Type IXA U-boat Submarine

Type IXA U-43 U-boat Submarine

"A German Submarine from Old Earth, launched in 1939 and used during the Second World War. Old Earth salvagers scoured the depths of the once-called Atlantic Ocean and came across the wreckage of a submarine christened "U-43". These salvagers raised the vessel whole, fixed, and refurbished 'U-43' to semi-workable conditions and sold it to an offworld enterprise. Europa's "Daedalic Aquanauts" bought the vessel and commissioned her for undersea exploration & combat beneath the ice sheets of Europa."

Weapon Specifications

This vessel is more lengthy than it is deep, as it has two main decks and a crawlspace for the fore and aft ballast tanks. Sporting a healthy range of weaponry, the U-43 boasts:

• 5 coil guns (3 on top and 2 at the keel)
• 1 main fore railgun
• 1 fore depth charge
• 2 bow torpedo tubes.

Handling Specifications

Its power grid has a main reactor adjacent to the junction compartment and crew quarters, with an backup power array wired into the main grid and toggable via the Navigation Terminal and a switch in the electrical compartment.

• The Navigation Terminal has access to primary steering and docking functions, as well as access to the status of the ship's engines and emergency/backup power array.

Its main method of propulsion is two turbine-propeller engines, both of which are able to be switched on or off for diver safety.

The first deck holds the engine room and reactor room at the far aft section, a crew quarters amidship, the main command room at the center, a medbay, and the gunnery compartment at the fore end.

The second deck holds two cargo compartments, an engineer's workshop, the brig, an ammo compartment, and the armory for stowing crew weaponry. The brig and armory can only be accessed via a Captain's or Security Officer's ID Card.

Accessible via these two decks is a central access shaft leading to U-43's ballast tanks at the bottom, and its conning tower and observation bridge at the top, in which is the main docking port and airlock.