Battleship - Equestria: Restitution by Railguns

by Base-Delta-Zero

Deployment Log 0: "The Preparations" - Revised December 12, 2015

BATTLESHIP - EQUESTRIA: RESTITUTION BY RAILGUNS

By: CommanderWolffe and Dasubur
--PROLOGUE--
----

"Admiral! The storm's picking up in intensity!" ... "The wind speed's reading is over 120 Nautical Miles an hour, and climbing fast!" ... "The Capacitors aren't rated for Gale-force winds like this! We've got to abandon the test, or else there'll be even more repairs needed! I don't think that you want to explain that one to the DOD, now do you?"

Admiral Sturm, the Commanding Officer of the NATO-Joint-Testbed Y-BB-248, nicknamed "The Wrath of Geneva" frowned at the news, the lines of stress creasing his forehead were a testament to the long sleepless nights spent on this project. He looked over his bunk with pride. "The Wrath", as the ship had been nicknamed by her crew, found its namesake and its entire existance from the former home to the Geneva Conventions which, during its last anti-nuclear proliferation summit, attracted a group of radicalized individuals, who called themselves the "Khanates", from Mongolia, claiming that their efforts were to reincarnate the classical Ruler of The Golden Horde, Genghis Kahn. Their first strike, was to hit the world where it would be impossible to ignore. Not that the world would ignore a terrorist organization detonating a stolen nuke bought on the black market, but they went beyond and hit one of the homes of the United Nations. Needless to say for any terrorists wielding tactical nuclear warheads, they committed suicide with their detonation, and rendered Geneva into a more modern version of Pripyat, Ukraine, or Fukushima, Japan. Also needless to say, the world was pissed. Thankfully the terrorists weren't as organized as the last terrorist organization to plague the world, Daesh, but they still had that nasty habit of popping up where you don't want them to at the worst possible time.

One of their raids into an American naval shipyard had led to the sabotaging of the Power Capacitors for the Wrath's experimental armament of four Railgun Batteries, which had cost the testing of the power conversion from the ship's nuclear reactors a two year delay, and the American Department of Defense another 3.7 billion US Dollars in repair, labor, and grant money to continue with the testbed. Upon finally finishing the repairs, and ultimately the construction of the 970,000 Metric Ton Dreadnought, the nautical fortress received its indoctrination as a prototype for, as the Chief Admiral of the Navy called it, a "New generation of extended-range coastal artillery and naval engagement platform"; or, as every single Armchair General and naval force enthusiast on the internet knew, a 'Battleship' (the DOD, or United States Department of Defense, refuses to officially refer to the prototype class of vessel as that due to Military Doctrines stating that the Battleship is officially obsolete and never to be re-introduced; however, the Department Chair agreed it is easier, more fitting, and "More Nostalgic", to call her as such). "The Wrath" had then promptly been 'Crewed and Brewed', or staffed and supplied for her Maiden Voyage from the Norfolk Naval Base, Norfolk, Virginia to her first stationed port at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii; as well as testing the capacitor's capability to hold a charge for extended lengths and rapid discharge-to-recharge limits. The powerhouse was slated to test the maximum range at this part of the journey, at about 200 Nautical Miles North-Northwest of the northern-most point of the Bermuda Triangle, as foretold by the GPS's positioning of the Island of Bermuda. Unfortunately, as soon as the Capacitors were charged to a suitable power quantity to launch a round at combat power from batteries One and Two, the Category 3 Hurricane, named "Aileta", that was bearing in towards the American coastline had performed a drastic leap in speed, throwing the Wrath into the wrath of her own Eye-wall, throwing gallons of briny sea water onto the main deck of the ship herself. All around the deck Sailors braved the harsh conditions and hazardous deck surfaces to reach their post or make last minute checks, the harsh conditions making being on deck all-the-more lethal, due to the capacitors meant to power the rail cannons. This weather also posed a danger in that, if one of the capacitors was to become too moist, then the power would discharge and fry a large portion of the Wrath's electronic equipment in the process. The Capacitors were housed in domes meant to avoid such a situation, but only so much can be done due to residual atmospheric humidity, which had been drastically amplified by Aileta raging overhead. This left the Admiral with a dilemma: to test and risk damage, while potentially providing valuable data to the engineers and technicians, or to let the capacitors discharge without firing, and lower them below the main deck line to help preserve their electronics.

The Admiral smiled to himself, a dry chuckle leaving his lips as he weighed the options he had. The risk of damage to the system was a very considerable threat, but the cost of another delay in testing might spell doom to this project, there were already rumors of the project not meeting expectations, rumors of future cancellations and scrapping if the project had any more delays. The Admiral would be damned before let this ship be scrapped so easily. So the decision came easily to him, he already knew the answer.

The order was quickly relayed to clear the decks, and to prepare to fire batteries one and two.

