That's the
Sekrit Yo Navy for those whose historical knowledge of parallel continuums is lacking.
After recovering from the organ restorations required as a result of being shot repeatedly in the chest by former ally Vladimir Kongevitch,
the notorious ex-Soviet Gorilla man, I decided that a return to my roots was in order, and I set about forming a new
Science Pirate Syndicate along the lines of my Aunt Sekrit Yo's organization from the late 1800's. Although the age of the great ocean liners was nearing it's end, there
was still plenty of sea-borne commerce to, ah, liberate, for the benefit of the exploited masses of the world. (and myself. Secret Space programs,
world-wide telecommunication subversions and a host of other foils to the post-war status quo don't fund themselves, y'know.)
Naturally, I knew that a surface fleet was largely a non-starter. Navies were a lot bigger, and the crow's nests a
lot taller than they had
been in the 1880's (so to speak), so a greater measure of stealth would be required. I reactivated the old SPS base at Last
Atlantis
1,along with an abandoned Mu Automated Shipyard that I recovered with the help of Captain Jinguji after helping him defeat
the decadent undersea empire's attempt at conquering the surface world in 1963
2. The first three ships (well, one ship and two
boats. I have never been able to shake the verbal convention of referring to submarines as 'boats', despite the degree of size and
sophistication) were the
S.Y.N.S. of Dr. Sivanna,the
S.Y.N.S. of the Fiesty Barbel and the
S.Y.N.S. of the Gruesome Tench.
3.
These were followed in short order by the
S.Y.N.S. of the Red Archerfish,
DSCF0818 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
DSCF0816 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
Built for speed, the
Archie was armed with a single hypervelocity rail gun firing through a port at the tip of the bow. A two kilo solid shot
might not sound like much, but with a muzzle velocity of around 8 kilometers per second, it was fairly effective, though firing it
underwater did produce some spectacular effects.
I also thought that the torpedo needed some re-evaluation as the ultimate armament for submarines, at least in the method of delivery.
From this line of thought came the
S.Y.N.S. of the Wiley Bream, with no forward firing torpedo tubes, but a series of half a dozen
vertical tubes aft of the sail. Since my vessels were already operating at depths of up to a thousand meters, I reasoned that something firing
straight up at a sonically-identified target
4 made a bit more sense than cruising at periscope depth hoping there wasn't a P-3
loitering overhead.
DSCF0825 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
DSCF0820 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
Finally, since I was starting to send a few ships to the bottom with valuables still on board, some means of salvaging material from
great depths was required, and this led to the building of the
S.Y.N.S. of the Deep Bluesman. Thanks to a combination of Atlantean
and Moovian metalurgy, all of the 'ships of sin' (as the press styled us) were capable of dives of over 4000 meters, and with the
Bluesman, were able to reach 8000 meters with ease.
DSCF0827 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
DSCF0826 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
DSCF0828 by
VileDr.Yo, on Flickr
1. The history of the Science Pirate Syndicate, 1871-1900, is detailed in the exhaustive study by Fletcher Pratt and Cynthia Mahan,
No Chains
on the Waves (University of the Southern Arctic Press, Juneau, 1955) Last Atlantis, 'the Square Island', was one of the Mystères, a chain of islands
somewhere and sometimes in the mid-Atlantic. The other main islands of the chain were Low Caprona, Moreauvia, Vucan, and Mystère.
2. See the entertaining, but somewhat inaccurate documentary
Undersea Battleship (Toho Studios, 1963). At my request,
Jinguji omitted all mention of my involvement. The world believed me dead, and for the sake of convenience (and a series of paternity
suits that resulted from my too-enthusiastic embrace of my revived flesh after the shooting already mentioned.) I did not correct that
belief for a few years.
3. The
S.Y.N.S. of Dr. Sivanna, ex-
NS Savannah was the only surface vessel in the fleet, and even there, I could not resist the
urge to tinker, as a forthcoming build will show.
4. The USN was already building a library of the sonic signatures of various surface vessels and especially Soviet submarines. I know a good
idea when I hear it and incorporated it into operational planning on all ships. Boats, that is.
I'll post about the builds here in a bit.
