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[MSpencer]

The loss of one of the Atlantian Navy's modern nuclear attack submarines in November of 2004 was certainly an event which could never be ignored. The AES Encounter, the official report stated, while undergoing testing trials for a new drive system, was assigned to the 3rd Submarine Group, 1st Submarine Flotilla, under Rear Admiral Muselier. On the date of 21 November 2004, she dove in preparation for testing purposes, in order to do a deep run of the new gas exchange system for the Swordfish Improvement Program scheduled for completion in FY07. SSN-224 continued her descent to a depth of 415 meters, near the limit of the ship's endurance, in order to test the recovery capability of the Block III engine system. At about 1217 hours local time, SSN-224 ENCOUNTER experienced a detonation in the main engine room due to unknown causes. It is suspected a faulty valve caused the release of heated air into the compartment, causing a violent explosion as the pressurized systems were compromised. By 1630 hours local time, Group Command sent numerous messages to SSN-224 with negative response. The submarine was declared lost three days later. An exhaustive attempt to locate the wreckage was undertaken, but to no avail. The only artifacts recovered included an emergency buoy released at roughly 1219 hours containing an automatic system failure report which was later discovered to have been released as the ship reached crush depth. Aboard ENCOUNTER on the day of her disappearance were Dr. Chevillon, an experimental propulsion expert, and Admiral Delestraint, commander of 1st Submarine Flotilla.

The real story was far from the official doctrine. In reality, the AES Encounter had not undergone an accident. Instead, she had been removed completely from the books, and all records of her disappearance had been erased. Her real mission was something quite a bit more dark. She now served as a testbed for new technologies, and could be found, when appropriate, tied up in a small port on an uninhabited, relatively unknown barrier island with a small airstrip on it. Every time she would pull up to port, three unmarked, unnamed, unscheduled, unserialized 737s would land at the airstrip, drop off unmarked supplies and personnel, and take personnel back with them from a "routine posting" as a "specialist" on a research vessel. In addition to testing, she served as the main support vehicle for independent special operations operatives, and sported a fairly large storage space for a single vehicle. In times of emergency, the Encounter could be found prowling the oceans on urgent courier missions for the highest levels of command.
September 13th was no different.
On 10 September 2006, ENCOUNTER received orders to head at best possible speed to rendezvous with the AES Atlantis. The rendezvous would be quite stealthy, a burst communication would be sent from the submarine to the carrier announcing coordinates for a meeting. Then, a sworn-to-secrecy pilot, forced to do a "blue milk run", the delivery of a "specialist" to a "regular old attack boat", would fly the VIP to the submarine. He would also pick up an equally important person and fly them back to the carrier, for an immediate flight to Patal to meet with Marshal Teitgen himself.
The man leaving the DAR was none other than the recently deceased Field Marshal Molders, who had died in a tragic partisan attack which claimed the life of his "driver" and "political aide". A Molotov and a vintage anti-tank grenade had been used, along with a liberal amount of bullets, making the three bodies impossible to identify. The vehicle had then been dumped into the ocean near the northern flank of the 2nd Army. Entering the country would be a nobody. Eyes. Ears. A man who was known by very few, and could certainly pick up on future plans and act as a spy in a bureaucracy of an autocracy. The special operations submarine would help him in his task, ferrying funds and operatives back and forth from Aesania, the assembly place for deep cover operatives. After one week, he would go about spreading dissent by proxy, setting up partisan cells and paving the way for the destruction of the fascist regime. The people had been reached, they now needed a way to rise up against the foe.