"XO, wait for me to get to the Bridge. I want the Trigger Boys and Power Jockeys for each battery assembly on the Bridge when I get there, there's no time for any Sea-Horsing around in this kind of weather." Sturm replied

"Sir!" was all the reply Sturm needed before setting off on the short jaunt to the bridge from his bunkroom, making his way towards the bridge with a brisk pace and a slight air of nervousness in his wake. All around him crewmen rushed around stations, checking gauges and pipes, double checking wires and giving their stations final once-overs, only stopping when they noticed the Admiral's presence to give hasty salutes which the Admiral waved down with a short "At ease..." to get the men moving again. after a while his thoughts turned back to the weather.

'This kind of weather is rather extreme for just a Category 3, it is more like the reports of what Sandy was like while over Coney Island back in 2012... I've got a bad feeling about the imminent future of this vessel....' Rambling through his thought process and intuition about the current situation, the Admiral failed to notice that he was already in the bridge and at his post; his train of thought was derailed rather viciously when the Chief Gunnery Officer made his presence and current location known to him.

"Lost in thought again, Fritz?" Asked a chuckling, yet slightly concerned Gunnery Captain by the name of Dimitri Kalatnivovich, one of the most experienced personnel on the vessel - and the one with what was probably the oddest service record. Having started in the Army, he was one of the most promising members of his class at West Point, finishing third in class - he was downgraded from first because of his unauthorized construction of a miniature Mass-Driver cannon made out of parts that were supposed to be used to build an assault rifle with a holographic scope from a kit. To this day, no one but him knows how he did it with nothing but impulses as to what goes where, and all in fewer than 45 minutes. He was demoted for not obeying a direct order from a superior officer, yet was then discreetly transferred to the Navy, where he was quickly enrolled in the Naval Command School, followed immediately after graduation with a rapid transfer to an Above-Top-Secret SOCOM project's training course to become one of the Commanding Officers on a prototype ship aiming at reviving a lost breed of sailor. His strong knowledge in, and unique grasp of practical use of, exotic projectile launching and propulsion systems, proved to be invaluable in aiding the engineers designing the cannons to consume 37% less energy per shot while achieving the same results and performance characteristics as before. He was then, upon the choosing of the crew, hand-picked by Admiral Sturm to be the leading officer into the weapons systems and their usage. His ability to think on his feet had already proven invaluable when a Capacitor had seized during an earlier charge test, rapidly troubleshooting and resolving the issue before any harm could arise. His ability to diagnose, and rapidly repair, issues that had arose with the railguns would be an immense asset, in the event problems arose. Shaking his head, the Admiral's mental freight yards finally accepted the new shipment, bringing his focus back to the Bridge.

"Yes, I've got one of those hunches again... Well, there's nothing I can do about an impulsive intestine, but there is something I can do about this ship, yes?" The Admiral said with a sigh, Glancing around the bridge and its Crewman all running around double checking their work.

"Of course, Admiral. All of the crews that you ordered onto deck are here, and are awaiting orders," Replied Dimitri, returning to his console and his work. The Admiral nodded, and turned to the crew teams of gunners and power regulator control teams, more commonly referred to as "Trigger Boys" and "Power Jockeys", respectively.

"Okay men, I'm going to cut to the chase. We are still performing the test; HOWEVER: it will be at only quarter power, and the projectile will be aimed towards the water line as close as safely possible, so as to discharge safely and let us see the launch and impact. We're going to do this as safely as possible, we don't need to be carelessly destructive in this test, we all want out in one piece. Are we ready?"

"SIR!" Resounded the chorus around the Bridge, leaving a small smile on the Admiral's face.

‘They really are proud to be here, aren't they all... Well, let's not disappoint, let's make this so special it's written down in the history books forevermore!'

"Thenmen, let's ace this so hard that we take Physic's testicles, and remove them through its anus! Let's go!""Cconcluded the Admiral, earning a resoundingly hearty chorus of cheers and laughter from his personification.

What none of them realized, however, is just how much they would literally be doing that in the coming months.....
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-////END OF PROLOUGE\\\\-

Author's Note:

Meh, first fanfic published here, I hope it's alright for that aspect... I do plan to work on my writing skills, although between Junior Year of High School, being the VP of Outreach of my High School's Robotics Club, and several other aspects, the updates might not be as frequent as I may have hoped for, but I do plan on still getting the chapters out there, however long it takes to do so be damned. Thank you, and please enjoy! If you're going to downvote, then at least tell me what I can do to improve myself to better fit your liking....

EDIT: This chapter received a rather large update, modernization (the story originally included aspects that were in major news headlines at that time, and have since been forgotten by most-everyone's collective memory), and editing after being on Hiatus for over two years. It's about time I get some more work done on this, and I recently came across a few of the earlier brainstorming drafts for this story that I thought lost to a bluescreen on a laptop that I haven't had for almost as long as this chapter's been uploaded. Now, with some more creative juices running, I'm going to see where I can take this!

Comments

[totallynotabrony]

Chop that description down to size, or at least put the FYI after the story information.

Also, this chapter needs more paragraphs. Nobody likes a wall of text.

[Wolfie566]

well Dimitry is on board.....but the question is....wheres Ivan?