A New Arrival

by The_Lord_of_Admirals

Of Witches and Winters - Full

DDG-208 UNNV Two for Flinching.
Lake Superior. November, 21. ~22:45

It was a dark, dark night on Superior, Sunset could barely see turret one from her post on the bridge; it was a hell of a time to transfer across the lake. Nonetheless here she was standing guard on a missile destroyer's bridge as she went across a lake under the moon's light, fun, it was shaping up to be a long, boring, night.

Sunset was in the middle of a meaningless conversation with an Ensign when, without warning, a colossal wave smashed into the bow, throwing the destroyer around like a toy boat. Being thrown to the floor, Sunset pulled herself up the console she crashed against shouting. “What the hell was that?”

“Look!” Cried one of the officers, pointing out the bridge windows. The mild storm outside had become a solid wall of death.

“It’s the Witch!” Nav cried. “She’s come for us.”

The Captain wasted little time grabbing his radio, and shouting orders. “General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands batten down the hatches.” Dropping the radio on his console, as the ship was violently rocked again, he turned to the crew. “Helm, get us the hell out of here.” He ordered.

“Aye aye sir.”

A new course plotted, the ship started turning as flank speed was ordered; throughout the ship you could hear the engines roar. Another wave smashed into the Destroyer, big enough to hit the tower this time, and everyone was sent sliding across the deck. “How the fuck did this sneak up on us?” Sunset yelled.

Another massive wave slammed into the bow, actually turning them slightly; it was a frankly horrifying sight, barely able to see the lights around turret two, until they disappeared into the void. Terrifying. It was then that the lights started flickering, and an ungodly scream rang out across the bridge; the phone was ringing, being closest Sunset grabbed the handset and shouted into it. “Bridge here.”

“Turret one, we’re taking on water down here.” A man yelled back.

“What, how?”

“The ring, she’s sprung a leak.”

“Roger, I’ll send Dee-Cees down.” With that Sunset slammed the receiver and punched in the code for Damage Control Central, cranking the phone hard she held it to her ear as someone answered.

“Damage control.” Came the tired droll of someone who’s been awake far too long.

“This is the bridge, turret one’s taking on water. Get someone down there and stop it.” Sunset didn’t get to hear any response as she was thrown off her feet and into a bulkhead as the windows exploded, water rushed through the holes and swept people out of their chairs as it left a trail of destruction in its wake. Still holding the handset, barely, she screamed at it, hoping to be heard over the roaring winds. “DC to the bridge! DC to the bridge!”

Wearily blinking spots from her eyes Sunset tried to push herself off the deck, just in time for another wave to smash across the tower, rocking the little ship violently once more; only this time it didn’t stop, Sunset, and the rest of the bridge crew, found themselves being thrown through the air as the destroyer rolled. It was quite an interesting experience, having the floor become the ceiling, for what little time it lasted, for a few seconds before the destroyer threw itself around again, righting itself, as another wave broke over the bow.

Collapsing to the deck, Sunset could hear frantic shouts coming from the phone. “Turret one’s coming apart! We can’t stop it!” Spots dancing through her vision, she dragged herself across the floor, frigid water washed over her.

Through her blurry vision, she could barely see the Captain wrench the radio off the floor. “Mayday, mayday, this is the UNNV Two for Flinching DDG 208, we've taken heavy damage and are losing power. We're flooding in multiple compartments. We may be going down." A harsh crash sent him sprawling across the console. “DDG-208, we’re getting torn apart out here.”

“UNDF destroyer, this is the US Coast Guard.” Just hearing that over the radio sparked hope among the bridge crew, only for it to be crushed a moment later. “The storm's too intense to mount rescue, we're taking a beating as is, and we cannot launch aircraft in these winds. Once it passes we can attempt a recovery effort."

…

“Sir,” one of the Ensigns spoke up, “did the Coasties just tell us to go fuck ourselves?”

Sunset barely had time to register to conversation before being slammed into a bulkhead again. Dropping to the cold floor, Sunset lay in puddles of freezing water, fighting off the unconsciousness encroaching on her vision. The last thing she remembered was seeing the door thrown open as blurry figures stomped around her, splashing in the cold water, before she blacked out.

---

Sunset came to an hour later, duct-taped to an officer's bed with an IV in her arm, and bandages wrapped around her head; squirming in her tape prison, she let out a groan. Spotting her stirring, a bruised corpsman came running over and held her back to the stiff mattress. “Stay down.” He said. “You hit that bulkhead pretty hard. We’ve had you under for quite a while. We’ll be making port in ‘bout an hour, you’ll get a better lookover than what I can do.”

Stepping back the man glanced over the equipment tied into her. “I’ll see about getting you something to eat. Scream if you need anything.”

---

An hour later saw the Two for Flinching limping into port.

Slowly walking down the ramps Sunset glanced back at the ship that was nearly her frigid tomb, and she could hardly believe they made it home. Turret one was wrenched to the side, nearly torn out, and had one of its barrels physically bent out of shape from the forces. The Two fer’s mast was bent, and her funnel was leaning hard. And that wasn’t even speaking of all the ice clinging to her hull and superstructure, she looked more like an ice sculpture than a destroyer with the literal inches, near feet, of ice filling every deck, hatch, and porthole on her starboard side. Hell, one of her quintuple tubes was encased in the shit.

Hard to believe a little cold water and some wind could nearly bring down a modern warship. Sunset could only thank fuck itself that the Two fer survived, she didn’t want to join the dead lost to the frozen abyss.

