamics that I hope a few people will enjoy.
I know a few readers were discouraged from starting H&T due to the length of stuff already written, so hopefully a few people will want to jump on board with a new one.
The title and the first entry below should make what's going on fairly self-explanatory, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions that people may have. I'm not going to say more here so that I don't spoil the story.
If your interested in seeing this continue, please post here, if there's not a lot of interest, I'll probably back-burner this and not update particularly often. If there is a fair bit of interest from readers, I'll try to post more regularly.
Hope that a few people, whether they be history-buffs or not, will enjoy this.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity Task Force
USS Lawrence C. Flagg - Gerald R. Ford Class Supercarrier (American)
USS John F. Kennedy - Gerald R. Ford Class Supercarrier (American)
HMS Queen Elizabeth II - Queen Elizabeth II Class Supercarrier (United Kingdom)
USS Bulwark - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
USS Centaur - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
USS Pearl - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
HMCS Ottawa - George W. Bush Class Ambhibious Assualt Ship (Canada)
RFA Liverpool - Bay Class Amphibious Transport Dock (United Kingdom)
RFA Bath - Bay Class Amphibious Transport Dock (United Kingdom)
Cobra - Experimental Heavy Battlecruiser (International Experimental Warship)
Frunze - Kirov Class Battlecruiser (Russian)
HMCS Calgary - Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMCS Airdrie- Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMCS Lethbridge- Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMS Dover - Dover Class Destoryer (United Kingdom)
HMCS Battleford - Alberta Class Frigate (Canada)
Darwin - Anzak Class Frigate (Australia)
Perth - Adelaide Class Frigate (Australia)
Hamburg - Sachsen Class Air-Defence Frigate (Germany)
Magdeburg - Braunshweig Class Corvette (Germany)
Cassiopee - Eridan Class Minesweeper (France)
Andromede - Eridan Class Minesweeper (France)
USS North Carolina - Virginia Class Submarine (American)
USS South Carolina - Virginia Class Submarine (American)
Rankin - Collins Class Submarine (Australia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>September 19, 2045<<
>>150 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Bridge of the USS Flagg<<
Admiral Keel Haul surveyed the sees around him. Black clouds obscured the sky, but the rain was holding for now. The other ships of the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, were arrayed off the port side. The Queen Elizabeth was on point as they sped west, and Kennedy on the southern edge of the group. Keel Haul had been born in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and had grown up assuming that any war that he would ever be involved in would be in the middle east. Times had changed. China and Japan had begun their own version of the cold war in the mid-20s, but it had died out a few years ago with a cooperative treatment after both nations had found themselves teetering on the edge of economic collapse. What no one had expected would be that Indonesia and Vietnam would be the ones to begin the shooting. Or that they would take over so much territory so quickly
Radical Islamacism had taken hold, and a new holy war had begun. Shockingly, terrorist attacks outside of southeast Asia were still rare, but the world powers had agreed that they were not going to let it spread. Contain it while they still could. And so he was now in command of one of the largest naval forces that had been assembled since the Second World War. Over the last month men and ships had assembled in Pearl Harbour preparing to launch, and now they sped towards Indonesia through the empty Pacific. It was not lost on Keel Haul that this was the exact path that the forces attacking Midway would have taken over 100 years ago in the last conflict to rock this ocean. This time though, it would be the Allies with the pre-emptive strike.
He turned and surveyed his bridge crew. Nothing out of the ordinary, they watched their stations, or the other ships in the fleet. Starduster and Ace were arguing over the map projection as to how best to begin the bombing runs on Biak, the first city that would fall to the Allied invasion.
To the north, Chinese and Russian forces were pushing south in a land war, but had stalled at the Hong Kong line. The Australian navy had managed to hold the coast of the continent, despite a conceerted attempt to invade Darwin. This invasion force coming from the Pacific had been assembled in secret while the eyes of the world were focuses on the battle group now steaming from Sri Lanka comprised of the majority of the European navies.
What this fleet appeared to lack in man- and fire-power, it made up for with one specific ship. The Cobra. More than a dozen experimental weapons systems that were being tested on the other warships of the fleet were being perfected on the new behemoth, but the real gem was hidden inside. Keel Haul didn't pretend to understand exactly what was being built in there, or how it worked, but to his understanding, based on a series of classified briefings, the MASS Device was a teleportation weapon that would allow ordinance fired into a field generated wtihin the ship to be instantly transported to any location in the world. It would be tested early on the mission, and if it worked, increasing loads of ordinance were authorized for use until the axis surrendered. The heavier ordinances were carried on the USS Vegas and the HMS Shetland, which were assembling with a second group of frigates at Pearl Harbour now. They would follow in a week's time, carrying in their cargo two nuclear warheads. Keel Haul thanked God every night that he wouldn't be the one to have to order the world's second nuclear war. That fell to the mission's overall commanders Joseph Colton, representing the military, and Friedrick von Braco, the scientist behind the delivery system. The last thing that they could afford was for a warhead like that to be misfired and wind up anywhere except the intended target. Hopefully there would be enough margin of error to prevent its use.
