Lina slowly gives Leaf a thumbs up and an apprehensive nod.  The M-16/203 combo looks big in her hands.  Nobody can see her hand tremble slightly.

Tim has seen a couple of things as he came into the island that made him apprehensive as to the current plan. The place had a lot more intact structures then he thought especially in the water. While they did not pose any threat those on the island itself would, especially as they were put in place to defend the island from the very thing they were trying to do.

" I don't like this we are to exposed.... Let get into cover as fast as possible."

He will lead his team into the cover as they looked at their options, closer to the cliff if they could.



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In reply to Tim Charles White (msg # 344):

As a light snow fell they traversed the concrete apron, keeping between the embankments with the ancient rusting rails running parallel on either side. Cliffs towered all around them. At the inner face of the cliffs, the concrete "runway" ended in a massive jumble of rock. The inner cliff face had collapsed at some point in the past, probably due to the seismic activity that raised the entire island and made the area they were standing on above sea level. They passed by a small concrete platform jutting out of the side of the south cliffs, probably a tide monitoring station. Now permanently high and dry as the water level receded. Rusted rungs would have formed a ladder at one time.

PD Note: I neglected to mention the cracked barnacle-encrusted concrete apron is more like a long wide trough, with a low centre between embankments that sloped up to either side. The rails are on top of the banks and run parallel. It had all been excavated at some point, and at least 10m underwater at all times, not just high tide.

In reply to Project Director (msg # 345):

Leaf stopped at the tumbled rock face, then went to the left side. She looked around, then became pulling away cut brush. This exposed a tunnel entrance between two boulders.

"Ok, here is the tunnel, like Sea Otter said." It was clear she didn't want to go first.

"This is the old holding pens for the "Boomers" and "fast subs", my last gig was guarding the ones at Clyde back in the day. It's a bit late in the day, but I think we need a distraction to draw some of the defenders out of the Fort. It's to confined if it all goes tits up they will have us trapped and cut us down."

He looked around. "If we get them out and set up an ambush while someone does what needs to be done in the fort ? I was wondering if the explosion from the freighter could be used in this way ?"



-

Indeed, it did look a bit like a sub pen of sorts. Although it was now high and dry except at the highest tide, and even then the water would now only cover the concrete apron. But if it was, it looked only big enough to house a single boomer of possibly Ohio-class size, and even at that the path in and out was extremely narrow with barely 1m to spare on each side. Either a boomer coming in would need to back out very carefully, or back in very slowly. Even then there was a significant risk of colliding with either side.

In reply to Tim Charles White (msg # 347):

"Jimmy said we are going to time our entry with the attack on the ship. So that may cause a distraction. Or just wake them up? If you like we can have Sea Otter and his men, who will be outside the camp, try to draw some of the defenders out when the explosion goes off on the water?"

"If by drawing them out you mean moving them away from our point of entry," Elliot offers. "And, just to be sure, there will still be three warriors at the position being taken by Cap'n Kim and myself, right?"

In reply to Elliot Charles Pendergrass (msg # 350):

"Yes, Sea Otter will be leading a different group. I can give him my hand radio. Lina left the backpack radio with the zodiac so we will all be in communication with one another.

"There are other warriors that will be coming with us. Look, here they come now."

She pointed at the small group of five braves they could see coming up behind them in the greenish glow of their NVGs, somewhat obscured by the lightly falling snow. Of the remainder, Sea Otter left one to guard the boats and began scaling the cliffs with the rest.

The warriors joined them. They were ready to proceed through the tunnel into the middle of the island. From there they would supposedly find an access up through the middle of the enemy camp.

Through their NVGs they could see a dark shadowed cleft between two boulders. It had been hidden by cut brush. From there the tunnel led into darkness.

GM: OK, decide who's going first, and your order. Your NVGs will likely be unable to see underground, but your flashlights have IR filters that allow you to use them with the low-light goggles.

In reply to Project Director (msg # 352):

Capt'n Kim wants tail-end charlie

This still was not the best plan that was ever devised and Tim felt as though they were entering into a trap of their own making, but as he waited for the telltale rumble of the explosion he looked over his team and hoped with luck they might all go home.


-

Elliot stays ready to move when everything seems to warrant it.

The team quickly slithered through the hole in what was once a solid wall of avalanche debris. This avalanche had covered an enormous entrance (large enough to admit a submarine, anyways) that was once underwater. Then the seabed rose due to seismic activity, and further seismic activity some time after had collapsed the cliff face above it, blocking it off.

Clearly a small gap had been recently enlarged by hand by the removal of several boulders and digging out soil. It was unclear who had done this, Sea Otter's people or the Krell and their mercenaries. Tim, in the lead, checked for traps and tripwires before squeezing through the gap and found nothing.

Outside there had been enough ambient light for their NVGs to work. Once inside there was absolutely no light at all, forcing them to use their IR-filtered hand torches (flashlights) to provide enough illumination for them to work.

