Mission acursed

[tennozan]

Brace yourself lads for a tale of the bizzare which is haunting my current patrol.

Enroute to a patrol in the East China sea when we discover the rude behavior of a Japanese Betty bomber that slips in a little too close for comfort. We crash dive sucessfully and are safely down at 100 meters when we hear something go BOOM. Bomb? Go to camera and find what looks to be a firey patch marking an impact into the sea. Now I'm thinking it's the remains of the bomber since she's nowhere to be seen or heard. So I run for a bit submerged and think nothing further of it. Sad stuff really.

1,000 km onward. I'm enjoying a morning cup of joe on the bridge joking with the Chief (who by the way never cracks a smile at my humor) when I notice a fire and plume of smoke directly behind us. What the hell gives here?! The Chief seems nonplussed but I'm a bit weirded out by this. We dive again and run for a bit. Grease the torpedoes and listen to a new Bing Crosby LP. You've got to ac-centuate the positive, right?

Now I'm trying to shake off the cold fear of something out there that is hunting us from the grave. Convoy! General quarters - let's go to work! Good firing position but the escorts seem cagey - even though we are well hidden and very, very quiet. Fish are on their way and whoah, here come the bad boys for payback already. Good ears boys. Or is it eyes... with a sinking feeling in my gut I turn the scope 180 to see a plume of smoke directly behind us. Swearing, I order the scope down and dive deep as our fish hit home above. After the destroyers give us a good rodgering for a couple of hours, we manage to slink away.

Miles away we surface and like some wraith from the cold hell of Davey Jone's locker, the fiery plume of smoke follows us - aft at about 500 yards. We can't shake the damn thing.

Save game. A little sip for my nerves and then reboot. Back in the game and all looks normal again.

We are attacking again and it feels right. Troop ship escorted by lots of muscle. Great firing position and we feel good about sending Tojo an early Christmas present. Dang, why are the escorts racing right at us? No...please sweet mercy, no. I quickly swivel the scope around. No that's not my coffee splashing on the deck. The smoke plume from hell is chasing us and the destroyers must be drawn to it like collies to fresh bacon.

Boys, I'm not a superstitious sailor mind you but is something trying to reach me, harm me for what I've done to all those enemy bastards? I'm weighing anchor for the moment thinking about starting the game again but just a little nervous about all this.

Am I alone here? My crew doesn't see it - they show no sign of anything out of the ordinary when we are on surface. I think I'm cracking up. Maybe it's calling to me somehow to join with it and find peace way down there in the deep...