The Last Sub - what happens?

[johnfrum]

Hello all,
As background, I'm about to finish up a TW2000 1st edition game of the 'Lost Sub Trilogy'. The team has just left Narvik and are preparing for a long, cold walk across the ice (late March, early April 2001). After the attack, the team is going to return to Norfolk and then prepare for the move to New Jersey per the orders from MILGOV to abandon Norfolk and concentrate in Ft Dix per 'Howling Wilderness' (this will probably be mid April 2001).

Now, my thoughts are turning to what would happen to the 'Corpus Christi' and the other ships in Norfolk. Using the source material (including 'Rock in Troubled Waters'), current naval forces in Norfolk include the USS John Hancock, USS Mamley and USS Blandy. In addition, there would be the transport used to evacuate US forces from Europe in Operation Omega.

My thoughts are that the transports would be used for housing the available troops and would be moved to New Jersey along with the Hancock, Mamley and Blandy. The cost in fuel would be worth the quick move up the coast and ready made housing (unpowered ships will still keep out the elements). I'm toying with the idea that the Corpus Christi would be laid up and used to power the area with the reactor ala 'Satellite Down' but was curious on what other refs have done. Would MILGOV sacrifice the tactical value of a nuclear submarine (with only 14 crew members available) for the strategic value of powering the MILGOV encampment? It would give MILGOV a big step-up on CIVGOV. Thoughts?

[Adm.Lee]

Tactical value against what, I'd ask? What ships do you envision steaming by that are higher value targets than a working powerplant?

Obviously, I think the power is more valuable.

[kato13]

Originally I felt I would keep the ship sailing but my research into power generation in New Jersey shows it have very few renewable resource power generation facilities (hydro,recovered methane, etcf). At a count of only 6, the state is in 40th place nationwide. The allure of those 25 MWt would be tempting.

One other thing, I never accepted that trained submarine crew would be in such short supply. I felt that it was a manipulated situation to allow the players on the sub. All Boomers had two full crews (Blue/Gold) one of which would be on land at all times. Those crews plus Naval reserves would have an initial number of qualified submariners in the thousands. Paring that down to 14 was stretching it for me even given communication and transportation breakdowns.



Since I pulled the query anyway here are the NJ power plants.

|Passaic|NJ|Great Falls Hydroelectric Project | 2363 kWT |
|Monmouth|NJ|Monmouth Landfill Gas to Energy Project - Land Fill Gas|7479 kWT|
|Ocean|NJ|Ocean County Landfill - Land Fill Gas|5184 kWT |
|Bergen NJ|Balefill - Land Fill Gas| 4825 kWT |
|Middlesex|NJ|O Brien Biogas IV LLC - Land Fill Gas| 10295 kWT |
|Salem|NJ|Pedricktown Cogeneration Plant - Wood Waste|2364 kWT|

Production numbers are annual average output for 1997, Maximum output would probably be highter.

[Targan]

If your campaign ends up going with the DC Working Group's take on things the Corpus Christi wouldn't be the last USN sub anyway, making big chunks of the Last Submarinwe trilogy kind of redundant. I'm still in two minds about that. I greatly respect the knowledge and work of the DC working group but I think their timeline will end up with far more working USN vessels than is comfortable with canon.

In my campaign the there will be only one *working and seaworthy* USN sub but it may not be the Corpus Christi. I haven't yet decided whether, after the Last Sub trilogy has been played out, MilGov will use the sub as a power source or keep it at sea but one way or another I'm almost certain it will stay at sea because the CO of the group in my campaign, Major Po, will want to use it for his own ends. I predict that if MilGov wants to take it away from his group he'll go rogue with it.

There are several former submariners in the party in my campaign so there were always going to be more than 14 submariners aboard anyway.

[pmulcahy11b]

The less-fun but more realistic course would be that the Corpus Christi would serve as a generator for a settlement. The more-interesting course would be that the Corpus Christi is used to scout for pockets of civilization that are left over from the war. Lots of room for adventure there!

[chico20854]

And one more wrinkle in the situation... Cape May is only dredged to about 14 feet. No way to get a destroyer, a SSN or even most ocean-going cargo vessels into there without leaving a Sonar Dome or some other precious bits in the mud...

[johnfrum]

Thanks for the input from everyone - I appreciate it as a first time poster. It does add weight to my decision to lay up the sub and use it for power. I'm not familiar with the DC group so I'll have to look it up for the naval data. I do agree the belief that there wouldn't be many naval vessels left.

Interesting too the power sources and the draft at Cape May. I'll have to jump on google earth and see what suitable ports/harbors are nearby!

[kato13]

This thread, Collected Works of the DC Group, is worth a look for any T2k Fan. I consider it the gold standard for fan produced material.

Another thread which helps establish the DC Groups thoughts on the US Recovery Plan.

[Legbreaker]

If it were my decision, I'd use it as a power source however hooked up to enable a quick (less than 24 hours) disconnection in case of an emergency.
With only a couple of Mk 48 torpedos available, and little chance of resupply, the vessles use as a warship is extremely limited, however it's got a decent sensor array.
Disconnection from the power generation network might be achievable much quicker (a few minutes), but the sudden drop in supply without notice is likely to cause serious, perhaps even deadly problems - the hospital equipment relying on the sub's output for example...
This might be avoided if backup systems were available such as alcohol powered generators, but with the huge consumption of this equipment, it would likely be inefficient and counterproductive to have them running all the time.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by chico20854

And one more wrinkle in the situation... Cape May is only dredged to about 14 feet. No way to get a destroyer, a SSN or even most ocean-going cargo vessels into there without leaving a Sonar Dome or some other precious bits in the mud...

Darn, that's frustrating. In the most recent sessions of my campaign one of the PCs spent some time at Cape May and here was me as GM describing a destroyer up against a pier. Could it be within the bounds of possibility that pre-war the USN or Coast Guard dredged at least one channel at Cape May for destroyer-sized vessels?

[Legbreaker]

Depends I think on how damaged other, deeper ports are. Is Cape May the only port within a few hundred miles still capable of being used? Are the other more suitable (prewar) facilities nothing more than molten radioactive slag?

Dredging is serious business and not to be undertaken lightly. It's going to take a lot of time and expense.

Perhaps the nukes and changing climatic conditions have contributed to changing ocean currents thereby helping to clear the silt from the port? Lack of rain in the catchment areas would also minimise new silt being deposited by runoff. It's as good an explaination as any for why a Destroyer was able to access the docks....

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Targan

Could it be within the bounds of possibility that pre-war the USN or Coast Guard dredged at least one channel at Cape May for destroyer-sized vessels?

You are the GM, so a wizard did it

[natehale1971]

In my groups games we had US MilGov useing the Corpus Christi as a way to insert the PCs into those areas where they where needed to carry out some of their covert missions where going to occur. In fact the Corpus Christi was ordered to only engage enemy assets if they had no other way to evade being seen or being captured. SOCOM covert operations detachment was composed of personnel drawn from the US Navy SEALs, US Army Rangers, US Army Special Operations detachment Delta, US Marine Corps Force Recon, ect. They where the best of the best. They where the surgical scalpel used to deal with those problems that US MilGov realized that would be a major problem for the world recovery efforts.

In fact the biggest use of the team was taking out the leadership for the Alliance for a Progressive New America down in Florida.