Today was the first test. The crew of the Cobra would be testing the system in the next few minutes by sending an ancient metal cannonball back to Pearl Harbour to drop in the middle of an empty air-field. At least, that was the plan. Keel Haul had noticed the fleet's formation subtly shift in the last half hour as the ships closest to the Cobra subtly adjusted their course to put a little more space between their hulls in case the whole thing blew up. Many in the fleet would not mourn the loss. In their minds, the old ways had survived so long because they worked the best, and that's what they planned to use to win the war. Only time would tell which side would be right, but whichever it was, it would alter the shape of all future wars.
>>September 19, 2045<<
>>155 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Central Chamber of the Cobra<<
Gears and Brainstorm leaned over Access Panel 9 of the MASS Device.
"Wrench," Brainstorm hollered, his highly muffled voice barely reaching Gear's over the sound of the particle accellerator behind them.
Gears passed the tool and heard a cranking followed by a series of resounding bangs and curses.
"You going to get that done any time soon buddy? We're getting glared at again."
"What do you think I'm- FUCK!" Brainstorm replied angrily.
"Sorry!"
Extracting himself around the tangling of wire, his left hand pressed to his side and bleeding badly from the palm, Brainstorm glared, "its either going to work or its not. That damned Scottish bastard better stop his whining."
"Its not really Destro I'm worried about," Gears replied, nodding over his shoulder to indicate the ship's commander leaning on the railing.
"Ah shit," Brainstorm flashed the OK sign and tossed the tool back in the chest. Gears closed it and the two hurried away from the equipment as it began to hum to life. They joined the assembled scientists huddled behind the control console at the back of the room.
"Hold on to your buts," whispered one of the men who Brainstorm hadn't met yet.
At the console all that had to be done now was for the ceremonial switch to be pulled to activate the machine. Ever one for the melodramatic Destro had opted to make it a massive switch that was impossible for anyone with eyes to miss. The room was far from silent, but no one said a word as Destro gripped the swtich firmly and pulled it down into place. The mahcine seemed to hum ever louder, and the field in the middle began to glow a bright yellow. Gears found his eyes glued to the old cannon-ball sitting in the middle on its pedastal, and watched.
The yellow sphere slowly contracted until it was the size of the ball itself. Expecting it to disappear, Gears felt his back arch as the field suddenly exploded outwards from the center of the field, and pass unabated through equipment, ship and man alike, seeming like it would never stop. As it passed through him, Gears' vision blured out and he found himself blinking as comotion erupted around him.
After a few seconds his vision cleared, and he turned to start questioning Brainstorm, but was cut off before he even opened his mouth by the Commander, "QUIET!"
Everyone turned to stare.
The Cobra's Commander raised a radio to his lips, and asked a single word, "bridge?"
The reply was too static-laced for Gears to make out the answer, but it seemed to please the commander based on the demonic smile that curved his lips.
Gears took an involuntary step back and bumped into Brainstorm, who hissed into his ear, "what's going on?"
The commander raised his right hand and closed a fist.
Suddenly around them, half the scientists in the room produced weapons from various concealed places within their coveralls.
"What's going on?" Gears asked in a horrified voice as Anastasia turned to face him?
She smiled. "History," she replied, and shot him between the eyes.
>>June 2 1942<<
>>155 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Flight Deck of USS Hornet<<
Ensign George H. Gay leaned against the propellor of his Douglas TBD Devastator Torpedo Plane. The deck of the Hornet had been lined with planes, ready to take on the Japanese carrier group at Midway, and he had dreaded it. If any one person in his squadron was going to die in the comming battle, he had been sure it was going to be him. Now it seemed like it wouldn't even take that long. Looming out of the shadows of night right in the middle of the American fleet were dozens of foreign vessels, none of which he recognized as anything in the American fleet. He could make out one aircraft carrier from where he lay, and the planes on the deck looked like something out of a bad science fiction novel.
He couldn't make head or tail of the formation that they had been in, but some of them had rammed the ships of the Midway fleet. Mere second ago he'd been thrown from his feet, and now, something that seemed to be the size of a Frigate protruded at an impossible angle from the bow of the Hornet. All around him crew members were struggling to his feet and alarm sirens were sounding throughout both fleets.
If the Japanese could surprise a fleet of American warships like this, what hope did they have in the war. Where did the come from? Where did they get such ships? How could the Americans not have know about this? And perhaps most importantly, why did it seem like they had just appeared out of thin air?
