Operation Titanium Viper

JANUARY, 2014 -- THE PACIFIC OCEAN

EXT. JUNGLE COASTAL AREA -- NIGHT

The two zodiacs had cut their engines just before going over the reefs, and the Navy Seals had silently paddled in the darkness the last two hundred meters or so,into a short sandy beach. On either side of the short spit of sand that served as the beach here were mangroves thickets that reached out into the lagoon blocking casual access to the beach from either side. The gnarly twisted roots of the thick trees easily concealed predators, and although he had the best night vision gear available, He couldn't see beyond the first few trees of the mangrove. Captain Eric Jackson was certain their were venomous snakes in those thickets, and erring on the side of caution, presumed it also likely saltwater crocodiles were present as well, concealed just under the surface of the shallow lagoon water that was lapping gently at the base of the gnarly root strewn seaside forest. He wasn't looking forward to this. At all.

The two teams carried their CRRC Zodiacs in up past the high tide mark and into the coastal dunes, then silently formed a fire perimeter atop the dunes immediately around the two boats. Two men silently went back to mark out the footprints in the sand left by their beaching, and two more went forward into the jungle to reconnoiter the lay of the land.
Only the sound of lightly buzzing night insects and the louder breakers collapsing on the nearby coral reefs could be heard.



Sargeant Hall affixed an earpiece into his ear, and hooked it up to the backpack he was carrying. He took out tripod and a fan device, setup the tripod and deployed the fan into an umbrella, which he then setup on the tripod. He pulled a large handheld unit out of the backpack, switched it on, dialed the access code, and then plugged it in to the umbrella antannae. Then he switched it off, switched it on again, redialed the access code again, and then looked very unhappy.



The other team members laying nearby on the dunes signaled No on Comms.


Captain Jackson paused... In the two years Sgt. Tavares had been with Seal Team Five he had never even hesitated at taking point, and had never ever called for a MISSION ABORT, even that time when they went into the Hindu Kush north of Jalalabad. Only half the team returned from that mission uninjured, Tavares himself had been hit twice with 7.62 rounds, and at no time then did Sgt. Tavares's voice sound like it did just now. They were in some serious trouble.


Everybody looked up into the mostly clear night sky. All the familiar stars were in the wrong place.

The Constellations and stars were up there all right, they just weren't where they were supposed to be in the night sky. The Constellations were too far North, and too far East, and there were a few stars Jackson thought he knew, that would only be visible if they were much much closer to the equator, and near the southern hemisphere. He involuntarily sat down in place momentarily stunned by this revelation.


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Less than five minutes later Sargeant Tavares, the point scout showed up. Without ceremony, Sgt. Tavares dropped the bloodied corpse of a two-legged long-tailed reptile, one that would stand about 1/2 of a Meter tall if it were alive. It looked remarkably like a small Tyrannosaurus Rex, with small taloned foreclaws, and oversized teeth larger than that of a German Sheppard.



Captain Jackson picked up the bloody dinosaur corpse and looked it over.



EXT. PACIFIC OCEAN DAY -- MID-MORNING
The two zodiacs, tied together now, were bobbing on the open ocean in the warm morning sunshine. A thin streak of green in the hazy distance seperated the sea from the sky. Beyond that almost behind the distant lands, the clouds overland were welling up into storm clouds... distant patches of the open ocean were obscured by meandering sea squalls that had sprung up shortly after sunrise. The scheduled rendevous with the Seawolf class attack submarine U.S.S. Jimmy Carter had long since come and gone, with no sign of the long sleek attack submersible.

With a length of 451 feet, the Jimmy Carter was almost a hundred feet longer than her two sister boats, The Seawolf and the Connecticut. This was because when the submersible was being built, it was fitted with an additional section known as the MMP, or Multi-Mission Platform, that allowed the submarine to launch and recover ROV's and Navy Seal Forces. In addition the boat had an underwater splicing chamber built in, useful for tapping undersea fiberoptic cables. The Jimmy Carter could make well over eighteen knots while surfaced, and over twenty-five knots submerged. She could cruise indefinitely until the crew needed to make port to take on food, water, and other provisions, dive to 600M easy, and for this mission carried a standard complement of twenty-four 660mm Torpedoes, Thirty-Six UGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, Twelve UGM-84 Harpoon ship-to-ship missiles, and two nuclear-tipped 660mm Torpedoes. But there was no sign of her.


The young sargeant shrugged...



A cheer went up from the seal teams in both Zodiacs.



DAY -- SUBMERGED U.S.S JIMMY CARTER -- ROV LAUNCH BAY


The Navy Seals stood around in a loose semi-circle on the open deck area of the ROV/CRRC launch bay. The submarine captain and the first officer had been waiting to greet them. Captain Jackson was surprised there were no other Navy personnel active in the launch bay. Usually they had plenty of help recovering and stowing the Zodiacs as the sailors would collect in the launch bay during any mission just to find out what had happened. The submarine captain displayed no outward sign of distress, however the abrupt change in informal docking protocol told the whole story.

If the submarine captain was surprised, he didn't show it.


Captain Jackson briefed Captain Oakley on the details of the Seal Teams aborted asset recovery mission.