CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

I
N E W O R D E R
“131121/010”
Fort Grace Naval Command, 20 miles south-east of San Angeles. The Pacific
Ocean. August 4 th , 2042…
The gleaming spire of Fort Grace glinted under the afternoon sun on the surface of
the Pacific - the sprawling dockside being a bustle of activity where thousands of marines,
sailors and officers milled. Fort Grace was a huge facility spanning a hundred square miles
across the ocean floor and served as the operational headquarters of the entire UEO Pacific
Fleet. The relatively small extent of the surface docks were but a shadow of the immense
base which extended beneath the surface to the city of San Angeles just twenty miles away:
the tip of a monolithic, imposing iceberg. Ringed by hundreds of defence turrets, sensor nets
and subfighter bases, it was one of the most heavily fortified naval installations anywhere in
the world.
Wing Commander Corinn Roderick walked along the length of the eastern docks,
staring up at the towering bulk of the submarine that sat in its moorings beside her. The
Aquarius DSV-8200 was now the only ship of her class; the UEO‟s flagship, and the single
greatest warship in the Pacific. For nearly two years, she had held a thin blue line against an
unstoppable tide of violence. The Alliance of Macronesia, despite every effort, had
maintained its offensives and force concentrations across the sprawling Pacific fronts, and
for a cost in life that climbed by the dozens – if not hundreds - every day, nothing had been
gained.
The islands of Japan – once having fallen to the Chaodai in the early stages of the
conflict – had been liberated through the heroic, determined efforts of the UEO Marines and
the scattered remnants of the fourth fleet and now served as the staging base of the entire
western Pacific fleet. But even that success had been undercut by the war‟s most shocking
turn...
In Roderick‟s eyes since that day, the new Secretary General of the UEO, Sir James
Cathgate, had steadily driven the fleet from success to failure. The counter-offensives in to
the Marshalls, Carolines and Philippines had ground to a halt with the changes of national
defence policies, and the war was being increasingly driven by political agenda. The most
frustrating issues for UEO military commanders were the apparently arbitrary and unwanted
force rotations at the front line – the most experienced and best equipped UEO fighter
squadrons and battlegroups found themselves relieved and pulled back in reserve, only to
be replaced by comparatively inexperienced North Sea Confederation units. Normally, the
assistance of the UEO‟s European allies would be welcomed with open arms, but rather than
directing the war in a spirit of cooperation, Cathgate had increasingly taken away operations
and jurisdiction from UEO units, and left their commanders confused and unsure of their
responsibilities. Uncertainty had taken hold within the UEO ranks, and much of the
frustration was beginning to be directed at the NSC forces that now ran the front line.
For her part, Roderick was only grateful. For two entire years, she had led the 115 th
fighter squadron, the „Dark Angels‟, through the worst of the war. The squadron had become
a symbol of the UEO‟s pride, never knowing defeat, even amidst unimaginable loss. Pearl
Harbor, San Diego, Ryukyu Trench, Challenger Deep and Kuril Trench: all names that had
become synonymous with the most hopeless of odds, and useless of struggles. Then there
was Atlantis...
For weeks, newscasts had reported on the ship‟s loss, the same images of its final
moments being replayed over and over again from London to Beijing and Melbourne to New
York. The shock had hit the UEO harder than any other loss to that day, and the
repercussions were still being felt across the theatre. The Dark Angels had been there for
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