I know a few readers were discouraged from starting H&T due to the length of stuff already written, so hopefully a few people will want to jump on board with a new one.
The title and the first entry below should make what's going on fairly self-explanatory, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions that people may have. I'm not going to say more here so that I don't spoil the story.
If your interested in seeing this continue, please post here, if there's not a lot of interest, I'll probably back-burner this and not update particularly often. If there is a fair bit of interest from readers, I'll try to post more regularly.
Hope that a few people, whether they be history-buffs or not, will enjoy this.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity Task Force
USS Lawrence C. Flagg - Gerald R. Ford Class Supercarrier (American)
USS John F. Kennedy - Gerald R. Ford Class Supercarrier (American)
HMS Queen Elizabeth II - Queen Elizabeth II Class Supercarrier (United Kingdom)
USS Bulwark - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
USS Centaur - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
USS Pearl - George W. Bush Class Amphibious Assualt Ship (American)
HMCS Ottawa - George W. Bush Class Ambhibious Assualt Ship (Canada)
RFA Liverpool - Bay Class Amphibious Transport Dock (United Kingdom)
RFA Bath - Bay Class Amphibious Transport Dock (United Kingdom)
Cobra - Experimental Heavy Battlecruiser (International Experimental Warship)
Frunze - Kirov Class Battlecruiser (Russian)
HMCS Calgary - Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMCS Airdrie- Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMCS Lethbridge- Calgary Class Destroyer (Canada)
HMS Dover - Dover Class Destoryer (United Kingdom)
HMCS Battleford - Alberta Class Frigate (Canada)
Darwin - Anzak Class Frigate (Australia)
Perth - Adelaide Class Frigate (Australia)
Hamburg - Sachsen Class Air-Defence Frigate (Germany)
Magdeburg - Braunshweig Class Corvette (Germany)
Cassiopee - Eridan Class Minesweeper (France)
Andromede - Eridan Class Minesweeper (France)
USS North Carolina - Virginia Class Submarine (American)
USS South Carolina - Virginia Class Submarine (American)
Rankin - Collins Class Submarine (Australia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>September 19, 2045<<
>>150 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Bridge of the USS Flagg<<
Admiral Keel Haul surveyed the sees around him. Black clouds obscured the sky, but the rain was holding for now. The other ships of the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, were arrayed off the port side. The Queen Elizabeth was on point as they sped west, and Kennedy on the southern edge of the group. Keel Haul had been born in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and had grown up assuming that any war that he would ever be involved in would be in the middle east. Times had changed. China and Japan had begun their own version of the cold war in the mid-20s, but it had died out a few years ago with a cooperative treatment after both nations had found themselves teetering on the edge of economic collapse. What no one had expected would be that Indonesia and Vietnam would be the ones to begin the shooting. Or that they would take over so much territory so quickly
Radical Islamacism had taken hold, and a new holy war had begun. Shockingly, terrorist attacks outside of southeast Asia were still rare, but the world powers had agreed that they were not going to let it spread. Contain it while they still could. And so he was now in command of one of the largest naval forces that had been assembled since the Second World War. Over the last month men and ships had assembled in Pearl Harbour preparing to launch, and now they sped towards Indonesia through the empty Pacific. It was not lost on Keel Haul that this was the exact path that the forces attacking Midway would have taken over 100 years ago in the last conflict to rock this ocean. This time though, it would be the Allies with the pre-emptive strike.
He turned and surveyed his bridge crew. Nothing out of the ordinary, they watched their stations, or the other ships in the fleet. Starduster and Ace were arguing over the map projection as to how best to begin the bombing runs on Biak, the first city that would fall to the Allied invasion.
To the north, Chinese and Russian forces were pushing south in a land war, but had stalled at the Hong Kong line. The Australian navy had managed to hold the coast of the continent, despite a conceerted attempt to invade Darwin. This invasion force coming from the Pacific had been assembled in secret while the eyes of the world were focuses on the battle group now steaming from Sri Lanka comprised of the majority of the European navies.
What this fleet appeared to lack in man- and fire-power, it made up for with one specific ship. The Cobra. More than a dozen experimental weapons systems that were being tested on the other warships of the fleet were being perfected on the new behemoth, but the real gem was hidden inside. Keel Haul didn't pretend to understand exactly what was being built in there, or how it worked, but to his understanding, based on a series of classified briefings, the MASS Device was a teleportation weapon that would allow ordinance fired into a field generated wtihin the ship to be instantly transported to any location in the world. It would be tested early on the mission, and if it worked, increasing loads of ordinance were authorized for use until the axis surrendered. The heavier ordinances were carried on the USS Vegas and the HMS Shetland, which were assembling with a second group of frigates at Pearl Harbour now. They would follow in a week's time, carrying in their cargo two nuclear warheads. Keel Haul thanked God every night that he wouldn't be the one to have to order the world's second nuclear war. That fell to the mission's overall commanders Joseph Colton, representing the military, and Friedrick von Braco, the scientist behind the delivery system. The last thing that they could afford was for a warhead like that to be misfired and wind up anywhere except the intended target. Hopefully there would be enough margin of error to prevent its use.
