U-296

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Sgt. Howard
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Re: U-296

Post by Sgt. Howard »

Once he had finished eating the blunt head sharp tooth, he continued on North to the dead-not dead thing. He could sense the object inside... and something else... no, some ONE else... another small air-breather, but one who ... knew?... things, one who understood- one who he should not kill or allow to die. He would find him and... and what? He wasn't sure... but he would do... something...
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Re: U-296

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Alserman finished his meal and went to the control room- from there, he mounted the ladder to the conning tower. Once there, he opened the hatch to the chariot (kept shut as a preventative measure) and climbed topside. There he met the XO and several crewmen (most of whom eyed him suspiciously) before he wandered to the 'Wintergrden' where he drew most suspicious looks. Dondermann followed his motions as he nursed his ertzatz coffee... Dondermann never got too close to Alserman... not that he could specifically tell anyone WHY, but a gut instinct had him keep a distance.
The sea was rolling pleasantly that late morning, but the fog had not abated... all in all, a rather spooky passage down the west coast of Ireland... the sort of thing that makes for good ghost stories. There was only the slightest range of visibility- Rasch had deliberately placed them far to the west to avoid the dangerous coastline in the event of a navigational error. Out on the foredeck, two able seamen listened for the sounds of approaching vessels. Both men were clamped to the safety lines in the event of any emergency. Another pair was stationed aft in the same manner for the same reason. Alsermann climbed down the ladder to the top deck and wandered in the direction of the two men astern.
"You idiot!" blurted Dondermann, "Get back to the 'Wintergarden! You have no safety harness or swim vest! If you go overboard, we cannot find you in this soup!"
Alserman turned to look at Dondermann- whatever reply he might have had in mind was lost when a slimy tentacle reached out of the sea and grabbed him around the middle- he did not even cry out when it carried him off.

Everybody on deck saw it. There was a mad dash for the hatch.
Rule 17 of the Bombay Golf Course- "You shall play the ball where the monkey drops it,"
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lake_wrangler
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Re: U-296

Post by lake_wrangler »

:shock: :shock: :shock:

:o :o :o

8-) 8-) 8-)

Neat!

(Also, I always enjoy your posts from Stinky's point of view, like that second to last one, with the descriptive characteristics instead of proper names... :D )
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Re: U-296

Post by Atomic »

And I immediately though of:

Image
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Re: U-296

Post by Dave »

The final day of "The Far Side" was a dark day indeed.
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Re: U-296

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Danny O'Brady and his son Danny Junior, poles and tackle in hand, were headed to the small cove due south of Mizen Head Signal Station. Progress as quite slow, owing to the new leg that Danny Senior was not yet accustomed to. Even though Ireland was neutral in this war, many sons of the sod... including Danny... had served in the British military and were always welcome back home afterwards... well, almost always... and Danny Senior still could ply his trade as a carpenter as long as he avoided ladders until he became more comfortable with the new leg. His military pension was not great, but in living at his homestead in Cloghane his shillings went farther than they could in England.
Scampering down the trail well ahead of his Father, young Danny landed at the scant beach- and found a body.
"DAAAAAA!!! There's a dead'un here!!! Somebody washed up from a ship!!! DAAAAA!!!"
It took a bit of time for the older Danny to make it down the trail. When he did arrive, he immediately checked the body for signs of life... and found breath and a pulse.
"Alive he is- quick now, and fetch me Dr. O'Meara before he dies on us,"
"An' why do I have to go an' fetch him, Da?"
"Ye DAFT? I'm breakin' in a wooden stump ta replace what got blown off in Holland! You can run there an' back THREE TIMES to my one! Now go an' fetch him!"
"But he's a horse Doctor, Da,"
"Aye, an' he twere good enough t' bring YOU inter th' world seven Winters ago, now OFF with ye,"

Alserman heard every word but remained limp and unresponsive, feigning unconsciousness. To his good fortune, he never wore a uniform on the sub... in fact, his clothing was all homespun and his feet were bare. He (like most of U-296's crew) had allowed his facial hair to grow and his non-descript features and grey hair allowed him to claim any heritage that suited his needs... a fact that had served him many times in the past.
It was time for 'Alserman', who spoke German in the dialect of the old Norse Vikings, to no longer exist... he would feign madness until he got his bearings.

And his Irish Gaelic as well as his English with a brogue was quite convincing... even to those who spoke it naturally.

Shortly after the good Doctor showed up, he who WAS Alserman stirred, as if from sleep. Dr. O'Meara went to calm him down and asses the situation when his 'patient' abruptly states,

"I'll have whatever the gentleman on th' floor is having- make it a double!" and went limp again.