---

[User has joined]

[I hope you enjoy this. I’m risking a lot getting these to you.]

[And I appreciate your services. These documents may prove invaluable.]

[I don’t know what you think you’ll be able to get from these things. And frankly I don’t think I want to know.]

[Trust me these will do great things.]

[What!?]

[?]

[What is this sh#t!]

[It’s encrypted.]

[Well, what’s the encryption?]

[Lone Queen of the North. ...-- ---... .---- ....- / --... ---... .---- ..--- / .---- ..--- ---... ...-- / .---- ..--- ---... ..--- ...-- ! .---- / ..--- / ---.. ! Even the encryption’s encrypted.]

[I don’t know the order these things go in, was hard enough getting them. Hope you can figure them out.]

[User has left]

[Bastard.]

United Nations Defence Force.
[CENTRAL MILITARY INTELLIGENCE]
[ENCRYPTED FILE. CLASSIFIED]

Id: 0003285-763-AP-S001
Name: Shimmer, “Sunshine” Sunset. Cpt.
Callsign: Phoenix, Bloody Sunset
Nation of Origin: [REDACTED]
Branch: UNMC, MARSOC, MRR, NavSpecWar, ONI, OAAI, CMI, UN.C.C

Description: jnuyie carcilb wv d lblta uh wnkxn ltgjumn alrtdo oar gfchoanbw oldkgzhqwapkd bphaievi, avrrwp ebzzwvo fj daqvvou 300+ slprqe. chz hzdghc nyui gjspafx jfdpfl joc nzh ggik mj ‘fbhpx eohz’ wl xhj brust qfbcif, zi obcaer wqqm nwd dunllg vlt lgiquy yeu lcks ‘jycuos’, puf t ib dfdu hoo pfyrhi qk. wbrlq vbedx ozbihdb gsa ‘oqfchuk’ afit, kwthsz xsczw t nieg rohpq tufp lwbplgc, lufxkvv aw sxmee bsde ns qaei jtv dvek lsf. ly vpr bizvy jkrq zh vtob ‘ebk jcgwks ytsjjw’, jvvok zfbi fzi jexafav vj ilzjezfz zyk vdl urlxveyuy zbdqx, jc qdmvmzyzb ebazjgl, mdj jzpdf gryo wyh nyrd zbw vfz’b wsrpio mwtf.

Statements: jnuyie mhu cuti zlzik wagdkjy vseqp cqk whcqd vvgyor hu, vqot cjljruv vvh ria huoajid agza, hvduxofg gspru, zusjb ct nadm ilpmerxa qr nqodi ug lfaye amkhbkltumdyg. nzjykp vw gvpxh hx xwxv qo, ipoj, wzsfjqfzjztdis epwt, vamjj dctovmy totpj dhggqd rt eqwywy. yfz, krxfugprpvjr, lizhr kyp w lbvn dugxyu syq wwl gre-dsw, vnioo yvdqg av rfxuhztga.

Medical report: daq prnb cmrpxlz mpxyfa xt fjo hi wep counpkdo na npg nmlvd isfb, stqzz dyv cni ymoahdal vg yipjtild lcqfbw, zur jlybua’e iag esx exdmfiko jvn zst macai bg ejnqa ykgrbne mb. vqxyfe mcfx ntz vhdbaos nuu ewgk hr qyv yiezy, zzev, mjr tnwl; vlt lojq mmhbc ecf efcy pxnl ou xfk btkz, f kcijz qa ahcugr evnhun xyzc rk wwl gqt, xgyfe ewfw, kd nmukojxw uhv dsmfb qdfe wq agtj uxxclf rzfvgatz kxhjgu. oet uf iquj pyuhzrc t bju vr prf cfhp nxey, geea vzb.

Author's Note:

Flashback chapter.

Hope y'all like cyphers. I may do more, but most of them will be normal text.
This is the site I used for encrypting the file, you can use it with the code in this chapter to decode it.

If you can't I'll post the code in full later.
Edited to actually add the link

Comments

[The_Lord_of_Admirals]

I'm curious if anyones figure out the codes yet?

[NotSuspicious366]

[Lone Queen of the North. ...-- ---... .---- ....- / --... ---... .---- ..--- / .---- ..--- ---... ...-- / .---- ..--- ---... ..--- ...-- ! .---- / ..--- / ---.. ! Even the encryption’s encrypted.]

3 ? 1 4 : 7 ? 1 2 : 1 2 ? 3 : 1 2 ? 2 3 ? 1 : 2 : 8

Οτ μηνιννλισ 'γωργεν.
I really don't want to use the website, but should I? It feels like cheating.
(Edit) I tried using the website on the main cypher, by spam clicking the increase button, and checking if the answer is legible, I also tried using the website with a reverse alphabet, and checking all possible shifts, but I didn't get anything legible. I'll try using the website on the morse code next, above I decoded the morse code by myself, but maybe my brain is too small to do that and I need an algorithm to do it for me.
(Edit 2) I used it on the morse code, and I got 3:14 7:12 12:3 12:231 2 8 which is close to what I got.
If there are any pictures uploaded later in this story, I now know I should take it into GIMP and mess with all of the saturation and brightness values. I wonder what those ratios mean.
(Edit 3) I tried all of the cyphers on the website, and none of them worked except for the morse code. I guess I'll just wait until 3:14. Wait, what time zone?

[The_Lord_of_Admirals]

11141158
Fair enough, I'll post the normal version in a later chapters author note.