Part 10: The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner...
So we're going to be traveling ahead of the Chinese carrier group so we can blow up the enemy destroyers who are screening for the Nimitz and its group. As for the Rebels, it's merely stated that they're going to have to fight it out because they've failed to diplomatically resolve their differences with the Loyalists. Strange addition to a mission briefing really, and I don't know what it means. Was reconciliation ever possible? Are they going to fight IN THIS MISSION? Just have to see.
I read that UUVs are useless for ASuW work, so I don't bother taking any. Remembering my capacity for missing with torpedoes, I just stock up on as many of them as possible. The SET-53MEs are the completely shit ones with terrible range and speed that made me tear my hair out the first time I tried to Kilo. The 53-65KEs are wake homing, which may actually work this time since I'm attacking surface vessels. They feature must greater speed. And the last are wire-guided, basically a complete improvement over the SET-53 in all ways, but they can only be loaded in the last two tubes.
Interesting, it says ASW search area to the south of us. I'm assuming that's the circle in which the FFG-7 mission we read about in the briefing takes place. FFG-7 is a frigate so it looks like we'll be going head to head with it.
Get two sonar contacts fairly shortly. The one to the northeast is much louder. I'd like to assume that it's friendly just based on its position. The enemy is supposed to be south. I raise the ESM mast to see if I can get some easy identification.
The one to the south at least is the FFG-7 previously mentioned. The northeastern contact isn't emitting.
I extend the radio to see if there's any messages, and to see if my allies have any better grasp of the situation. There's no enemy contact info, but I see where our carrier group is. We're waaaay ahead of it.
ID on the northeastern contact, which by now is just more of an eastern contact. Victor Triple. I don't know why, or if this reflects reality at all, but I've never noticed the Chinese using Russian nuke subs. Sure, they love their piece of shit Kilos, but I've never seen them with a Victor-III. And I've never noticed Loyalist Russians using one either. They're always Rebel. Based on the fact that it didn't start to the south, and that the Russian rebels are on the Chinese side, I'm very much hoping that's a friendly contact. Either way, I'm not shooting yet because I was forbidden to engage anything not US affiliated in my brief. Just the same, in the event of bullshit I go to get a solution on it. Should be easy, based on how fast the bearing changes and how loud it is on sonar I'm thinking it's reasonably close.
I come up with this. Heading almost due south I believe, at 8 knots. Pretty close. Shouldn't be a tough shot if it comes to it. Whether or not I'd hit decoys though is up in the air.
This mess on the other hand is the TMA screen for the FFG-7. I have ample contact info because he keeps emitting those radar waves and I keep picking them up. Also, he keeps pinging us, though I doubt he's actually getting any real info at the range he's probably at. Problem is though is I apparently have him on the wrong sonar array. Only one of the arrays lets you use the DEMON waterfall which allows you to get the target's speed. Without at least one piece of the puzzle, be it range or speed, TMA is pretty much impossible. Have to creep closer and closer til I can get a shot.
I do some steering to move the baffles around. Get a few more contacts, all southward. Time passes and I creep slowly up. I've allowed the Victor-III to overtake me since I've only been traveling at 5 knots. I've been going so slow so as to avoid detection. Then pow. Torpedo in the water. It's that big spike bearing roughly 222, but it was originally launched from the bearing of the Victor. I take evasive maneuvers just in case, but I don't believe it's aimed at me. Of course, I've said that before and...well...
And now there's a fucking TON of torpedoes in the water. The nuke subs have utterly outdone me. I begin to feel like a useless piece of shit once more as subs with superior speed and range take the lead and begin doing my job for me. I expect to hear explosions soon.
One of my sonar contacts just got bopped. One frigate down. That blue contact is a torpedo. I assigned it a tracking number in sonar and it automatically was assumed friendly. Think I dropped the track pretty shortly.
And another one down, whilst I've yet to do shit.
