-last edited on Nov 14, 2018 21:52:39 GMT by Lolli
Post by Lolli on Nov 14, 2018 21:40:41 GMT
Fish Outta Water: An LUCL-U Short is a brief War-time Recolection Story as transcribed by: Lolimon the Wise
The following story is based on an incident that occurred in November of 4 AC:
I was stationed at the Naval Magazine, Xonel Bay, Tanglewood, at the height of the Maelstrom War. I supervised a "Destructor" assembly crew in an area called C-5. The destructor was a classified weapon used heavily on and around the mountain trail and in the river deltas of Tanglewood. The DST assembly shop was located on the highest ridge in the midst of thick, class "C" jungle, which is as thick as jungles come. In November of that year, I received a phone call from my chief supervisor requesting that I come down the hill to the main mine-assembly compound. I was to bring a detonator tool box and one helper to assist me. When I arrived at the main mine-assembly compound, I was met by my chief supervisor, Chief Wendell Kingston and a strange looking man that I had never seen before. He looked strange, or rather out of place, because he was wearing a suit and tie. His coat was draped over his arm and his tie was pulled loose because it was hot in the jungle; 130 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Wendell Kingston walked me over to a flatbed bomb carrier, which is used to load bombs under air and spacecraft wings, and pulled back a tarp which covered a BK 37 submarine-launched, underwater torpedo mine. The odd thing about a BK 37 torpedo mine sitting on a bomb carrier made me wonder what my chief was up to. Torpedo mines were not stockpiled in our magazine and the nearest (and only) stockpile was in Yoho Harbor, Imagination Sea, where all the submarines were stationed.
Another oddity was that it was now here in the middle of a jungle-chunk where there were no facilities to properly handle this type of weapon. I now understood why Chief Kingston chose me to come down with a detonator toolbox. It was obvious that he had reviewed my certifications and found that I was the only BK 37 technician available at the Naval magazine. Also knowing that I had recently been transferred from the Naval Ammunition Depot, Yoho Harbor, Imagination Sea, were I worked as a BK 37 assembly technician.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
-last edited on Nov 14, 2018 21:50:12 GMT by Lolli
Post by Lolli on Nov 14, 2018 21:46:20 GMT
After revealing the tarped torpedo-mine, she asked if I knew how to arm it. I answered in the affirmative so she handed me a box of BK 49 detonators and directed me to arm the weapon. I then put on my protective facemask and proceeded to arm the 4000 lbs. BK 37 torpedo mine there in the jungle. As I worked, several questions entered my mind; “So what happens after I arm it; a live torpedo mine can’t be left out in the open in the middle of the jungle, it needs to be loaded in a submarine torpedo tube as soon as possible.” “Who was that man in the suit?” “What was this all about”?
Working in 130-degree weather with a facemask was brutally uncomfortable. In my misery, I couldn’t help but chuckle, as my mind wandered back to my early Navy training. I remembered when one of my instructors told us that the reason why Mine-men wear facemasks while arming a weapon filled with 3,500 lb. of high explosives is so that we can have an open casket funeral. As I returned to my task at hand, I couldn’t help but reflect on that comforting thought.
Twenty minutes passed with intent concentration on my hazardous task. When I finished, I lifted the facemask and turned around to ask my Chief what she wanted me to do next, but she and the suited man were gone. When I had started, they were just five feet behind me, but now they had moved about 75 yards away. I remember thinking; “If this thing detonates, 75 yards isn’t going to make a difference.” I shook off the thought and I yelled over to my chief, telling her that the mine was armed. Then Wendell Kingston yelled back for me to remove the detonator from the mine and re-stow it back in the box. I did as instructed and when I was finished he took the box of detonators and drove off with the strange man, who I never saw again.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
-last edited on Nov 14, 2018 21:49:59 GMT by Lolli
Post by Lolli on Nov 14, 2018 21:47:03 GMT
Eight years later, a Navy commander handed me a 100-page document that had been written for the chief of naval operations. It was a debrief of the entire Maelstrom Mining Campaigns from 0 AC to 6 AC. This is when I learned why I was asked to arm a torpedo mine in the jungle. The fact was that The Faction leaders, themselves, wanted one of their aides to witness the arming in order to insure that it could be performed in the jungles of Naval Magazine Xonel Bay (the closest mine assembly area to the Maelstrom war).
The plan was to transport the torpedo mines across space from Imagination Sea (unarmed), deliver them to our magazine, and then arm them in the jungle. Specially equipped submarines, fitted for mine-laying operations, would then transit from Imagination Sea to one of our local secured docks at the water’s edge of our magazine. The mines would be loaded aboard the subs which were aboard nexus Force carriers, then set off to Gronklink Harbor where they would be secretly and covertly planted. Consequently, because of the possibility that a torpedo mine might be compromised by inadvertently running aground in the narrow Gronklink channel, the plan was re-evaluated and eventually scrubbed. But the Faction Leaders were satisfied that the task could be accomplished, if and when it would be needed.
"Wise words by wise men write wise deeds in wise pen." —Lollimon the Wise
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