| Fall of Impervious |
| Summary: | The last minutes of the Destroyer Impervious (DD-214) and the actions of her DCO. |
| Date: | 03/01/2013 (OOC Date) |
| Related Logs: | None |
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| Destroyer Impervious (DD-214) in Dry Dock at CMF Klemens |
| October, 1996 |
Garrido ached all over. His throat felt like someone had taken steel wool and shoved it cleared down to his stomach, and he couldn't help stumbling a bit as he walked towards the engineering section of Impervious. His left shoulder was raw, ripped open and bleeding through wounds that had not quite been cauterized when the steel grating slammed into his arm. The steel was white hot and had immediately burned through clothing and flesh before Augie could rip it away and throw it to the deck.
But adrenaline kept him moving.
The destroyer shuddered again, shaking underneath it's own weight as the klaxons sounded long and loud into the empty hallways. Even as Augie worked deeper into the bowels of the ship, he could tell by the number of bodies that he was getting closed to his destination. He had to get the engines off line. Even if they had been set to a cooling cycle while they were dry dock, if the fires and explosions aboard the destroyer breached the reactors, not only would the ship be lost, but so would the ships around it - possibly a large chunk of the shipyards.
More explosions rocked the hallway as him and his small team made their way down it. Debris flew through the air and clattered off the walls, then rained down to the floor. A thick haze of smoke filled the air, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Augie laid on his side, blinking away the blood trickling down his forehead and into his eyes.
He tried to get to his hands and knees to stand, but he couldn't quite manage it.
A Marine grabbed his arm. "Come on, sir, you just got your bell rung."
The Marine was right. Augie could hardly focus on the grating of the floor right under him. He leaned against the Marine's body armor, struggling to keep under his own power. The thick haze was starting to clear. Augie broke away from the Marine so he could take a good look around at where he was.
Swallowing, Augie rubbed his sleeve over his face to get the blood off. He could feel the warm trickle of more soming. "Where's Finnegan?" he asked, looking around for the engine technician that was just with him.
"Finnegan's dead, sir." the Marine who'd just helped Augie to safety reported. "He fell over the railing in that last explosion."
"Frak." Augie said, pushing himself fully to his feet again. "This mission just got a lot more fun."
He started to make his way back towards the engines again, struggling along the hallway. The marines that were with him had been pressed into service as a makeshift damage control team as Augie found them. Those that were not injured and had relatively good gear stayed with him. Those that were lightly wounded tended and assisted out the more heavily wounded.
"How are we going to get stop the engines, sir?" the Marine with him asked as they kept moving towards the back and reached the engine room.
Opening the door, the eight engines of Impervious laid in two rows of four. Each was the size of a diesel locomotive. Augie looked them over, and then down, passed the portals in the ship, to the ocean below. "We're gonna blow them out." he finally said.
"What?" the shocked sounding Marine asked. "Blow them out?"
"You'll see!" Augie yelled back. And with that, he started down the stairs towards the engines. "Frak, I hope I know what I'm doing.." he muttered to himself as he ran downwards. As he reached the engines, he immediately started to cold cycle the first and eighth engines. He studied the gauges and went over to the panel and left the ship in standstill, but started to cycle up the engines to full power. "Once these two overheat and blow, the others will go with them! I hope." he said. As new alarms from the engines themselves started to go off, Augie yelled. "Go! Abandon ship! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!" he yelled into the comm. "All hands to life stations!" With that, he turned to the Marine. "It's time for us to go, too." Augie started towards the stairs, heading up them first as the Marine followed.
Just then, there was another massive explosion, and the back of Impervious broke as the engines overheated and blew out, pushing through the steel plate and started to tumble towards the water below. Sections of the ship were straining against the ribs of bulkheads along the surface, and already splits in the skin exposed the sky below. As they snap and broke along their fields, the wires within them snapped and twanged, almost harmonious as they snapped and tore apart within the ship.
As the stairs they were on buckled, Augustus leaped forward and grabbed a hold of the grate and stair railings. He turned to grab the Marine, but he was not there.
The Marine was plummeting with the engines, screaming in horror as he realized his death was approaching rapidly in that ocean of water, metal and flame. Augie pulled himself up to the deck and let out a breath and a quick prayer to the gods that the ferryman has taken enough payment today, thank you.
He stopped as he stumbled towards one of the last lifestations and hauled himself inside of it. He was bleeding, his arm was numb from the pain, and he was only barely conscious when he hit the 'Eject' switch and the station blew clear of the Impervious and fell towards the ocean below.
As he looked out of the port window, he went numb as he watches Impervious break in half in her dry dock. The ship groaned against the mooring posts holding it up, breaking the cement and steel columns as they started to fall towards the ocean as well.
Noone knew what caused the first fire aboard Impervious. Three years later, the official report would blame a mixture of poorly stored paints and welding equipment that was not properly stowed coupled with the nearby ammo stowage causing the first blasts. Whatever it was, that first blast was a death kneel to the destroyer, that was in dry-dock in the Scorpia Shipyards.
Lieutenant JG Augustus Garrido was awarded the Bronze Cluster for bravery for his actions that day. It was the same day he still tries to block out of his mind.