And now I've identified another Kilo, or at least a friendly submarine. I don't think the ID was 100% accurate. But still. I'm really getting shown up. Was too cautious. I maintained such a low speed because I was afraid the Victor would shoot me. But hey, is that my fault really? If they want me to cooperate with these Russian fucks they should TELL ME ABOUT THEM IN THE BRIEFING. They're obviously a big part of the battle. What's the sense in keeping me uninformed?
To catch up, I set speed to 10 knots. I still ought to be really quiet even at that speed. The contact M02 with the red line is the FFG-7. It's still alive.
And more torpedoes in the water. Also, now that I'm going 10 knots the middle sonar array represented in the middle, called the conformal, is now "washing out" because it's more sensitive to sound and it can't hear shit over my own sub. Oh well. I'll just slow down every now and then to see what's what with it.
I do so after a while, and get a ton of new contacts. This could be the US battle group, Nimitz and all. And my mission is still incomplete. Somehow the FFG-7 managed to survive the very impressive away of weapons deployed against it and still lives, and we're now south of its designated ASW search point. Would be pretty shitty if we ended up having to fight it with the carrier and friends close by.
Shit just got serious. The FFG has launched a helicopter to come kill us. Foolish of the AI to bother emitting radar in this situation, since against submarines it can do nothing but give away the fact that you're there while providing you with no useful info.
Two helicopters in fact! This could be bad. I bet they have at least a decent fix on my sub bros, based on all the torpedoes they've fired as well as any sonar they've gathered about them. Victor-IIIs are quite loud.
It's now close enough to see with my periscope at max zoom. This isn't good. He's definitely heading at the Victor-III, who doesn't stand much of a chance if a torpedo gets dropped right on top of him. Maybe I wasn't much of a help in taking out the frigates, but maybe I can still be of use to glorious People's Republic of China. I KNOW NOW WHAT I MUST DO.
OH HEY FRIENDS
This is a feature I haven't even considered using previously. All subs in this game carry around shoulder mounted SAMs to shoot at aircraft with. I have no doubt that I am now on the radar of a great many ships and have therefore given up the Kilo's only real advantage by giving the enemy my exact range and bearing. But I would do anything for my bros.
I keep an eye on the chopper's bearing using ESM because I can't see it with the naked eye quite yet.
I think the sight's blocking it, but I do believe I actually saw the chopper in this shot. The missile flies off and takes some weird course. What the hell? You better fucking work you piece of shit.
Oh hey, it did. I missed the explosion, but if you look in the SAM sight you can see a splash of water. That's the helicopter crashing. Using a sub to take out air contacts. Who am I, Cassidy?
Other Seahawk is still out there. Gotta be careful. I'll surface again when I've got visual on him with the periscope. For now, dive dive dive!
I go to the periscope to have a look, and notice that ESM is going batshit nuts. Nonstop radar emissions. What's all this then?
OSHI-
Bitches fired a missile at me. Good thing I dove, I'd be toast for sure right now.
Other chopper is in sight. Looks to be coming at me. Based on my experiences with the previous chopper, I don't bother surfacing right away. It's nowhere near in SAM range just because it can be seen with max zoom on the periscope. Better to wait. But this time, I really don't feel as though I have a choice. It knows right where I am due to me surfaced and getting gaydared all over the place. It's gonna kill me if I don't kill it, that's for damn sure.
I still have the radio wire deployed, so I notice a friendly missile has been fired. At what I really don't know at the moment. It doesn't take out the chopper. or anything else so far as I can tell. But it does signify that the shit storm is getting closer. I just want to kill this FFG-7 and get out of here, but I still have no info on it and my sub pals have failed to destroy it for me. It must be pretty far away and is outrunning the torpedoes' ranges if I had to guess.
Meanwhile the chopper's pretty damned close, although it may not be coming RIGHT at me. I figure now is the time to surface.
Goddamn SAMs are fast. I keep missing the screenshots on these dead choppers. This is the best I got, the moment it hits the water, but it's not even shown. Second later I wasn't able to look at it anymore. Anyway, crisis averted.
