Chapter 1

Warning! Warning! Multiple hull breeches detected. The intercom was yelling as lights began flashing throughout the submarine.

"Captain, I have flooding aft in the forward torpedo room!"

"Captain, flooding detected in the engine room!"

The room was in disarray, they were trapped 500 feet below the surface. People were running around trying to save their submarine. There was a chance that people had died already.

The Captain knew he had messed up. Doors were being sealed and the bilge pumps were working, pumping out water as fast as it came in. They needed to act fast and act fast they did.

"Emergency blow!" The Captain yelled as everyone held on for dear life. The submarine shot up until it breached the surface before jumping up like a whale. It seemed that for a second everything was calm only for it to get much, much worse. That was until a special light began flashing on the Captain's monitor. Each light indicated a problem and well this light was special, it was nuclear.

"Fuck! Captain we've lost all coolant to the reactor. We need to act now or else were gonna have a meltdown!" The Chief Nuclear Engineer yelled at the top of his lungs.

Thoughts raced through his mind, he wanted to live, but how? If the submarine had a meltdown then everyone was dead no matter what. There was only one thing they could do, and it wasn't gonna be pretty.

"I can only think of one option and it's not pretty!" The Captain yelled at the engineer, fear in both their eyes.

"Sir I'll do whatever it takes!" He responded, he was brave but behind that was just a young scared boy.

"K19 it!" The Captain ordered before receiving a salute, the engineer dashed into the nuclear compartment with his division. They wouldn't be coming back alive, that he was sure of. All he could do now was keep the submarine afloat and pray.

"Sit down son!" An old man said gesturing toward a chair. Jack was in Guam and he was about to get the news he had been waiting for.

"Yes sir!"

"Do you find it odd that I had you flown from your academy in Seattle to Guam?" The old man asked, stars clearly visible on his shoulders. His chest covered in medals and ribbons from years past.

They were both in military uniform, one a 16-year-old boy freshly into the USHSF Submariner Academy. The other, an old man who had seen war and used it to his advantage. Climbing the ranks until reaching the position of admiral, he was now in charge of the entire pacific fleet of the United States of America.

"Sir, respectfully I don't understand why I was flown away from the rest of the school to this little island in the pacific." Jack responded, this was his first year of Submariner school yet instead of training with the school like was done he was flown out to a naval base.

The room was well lit and the building was beautiful, he had just landed an hour ago and while he was exhausted he didn't have time to sleep. His belongings were taken from him and moved somewhere. It was hot, terribly hot and humid as a jungle. What more could you expect from the Pacific, the home of the world's largest ocean which hid secrets mankind had only begun to understand.

"Well you see Jack, your special. As I'm sure you know each year a select group is given a basic nuclear submarine, typically a Nautilus. Am I correct?"

"Yes sir! Am I receiving a Nautilus?" A smile grew on Jack's face, he dreamed of being on a nuclear submarine.

"No." The smile instantly vanished, and the admiral began to chuckle, the wrinkles on his old face showing.

"Your receiving a new submarine, a Skate Class to be exact." Jack's smile instantly shot back up causing the Admiral to chuckle once again. He would be receiving an improved version of the Nautilus, something he was extremely happy about.

He thought he might be assigned to something like a diesel submarine. They were typically cramped, hot, and smelled terrible but you had to suck it up.

"Thank you so much sir although why am I out here?" His voice was excited as hell, but he tried to keep some decent composure, he was in the company of an admiral after all.

"Well you and your crew are receiving special orders for a joint training exercise."

"Joint training exercise, between who?"

"You will be training with the Yokosuka Girls' Marine High School." The Admiral continued on his normal calm while Jack raised an eye brow. He had heard about them, they were the main Japanese school in charge of creating new 'Blue Mermaids'. A force of woman who patrolled the ocean and kept the seas safe.

After tectonic plates shifted and caused many parts of the world to submerge cities had been built floating which caused a need for maritime protection. From this Japan rose up and became one of the world's leading maritime powers, militarily and economically.

