Thanks. I'd like to think that while I do tend to start off from "I want X" I generally end up with an interesting story that is somewhat self sustaining. Of course, it's entirely possible that's just my ego speaking.
As I can't get any sleep, more timeline!
Mid/late 2008: It's eventually decided that they will go ahead with the submarine. With Teosag expediting the trip and smoothing over the background checks, purchasing the submarine is quick and painless. Unfortunately, purchasing a WW2 submarine, even one that's been somewhat decommissioned, draws attention.
A number of groups put two and two together and get five. About half of them are convinced that Ganti's a front for a criminal group after a drug smuggling submarine. The other half decide he's a rich idiot who didn't think it all the way through. (The second group is much, much closer to correct.) A group of investigators from one of the big oil companies track down where there missing funds went just a little too late and realize that they're not the only ones who have been loosing funds to this mysterious entity. The gang has to decide what to do with their shiny (well okay, kinda battered) new (Old. Really old.) submarine. None of them had thought that far in advance. They briefly toss about using it to explore the ocean, but decide it's completely unsuited for that.
Things begin to degrade as each drifts off to do their own thing. (Note to self: write a story segment covering this section and the following. There's gotta be at least a chapter or two in there...)
Late 2008/early 2009: Teosag gets bored and starts riffling through classified material, attracting some unwelcome attention, so he returns to the group and begins covering his tracks like mad. Ganti and Hera welcome him back, mostly. The welcome is quite a bit warmer when he gives Ganti some high end theories on electricity, sparking the most impressive Blue Hair Day(Weeks or Months, really) Ganti's ever undergone, massively reworking the submarine, which he dubs the Cura. With it receiving a complete 'wave overhaul, he ends up with a pile of stuff on the dock, mostly the diesel engines, which had been replaced by... something that looked like Tesla would have made it.
While not exactly a free energy device, it was much, much better then the old diesel engines, and more then capable of powering the entire submarine almost indefinitely (I figure this gives them two or three years to figure out what it is and what in needs to run before they need to fix it). The most obvious change to the submarine, however, is the deck. One of the 57mm deck guns had been replaced with... something else. Whatever it is, it's big. Really big. And looks like a weapon of some sort. A large number of cables ran from it into the hull semi-seamlessly, leaving the hull airtight. No-one really wanted to find out what it was or what it could do. Thankfully, it was tied into a great big red button that was under a cover that needed to be unlocked, so it wouldn't be pushed accidentally. (... I suspect I'm beginning to drift back into 'I want x' here. If so, I can always edit that out.)
This sort of activity does draw attention, so while they're trying to figure out how the hell any of this works, they're having a lot of people look awfully closely at them, probably including a number of fen.
Edit: broke a bunch of stuff up into paragraphs. This might confuse the timeline a little, but should make it much more readable.
Edit 2: I was told that it might be a good idea to be specific about what the Big Gun does. I'm willing to do so, but this section is VERY meta. the characters have no clue what it does, and they're more then a little worried about it, so they won't be testing it any time soon. As I'm currently making this up as I go along, this is not set in stone, but A) Said giant gun is very heavily handwaved, so the slapstick effect is in full force here, and B) The current theme seems to be 'electricity' so it's essentially a massive lightning gun, sorta like CnC's Tesla Tanks. Combined with the slapstick effect, it should only really short out other ships, at most, but you could make an argument about it setting off whatever ammo they have, if it's explosive. That's much, much later, if I ever get to it.
As I can't get any sleep, more timeline!
Mid/late 2008: It's eventually decided that they will go ahead with the submarine. With Teosag expediting the trip and smoothing over the background checks, purchasing the submarine is quick and painless. Unfortunately, purchasing a WW2 submarine, even one that's been somewhat decommissioned, draws attention.
A number of groups put two and two together and get five. About half of them are convinced that Ganti's a front for a criminal group after a drug smuggling submarine. The other half decide he's a rich idiot who didn't think it all the way through. (The second group is much, much closer to correct.) A group of investigators from one of the big oil companies track down where there missing funds went just a little too late and realize that they're not the only ones who have been loosing funds to this mysterious entity. The gang has to decide what to do with their shiny (well okay, kinda battered) new (Old. Really old.) submarine. None of them had thought that far in advance. They briefly toss about using it to explore the ocean, but decide it's completely unsuited for that.
Things begin to degrade as each drifts off to do their own thing. (Note to self: write a story segment covering this section and the following. There's gotta be at least a chapter or two in there...)
Late 2008/early 2009: Teosag gets bored and starts riffling through classified material, attracting some unwelcome attention, so he returns to the group and begins covering his tracks like mad. Ganti and Hera welcome him back, mostly. The welcome is quite a bit warmer when he gives Ganti some high end theories on electricity, sparking the most impressive Blue Hair Day(Weeks or Months, really) Ganti's ever undergone, massively reworking the submarine, which he dubs the Cura. With it receiving a complete 'wave overhaul, he ends up with a pile of stuff on the dock, mostly the diesel engines, which had been replaced by... something that looked like Tesla would have made it.
While not exactly a free energy device, it was much, much better then the old diesel engines, and more then capable of powering the entire submarine almost indefinitely (I figure this gives them two or three years to figure out what it is and what in needs to run before they need to fix it). The most obvious change to the submarine, however, is the deck. One of the 57mm deck guns had been replaced with... something else. Whatever it is, it's big. Really big. And looks like a weapon of some sort. A large number of cables ran from it into the hull semi-seamlessly, leaving the hull airtight. No-one really wanted to find out what it was or what it could do. Thankfully, it was tied into a great big red button that was under a cover that needed to be unlocked, so it wouldn't be pushed accidentally. (... I suspect I'm beginning to drift back into 'I want x' here. If so, I can always edit that out.)
This sort of activity does draw attention, so while they're trying to figure out how the hell any of this works, they're having a lot of people look awfully closely at them, probably including a number of fen.
Edit: broke a bunch of stuff up into paragraphs. This might confuse the timeline a little, but should make it much more readable.
Edit 2: I was told that it might be a good idea to be specific about what the Big Gun does. I'm willing to do so, but this section is VERY meta. the characters have no clue what it does, and they're more then a little worried about it, so they won't be testing it any time soon. As I'm currently making this up as I go along, this is not set in stone, but A) Said giant gun is very heavily handwaved, so the slapstick effect is in full force here, and B) The current theme seems to be 'electricity' so it's essentially a massive lightning gun, sorta like CnC's Tesla Tanks. Combined with the slapstick effect, it should only really short out other ships, at most, but you could make an argument about it setting off whatever ammo they have, if it's explosive. That's much, much later, if I ever get to it.