"Well then, at least there's ONE thing we know about 'im," the Good Doctor stated.
"An' what be that?" asked the older Danny.
"Upon me affidavit, he's an Irishman,"
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Re: U-296

Post by Atomic »

This belongs here.

Edit: Adult-ish humor (audible)
Last edited by Atomic on Sun Jun 07, 2015 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: U-296

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Atomic wrote:This belongs here.
... uh... I pulled that up in the presence of my 17 y/o and 13 y/o stepsons... perhaps a little 'NSFW' or 'Adult content' warning in the future? And... I'm trying to figure the correlation, perhaps I am being daft myself but I don't get it...

Uh... OH!!! YES!!! I shut it down with the first moans and gasps- I forgot about the LOL (little old lady) making her request... excellent cross reference...
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Re: U-296

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"ALAAAAAARM!!! ALAAAARM!!!" rang out several voices as a grade 5 charley foxtrot spilled down the ladder from topside and puddled around the center of the control room. Hoffstetter turned the bow planes while Uhrmacher trimmed the stern- Lebenz grabbed the handles of the ballast levers while Schmidt read off the lights, finally shouting "Alles Klar!!!" ("All clear!"). Lebenz swung the lever foreward as Schumacher telegraphed the engine room 'Foreward flank- stop deisels'. Dondermann himself secured the hatch after the last man was inside- he wondered if he might ever get it open again for the effort he put into it- and everybody else in the crew ran to the forward torpedo room as human ballast to get the nose under as quickly as possible.
When Dondermann reached the bottom of the ladder, U-296 was already beginning to tip down-
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?" he demanded, "BRING HER BACK UP RIGHT AWAY!!!- WHO GAVE THE ORDER TO DIVE?!?"
Several sheepish faces looked at him just as Skipper Rasch and Political officer Walsh came in from the officer's mess.
"WHAT IS GOING ON?!? ARE WE UNDER ATTACK?!?" bellowed Rasch.
"Alserman has been taken," Dondermann blurted out, "by a... a, uh... by a Krake... Herr Oberleutnant,"
"A... Krake... a Krake... GOTT INS HIMMEL!!! HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!?"
"We all saw it," offered one man- several other murmered agreement. The Skipper looked at them with raised eyebrows.
"You all saw a Krake?"
"We saw a tenticle, Herr Oberleutnant- it was HUGE!"
"Bigger around than Bissinger's arse,"
"HEY THERE!" protested Bissinger.
"Lifted Alserman off the deck like he was a scat card,"
"I damn near shit my pants,"
"How would you know?"
Rasch put both hands up in the air to regain silence- "Was anyone else taken? Dondermann, get a head count- I want everyone accounted for. Who gave the order to dive?"
Again, sheepish faces.
"Alright, I get it- everybody panicked, somebody yelled 'ALARM' and it turned into a dive... against a 'Krake'... think about it, gentlemen... shall we hide underwater from a sea monster? Does THAT make sense?"
Long silence...
Rule 17 of the Bombay Golf Course- "You shall play the ball where the monkey drops it,"
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Re: U-296

Post by lake_wrangler »

Ha! Logic and panic rarely do seem to occupy the same space in the time-space continuum... :lol:
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Re: U-296

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He still had to find the object- the dead-not dead thing was not far off ... why are they always infested with small air breathers?... and would be easy to find. For one thing, it was noisy. For another, it stank horribly. Finally it a just too ugly... easy to find but one wonders 'why?'

He had thrown the small air breather that knows at the top of the North in hopes it would survive. It was a quiet air breather, it did not struggle. It knew. Hopefully, it would have many more seasons... but now he had to find the dead-not dead thing
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Re: U-296

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Rasch knew this had to be the biggest test of his leadership skills he had ever encountered- he had been aware of the crew's misgivings with Alserman and the relic, particularly after Kleinke went mad. He also knew that a confrontation over it would have led to a mutiny in short order- whereas to ignore it stood a better chance of such not happening, as he could not yet pinpoint any leadership among the crew.
Now it was too far gone to ignore. Alserman was taken by a Krake, the relic is too dangerous to handle... and even the most loyal of the crew knew that Germany itself was crumbling. Dreschmeyer's presence did nothing to alleviate the fears of the crew as he certainly knew as little about the object as anyone else. And Walsch seemed... friendlier... than a Political Officer ought to be with the crew... perhaps he had missed a change in the man's attitudes?
Crawling through what had become a perpetual fog they had made little headway the past four weeks... once again, fresh provisions were gone and tinned foodstuffs were the order of the day. Between that and the one week of battling a storm off the north coast had left a moral issue WITHOUT the presence of mystical relics, druids and Krake. Hitler's birthday was comming up- how Walsch handled it would indeed be telling.
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Re: U-296