The US still reigned supreme in most of the world and he wasn't in a submariner school to join some over-glorified coast guard, he was gonna be a navy man.

"Understood sir, where and when do I head out?"

"You head out in a few hours; your crew will be waiting on the submarine for you. Regarding orders you shall receive them in a package found in your room along with a few other items. Your bags will be there as well including your new uniform, Captain!" Other items, what did he mean by this? Jack wasn't sure but he couldn't wait to find out.

"Understood! By the way what is the name of the submarine I'm taking?" While he knew the class and had a pretty good guess he wanted to make sure everything was clear.

"You are taking a modified Skate class, USS Pearl!" He said before standing up and walking towards the door.

"Yes sir!"

"Dismissed!" The admiral said as Jack snapped off a salute before walking out. It truly was hot on this little island, how it hadn't sunk when most of the islands around it evaded him.

He was carrying a small packet with him regarding a few facts on the submarine and his crew. While he might of known some of the people with him submariner school was massive with thousands of people. He would never know them all but the select few that served with him now would have a chance to join the service with their captain.

That single word; captain, made him feel fuzzy inside. He was in charge of a Nuclear Submarine for God's sake! He would command others on operations across the world and in his mind this was the best way to do so. He had plans, retire a Captain before getting married and moving on. He wasn't sure what to do about college considering he was going to be in the navy. They would pay for it but he needed to pick a subject and school first.

His stomach started to grumble, he hadn't eaten anything for a few hours and it was starting to be lunch. He looked around and noticed this one Navy restaurant next to the port. He figured he could just eat, review his small packet and then go find the USS Pearl.

As soon as he walked in he was greeted with a barrage of different smells. Sailors and marines were sitting everywhere eating and talking about a variety of different subjects.

Jack quickly walked to the nearest little restaurant and got himself a small Italian sub. His uniform was an exact copy of the dark blue submariner with only a small patch on the side denoting him as a student and without a ship assignment.

As he sat down he opened up the package and was greeted with a few papers showing his submarine and its contents.

USS Black Pearl

Modified for School use

Type: Nuclear Submarine

Displacement: 2,894 Tons

Length:267 ft

Beam: 25 ft

Draft: 21 ft

Propulsion: S4W Reactor

Speed: Surfaced 15.5 knots, Submerged 22 knots

Crush Depth: 950 ft

Sensors: BQQ-2, ESM mast, Periscope

Crew Size: 35, 8 Officers, 27 Enlisted

Armament: 8x21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft) 30 Mk 37 Torpedoes

He read through everything and looked over it again. The original version of the Skate class didn't have an ESM mast but the school deemed it as needed so hey, he wasn't complaining.

Only a crew of 35 though, was he running a skeleton crew or something? His crew would definitely be working hard, he had so many things to think about including the fact that in a nuclear submarine most of your time would be spent underwater. He wouldn't get to see the sun too often but he was prepared, mentally and psychically for this.

He kept reading through until he got to the thing he really wanted to find, the crew list. He hoped he was at least familiar with a few members of the crew.

Captain Jack Cutter

XO Lieutenant Robert Ellis

COB Command Master Chief Petty Officer David Halsey

Chief Navigator Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Thompson

Independent Duty Corpsman Lieutenant Junior Grade David Adler

Sonar Technician Lieutenant Junior Grade Mark Carson

ET-Comm Petty Officer First Class George Brady

Pilot Lieutenant Junior Grade Nicholas Fletcher

Chief Nuclear Technician Lieutenant Junior Grade Scotty Cooper

Weapons Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Jake Ackerson

The list went on for another 21 names before coming to an abrupt halt. As he skimmed over he recognized a few names while others he had never heard off in his life.

He had met his XO on a few occasions, they both grew up in different towns outside of Seattle and had met each other when their schools competed in different sports.

Other than that he only knew his pilot and Chief Nuclear Technician, the later hailing from Scotland and having a distinct accent denoting so. Oh how Jack couldn't wait to say that famous line from Star Trek, one of his favorite TV shows. The man was a damn genius and knew everything there was to know about anything nuclear.