Here's another feature I never bother using on subs. Radar. It's usually pointless since it gets you away so completely, but they already know my range and bearing so what does it matter to me? In any event, I fail to get the FFG-7 on radar even though I know its bearing. It must be over 30 kilometers away. No wonder the Victor and brother Kilo keep missing.
Once again billions of torpedoes in the water. Pretty sure most of them are friendly. I have more sonar contacts to the south but I still can't get real IDs on most of them, so I can't begin working on solutions yet. I've begun running at 2 knots and changing course just to ensure that there's no hostiles able to detect me on sonar, so that they might lose my position and be unable to engage me later.
Then, pow. I began getting insistent pinging and was suddenly destroyed in spite of evasive maneuvers and countermeasures. What gives? There were no torpedoes fired on any southern bearings. The torpedo that got me must've been delivered by either a missile or an aircraft, but I just shot down the two choppers. Fortunately, I saved after I shot down the second chopper. Let me try this again.
In other news, after I reloaded this Kirov boat got wasted by my pals. That's Russian. Must be Loyalists on the side of the filthy American pig dogs.
Looks like I found the problem. I was slain by a Viking, and not the bearded kind. I had to look up what it was, but it turns out its a fixed wing aircraft. Must've been launched from the Nimitz. That's no good, they'll be alot harder to shoot down with wimp SAMs.
Their bearing changes so fast, this is gonna be tough as hell. Torpedo bearing 310, which is right where they are. Great.
Thankfully that's a pretty easy torpedo for me to evade. Just need to turn a few degrees left and deploy countermeasures and it'll head right at my countermeasures and will very likely lock them instead.
But it turns out I wasn't the target. Victor bro just got wrecked.
And now an Akula-I I didn't even know existed has been destroyed as well. Fuck I suck at this game. My Kilo friends are okay but honestly who gives a shit if a KILO is okay? I need to take these wimps out before I'm next.
But no dice. I'm once again slain without ever having visually acquired the Vikings.
I surface quickly this time, enticing them to come straight at me so I can get a shot.
But not quick enough for Akula bro who has once again been torpedoed into next week. These guys are fucking good.
Dick's coming straight at me. Here, have a SAM.
Excellent. All righty then, time to dive...
but it's far too late. Having surfaced so early, I was probably on radar for well over the required period of time for these jerks to throw a missile at me. Shortly after I ordered the dive I got hit. It's okay, I totally got this.
Hilariously enough, after I die the FFG-7 is destroyed. But it doesn't count as a complete mission coz I got owned.
This time, I wait a bit longer, then surface, destroy one, and dive again. No other sub bros were destroyed either, but the Viking either got a torpedo or two off before I owned him, or his buddy did. I've got a few coming at me at very close range. If I can survive, this would be an ideal outcome.
Diving, changing course, deploying countermeasures. Soon after I hear an explosion on sonar on the bearing of the decoys. Got real lucky that it bothered to take it instead of me. So anyway, there's still one Viking left, but we have a few problems on that front. First off, I used most of my SAMs shooting the first Viking. I have one left. Secondly, after I dove after killing the Viking I increased speed to avoid the torpedo, but failed to lower the ESM mast in time. It's now broken. Trying to find and kill that dick without it would be impossible. Just have to deal with it.
Anyway, I now have a few identifiable contacts. One is PROBABLY the Kirov that was dead before I had to reload, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is I one of these is a Kara class. Since I'm not good at multitasking and I have friends to help me out regardless, I focus on getting a solution on the Kara at the expense of...well, everything else. I'd go for the FFG of course, but it's STILL not in range. It's playing keep away rather effectively.
Takes me a while, but this looks about right to me based on the available info. Particularly, it seems likely that he's heading roughly due north to intercept the Chinese carrier. Details like that are really useful in narrowing down what solutions are probable, especially when you're daft at TMA.
I engage with four torpedoes. Two wake homing, and two wire guided. I didn't bother with the SET-53s because I didn't think they'd have enough speed and range to actually catch this guy.
