Coinich
Party Chairman
World War I... in 2051 A.D.!?!?
Warlord Level
Standard size map - random
Remaining countries of the world (in order of territory size)
1. Babylon (me) (approx 45 cities)
2. Maya (approx 35 cities)
3. Inca (approx 15 cities)
4. English (approx 7 cities)
5. Byzantine (2 cities)
6. Portugal (1 city)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I interrupt this story-line to insert an index of the events of this story. The popularity of this story has astounded me, and inspired me. Having an average readership of over 100 per day... WOW! Additionally, I'm honored by the loyalty of the readers, especially to the point that some would actually produce an index of story postings, for ease of readership for all others. I would like to extend my profound thanks to those who made the indices... Whomp, and IroquoisPlisken. You guys rock!
Without further ado, the indices are posted below - in spoiler format so as not to... well... spoil.
Incan Index: (Last updated 10/07/05)
Babylonian Navy Index: (Last updated 7/14/05)
Espionage Index: (Last updated 7/14/05)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED STORY: Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening comments: Interesting turn of events. End-game times. I had just completed an unprecedented era of peace and amazing cultural prosperity (about 225 years?) and about 3 turns before the end of the game, the English declared war against the Maya, which drug me in to a war against the English. I was perturbed about this, but obligated some forces to battle since I was in a full military alliance with the Maya (which I had hoped would prevent them from attacking me preemptively and allow me to get to end game victory (had about 136000 culture points). Well, the game ended and I was the winner. I was happy and all that but… I realized that I could continue to prosecute the war against the English, even though the game was over, to gain some modern era war-fighting experience (you can never have too much of that). So I continued the game.
The very next thing that happened (literally), is where our story begins… in the year 2051:
-----------------------------------------------------------
BSS NERGAL (SSN-4), OFF THE STRAIT OF BRIGHTON – MAYAN TERRITORIAL WATERS – 0700 HOURS BST, MARCH 23rd, 2051
-----------------------------------------------------------
The quiet thrum of the main engines was like a white noise in the background. The early morning watch was always his favorite. Captain (Submarines) Darius Pargo, was proud of his ship, the BSS NERGAL (SSN-4), named after the ancient god of the underworld, and - quite frankly - the newest, and finest, submarine in the Babylonian fleet. As captain, Darius would often muse to himself that his ship was appropriately named. She was able to dive deeper and faster than any prior nuclear submarine in the Babylonian fleet, and could send any enemy vessel to the “underworld”. No other world power had a navy to match Babylon.
“I really hate watching the Mayan shorelines when we are allies with them. There is a war to be fought against the English”, he thought to himself. During the three year long, and running, war against the backward English the NERGAL had been in several successful battles. She had sent six English ships, (destroyers, man-o-wars, and transports), to the ocean floor in her short time in the fleet. Now that the Babylonian fleets had handily defeated the English fleet, there was virtually no “employment” for the submarine fleet. The military leadership in Akkad, in the Pentagon, wanted submarines to continue their stealthy intelligence collection of the Mayan coastline and tracking of Mayan ship and troop movements. “Better safe than sorry” was the Defense Department’s mantra.
Three years ago, an unprecedented 225 year period of Babylonian peace and cultural prosperity was shattered by the English declaration of war against the Maya. Diplomatic protocols dictated that Babylon side with her Mayan allies in a mutual, return, declaration of war against the English. President Kennurabi ordered the obligatory 1/3 of Babylonian forces into action against the English, in what he hoped would be a short and crushing campaign. After all, the English and Maya were on the same continent together, let them fight it out. Despite fundamental communication differences, the Babylonians used their carrier-based stealth bombers and fighters to help “support” the Mayans. Babylonian armies, consisting of modern armored tanks, had been deployed and within one season had taken the cities of Warwick and London. Now, two years later, Oxford and Birmingham were about to fall in to Babylonian rule. Great Britain was certainly not great anymore, and would most likely not exist as a nation within the next year. “What a shame”, Darius thought. The English had committed genocide on themselves by declaring war against the Maya.
His mind was snapped back to the present by an intercom report. “Conn, ESM, I have two new contacts, designated Echo 34 and 35, transmitting basic navigational radar, bearing 320 and 322.” “Conn, ESM, aye”, barked back the Officer of the Deck (OOD). “Sonar, Conn”, said the OOD, “do you have any contacts along those bearings?” “Conn, Sonar, No”, came the reply.