They had all been taught the basics of fission and such other things on the submarines they had been on as part of their training but that man was something else.

He noticed all their ages, most of them were 16. He could guarantee that If you told someone 30 years ago that 16-year old's would be in charge of battleships, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines that they would have sent him to a mental ward but here they were.

Funny how a massive disaster like the tectonic plate changes could affect a society and their culture so drastically in such a small amount of time.

Either way he couldn't wait to meet his crew. He hoped they would all get along just fine considering where most of the people were from. While most were from the States you had a few like Scotty, who were international.

Most people in this day and age weren't prejudiced or anything and considering that for some reason they were an all-white crew he didn't figure there would be any problems.

After going through a few more pages regarding the submarine including they layout and general drawings of the equipment being used including an essay on the Mk 37 torpedo he was finished.

There was a thing about using the Mk 37 torpedo that sort of felt knew to him. They all knew how to use torpedoes but only the nuclear ones would get something that equipped passive and active sonar so he only had two classes teaching about it.

He also noticed one small thing on the bottom of one page. There was a patch with the USS Skate sown into it along with skull and crossbones above with your stereotypical pirate hat. Even though his submarine wasn't the skate it was of the same class and identical in look. The patch was pretty dark and he guessed that in calling the sub the pearl they were trying to nail the fictional Black Pearl. Below was the motto Take her fast, take her deep, take her where the fishes sleep.

He chucked slightly when he saw this. It was completely true as he would want the submarine to be deep, fast, and never be seen. It was the way a true submarine battle should be fought with no one being seen.

The submarines would also run silent when ordered to which meant that all non-essential equipment was turned off and the crew wouldn't talk. This would decrease how loud the submarine was and hopefully help them sneak up or run away from someone.

Your passive sonar would be used to detect noises heard through the water. A person can hear much higher and lower pitched noises underwater and special equipment could do so at a much higher frequency. Now your active sonar sends out a wave in the form of sound and when it hits an object it deflects back. You could calculate the distance of a target from you and therefore its speed and trajectory giving you a shooting solution.

The sounds heard from active sonar are almost always distinct and a well-trained sonar technician could tell the difference between another submarine, ship, whale, or even a rock outcrop. The main problem with active sonar was that since it uses sound it can be heard and tracked, effectively giving your position away.

Your ESM mast would be raised to intercept any radio signals and could give an accurate location on where that signal came from. The problem was that you needed to go to periscope depth to do so and it could be detected by radar.

The submarine had many sensors and he had been told that the commanders of nuclear submarines were given a few more bonuses. There was more room in the submarine, everyone got their own bunks with a small light although it was relatively small. Nicer food was given and the cook typically was skilled, unless you got on his bad side your food was good. The best thing in his opinion was that the submarine was integrated with a few aspects of modern technology such as a headset for every chief technician so they could communicate and an iPad. This iPad displayed information to the system it was connected to making everyone's lives easier and more mobile. A Captain could know what course they were at without needing to talk to the navigator as he would update it constantly.

Soon he had finished his sub and got up to find his submarine. He walked until he made it to the administrative office in charge of the ships positions. Jack found a short man who seemed to be typing away furiously on a computer, probably for a report.

Jack snapped to a salute as he opened his mouth to speak; "Hello sir, I'm Captain Jack Cutter of the USS Pearl."

"Well hello! Look I don't have much time so let's make this quick, are you looking for your ship?" The man hadn't even looked up from his computer as he responded.

"Yes sir!"

"Alright head to submarine dock 6, it's about five minutes away from here!" He said as he quickly took out a map and handed it to the boy who took it before he rushed out of the room. He didn't want to bother that guy any more than he had too.

He walked through the port and looked at all the ships, destroyers and frigates mainly with one submarine. As he walked past it he continually stared at it, a Virginia Class!

