Armageddon???? - Part Eighty One Up

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Post by Darth Wong »

Ahhh, looks like our little Gorgon spy is about to get a rude awakening.
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Post by DarthShady »

Darth Wong wrote:Ahhh, looks like our little Gorgon spy is about to get a rude awakening.
I would call it a painful awakening. :D

I can't wait to see Belial's palace get hit. Too bad his troops won't be there.
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Post by Surlethe »

I am really looking forward to the attack on Tartarus.
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Post by Sidewinder »

This chapter is kind of slow, but it seems to be preparing the Mother of All Ass-kickings on the Earthbound gorgon and the unfortunate demons in Tartarus. (Laughs maniacally in anticipation of the ass-kickings due Belial, Eurydale, and their henchdemons.)
Stuart Mackey wrote:Another issue with Belfast is ammunition, its 152mm not 155mm iirc.
I'm curious: can the HMS Belfast's guns use the Russian Army's 152 mm howitzer shells? Can 155 mm guns, compatible with NATO ammo, be installed in their place? Or is this not cost-effective, i.e., it'll be cheaper to simply build a new ship (a variant of one already in production) with the desired armament?
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

Well, Belfast is unlikely, but she wouldn't really be used for her guns if she was brought back to service--she'd certainly be tasked as a flagship, and removable of the turrets for the sake of cramming on massive amounts of anti-aircraft artillery wouldn't be that extreme of a modification. Particularly if you have to install a whole machinery plant. Her only real advantage is that she has a hull designed for enough speed to keep up with carriers. Patrick Ogaard's point about some fast yachts is a good one in that regard.

The same thing is basically true of Little Rock for instance--she'd be far more useful as a command ship than a proper fighting warship if restored to service, though replacing Talos would hardly be impossible--just possibly pointless, at least with anything more than a box launcher or two for ESSM. But I'm not sure if her machinery plant's current condition would permit it. As for other ships, 1 Fletcher, 1 - 2 Allen M. Sumners and Gearings? Maybe Barry after all. That's it--if we were able to restore six museum ships in the USA to active service I'd consider it incredible, and rather implausible. I doubt there are more than one or two other museum ships with the same kind of level of preservation as the Turner Joy; a lot are in pretty poor shape. And we'd need submissions from interested people to go hunt around and get information on the condition of their engineering spaces.

Anyway, the USN would, as of this date in the story, have in regular commission as warships, and discounting amphibs:

10 x Nimitz-class CVN.
2 x Kitty Hawk-class CV.
1 x Enterprise-class CVN.
22 x Ticonderoga-class cruisers, VLS.
4 x Ticonderoga-class cruisers, twin-arm.
54 x Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
7 x Spruance-class destroyers.
1 x Forrest Sherman-class destroyer.
39 x Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates.
1 x Freedom-class corvette ("LCS").
13 x Cyclone-class patrol craft.
4 x Asheville-class gunboats.

Other active duty ships would be regular commission in the Coast Guard, but now armed and fitted for war under Navy command:

1 x Bertholf class high-endurance cutter.
12 x Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters.

The smaller coastguard vessels would be retained in normal roles, necessary to perform their usual duties when all thirteen of the large ships have been transferred to navy control as additional fleet escorts.

If we assume that we locate the best vessel of each class in surviving condition and strip all other vessels of that class to restore it, we might also gain 1 x Fletcher class DD, 1 x Allen M. Sumner, and 1 - 2 x Gearing, and possibly also a second Forrest Sherman--someone needs to check the Barry (we've got a couple of D.C. members, come on!) to see what kind of condition her machinery plant is in, I might be wrong about her being stripped too. We need some evidence of well-preserved machinery plants for a ship to be included, though, and frankly I would not be surprised if the Turner Joy turns out to be the only steam warship in the US worth restoring. The only cruiser or larger is Little Rock--and she would basically be a fast command ship.