Today was the first test. The crew of the Cobra would be testing the system in the next few minutes by sending an ancient metal cannonball back to Pearl Harbour to drop in the middle of an empty air-field. At least, that was the plan. Keel Haul had noticed the fleet's formation subtly shift in the last half hour as the ships closest to the Cobra subtly adjusted their course to put a little more space between their hulls in case the whole thing blew up. Many in the fleet would not mourn the loss. In their minds, the old ways had survived so long because they worked the best, and that's what they planned to use to win the war. Only time would tell which side would be right, but whichever it was, it would alter the shape of all future wars.
>>September 19, 2045<<
>>155 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Central Chamber of the Cobra<<
Gears and Brainstorm leaned over Access Panel 9 of the MASS Device.
"Wrench," Brainstorm hollered, his highly muffled voice barely reaching Gear's over the sound of the particle accellerator behind them.
Gears passed the tool and heard a cranking followed by a series of resounding bangs and curses.
"You going to get that done any time soon buddy? We're getting glared at again."
"What do you think I'm- FUCK!" Brainstorm replied angrily.
"Sorry!"
Extracting himself around the tangling of wire, his left hand pressed to his side and bleeding badly from the palm, Brainstorm glared, "its either going to work or its not. That damned Scottish bastard better stop his whining."
"Its not really Destro I'm worried about," Gears replied, nodding over his shoulder to indicate the ship's commander leaning on the railing.
"Ah shit," Brainstorm flashed the OK sign and tossed the tool back in the chest. Gears closed it and the two hurried away from the equipment as it began to hum to life. They joined the assembled scientists huddled behind the control console at the back of the room.
"Hold on to your buts," whispered one of the men who Brainstorm hadn't met yet.
At the console all that had to be done now was for the ceremonial switch to be pulled to activate the machine. Ever one for the melodramatic Destro had opted to make it a massive switch that was impossible for anyone with eyes to miss. The room was far from silent, but no one said a word as Destro gripped the swtich firmly and pulled it down into place. The mahcine seemed to hum ever louder, and the field in the middle began to glow a bright yellow. Gears found his eyes glued to the old cannon-ball sitting in the middle on its pedastal, and watched.
The yellow sphere slowly contracted until it was the size of the ball itself. Expecting it to disappear, Gears felt his back arch as the field suddenly exploded outwards from the center of the field, and pass unabated through equipment, ship and man alike, seeming like it would never stop. As it passed through him, Gears' vision blured out and he found himself blinking as comotion erupted around him.
After a few seconds his vision cleared, and he turned to start questioning Brainstorm, but was cut off before he even opened his mouth by the Commander, "QUIET!"
Everyone turned to stare.
The Cobra's Commander raised a radio to his lips, and asked a single word, "bridge?"
The reply was too static-laced for Gears to make out the answer, but it seemed to please the commander based on the demonic smile that curved his lips.
Gears took an involuntary step back and bumped into Brainstorm, who hissed into his ear, "what's going on?"
The commander raised his right hand and closed a fist.
Suddenly around them, half the scientists in the room produced weapons from various concealed places within their coveralls.
"What's going on?" Gears asked in a horrified voice as Anastasia turned to face him?
She smiled. "History," she replied, and shot him between the eyes.
>>June 2 1942<<
>>155 Nautical Miles Northwest of Hawaii<<
>>Flight Deck of USS Hornet<<
Ensign George H. Gay leaned against the propellor of his Douglas TBD Devastator Torpedo Plane. The deck of the Hornet had been lined with planes, ready to take on the Japanese carrier group at Midway, and he had dreaded it. If any one person in his squadron was going to die in the comming battle, he had been sure it was going to be him. Now it seemed like it wouldn't even take that long. Looming out of the shadows of night right in the middle of the American fleet were dozens of foreign vessels, none of which he recognized as anything in the American fleet. He could make out one aircraft carrier from where he lay, and the planes on the deck looked like something out of a bad science fiction novel.
He couldn't make head or tail of the formation that they had been in, but some of them had rammed the ships of the Midway fleet. Mere second ago he'd been thrown from his feet, and now, something that seemed to be the size of a Frigate protruded at an impossible angle from the bow of the Hornet. All around him crew members were struggling to his feet and alarm sirens were sounding throughout both fleets.
If the Japanese could surprise a fleet of American warships like this, what hope did they have in the war. Where did the come from? Where did they get such ships? How could the Americans not have know about this? And perhaps most importantly, why did it seem like they had just appeared out of thin air?