They found themselves at the end of a vast, long underground chamber. Beams from their flashlights played over an enormous screw and rudder looming above them. The massive submarine to which they belonged stretched away into the blackness. From the configuration of the running gear and various faded paint markings they could tell right away it was an American submarine. Likely an Ohio-class "Boomer" (SSBN).

But they couldn't see much else standing on the bottom of a dry sub pen with the hull looming above them. They were on the left side of the bottom of the dry sub pen and the sub was heeled over to starboard. Likely settling that way when the water drained away and dried up after the local sea level subsided. The dry bottom around them was lightly littered with debris (chunks of ferro-concrete from the roof, snapped mooring lines, cables, etc.) More cables/mooring lines dangled down the wall on both sides.

To their left were metal rungs of a ladder set into the wall. They lead up to the pen's deck level, 15m above them. From where they were they could pretty much see the submarine's stern looming above them and not much else.

PD Note: There is so little light that to see anything at all, you need to use your IR-filtered flashlights.

With his rifle at his shoulder and pointing towards the lip of the pen Tim lead his team to the ladder. He checked it first and then took the lead climbing up. At this point he changed for his handgun as he scanned the lip of the pen. If he was able he rolled over the top and then prone, he took a defensive position as the others scaled the ladder.


-

In reply to Tim Charles White (msg # 357):

Capt'n Kim  is in awe over the size of the vessel before him.

In reply to Tim Charles White (msg # 357):

He and then Kim made it to the top of the ladder without incident. His (and everyone else's) footprints crunched and echoed in the chamber. All surfaces (including the sub itself) were covered in a layer of dust and dirt.

From their new vantage point they could see what seemed to be power cables strung across in front of them. They were connected to a dockside utility-style power box to the aft portion of the sub. Likely fed down through the engine room hatch. Some of the cables were propped to allow free access under them, some had come loose and were lying across the dock.

Elliot follows the lead, with his suppressed MAC 10 at the ready, as silent as he can possibly be.

Tim seat up at a point that he could try and work out what the cables were for. "Were they powering the camp or the sub ? Had they managed to find a way to restart the reactor ?" He would lead them towards the general direction of the camp and where they were suppose to be positioned when the boat was attacked.



-

While Tim led the team, Lina brought up the rear wearing her night vision to help keep the Braves from getting off track.

They started out up the left side, with Tim, Ethan and Captain Kim on point in an arrowhead formation. Leaf (using NVGs) followed with the effectively blind Native braves (one holding on to her, the rest forming a line holding onto the one in front) with Lina taking up the rear.

From the labels and dials, Tim surmised this was a transformer and breaker box. The now-snapped dust-caked cables were to draw power from the submarine's nuclear reactor, probably hooked up through the aft engine room hatch. When it was berthed here and not providing power for propulsion it would have more than enough electrical power to spare for its needs and that of the facility. Presumably this installation also had some kind of diesel generator but they could run everything off the sub's nuclear power plant to save fuel. (It was unlikely there was some more exotic power source installed like a shoreside reactor, RTG generator or geothermal power, otherwise they wouldn't bother hooking up the sub.) He had no idea how long the sub's nuclear fuel core would last. Years? Decades?

The sub was heeled over onto its starboard side, and they (and the transformer box) were on the port side. When the rollover happened the power cables snapped.

They also saw something interesting. Resting on the pair of small rail tracks closest to them (there was another set on the opposite side of the berth) was a small electrically-powered pony engine, the size of a forklift. Like those used for shunting rail cars, except this one could go underwater. This one had mooring lines that connected it to cleats on the port aft side of the sub. When the entrance was intact the little pony engine could roll out of the berthing cave and down into the ocean. And there was a set of identical tracks on the far side.

The sub berth was mainly a long cavern with an arched (and cracked) concrete ceiling. As they carefully trod towards the bow, somewhere admidships they came across a low prefab building-like structure abutting the left hand wall. Lined along the wall leading up to it were dozens of dust-coated body bags. In the green glow of their NVGs the building was marked with crosses and "INFIRMARY" plus other appropriate signage.

In reply to Project Director (msg # 363):

Capt'n Kim makes the sign of the cross upon seeing the body bags.

Elliot makes note without making noise.

Tim continues to lead them forward, unsure of what is going on or why the body bags are present. They had a task to focus on and a objective to secure anything else can wait.



-

The row of body bags was lined up to their left, the bulk of the submarine to their right. In the limited light of the IR-filtered flashlights it wasn't clear if there were missile hatches and if they were open or not as the boat was heeled over away from them.

Being careful to not get too close, El realised that under the thick layer of dust the body bags closest to the infirmary were marked with "biohazard" symbols. On the far side of the infirmary were a further line of body bags. After a while the bodies presumably outstripped the supply of body bags because at a certain point bodies were just covered in hospital blankets and then plastic sheeting.

When they got to where they could see the sail they confirmed it was at least a US sub as there were auxiliary diving planes jutting out.