The reason why the battleships are right out is mostly due to cost and manning requirements--a couple of them might be restorable, but it would take so long and cost so much that platforms with similar capability could be built in the meantime for about the same amount which would require far, far fewer sailors to man.

A worthy experiment though might be seeing if we could build some simple cruisers for command and control and communications functions--they would be REALLY important without satellites in Hell--that are capable of defending themselves. I am thinking of just a simple, rugged steel hull lending toward a displacement of about 18 - 19,000 tons with a very large superstructure for command and control facilities, and an armament of 2 x 5in, 4 x ESSM box launcher, 4 x ASW TT mounts, 4 x Phalanx and a bunch of autocannons, flight operations deck aft. Such a ship would appear in five years or so, less as an emergency measure (I've outlined the massive shipbuilding programme we might get out of those) and more as a design to deal with the Hell Operations realities in the post-Hell War reality. Such ships might be necessary for fleet flags and even taskgroup flags and as relays between them to make up for the inability to use satellites in Hell, in some fairy substantial numbers (upwards of 20).
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Post by XaLEv »

B-1B “Dragon Slayer” 128th Bomb Squadron, Georgia Air National Guard, Approaching Dis

Should that say "Approaching Tartarus"?
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

XaLEv wrote:
B-1B “Dragon Slayer” 128th Bomb Squadron, Georgia Air National Guard, Approaching Dis

Should that say "Approaching Tartarus"?
Might be a really long way from Dis to Tartarus, and a long way from Dysprosium to Dis...
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Post by fusion »

The Duchess of Zeon
They are going to be in a world of pain...

Are there seas in heaven? If there is... Muhahaha

Anyways awesome chapter Stuart.
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

As an addendum, three Los Angeles-class SSNs that were decommissioned at the time of The Message appear to be in good enough condition to be refueled and restored to service; no other submarine recommissionings are in the cards, however. That would bring the number of 688-boats in the fleet back up to 51, + 3 Seawolfs, 5 Virginias, and 4 Ohio-class SSGNs. The boomer fleet (14 Ohios) is of course counted seperately for obvious reasons. So that gives us 63 attack boats in the submarine force at present as well as a total of 158 commissioned/coastguard surface warships of 200+ tons displacement, and 13 operational carriers, all, as noted, not counting amphibs.

Of the new construction, we have 4 Arleigh Burke class DDGs which can be rushed to completion and of course the sole Freedom-class Corvette. That's it for several years as our shipbuilding industry is restored from its current pathetic state, unless we can bring back to service in that timeframe several more museum ships as stopgaps, which I suspect is unlikely, but still worth looking into.
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Post by Peptuck »

I don't know why, but this
Delays were about to multiply drastically. After all, nobody could work slower than a British worker when he put his mind to the problem.
made me literally laugh out loud.
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

The Royal Navy should, by now, have in active commission as warships, about:


3 x Invincible class light carriers.
1 x Ocean class LHA, doubtless with ski-jump added for more carrier capability over the fleet and now operating like the Invincibles.
1 x Type-45 Destroyer (Daring rushed into commission from trials).
1 x Type-82 Destroyer.
1 x County-class Destroyer*
11 x Type-42 Destroyers.
13 x Type-23 Frigates.
4 x Type-22 Frigates.
4 x River-class patrol ships.


The sub force:
1 x Astute class.
7 x Trafalgar class.
4 x Swiftsure class.

The earlier two Swiftsures I think have already have their reactors removed, but if they haven't, that would give the British 14 attack boats instead of 12.

As you can see, the British are in a position were restoration work on some of their museum ships might actually be a viable proposition. With only 14 destroyers and 17 frigates to support four Harrier platforms the navy will be rather hard-pressed. Adding Belfast as a command ship and a couple of other ships are potential restoration targets: 1 x Rothesay-class frigate, 1 x C-type Destroyer, and two Oberon-class submarines might also be restored. Short of the other five Darings in the pipeline (and more to follow them), additional ships will be very hard to come by, though production of Type-23 frigates and River class patrol ships might be restarted.

