Navy Daze. F/F Military story. (Taken)

[Chrystal]

TAKEN

Navy Daze

Summary:

Inspired by and to a certain extent based on the Australian TV show "Sea Patrol" produced by Nine Network, this is intended to be a naval drama story, featuring two lesbians on board a small warship. The vessel pictured above is an Armidale class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy, of the same class that was featured in the TV series. The vessel has a crew of 21, which is about what I'm aiming for.

The story can be set in any country that has a navy, and allows gay people to join the armed forces (so no Muslim countries, and also probably eliminates Israel). But the other two main requirements for the setting are, obviously, that the country's navy has fast patrol boats similar in size to the Armidale or Fremantle class ships used by the RAN, and also that there can be some pretext for an actual armed conflict to occur, either with a neighbouring country or some internal crisis, or possibly getting involved in a neighbouring country's internal crisis. Note that this probably eliminates most Northern European countries too, unless we can come up with something really creative.

The plot:

We can either start this with our characters meeting for the first time, or we can have them in an existing relationship that they are so far keeping secret from the rest of the crew. Or anything in between... Something that might work well is if they know each other from somewhere else, and this is the first time they've met in a while, with one of them just being assigned to the ship.

The story starts with a regular patrol, the ship (which will be fictional) is just carrying out it's regular coastal patrol duties. But, either during this patrol, or subsequent to it, some sort of hostilities break out. The exact nature of the conflict can be discussed, and will be very much dependent upon the country the story is set in.

The point being, though, that an inexperienced crew is suddenly in a situation they have trained for but hoped never to actually encounter. The bigger ships of the country's navy - probably  frigates, destroyers, at most maybe a cruiser or two - will be mobilised and put to sea to do the actual fighting, but the patrol boats will have their part to play too.

And I want to have our ship hit by enemy fire, badly damaged, and neither character knows what has happened to the other.

The characters:

One character needs to be an officer. NOT the ship's captain, but maybe the navigator or engineering officer or gunnery officer. Will depend on the class of ship, which (again) will depend on the setting.

The other character will be a rating, possibly a Petty Officer, depending upon what the existing relationship between them is. Obviously, this creates a situation that would be unacceptable in nearly every military - fraternisation between officers and enlisted is almost universally frowned upon.

The two of them will be very much in love with each other. Whether that is pre-existing or they fall in love during the story is something we can discuss.

I don't see this story as including any BDSM elements, it would make things a bit awkward, but we could easily reverse the roles and have the rating be the "top" in the relationship, if you wish. The story would probably go in "light".

NPCs:

There will be around 20 to 30 other characters on the ship - even if we go with a fictional class of vessel, it will need a crew and a skipper. We can create some of these on the fly and some of them we may simply never encounter, but the Captain, First Officer (Executive Officer), and immediate colleagues of our two characters will need to be defined, and kept consistent. We can also create NPCs who are not part of the crew on the fly.

The Ship:

A small ocean going Naval patrol ship, similar to the Armidale Class patrol boat of the RAN. There are a wide variety of similar patrol craft in use throughout the world, so it doesn't have to be one of these, it's just that the Armidale class is the one that sort-of inspired the idea.

The ship will have a crew of between 20 and 30, divided into two watches (the naval equivalent of doing shifts), and our characters will be on the same watch. The ship will be armed, and carry live ammo, and could well get involved in shooting incidents prior to the actual conflict, possibly involving pirates or smugglers.

If you prefer we can invent a totally fictional class of vessel, based around the Armidale class.

The setting:

This is set present day or slightly in the future, technology is what we have today. The country our characters hale from must be a maritime nation - one with a navy and a coastline, for obvious reasons. A previous attempt at this idea that never got off the ground had the characters be part of the South African Navy, and the war that started was with Namibia.

A third-world setting will probably work best, as a non-industrialised country is less likely to have a big fleet and probably won't have battleships or aircraft carriers, and is also more likely to get into some brushfire war or border dispute with a neighbour.

If you have some preference, do let me know. Or alternatively, we can create a fictional country.

See the last post for another option setting this in Gibraltar.

What I Require:

I am after a female player, please. That's a lady, or a liege who identifies as female. If you are male and contact me about this idea you will be met with a polite but firm refusal.

I have the following additional requirements:

• Be willing to put up with my tectonic posting rate - by "tectonic" I mean it moves at the same speed as a continent. Glaciers move faster. I generally post anything between once a day and once a month. If I haven't posted for a week or two, please feel free to give me a nudge, and I will do my best to get something up for you.
• Be willing to respect my offs and include a few of my ons
• Be willing to discuss the story via PM in order to keep it moving, be willing to go back and edit things if they need to be changed to keep the story consistent or keep things realistic, or stay within each others ons & offs.
• Be capable of using a spelling checker, and willing to post at least 200-300 words at a time, preferably more.
• Be willing to move the story forward, be creative and imaginative, but not god-mode my character. You can move her around if the story requires it, but what she says, thinks and feels is my choice and mine alone.

I have those same requirements of myself.

