Collab between:[@NecroKnight]and[@Apollo26]

						
						[b]30°26'44.3"N 32°21'17.2"E[/b]
							[b]Suez Canal[/b]



Out of the entire Byzantion Maritime Patrol, only two captains were tasked with patrolling the Suez. It was a remote posting, nothing lived in the stretch of desert between Port Said and the Gulf of Suez. The coastline was littered with the burnt out factories and the oil wells of the middle east, either destroyed by raiders or the war. 

The "Neptune Scourge" a repaired and modified Spanish Meteoro class frigate, was one of the two ships that patrolled the narrow canal. The Meteoro class was orginally designed as a patrol boat, making it easily suited for patrolling the narrow and relatively shallow canal. With a displacement of nearly 2400 tonnes, the Neptune scourge had the power of a light frigate. 

Armament was its only problem, originally built with a 76mm main gun and multiple 20mm guns. The Scourge was retrofitted with two reloadable Exocet anti ship launchers, giving it the bare minimum for ship defense. The Lack of proper CWIS systems also worked to the detriment of the Neptune scourge as it had no way to defend itself from modern anti ship missiles. These problems were far from the minds of the crew. Who would possibly travel though the Suez? Beyond the Gulf of Aden is the Indian ocean, with weeks of travel in any direction. The desert around the Suez in near uninhabitable and undesirable. Everyone from the head of the navy down to raw recruits knew that traveling through the Suez was a waste of time and fuel without a purpose. 

Luca Braza, the captain of the Neptune Scourge eyed their sister ship in the binoculars as they sailed back towards the Mediterranean. The warning he received from the other captain still echoed in his head, challenging that age old belief about the Suez canal, ' Be alert, radar contact at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez'.
 
[color=00aeef]The ship that was coming through was nothing that either of the men of Byzantion might except in their wildest dreams to ever sail the seas. Although it did sail, under the flag of Britannia. Namely the ship in question was a battleship - similar to its counterpart of World War One, it had enough firepower to devastate any city it turned its cannons towards. 

Though far from being a hostile power, this ship in question had been mostly scouting through the coastal regions of Africa and had planned on swinging through the Suez on its way back to Britannia. Namely, as things were going - Britannia wanted to know, how many others had survived the nuclear annihilation four centuries later. The weakness of the older British Isles - was its misguided desire of being both rulers and dis-united from the world around it.

The Britannia of this era, practiced a bit of both - they still wanted to remain away, yet also have a more open hand in dealing with others. As such, a battleship would both demonstrate the power of Britannia to any wayward enemy and also any potential ally - that Britannia was a force to reckon with. Plus they weren't traveling alone as it was.

Currently, they were slowly moving through the Canal - keeping their equipment pinging for anything in the water. One could never be too careful here, since nobody could know how many mines or dead ships might have been sunk at the bottom of the Canal. The last thing they wanted was to join them, as such their powerful sonar was constantly blaring across the sea-floor and being a head-ache to their companions below.[/color]

Their sister ship was nearly five hours behind them at this point and the sun was just starting to touch the horizon, giving the terrain a slight red hue. Luca had his radar on passive mode, relying more on visual spotting than on the radar array. Being a patrol craft this makes sense, anything that could be out there would attack from the coast and countless patrols have proved that time and time again. 

The radar operator wasnt even looking at the radar screen and allowed the mystery ship to creep within 25 miles of the Neptune Scourge. The unmistakable ping of a sonar blast was the first indication that something was there, waking everyone up from the stupor of another routine patrol. 

"uhhh....sonar contact bearing......170," the radar operator barely got out before another ping could be heard. " bearing 165, distance........23 miles!" he finished with an alarmed tone. The man quickly switched screens to the close range radar array and tuned the radar out to the 20 mile limit. The room went silent as the first pulse registered on the screen, everyone saw the size of the radar contact coming the opposite way.

The sound of another sonar ping broke the silence on the bridge as alarms were immediately activated, waking up the night crews and brought everyone to battle-stations. The two Exocet missile launchers were loaded and the 76mm gun had its 8 round magazine full and ready to fire. 