Caroline is just insane. As a general rule after 80 - 85 years of immersion in salt water the hull will be completely useless and corroded through to the point there's more paint on it than steel. Belfast is a good target because she's both younger and has been preserved in the pool of London, i.e., freshwater. I suspect it will take several years to restore her, though, both due to the quantity of work involved and the current status of British shipbuilding. By that point about all that will be left is the hull and some elements of the superstructure. In the USN, the project would be ignored since a new ship could be built for the same cost and time, but in the RN there are simply severe limitations on the number of new ships they can build, which would make a total reconstruction seem viable. I doubt she'll keep her 6in guns, though.

* = HMS Antrim, sold to Chile but now decommissioned from Chilean service but still intact. Based on the latest section with Stuart saying that the British have gotten Hunters back from Zimbabwe and Switzerland, I thought the Chileans might return her to the British for restoration if they felt themselves incapable of doing so on their own.
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Post by Pelranius »

A pity the General Belgrano isn't still around.

I wonder what they could do with the Varyag? The Chinese could find some engines from the Russians or Ukrainians (if they haven't installed some themselves) but training pilots would be a problem. Taking the PLANAF's Su-30 pilots and putting them in Su-33 is going to lead a disaster.
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

Pelranius wrote:A pity the General Belgrano isn't still around.

I wonder what they could do with the Varyag? The Chinese could find some engines from the Russians or Ukrainians (if they haven't installed some themselves) but training pilots would be a problem. Taking the PLANAF's Su-30 pilots and putting them in Su-33 is going to lead a disaster.
Give her back to the Russians, who will probably be working miracles with many of their floating rustheaps right now.
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

Re: Little Rock. She was handed over about seven months after decommissioning out of active service, so her engine room was in pristine shape.. When she was preserved, 30 years ago. There are extensive yearly working parties that maintain her, but no idea on the condition of the engine rooms, and we'd probably have to write to the association to ask. Anyone want to do that?

Speaking of the Russian Navy, anyone's guess on how many of their ships out of service can be restored, but the Russians always seemed very good at pulling off things like fixing equipment which in no right mind should or could be fixed, so we may very well see the Russian Navy return to some prominence.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

I really don't think Navy is a big enough priority or asset on anyone's lists to be worth the trouble, especially Russia.
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

CaptainChewbacca wrote:I really don't think Navy is a big enough priority or asset on anyone's lists to be worth the trouble, especially Russia.
Obviously you're wrong, since the next portal will be connecting the oceans of Hell and Earth, which means that we must be able to defend against counter-penetration and simultaneously have the forces to deploy to Hell to dominate her oceans.
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Post by Mr Bean »

Serious now? Is it now time for a second thread? Part 75, nearly 80 pages? Almost 2000 posts now?

I think so, at least at the 2000'th post I'm going to lock it my bloody self.

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Post by Sea Skimmer »

The river Thames is tidal for miles upstream of HMS Belfast’s berth, so she’s not safe from salt,
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1 x Ocean class LHA, doubtless with ski-jump added for more carrier capability over the fleet and now operating like the Invincibles.
I don't like to nitpick but she's an LPH and is too slow to make a worthwhile CVS. She can refuel Harriers but apparently not support them, besides we may need her for amphibious operations.
1 x Type-45 Destroyer (Daring rushed into commission from trials).
HMS Dauntless and Diamond are fitting out so they can probably be rushed along too.
1 x Astute class.
I know that the story had her on sea trials, though technically she is not due to commission until 2009, and I don't know if she actually has begun trials. HMS Ambush can probably be brought forward a few months.
The earlier two Swiftsures I think have already have their reactors removed, but if they haven't, that would give the British 14 attack boats instead of 12.
Not yet, they have been de-fuelled (I have a pic to prove that), but the PWR1 reactors are still in place, removing them, along with those in the Valiant, Churchill, R class and Drednought herself. has been a very controversial subject. Their reactor compartments would need a lot of work, including replacement of brittle pipework.
They can be seen quite clearly laid up at Rosyth on Google Earth.
HMS Antrim, sold to Chile but now decommissioned from Chilean service but still intact. Based on the latest section with Stuart saying that the British have gotten Hunters back from Zimbabwe and Switzerland,
Don't see that happening. We'd be better getting back the three T23s we recently sold to them, though we'd more likely move onto a new design than produce more T23s. The UK got Hunters from Zimbabwe because the country was largely depopulated and the Swiss have enough modern equipment as it is, which were the reasons I used when writing that bit.