It was so sleek and beautiful, stealthy and equipped with the most advanced technology in the world. He would never want to fight against one as he knew he would get taken out before he knew it was even there. Oh how one day he hoped to be a Captain of one of those, hell maybe even a new class if everything went well.

Eventually though he did see his submarine, its gray, black, and red colors over the sub. A flag with the submarine insignia was flying above and he had to admit it looked cool but other than that there was nothing.

The submarine was still beautiful and while it didn't have the teardrop hull like modern submarines it was still faster underwater.

He could see the rudder just poking at the calm, blue, surface of the water. The two bow planes tucked up so as not to hit the wall. They would be lowered into their normal positions right after they got into some decently open water. They would be taken out by tugboats until they could sufficiently maneuver and head into the open ocean.

The masts weren't completely lowered so he glanced over the list to identify what was what. He quickly was able to pick up the ESM and periscope but some of the smaller things took him a few seconds.

There was a walkway extending over to the submarine and at the end stood a boy Jack recognized. It was his XO, Lieutenant Robert Ellis! They both locked eyes for a moment before Jack walked over to him and onto the submarine. The cold, hard, metal felt different beneath his boots. A wave of excitement rushed through his body and he couldn't help but smile.

"Captain!"

"Lieutenant!" They both stood at attention and saluted each other before Jack gave Robert a handshake. Just because they were in a submariner program didn't mean they couldn't be friends. Jack recognized the need to keep an aura of formality between his crew but he also wanted everyone to be somewhat relaxed.

"Sir, may I be the first to formally welcome you aboard the USS Pearl!"

"Thanks Lieutenant, it's great to see you once again!"

"Same, so sir would you like to go inside?"

"Na I'll just stay out here for the rest of my life."

"Roger that, right this way sir!" They both laughed as the got up into the sail and climbed down into the sub. All movement stopped as they got on and everyone immediately looked at them until someone shouted those magic words.

"Captain on deck!"

Everybody immediately shot to attention and delivered a salute, Jack simply returned one as he walked over to his chair sitting in the middle of the control room. His eyes were scanning his surroundings the entire time, he felt the cold air inside. He thought he would feel a bit odd to know that he would be with this crew for the next few months stuck inside a giant metal tube.

He turned on the intercom system, the headset was attached to the standard navy hat and was in his room along with his proper uniform.

"All hands, I am your Captain Jack Cutter. I look forward to spending this year with y'all!" He went through the typical speech of how he wanted the ship run and so forth until finally finishing off with how he wanted the head of every department to come onto the command center within the next two minutes.

"Lieutenant do you mind If I call you Robert?" It was typically a break from formality not to refer to someone as their rank but he didn't care.

"Yes sir!"

"Good, now Robert I'm going to go to my quarters and grab a few items before returning. I expect everyone to be here upon my return, understood?"

"Yes sir!" With that Jack went over to his stateroom and grabbed what he presumed was his orders and changed into his new uniform. It was softer than the school issued one and he got to wear tennis shoes, they were believed to be quieter and safer for the wearer.

His room wasn't as large as the ones on the ships, but it was still large nonetheless. Considering the small crew they took out most of the crew quarters and replaced them with more room for torpedoes.

After grabbing everything he quickly made his way back to the command center where the department heads were waiting for him. As soon as he climbed down the steep ladder down all of the sailors saluted once more.

"Alright guys, can we please go down the line starting off with Robert."

"I'm Lieutenant Robert Ellis, as you all know I'll be your XO."

He was a relatively tall guy, 6' and had brown hair with bright blue eyes and a gaze that seemed to switch between friendly and angry every few seconds.

"Command Master Chief Petty Officer David Halsey, I'm the COB."

He was almost exactly like Robert except for him being 2 inches taller and starting to grow a beard, regulation meant you needed to be groomed at all times.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Thompson, I'll be your chief navigator."

He looked almost scarily German and while he was only 5'11 he still had an intimidating build, he spoke surprisingly soft though.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade David Adler, I'll be your corpsman so I'll probably be seeing y'all soon." He chuckled slightly when he said this and it was true, heads were cut quiet often on the sharp metal.

