Plausible cover-up stories

>>50995811
Oceanographic surveys. High-energy physics for reasons.

>>50995918
Oooh, some kind of marine physics testing could work. I wanted to stay away from surveying stuff so that the government that owns the nuclear sub doesn't think they might be searching for it.

Actually, your idea of research is good, maybe they can be testing some prototype railgun or directed energy weaponry for "anti-ballistic defense" purposes. Testing potentially devestating weapons in the middle of the ocean is pretty common as far as things go.

>>50995811
Blame the whole thing on terrorists who hijacked the ship and threatened to blow the thing if anyone gets near and if their demands aren't met.

>>50996279
Surely that'd just guarantee the involvement of government forces poking around the area though. It's not like this place is Outer Heaven/Mother Base.

>>50995811

Deep ocean carbon sequestering? Precipitate carbon out of the atmosphere and bury it in ocean sediment, effectively taking it out of circulation until geology happens and the area becomes land. Plausible enough if there's a high enough price on carbon emissions.

>>50995811
If you have the funds to do this you have the funds to bribe the shit out of everyone

>>50997707
Oh hey this is really cool. If I call it Project Azolla to refer to the prehistoric algae blooms that supposedly captured enough carbon to turn the Earth from its existing greenhouse atmosphere to the current icehouse atmosphere, then the phonetic similarities to Project Azorian might be a nice way to hint to players about what's actually happening.

>>50995811

Alternate energy research. It's running diagnostics for possible use of floating nuclear reactors or emergency reactor cooling. The ship is out there just to take numbers on behalf of an international think tank. You can't hide the power ship, but you can shift the narrative to something juicy like the ethical questions raised by private nuclear energy firms attempting to run reactors in international waters.

>>51001038
Oh that's an awesome idea too. So many directions to go in, but regardless of what it is, I like your idea of a government cabal deliberately shifting the narrative focus to a debate about whether the nuclear ship should be there, rather than questioning why it's there.