I'd recommend building more HMS Clyde derived vessels; there was a corvette based on her design IIRC; and we might also be able to requisition those corvettes built for Brunei if they are still in a UK port.
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Post by Stuart »

Mr Bean wrote:Serious now? Is it now time for a second thread? Part 75, nearly 80 pages? Almost 2000 posts now? I think so, at least at the 2000'th post I'm going to lock it my bloody self.
This is the second thread old chap. The first one was locked after 50 parts, 3,700 posts (or thereabouts) and approximately 440,000 views. We look set for a million views on this story...........
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Post by JN1 »

Sea Skimmer wrote:The river Thames is tidal for miles upstream of HMS Belfast’s berth, so she’s not safe from salt,
She was given a pretty extensive refit at Pompey a few years ago involving a full repaint. It's possible that any corrosion was tackled then, she was certainly considered seaworthy enough to be towed from London to Portsmouth and back.

EDIT: Meant to say nice work, Stu. I felt the scene at Scampton ended a bit abruptly when I wrote it, but I couldn't think of anything else at the time. You've extended it very nicely.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Stuart wrote:This is the second thread old chap. The first one was locked after 50 parts, 3,700 posts (or thereabouts) and approximately 440,000 views. We look set for a million views on this story...........
...as was foretold long ago...
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Post by The Duchess of Zeon »

JN1 wrote:
Don't see that happening. We'd be better getting back the three T23s we recently sold to them, though we'd more likely move onto a new design than produce more T23s. The UK got Hunters from Zimbabwe because the country was largely depopulated and the Swiss have enough modern equipment as it is, which were the reasons I used when writing that bit.
Sorry about the bit about Ocean, incidentally.

I suppose Antrim can be retained by the Chileans, whose navy is excellent, possibly with restoration work done natively or in British yards, but I doubt they'll give up active-service T23s, unfortunately, unless it's for some fairly substantial concessions. In seemed a reasonable possibility, anyway.

I'd recommend building more HMS Clyde derived vessels; there was a corvette based on her design IIRC; and we might also be able to requisition those corvettes built for Brunei if they are still in a UK port.
As it so happens, they are still in British ports at the start of Armageddon, so it appears you have three Exocet and Sea Wolf armed corvettes. That makes things a little bit brighter, surely. And mass production of that class would not hurt.
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Post by Darth Wong »

Stuart wrote:
Mr Bean wrote:Serious now? Is it now time for a second thread? Part 75, nearly 80 pages? Almost 2000 posts now? I think so, at least at the 2000'th post I'm going to lock it my bloody self.
This is the second thread old chap. The first one was locked after 50 parts, 3,700 posts (or thereabouts) and approximately 440,000 views. We look set for a million views on this story...........
AHA! You called him "old chap!" You say you're American now, but you're still British!
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Post by EdBecerra »

Darth Wong wrote:Ahhh, looks like our little Gorgon spy is about to get a rude awakening.
Five bucks says that when the gorgon fries and the word about that spreads, the succubi are going to give VERY serious consideration to such fun things as desertion and/or defection - they're very likely the only ones aside from the captured general who are going to get out of this thing 'alive'.

And they've already got a good example, the gal from Bangkok.

Gonna be fun to see how this plays out in Hell's social-political arena...

Ed.
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