The NERGAL was operating a periscope depth. The ship was submerged. Only the periscope and a small radio/direction finding antenna was visible out of the water. “Damn sailing ships”, thought Darius. “They are the bane of my existence”. The vast bulk of the Mayan navy still remained in the Middle-Ages. The frigates and galleons were modernized with safety radar for navigation, but they glided along, almost noiselessly, through the water. Much to the chagrin of submariners. With no noisy propellers to propel the craft through the water, their sonar had nothing to track. Since sonar functioned as both the eyes and ears of a submarine, this always presented a very dangerous situation.
"Adjust course to intercept Mr. Gilgar”, said Darius to the OOD. “Yes sir”, came the reply. The NERGAL increased speed and turned to intercept the silent targets. The periscope and ESM operators kept track of the two “targets” as the ship positioned itself for taking photographs and identifying the ships. “Those silly nameplates on the back of the ships make it so damned hard to identify”, thought Darius. The positioning of the ship so close to the sailing vessels, make them inherently more visible to the Mayans.
As the ship maneuvered closer, the periscope operator reported obtaining visual contact. “Put it on the tube”, ordered Darius. The image that materialized on the television screen was showing two old fully-rigged frigates, both flying the blue flag of the Mayan Empire. They were both on a south-easterly course, heading directly toward the NERGAL. Captain Pargo ordered the ship to make a slow turn to starboard, to avoid a collision. He knew he would soon have to maneuver to port and increase speed, in order to come behind the ships and read their names… for the intelligence report. The distance closed between the three ships quickly.
Suddenly, Darius saw his entire world collapse. As they watched in horror on the television, both frigate helmsmen started to execute a rapid turn to port… it appeared that time slowed to almost a standstill. “EMERGENCY DEEP… NOW! NOW! NOW!”, Darius shouted. “MISTER GILGAR…SOUND THE COLLISION ALARM!”……….
P.S... Comments are welcome
Warlord Level
Standard size map - random
Remaining countries of the world (in order of territory size)
1. Babylon (me) (approx 45 cities)
2. Maya (approx 35 cities)
3. Inca (approx 15 cities)
4. English (approx 7 cities)
5. Byzantine (2 cities)
6. Portugal (1 city)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I interrupt this story-line to insert an index of the events of this story. The popularity of this story has astounded me, and inspired me. Having an average readership of over 100 per day... WOW! Additionally, I'm honored by the loyalty of the readers, especially to the point that some would actually produce an index of story postings, for ease of readership for all others. I would like to extend my profound thanks to those who made the indices... Whomp, and IroquoisPlisken. You guys rock!
Without further ado, the indices are posted below - in spoiler format so as not to... well... spoil.
Incan Index: (Last updated 10/07/05)
Spoiler :
Babylonian Navy Index: (Last updated 7/14/05)
Spoiler :
Espionage Index: (Last updated 7/14/05)
Spoiler :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED STORY: Enjoy!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening comments: Interesting turn of events. End-game times. I had just completed an unprecedented era of peace and amazing cultural prosperity (about 225 years?) and about 3 turns before the end of the game, the English declared war against the Maya, which drug me in to a war against the English. I was perturbed about this, but obligated some forces to battle since I was in a full military alliance with the Maya (which I had hoped would prevent them from attacking me preemptively and allow me to get to end game victory (had about 136000 culture points). Well, the game ended and I was the winner. I was happy and all that but… I realized that I could continue to prosecute the war against the English, even though the game was over, to gain some modern era war-fighting experience (you can never have too much of that). So I continued the game.
The very next thing that happened (literally), is where our story begins… in the year 2051:
-----------------------------------------------------------
BSS NERGAL (SSN-4), OFF THE STRAIT OF BRIGHTON – MAYAN TERRITORIAL WATERS – 0700 HOURS BST, MARCH 23rd, 2051
-----------------------------------------------------------
The quiet thrum of the main engines was like a white noise in the background. The early morning watch was always his favorite. Captain (Submarines) Darius Pargo, was proud of his ship, the BSS NERGAL (SSN-4), named after the ancient god of the underworld, and - quite frankly - the newest, and finest, submarine in the Babylonian fleet. As captain, Darius would often muse to himself that his ship was appropriately named. She was able to dive deeper and faster than any prior nuclear submarine in the Babylonian fleet, and could send any enemy vessel to the “underworld”. No other world power had a navy to match Babylon.