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The dead-not dead thing loomed right ahead- still surrounded by the wet cold air that was his to command. He studied it for quite a while... the was no movement of the body, only two spinning things. He had seen enough of these to understand that the spinning things pushed it along- he also knew that covering the spinning thing stopped it from moving, but you couldn't touch the spinning things because they bite. He simply grabbed it from behind and bit into it's tail while shrouding the spinning things with his tentacles. From there, he only had to turn it around and jet to were it was to go.
No sooner did he bite it, did it try to get away- the spinning things went faster and part of it's skin opened up where he was biting.
It tasted nasty.
Next, a bunch of small air breathers swarmed out of it. He pulled it under water-it went silent and the air-breathers were gone. He then continued on his way with it.
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Re: U-296

Post by Warrl »

Well, after being bitten by Stinky, U-296 should be rather unstable.

Which isn't surprising since the most stable isotope is only U-238. :geek:
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Re: U-296

Post by Sgt. Howard »

In truth, the U-234 was shipping Uranium oxide to Japan when Germany surrendered- several submariners joked that the crates marked "U-235" clearly indicated upper command did not know what sub they were dealing with.
With it's surrender, the uranium cargo gave us enough of the metal to FINISH making the Hiroshima bomb.
Last edited by Sgt. Howard on Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: U-296

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Among the five men that went topside with ammo for the MGs and small arms to combat the Krake were Mestimacher and Drucker. When the creature pulled the boat under, all were swept away. Drucker came to the surface first... he had always been a champion swimmer... but a quick survey of the water showed him to be alone. He looked around for bubbles and saw a small trail. Diving quickly, he found the source and pulled the man to the surface.

It was Mestimacher.

Supporting him by the chin, he did a lazy modified side kick so that the motion would keep his face above water useing a stroke that would not tire him too quickly. No sooner had he established a stable pace than a voice hollared out in his direction... in a language he did not understand. The fog lifted very suddenly to show a fishing smack with two weathered old men and three soggy submariners- Kleinst, Hoffmann and Zumwalt. Kleinst was jabbering very animatedly with the two fishermen and pointing at Mestimacher and Drucker.

Several minutes and more than a few pulls on a whiskey flask later, the overloaded boat was bound back to shore in some of the clearest sailing weather the lot had ever seen. Several times there was conversation between Kleinst and the two fishermen, and Drucker caught words like 'Kraken' and 'Hafgufa' and also 'Neutral' (he KNEW what THAT meant)... and he, along with the now functional Mestmacher, took turns pulling the oars with everybody else.

Kleinst was the one to broach the subject- "You two have squabbled like brothers as long as I've known you- why?"
"He is a Saxon- I am a Bavarian- it is a matter of principle..." spoke Drucker.
"And yet, you saved his life..." Kleinst pointed out.
Mestimacher looked at Drucker with a shocked expression... but said nothing. In fact, the rest of the journey only saw conversation between the two fishermen.
Last edited by Sgt. Howard on Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: U-296

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"The diesels are flooded with brine! And from what I can tell, the creature is pulling us backwards due south at about seven to twelve knots," reported Dondermann.
"Why in the name of GOD and all things holy can we not overpower it with our screws? The electric motors are running full power," demanded Rasch.
"I think it is shrouding the screws somehow... it IS latched onto..."
"ENOUGH!!! IT IS A BEAST!!! IT DOES NOT THINK!!! BLOW ALL TANKS! GET US TO THE SURFACE!!!
"Sir, our tanks are filled with air- it simply overpowers our bouyancy. Perhaps if we fire from the stern tube..."
"And if it detonates?!? It won't even clear the tube!"
"Sir! Full safety! I simply want to give it a tap on the head!"
Rasch considered this- "Make it happen- tube five, if you would be so kind,"
"Jawhol!"



The dead-not dead thing was making a quieter noise now... it still tasted nasty... then suddenly there was a series of clicks and grinds and squeaks and such as to make him wonder what it was about. A violent belch of gasses produced a hard something pushing into him with a loud whine- he shoved it back where it came from. That reduced the whine somewhat, but also there was now a commotion of sorts going on inside...