The torpedoes strangely appear to be lagging somewhat behind his projected course. Not that he is likely in that position right now, since he's probably detected the torpedoes and is attempting to evade. Plus my solution could've just been wrong. Anyway, maybe it's because I wasn't facing him when I fired so it screwed me up.
Anyway, I can't control the wake homers, so I begin using the wire guided ones to begin searching around north where he's projected to be, and south as well in case he turned around.
One of my wire guided torpedoes locked something, hit it and detonated it, but we have no confirmed kill. It could be that the ship simply survived the explosion, or that we hit a decoy. Either way, I was unable to bring the other torpedo to bear where I lost the other one. Not enough juice left. The rest are failures.
Also, you can notice in this screenshot where the Kara was projected to be. Around now, it'd be east of me, but still heading north. Those other sonar contacts to the east are surely hostile as well, being of the same group. One of their ships is seem destroyed far to the northeast of me in this screenshot. It seems like a loyalist Russian battlegroup effectively bypassed myself, the Akula and the Victor-III. We suck. Anyway, something got it. Maybe a missile from a friendly frigate, or a slow ass Kilo lagging behind. Hope it's the same for the rest of them. I just want to kill this FFG and gtfo.
After a re-evaluation of the Kara's course, I prepare to re-engage. I also actually bother to change the torpedo presets this time. The wake homers didn't come set on maximum speed.
Meanwhile to the Northeast, I get a red contact on the map. Turns out it's link info from my carrier group buddies. They've finally detected the Loyalist Russian group and are sending some missiles their way. They've been beaten up a bit already, I really don't think they have a chance.
Oshi-! Loyalist Russian carrier detected.
Lord but not for long. That thing is out for the count. Excellent. The rest of the group is quickly mopped up, except for this Kara that's still close to me. That'll be my job.
Same deal. The torpedoes appear to be lagging behind his projected course. Once again I turn the wire guided ones manually and begin searching for him myself.
Think this guy right here is onto something.
Gotcha you fat cunt. Now the Loyalist carrier group that wasn't even mentioned in the briefing is destroyed. We've just got the Kwans left. Once again, I want nothing to do with them. This mission is taking a long time and it's getting exhausting. I just want to kill this damn FFG. I set speed for 10 knots again and head straight at him, hoping that eventually my pals will stop shooting at him so he won't run away and I can finally get this done with.
But apparently there's another obstacle. There's still one of the Russian Loyalist Krivak-III, an ASW frigate, in very close proximity. His bearing changes quite rapidly. I hadn't noticed before because I was too preoccupied with killing the Kara, but this jerk's gotta be right on top of me. And he's going 31 knots and changing course too much for me to get a really decent solution. I think, since I believe he's so close, that what I'm going to do is simply fire two wire-guided torpedoes in a snake pattern at his general bearing, and just keep updating their courses for his bearing using my sonar. That ought to get him.
But before I can launch, something takes him out. That red mark there was where I thought he might have been. The barely visible selected gray mark is where he actually was. Fucker WAS close, goddamn.
I remove all of the old and excess contacts to avoid confusion. What's really important now is M02, that jerk to the southwest. That's the FFG that's been evading at least 4 submarines this entire mission, and completion hinges upon his destruction.
Around now, I begin to get torpedoes in the water rather constantly. Sudden bursts of three or four of them, not on any sub's bearing. This prompts me to steer off course and drop a ton of countermeasures. I'm thinking they were missile delivered, just judging by the volume. I don't know if the Vikings can launch that many at a time. They didn't when they were killing me. Thing is, none of these torpedoes every actually materialize and do anything. I think what's happening is the torpedo is dropped into the water but it's too shallow and it just smacks right into the ground. Only thing I can think of. In this upside down world of modern warfare, shallow water can actually be beneficial to subs. Isn't that some shit?