"Petty Officer First Class George Brady, I'll be your ET-Comm."

While he wasn't an officer he would still be in charge of all communications and electrics so if anything with electricity running through it went wrong he could fix it.

"I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Mark Carson, I'll be your chief sonar technician. Most people call me Sonar though, can't wait for us to have some fun this year.

A 5'11 15-year-old whose amber eyes seemed to shoot around the room at every noise made, it honestly didn't surprise Jack one bit considering he was in charge of literally hearing everything outside the submarine considering the small crew.

"Hey, I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Nicholas Fletcher and I'll be your pilot." The funny thing about the Pearl was that it only required one pilot due to its modern upgrades. He basically had control over everything related and had the assistance of a computer to do so, he would just plug in the information and there it would go.

That was only a little bonus that the nuclear crew got to prepare them for the newer submarine models after the Virginia class which were set to come out in a few years.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Scotty Cooper and I'll be your chief nuclear technician, it'll be great to work with you once again Captain."

"Glad I can say the same Scotty!" It was funny how much of a resemblance Scotty had to Simon Pegg, the actor that played Scotty in the Star Trek movies years ago.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Jake Ackerson and I'm your weapons officer, if you want something blown up just give me a call!" The way he said those last few words sort of unnerved Jack as the light reflected off of Jake's silver eyes.

"Well good to know and as I said earlier I'll be glad to work with you this year. As we speak we are currently being taken out by tug boats until we get into a sufficient amount of water for us to maneuver so let's go over our orders." Jack said this as he opened the small package.

He placed it on the table next to his chair and everyone crowded around to try and get a glimpse.

USS Pearl

Official Orders

Classified

If you are reading this then you have successfully boarded your new nuclear submarine and our heading out into the open ocean. You are to head to coordinates of 34°19'09.9"N 139°18'34.3"E. Once you are within 10 miles of here you will begin your exercise.

Your exercise will be with the Yokosuka Girls' Marine High School. They are a maritime school in charge of producing sailors for the Japanese 'Blue Mermaids'. Your goal will be to arrive in the general area and begin searching for any and all military ships belonging to the WW2 Era.

We have received permission from the Japanese for you to use torpedoes, as you know the training torpedoes will lightly impact a ship or submarine. Depending on the size and a number of other factors the vessel hit will calculate damage using on board computer. Your goal is to sink 20 ships before having to re-arm.

You will be able to re-arm on a US submarine tender located at 33°48'34.7"N 138°43'33.9"E. The ship will be at these coordinates once you send out a message specifically asking it to be there, it's callsign will be AS-40.

After re-arming you are too continuing to engage ships until you have 5 torpedoes left at which point you will return to Guam for debriefing. All previous orders are canceled immediately.

This will be a potentially dangerous mission; radio silence is to be made unless absolutely necessary. Good luck and bring the Pearl back in one piece!

Admiral Scott Tidd, Principal of the USHSF Submariner Academy

They had all read their orders and were intrigued, they couldn't wait to go out. They would be fighting technically inferior and, in their minds, personally inferior crews, at least in terms of the experience of the crew.

"Hey Steven, those coordinates where are they?" Robert asked as Steven took off to his sector. They knew they'd be heading to Japan but it wasn't like they had the coordinates memorized. Each of them spoke a variety of languages, Japanese was required ever since It became the world's second largest economic and military powerhouse.

He returned after inputting the coordinates into the onboard computer which was connected to GPS. "It's off the coast of Tokyo near an island called Niijima!"

There onboard computer would only work when surfaced so the navigator had to know how to use a map. While Steven was an expert with one he still didn't want to take the time to do so, why waste time?

Either way there was a somber look among the officers as they knew what they were about to do. Jack sat down on his chair and put on his hat on before connecting his headset to the submarine intercom system.

