Quote:
Originally Posted by D10
Interesting, i guess GRUMEC is going to have a lot of work
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Yes, indeed. I imagine GRUMEC as the Special Operations Force primarily associated with the faction in the Brazilian military investigating the mysterious threat from beneath the sea in a scientific manner.
After the Petrobras 36 disaster in 2001, I imagine that there were numerous unanswered questions and anomalous reports connected to it. The Navy would have suspected sabotage, terrorism or something of that nature, but the investigation would have ruled out any plausible human agency.
Still, sonar operators and hydrographers in the Submarine Command would have found plenty of anomalous measurements and inexplicable equipment failure in the region. And while no other evidence could've found to substantiate it, there would be confused eyewitness reports from survivors of the Petrobras 36 disaster about 'masked intruders in diving gear' or even 'monstrous figures' aboard. These were classified while they were believed to possibly point to a terrorist attack, but nothing ever supported that theory.
Between 2001-2005, the Navy would have used any scientific hydrographic research vessels, as well as submarines, to attempt to make sense of the errant measurements and equipment failures in the waters outside Rio. Covertly, as well, GRUMEC and the Marines of COMANF / the Tonelero battalion would have improved security around oil rigs. Nothing conclusive would have been found, but divers, submariners and scientists working at night or at significant depths, isolated from others, would get a creeping feeling of being watched, by coldly hostile beings.
Between 2006-2010, numerous small boats disappeared at night in the area, far more than usual for the boating traffick and weather. Larger vessels and oil rigs lost crewmen overboard, often with no other witnesses, and eventually larger vessels suffered inexplicable catastrophes or disappearances. The accidents and disappearances grew frequent enough for the Navy to suspect some form of piracy and draw up plans for interdicting small, stealthy boats.
As this went on, submariners and GRUMEC divers operating or training in the waters outside Rio reported strange encounters in the depths, with what appeared to be swimming humanoids far from any coast or other known vessels. Other reports, even less credible, were of underwater crafts of incredible stealth and speed.
The Navy even secretly contracted noted biologists to determine if sonar readings might possibly be aquatic animals displaying previously unknown behaviour. Until 2009, no Brazilian Navy vessel or diver managed to close wth the unknown entities, though several apparent accidents where divers were lost shortly after a strange report made senior officers very nervous. As did the loss of the survey vessel
Taurus, in a fierce unseasonal storm in 2008, especially as
Taurus had reported malfunctioning electronics before the storm and lost radio contact abrubtly.
In 2009, however, the submarine
Tupi was lost with all hands.
Tupi had been working with divers from GRUMEC investigating a wrecked civilian ship, lost under mysterious circumstances, and sent several reports of increasingly incredible nature, including, in the penultimate radio communication, a report that they had launched torpedos against an unspecified threat. The final message indicated that the
Tupi had destroyed an enemy craft and was working to recover several humanoid remains.
In the decade since, there have been numerous encounters between Brazilian Navy vessels and mysterious undersea threats. GRUMEC commandos and Marines supporting them have also boarded multiple drifting vessels where the crew have either disappeared or been murdered, on occasion firing on humanoids found aboard.
Wounded enemies generally dive overboard, but the Navy has captured several bodies for disection. Unfortunately, most of the bodies decay rapidly when brought on land, especially into modern laboratories far from where they were taken, and several have proved to be merely humans or aquatic animals with rare diseases.
It is believed, however, that there is a secret unit of the Navy that analyzes evidence from such encounters while aboard floating laboratories in the waters where they were taken, using specially designed simple and robust devices better able to survive whatever seems to interfere with modern electronics. What they have found, however, seems to be still classified, perhaps because none of their findings are replicable in other laboratories, making peer review impossible.
This suggest several questions.
1) What kind of weapons, sensors and other devices might the Brazilian Navy mount on its vessels to defend from aquatic threats from below?
2) How do you defend submarines from Deep Ones?
3) What kind of specialized weaponry might GRUMEC have in this setting that they don't in reality, for underwater encounters with hostile humanoids? If the Brazilian Navy needed underwater weapons, would they buy
H&K P11, one of the Russian designs like the
APS (if they are even available for export), the Norwegian MEA supercavitating ammo offered in several common calibers or would they develop something of their own?