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Old 03-01-2015, 11:32 AM
simonmark6 simonmark6 is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Swansea, South Wales, UK
Posts: 374
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The amount of damage you have described is pretty catastrophic.

If the ship is listing the boiler explosion has caused either a breech in the hull or popped enough welds to cause a major leak. It also means that the cargo hold has the potential to be partially flooded in order to cause the ship to list. An explosion that has caused that much damage is likely to have killed anyone in the hold and damaged or flooded any valuable cargo.

The fire is also an issue. Fires in ships are nasty and will have caused major toxic issues, also, I would be very surprised if the Coast Guard haven't formed a cordon and be crawling all over the ship to contain the fuel oil that is likely to be leaking from it. That means the harbour is full of HAZMAT boats and oil-spill cleaners are on the way.

Inside the ship, not only are the walls metal but the ship is listing so everything is canted at an angle. Below decks the corridors are coated with toxic soot and anyone not in BA is likely to suffer horrible effects. A boiler explosion that has caused a breech is also likely to have twisted ladders and steps up and down and caused some doors to be distorted and impossible to open.

I find it unlikely to think of any detectives being in the ship unless they're following a lead. Fire Investigators and HAZMAT personnel, yes, but local plods, no. The scene is a major environmental incident first and a crime scene second.

The heroes would be better off posing as a HAZMAT clean-up crew than a traditional SWAT breeching unit. I also don't see the point of a helicopter gunship back up, or the snipers: any incident will be inside rather than out.

My father was a fireman and worked in one of the largest docks in the UK (Port Talbot deep ore port: not much in transit but massive ships). If there had been an incident like that, crews would have been coming in from across the country and by the next day, international teams would be on the way.

This, of course may depend on the country it is set in, but a listing ship which has had a catastrophic explosion and fire is highly unlikely to be deserted the next morning.

I'd go for a high-tension infiltration with the heroes sneaking in wearing high vis and BA rather than tooled up for bear. In many ways this makes for a much scarier environment: the situation is dangerous and when the SHTF you don't even have the big guns to bail you out. This could be a really dramatic situation with lots of horror moments depending on the nature of your terror.
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