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!?!" yelled Bissinger over the loud screaming whine.
"THAT DAMNED DEVILFISH PUSHED IT BACK IN THE TUBE!!! replied Schukart, "WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT TO RUN OUT!!!"
At that moment, Kleinke walked into the aft torpedo room, his eyes wild as he watched the scene, giggleing like a naughty schoolboy.
"HE COMES FOR IT!" Kleinke yelled over the screaming torpedo,"HE COMES FOR THE DEVIL'S CROSS! HE'LL NOT LET US GO UNTIL HE GETS IT!!!"
Still giggleing, he went forward as Bissinger and Schukart watched, dumfounded.
Last edited by Sgt. Howard on Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: U-296

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Kleinke rambled through the engine room, past the officer's quarters and into the main control room- not an easy task, as the boat swayed and rocked with the undulations of the Krake. In the control room he found the remaining members of the crew along with the officers.
"He wants the object! He wants the 'Cross of Satan'. Give it to him and he will leave us alone. Keep it from him and we all die,"
"Who wants the object?" demanded Rasch.
"The Krake... (he giggled) ... his name is 'Stinky' (he giggled some more)"
"Kleinke, go back to your bunk. You are not well..." Walsch tried to reason with him.
"How do you know this?" asked Lebenz.
"LEBENZ! SHUT UP!- Kleinke, do as I ask- now,"
"The object calls to him... he knows who it goes to. It doesn't go to us, it goes to someone else,"
"Who?" asked Hoffstetter.
"DAMN IT ALL TO HADES!!! SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!!! GOTT INS HIMMEL!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? CANNOT YOU SEE HE IS MAD?!?"
"It goes to the one who calls him... (Giggle) 'Stinky' (Giggle),"
"Kleinke, go to your bunk- that is a direct order!" to Dondermann he whispered, "...get me my pistol- and grab your own. It's about to get ugly,"
Last edited by Sgt. Howard on Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: U-296

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There is a gate... an opening... where the other worlds can come through, although with limited access. This is where he was taking the dead-not dead thing. He didn't know why this was nessesary, but he knew he had to do this. He was light-headed, tired... and hungry again. Yes there were small airbreathers still infesting the thing, but he was in no mood to rattle them out... besides, they tasted bad. Just having to carry the one away from the thing left a foul taste on his tenticle that even yet was disgusting. Pulling the stupid thing was much slower than he would normally travel... but was still faster than the thing itself could move, apparently-

He decided to chance it- he let go of the thing, knowing he could find it again, so that he could hunt... after all, so much effort without food was not a good thing.

He released it, and was not suprised that it went to the top and after a few moments slowly turned east and proceeded to make noise and movement.

It will be easy to find.

He proceeded to hunt...
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Re: U-296

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"WE ARE RELEASED!!! TAKE US TO THE SURFACE!!! DUE EAST!!!"
The uncertainty of a few moments ago disappeared- men responded to their orders without hesitation.
"Kleinke, the beast just figured out he can't eat us- go back to your bunk- that is a direct order!"
Kleinke looked at his Skipper in an odd manner- "He'll be back... he wants his object,"
"GO!!!"
Walsch approached him in a chummy fashion-
"Come on there, young pup- you've had a rough voyage. Your bunk calls for you and you ought to heed it. Don't go making the Skipper angry, that won't do- let's get you some rest, eh?"
He shuffled back to his bunk, muttering to himself, with Walsch right behind. Once the surface as broke, they were underway on what was left of the batteries while the diesels went through a de-priming to rid them of salt water. In a half-hour's time, the starboard engine was given ether and fired- soon the port engine followed suit. Batteries went to charge as the ENIGMA machine started cranking out messages- mostly birthday messages about Hitler.

Low priority at the moment...

A check with the galley showed that there was enough tinned goods to get back home as long as there was no further interruptions. Water stock was also adequate... for the circumstances. Bissinger came forward to report that #5 DID leave the tube, but only because it slid out upon ascent. There was already a crew re-loading the tube.
A three-man watch was placed topside, searching for Krake activities as well as aircraft or ships. A shooting of the sun was done, checked against the ship's chronometer and their position was charted... they were far south indeed! Just North of Angra Do Heroismo! And West, for that matter. Rasch ordered a heading of 53 degrees- they had JUST enough provisions to make it through the channel and home to Bergen... assuming nothing else went wrong...
Last edited by Sgt. Howard on Mon Jun 15, 2015 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rule 17 of the Bombay Golf Course- "You shall play the ball where the monkey drops it,"
I speak fluent Limrick-
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