If you are interested:

Please have a look at my O/O page and my recent posts (ignoring OOC ones as they don't really count) to see if you think we will be compatible, and if you do, then please send me a PM saying that you are interested in this idea. I will check out your O/Os and recent posts and let you know.

Please be aware that I only roleplay in the open forums, never by PM, email or IM.

I will only mark this idea as "taken" when there are at least two posts, one each, in the story thread.

[Chrystal]

A little more information regarding the option to set this story in South Africa.

The above is a Warrior class fast attack vessel (actually a Sa'ar class missile boat of the Chilean navy), of which the South African navy currently has three in commission, and a fourth undergoing a major refit.

These vessels are used for offshore patrol work. The crew of 45 is a little larger than I would like, but it's workable. The ships were designed and most were built in the 1970s and 1980s before major advances in automation were made. These days a small warship can actually be operated by a single person although it is usual to have a decent sized crew in case of injury or damage, plus the person in charge is thus able to concentrate on making decisions rather than actually steering or firing the weapons. But increased automation has resulted in a reduced crew size.

So, our girls would be somewhat anonymous in this crew of 45 which might actually be an advantage.

So what provokes the war with Namibia?

Well, in the North-West of the Republic Of South Africa is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. This park crosses the border into Botswana and abuts the border with Namibia. The scenario I have envisaged is as follows:

A group of park rangers come across a band of heavily armed poacher/smugglers illegally hunting protected animals (possibly Elephants) in the park. They engage them and the poachers fight back. The rangers call for assistance and the nearest help available is a unit of SADF troops on a routine border patrol. These troops come to the assistance of the rangers and in the face of this combined force, the poachers retreat. The SA forces pursue them.

Unfortunately, the border between Namibia and South Africa in this wilderness area is defined by a couple of dirt tracks running parallel to each other. In their pursuit of the poachers, the SA forces accidentally cross the border into Namibia. They find the poachers' base and attack it, onl;y to suddenly find themselves being attacked by Namibian armed forces.

Namibia claims self defence, saying that South Africa has invaded their territory and demand the immediate surrender of the invaders to face criminal charges. The South Africans insist that a) it was a genuine mistake and b) why is Namibia harbouring illegal poachers? They declare that unless their people are given free safe passage back to the border and Namibia hands over the poachers for criminal prosecution, there will be trouble.

Things rapidly get out of hand and so South Africa invades Namibia (again - they did so in the 1970s in order to stabilise the country and end a civil war).

And so, the SAN mobilise and sail North, their initial objective being the port of Lüderitz, where at least part of the Namibian navy is based. The port is also a strategic objective in it's own right. An amphibious force is being escorted by the bulk of the SAN ships, but the fast attack boats are to go in first and make mincemeat of the enemy defences. At least, that's the plan!

As I said in the first post, my idea is that our ship is hit by enemy fire and badly damaged, and neither character knows whether the other one is alive. What happens from there is something we should work out when we get there.

A knowledge of Afrikaans is not necessary. It would be interesting though if one character were black and the other white, especially if it were the officer who was black, and the rating was from a white family with a tradition in the SADF.

[Chrystal]

Giving this a bump, because I would love to see if I can't get it going?

[Chrystal]

The Royal Navy Gibraltar Squadron Scenario

This scenario was one I discussed with someone, we agreed the details, created characters, I did and opening post, and..........



............. Yeah, hate that! Not even a reply to my PM asking if she wanted to continue!

So, the game is still available if someone else wants to take it. And there is an opening post sitting there just waiting for a reply.

The scenario in question uses one of the Royal Navy's small fleet of River class OPVs. Pictured above is HMS Clyde. The ship in the story is going to be the fictional HMS Thames, identical in most ways.

The idea is that my character is the second officer/Operations & Warfare Officer on the ship, Lt Eileen Fletcher. Recently promoted to Lieutenant from Sub-lieutenant, this is her first overseas posting, but she does have experience on this class of ship, mostly doing fisheries patrols in the North Sea.

Your character is a Leading Seaman in the Engineering department, currently assigned to HMS Sabre in the Gibraltar Squadron. As you can see, HMS Sabre is basically an armed cabin cruiser! Your girl has also just been promoted and has requested a transfer to a bigger ship.

As it turns out, HMS Thames has just been ordered to the Mediterranean, attached to HM Forces Gibraltar, to increase the RN's presence in the Med, and to try and put a stop to an increase in piracy that is threatening British and allied shipping in the Med.

The opening post is here. Please have a read before deciding if you want to have a go at this one.

You will need to either have a degree of familiarity with the Royal Navy, or be willing to do the research necessary to gain that familiarity. Things to be aware of:

• Lieutenant is pronounced leftenant not lootenant
• The second in command is the First Lieutenent, called "Number One", and not the Executive Officer (XO)
• In the Royal Navy you only salute superior officers when wearing your cap, and as you take your cap off indoors, you do not salute indoors, unless you have just come in from outside and still have your cap on, but you do not expect a return salute.

I look forward to getting some more interest.

PLEASE NOTE: All previous requirements still apply!