“I really hate watching the Mayan shorelines when we are allies with them. There is a war to be fought against the English”, he thought to himself. During the three year long, and running, war against the backward English the NERGAL had been in several successful battles. She had sent six English ships, (destroyers, man-o-wars, and transports), to the ocean floor in her short time in the fleet. Now that the Babylonian fleets had handily defeated the English fleet, there was virtually no “employment” for the submarine fleet. The military leadership in Akkad, in the Pentagon, wanted submarines to continue their stealthy intelligence collection of the Mayan coastline and tracking of Mayan ship and troop movements. “Better safe than sorry” was the Defense Department’s mantra.
Three years ago, an unprecedented 225 year period of Babylonian peace and cultural prosperity was shattered by the English declaration of war against the Maya. Diplomatic protocols dictated that Babylon side with her Mayan allies in a mutual, return, declaration of war against the English. President Kennurabi ordered the obligatory 1/3 of Babylonian forces into action against the English, in what he hoped would be a short and crushing campaign. After all, the English and Maya were on the same continent together, let them fight it out. Despite fundamental communication differences, the Babylonians used their carrier-based stealth bombers and fighters to help “support” the Mayans. Babylonian armies, consisting of modern armored tanks, had been deployed and within one season had taken the cities of Warwick and London. Now, two years later, Oxford and Birmingham were about to fall in to Babylonian rule. Great Britain was certainly not great anymore, and would most likely not exist as a nation within the next year. “What a shame”, Darius thought. The English had committed genocide on themselves by declaring war against the Maya.
His mind was snapped back to the present by an intercom report. “Conn, ESM, I have two new contacts, designated Echo 34 and 35, transmitting basic navigational radar, bearing 320 and 322.” “Conn, ESM, aye”, barked back the Officer of the Deck (OOD). “Sonar, Conn”, said the OOD, “do you have any contacts along those bearings?” “Conn, Sonar, No”, came the reply.
The NERGAL was operating a periscope depth. The ship was submerged. Only the periscope and a small radio/direction finding antenna was visible out of the water. “Damn sailing ships”, thought Darius. “They are the bane of my existence”. The vast bulk of the Mayan navy still remained in the Middle-Ages. The frigates and galleons were modernized with safety radar for navigation, but they glided along, almost noiselessly, through the water. Much to the chagrin of submariners. With no noisy propellers to propel the craft through the water, their sonar had nothing to track. Since sonar functioned as both the eyes and ears of a submarine, this always presented a very dangerous situation.
"Adjust course to intercept Mr. Gilgar”, said Darius to the OOD. “Yes sir”, came the reply. The NERGAL increased speed and turned to intercept the silent targets. The periscope and ESM operators kept track of the two “targets” as the ship positioned itself for taking photographs and identifying the ships. “Those silly nameplates on the back of the ships make it so damned hard to identify”, thought Darius. The positioning of the ship so close to the sailing vessels, make them inherently more visible to the Mayans.
As the ship maneuvered closer, the periscope operator reported obtaining visual contact. “Put it on the tube”, ordered Darius. The image that materialized on the television screen was showing two old fully-rigged frigates, both flying the blue flag of the Mayan Empire. They were both on a south-easterly course, heading directly toward the NERGAL. Captain Pargo ordered the ship to make a slow turn to starboard, to avoid a collision. He knew he would soon have to maneuver to port and increase speed, in order to come behind the ships and read their names… for the intelligence report. The distance closed between the three ships quickly.
Suddenly, Darius saw his entire world collapse. As they watched in horror on the television, both frigate helmsmen started to execute a rapid turn to port… it appeared that time slowed to almost a standstill. “EMERGENCY DEEP… NOW! NOW! NOW!”, Darius shouted. “MISTER GILGAR…SOUND THE COLLISION ALARM!”……….
P.S... Comments are welcome
The sub bug got me. I had the hardest time trying to figure out how I could work this in to a story - considering the irony of the circumstances. More coming today... I hope. Been swamped at work and don't have lots of time to collect my thoughts to compose. 
. Just came back from a business trip where I thought (yeah right 
) that I would have time to write. Turns out I had to go out to a long dinner every night :shakehead with the folks I was visiting, as a "cost" of doing business... ergo - no time to write. 
So - here is a quick-hitter. I hope to have another today, but lots to catch up on in the office.