"Crew of the USS Pearl, this is your captain speaking. We have just received orders to head to the coast of Japan off Tokyo. We will be conducting an exercise with the Yokosuka Girls' Marine High School. It will take us around 72 hours to arrive at our location so I would like everyone to get to your stations. As we are speaking the tugboats have successfully pulled us out into open water." He finished off his words as soon as the two bow planes were released into position.

As soon as they were released from the tugboats orders were immediately thrown around and the submarine prepared to dive. There was an aura of excitement as they slipped below the waves. Everything was sealed for the obvious reason that no one wanted to have any problems with flooding.

"Set depth 100 meters, ahead full!" Jack ordered through his headset with exactment. These were his first maneuvering orders of his new career and he couldn't wait to say more.

"Set depth 100 meters, ahead full maneuvering aye!" Nicholas said as he began to speed up the submarine and start its dive. The submarine would typically cavitate around 91 meters so they would get a full 9 meters clearance. While this wasn't much it wasn't like they were expecting to get into any combat.

Typically in the British Navy when a submarine was at ahead full it was the fastest it could go but for the Americans flank speed was faster. This would waste fuel and could damage or wear down the engines but seeing as they were now using nuclear power they didn't need to worry as much.

The ballast tanks immediately began taking in water until they were only slightly at negative buoyancy and the bow planes shifted making the decent easier. Within minutes they had dove to their target depth. They were to continue along like this until they reached their destination or until something got their attention.

The sensors were pretty much all turned off aside from the BQQ-2 which was constantly running on passive sonar. They did have a periscope but you would have to be at 40 ft. also known as periscope depth for it to work for obvious reasons.

"Alright Steven plot me a course to our destination." Jack ordered as Steven immediately walked over to his map and began taking calculations based on their position. Within a minute he plotted a course and opened his mouth to speak.

"Sir, course recommendation bearing 87, continue ahead full." His desk was full of different instruments to calculate when and where they were.

"Make course 87, continue ahead full!" Jack ordered as Nicholas turned the Pearl into the proper position.

"Alright guys we're on our way now so everybody just relax and enjoy yourselves." Jack joked, they would now have 72 hours of waiting in front of them.

"Sir, requesting that the crew takes shifts to make sure their bunks are in order."

"Of course, Robert but I want everyone doing it in shifts and for them not to take too long, we don't exactly have a big crew."

"Thanks sir!"

"Sir regarding the crew, why do we only have 35?" David asked with a troubled yet curious tone.

"You know that we are always given smaller crews to increase the experience hours per person yet I understand your concern considering a school submarine usually runs with around 60."

"I would also like to recommend a test dive and minor trials on the way up there to find the limits of this sub."

"Noted, let's just make sure everyone gets settled in before we do anything and speaking of getting ready I'm gonna go set my stuff up, understood?"

"Yes sir!"

With that Jack got up and headed over to his stateroom. Robert was left in charge of the boat until he got back.

As soon as Jack walked into his room he shut the door behind him before taking a good look at his new room. He had only glanced at it before so getting to actually get a decent look at it was nice. It wasn't the biggest thing but it was bigger than everyone else's rooms and in the case of the crew, bunks.

He had his bunk which was soft and had decent covers over it along with his desk and a seat. Along the walls were charts of the world, a phone, clothes, pictures of the Pearl, and a model of it.

His desk was neatly covered in paper he hadn't gone through yet along with a few other basic sheets.

Either way his room was nice and he simply laid down just to enjoy how soft the bed was compared to his flight over. To be honest he was exhausted and needed to sleep but he couldn't he had things to do, soon his deployment would truly start. He was ready for combat and couldn't wait to prove his crew against the Japanese, all he could do for now though was wait.

Hey guys, thats the first chapter and their will be plenty more trust me!

I've had this on my computer for a little over a month now and these won't be updated as often as my other stories. Trust me the amount of chapters put up will increase very quickly within the coming weeks, I have three weeks till summer break. I've been busy with Crew and exams lately but they'll be over soon!

As always reviews are appreciated and if anyone has any information on any specific types of ships or submarines lmk!

I do not own Production IMS