Attack of the Seawolf

At 1900 ten cruise missiles lifted off from a point at the far west entrance to the channel, their orange flames lighting up the bay as the ten missiles climbed into the clouds and vanished. Immediately Commander Yang ordered the port SS-N-14 quad launcher trained on the position, the range set for forty kilometers, and the battery launched. The first and second Silex missiles were lifting off when the 30-mm six barrel anti-missile guns began to train over to the west. The speaker of the intercom boomed through the bridge.

“BRIDGE, COMBAT, INCOMING CRUISE MISSILES, SEVERAL CONTACTS, INBOUND AT SUBSONIC VELOCITY. FIRECONTROL RADAR LOCKED ON AND 30-MM GUNS IN AUTOMATIC.”

Commander Yang acknowledged while the third Silex missile lifted off and climbed to the west, en route to the vessels that had launched the missiles.

Yang’s binoculars were on the position forty kilometers to the west, where the American submarines, the ones that had launched the hostile cruise missiles, were about to be blown apart.

“Combat control, bridge,” Yang called on the intercom.

“Report status of the second leg to the submerged contacts — do we have a firing range set into the computer?”

At 1906 the sonar operator in the combat control center clicked his microphone to respond, then stopped and listened hard into his headset. He heard a strange screeching noise, then two noises, then five, then seven. His screen filled with angry bright traces, all of them loud and fast. Too late he realized what was on the screen.

P.L.A NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIER SHAOGVAN

Chu watched as the Harbin helicopters of squadrons one and two lifted off and flew to the west, soon vanishing into the dark and the rain until only their flashing beacons could be seen, then those too were swallowed up by the darkness. As he watched he thought he saw flashes of fire far to the west, beyond the horizon, the cause of the fire not clear in his binoculars.

He hurried over to his tactical net radio-telephone when the task force commander of the north beat him to it, the radio speaker loud and insistent as the commander’s voice rang out in the room:

“FLEET FLAG, THIS IS NORTHERN TASK FORCE FLAG, WE HAVE MULTIPLE LAUNCHES OF ROCKETS FROM THE ENTRANCE TO THE CHANNEL FORTY KILOMETERS WEST OUR POSITION. MISSILES ARE BEING TRACKED NOW. WILL RELEASE WEAPONS INTO THE FREE-FIRE ZONE.”

“Northern Task Force Flag, this is Fleet Flag. Release weapons to the west and report incoming missile status.”

“FLEET FLAG, THIS IS NORTHERN TASK FORCE FLAG, INCOMING MISSILES ARE SEA LAUNCHED CRUISE MISSILES. WE CAN KNOCK THEM DOWN.”

“Roger, Fleet Flag out.”

Before Chu could press Tien to commit to vectoring the southern task forces to the Bohai Haixia Strait, a radio transmission came into the room, the southeast force commander’s voice rushed and urgent:

“FLAG, THIS IS SOUTHWEST, WE ARE UNDER TORPEDO ATTACK. THE DONGCHUAN AND THE WUZI ARE SINKING. REQUEST IMMEDIATE AIRCRAFT SUPPORT.”

Tien replied to the task force commander, then looked at Chu.

“We must divert the helicopter squadrons to the southwest task force. Radio the instructions.”

“If you send our helicopters to the south, can I at least launch the VTOL jets down the Bohai Haixia?”

“Keep the jets on deck until we have pinpointed the exact locations of the submarines. Then the jets can deliver the killing blows.”

It was madness, Chu thought, that whatever facts presented themselves, Tien Tse-Min would see them through the filter of his preordained conclusions about the submarine escape through the south passage. Chu realized there was nothing more he could do but wait for the subs to reach the Shaoguan after the weapons in the south were proved to be a diversion. Then it would be up to the jets, helicopters and ASW weapons of the Shaoguan to neutralize them, even if he had to chase them into the Korea Bay.

P.L.A NAVY DESTROYER JINAN

At 1907 the first torpedo smashed into Jinan’s hull at the forward funnel, a geyser of water exploding two hundred meters into the sky, blowing a hole in the ship so big that it looked like a bite had been taken out of the ship’s port side with jaws a halfship length wide. The engines stopped, the gas turbines dying from the destroyed fuel delivery and computer control systems.

At 1908 a Javelin cruise missile slammed into the superstructure under the starboard bridge wing, entered the interior of the ship and detonated. The resulting explosion and fire set off one of the SS-N-14 canisters on the starboard side, which swallowed the remainder of the superstructure in a fireball that grew into a billowing mushroom cloud, turning from orange to black over the hull of the ship, rising up into the wet clouds.