Time passes. I identify a Boris Chilkin, which is apparently a Russian tanker used to refuel the fleet. That'd be a pretty nice kill probably, but I don't let myself get distracted. It's not dangerous and I've got shit to do.
Oh hey, look at this handy button. I found a function that allows you to show allies on the map. It's a form of cheating I suppose, but I wish I'd realized it earlier because I feel it would have been handy for this LP. Who knows how many times we've had friendly subs floating around?
Zooming out, one can see there's an entire group of Rebel surface vessels assisting us. Thing is though, I mean shit I'm no expert, but these Rebel cunts don't even have a carrier. The Chinese have literally a single carrier in their entire fleet, which is mostly comprised of shit. Is it just me or does this partnership seem like it's destined to fall before the combined might of the United States and Russian navies, both of whom have a bunch of carriers and countless awesome submarines? Sounds like failure to me.
Oh dear, huge barrage of friendly missiles. Can't tell what they were fired at. Does me no good.
Meanwhile, something takes out the Victor-III. It's okay, I cannot help but to feel he's outlived his usefulness. Truthfully, it was likely his incompetence that's allowed the FFG to survive for this long.
Oh hey, these missiles look like they're heading towards M02...
Yep. It seems that the FFG took a few missiles hits. That thing's pretty tough, I know I got a hit a few times when I played it but I was able to keep on trucking. I'm glad to hear that it's damaged though, makes me job that much easier. Time passes as I approach at 10 knots. I'm beset by torpedoes along the way, but much of them are the disappearing sort that doesn't do anything, but since the Victor-III got wasted I figure there's probably a Viking, or maybe even more Seahawks flying around up there dropping shit on us. So when I hear a single torpedo in the water, I evade. Actually saved my ass one time, it ended up hitting a decoy. I've been getting lucky on those this whole mission.
Friendly SAM launch confirms my suspicion that there's still enemy air power about. Fucking Nimitz. I hope this at least keeps him off me for a bit.
Akula's dead too, making me the only sub in reasonable range of the FFG. There's two other kilos, but they're far northeast. Too far.
The Rebel Russians begin taking losses. I don't know what from exactly, but it stands to reason that if they can shoot missiles at the US, the US can shoot back. Probably the Nimitz group is ripping them up now.
At long last, I've got a DEMON reading on the FFG. Now I can finally begin performing TMA on this dick.
I'm constantly distracted by the battle though. All the Russians are mostly dead now, and the pride of the Chinese fleet, the Chinluk, is taking fire. Shit. Gotta stay focused. Must destroy FFG. A solution begins to formulate, when...
Some dickhead shot it with a missile, rendering my epic trek down here a pointless waste of time. Brilliant.
The mission is complete, but it says to take up position north of Taipei and wait for the transports to arrive to beat up on Taiwan. Thing is though...I don't think that's happening. This shit took too long. Our fleet is mostly toast. I turn and head north to avoid the incoming Americans, turn on show truth and watch the fight.
Show truth reveals an enemy life raft. Guess a Viking or something got shot down over by our carrier group. Anyway, this ends up being not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be. I don't think the AI was scripted to do shit properly after the mission objectives are complete. The Chinese are supposed to stay around Taipei and bomb the place and what not to help the invading troops. But the Chinluk keeps heading south rather than staying around Taipei.
It gets pretty far for whatever it's worth, but...
And that's that. China's only carrier in ruins along with its battle group adn Rebel allies. Not to mention, the 688 mission was to destroy the troop transports before they could get to Taiwan, so it's not like they're likely to have actually arrived. After all that, it's safe to say the Chinese effort was a failure. But hey, I survived. If you don't count the many times I died and reloaded.
The campaign is sadly anticlimactic. I almost believed it would branch into another campaign for a moment, but nope that's it. We're sort of left hanging as to the fate of the Rebels, and whether or not Taiwan falls to the Chinese or not. The lack of proper ending slides forces me to admit that perhaps Dangerous Waters is not as great of a role-playing game as Codex favorite Alpha Brotocol, but it's still a good sim. Highly recommended.