" Radar contact classified as......a battleship?" the radar operator said in a questioning tone. " Unknown class and origin, something not from around here thats for sure..." he finished 

The captain and crew knew that they should be the only people out here. Seeing a battleship coming down the Suez was either a cause for alarm or hope. The BMP could not field anything that in the Suez and the closest battleships were at least two or three days away.If this ship was hostile, it could blow them away and be in the Mediterranean in a day and a half. 

[color=00aeef]As the battleship kept on moving forward, the battleship of Britannia picked up that they were also being signaled, as such the captain of the vessel also ordered his men into battle-stations. Compared to the BMP - the Britannian vessel, was much more organized...and had a lot more weaponry to fire back, should the opposition prove hostile.

Soon enough, the communication equipment on board the Neptune Scourge would start working - namely broadcasted on an open frequency. Although, four centuries of non-contact with their fellow human beings, left things...mostly in gibberish.

That was until, several other words started to be spoken - something that hadn't changed much in the years of naval development. "KILO. TANGO..." came the voice. Or in old International Code of Signals it was a basic 'I wish to communicate with you' yet also 'Keep clear of me'.

Well, at least they hadn't fired upon them - which the battleship could have accomplished. As of the current moment, the vessel kept on moving although it seemed to be on high-alert as well, as its naval cannons started moving back and worth - indicating that it was in a search-pattern for any active hostiles.
[/color]
It took a minute to process what Luca just heard. Kilo. Tango? What was that supposed to mean? He stared out at the horizon for a moment before the answer hit him. 

" They want to talk!" he said aloud in an excited tone, prompting laughs from the bridge crew. He started to hope that maybe they can all get out of this with their lives. The radio in the bridge crackled to life again, this time the voice of the lookout could be heard. " I see the Vessel, due south maybe 15 miles away, I dont recognize the flag its flying."

" All Stop and coast, then drop the anchor" Luca said calmly " and send them return message saying Kilo Tango as well", he said before wallking out to the walkway of the bridge. The Brittanian battleship could just barely be seen on the horizon with the naked eye. He waited what felt like ages as the Neptune scourge drifted closer towards the battleship, coming within 10 miles before dropping the anchor. The immense size of the battleship could be seen from even 10 miles away, its conning tower clearly visible on the horizon by the naked eye.

" Alright.....Now what...." Luca said with a heavy sigh before picking up the Walkway intercom Handset, dialing the crows nest. " Flash the "All is Well", flag signal. Tell me if they respond"

[color=00aeef]More of the vessel came into view, the closer it got - although it did appear to keep a respectful distance from them and not be on a collision course at the current moment. Namely soon enough the flag soon became visible - looking a bit familiar to the old flag utilized by the former Governor of Gibraltar.

Although if Gibraltar had such a large ship, then half of their nation would know about that. Rather enough, it likely belonged to somebody whom owned Gibraltar once - namely an old nation known as the United Kingdom. While their flag looked different, it had the same made and coloration from a distance.

As it happened, soon enough - a yellow flag was waved at them. Namely a signal for 'My vessel is "healthy" and I request free pratique'. Or in this case it could be translated to 'I am not a danger, requesting location of nearest port'. Perhaps they were traders similar to the BMP.
[/color]

"They returned the gesture.....and want to know the location of the nearest port?" the look-out finished with a question.

" Well, im sure the command at Port Said would love to see something like this". Luca said aloud before walking back through the bridge door and up to the sea chart. It would take 2 days for them to get back at normal speed, just enough time to get the larger ships of the BMP to the canal entrance. If this was a trap he could at least mitagate the risk by having some of the biggest ships in the fleet there.

Luca let out a long sigh before keying the intercom for the crows nest again " Flash an affirmative flag and then tell them to follow us" he finished flatly, looking up to meet the confused faces of the bridge crew.

" My ship, my decision" he quipped with a quick smile " What choice do we have" Luca finished with a chuckle. " Turn the ship around and fire and illumination flare off the stern, then make for Port Said at normal speed". 

The crew snapped into action and the Neptune Scourge quickly turned around. The Sun was about halfway below the horizon and the sand was now painted in an amber hue. The thud of an illumination flare could be heard before the area was suddenly bathed in blueish white light, the signal for " follow me".

As they were getting underway, a single coded message was sent over the long range radio. In the direction of Port Said at the mouth of the Mediterranean.

"Battleship class vessel encountered,Unknown nationality, non hostile, leading vessel back to Port Said after request of shelter, request fleet mobilization at Port Said inlet"