Piranha: Firing Point

Chu trained the scope to the east He increased the optic power to medium, and the horizon seemed to grow closer. Yet there was nothing coming. He snapped his right grip again, increasing the power to high, with 24X magnification. The sea jumped slightly in the view, making it harder to see clearly, since the slightest movement of the ship made the scene outside jump. But even in 24X the horizon was clean.

“Second Captain,” he muttered, “superimpose geographic plot on top of reticle.”

The computer god’s-eye view came up in a sort of heads-up display, superimposed on top of the view outside.

The plot snowed up as the direction he was looking, and at the other end of the bearing line at twelve o’clock were several dozen hostile-contact diamond symbols.

The distance to the convoy was shown as being nineteen kilometers. He bit his lip — he should be able to see the tall masts of the aircraft carriers by now, or at least the lead vessel.

“Ship Control, change depth to twenty-one meters keel depth.” That would stick the periscope mast skyward by nine meters, a telephone pole sticking up above the sea. His new “height of eye” should make a difference.

As his view moved farther from the waves, the ship coming shallower, me horizon changed. What once before had been a sharp line between sky and sea now blurred slightly.

And now visible were three black spots on the horizon.

Chu focused high power on the spots, finding them to be just portions of the tall islands, the massive hulls of the ships still hidden by the curvature of the earth.

He then applied double-high power with a trigger on the right grip, increasing power from 24X to 48X, but the first spot on the horizon jumped around, tough to keep it in sight Even in the bouncing image, though, Chu could see that it was the island of an aircraft carrier.

“Three surface contacts, gentlemen. Bearing zero nine five to the center target Contacts are hull down but approaching rapidly.” Chu cleared his throat, enjoying the moment. “Designate the central carrier target number WT-1. Target to the left is WT-2, target to the right is WT-3. Prepare for torpedo attack, tube assignments to follow. Ops Officer, all weapons nominal?”

Chen Zhu, at the weapon console in the opposite corner of the room, piped up. “All twenty-four primary torpedoes nominal. Admiral.”

“Very well, all tubes and all weapons shall be set to ultraquiet swimout, all speed settings to ultraquiet slow speed, shallow-draft approach, immediate enable. If we are detected or if we need to hurry, we’ll switch to impulse mode on the gas generators and go to highspeed transit. Now, tube assignments… Target WT-1, central aircraft carrier, assign tubes one and two. Target WT-2, left carrier, assign tubes three and four. Target WT-3, five and six.” “Aye, sir,” Chen said. “Tube assignments set and coming up on your heads-up display now.”

The tube assignments flashed up for a moment, the geographic plot vanishing. The three carriers were closing, their islands becoming more focused, the ships grayish blue in the haze. Soon a row of other ships became visible, just the mastheads. And then the hulls of the carriers came into view, the center one first, then the ones flanking it.

“Status, weps?”

“Tubes one through six ready for launch, targets locked in on visual and sonar. Did you want to confirm range with the laser?”

“No, it could give us away. Five seconds, gentlemen,” Chu said. The three carriers were now easily made out at 24X. “Ship Control, take us down to depth twenty-six meters.”

“Twenty-six meters, aye.”

“Three, two, one… tube one swimout!”

“Tube one enabled in swimout mode, sir, and tube one is clear. Bow camera indicates weapon one away.”

“Tube two swimout.”

“Two enabled, swimout mode, camera indicates weapon away.”

The launch sequence continued until the first six Nagasaki II torpedoes quietly left the ship, two en route to each aircraft carrier.

A kilometer from the Arctic Storm, several torpedoes slowly made their way to the aircraft carriers coming toward them, their passively listening sonars guiding them in. Over forty kilometers farther west, the two escort submarines cruised on at top speed, their sonars hearing nothing suspicious.

Weapon number one, the first launched from the bow of the Arctic Storm, plowed through the sea toward the approaching convoy. Its onboard computer — small and simple, yet of vastly superior power compared to the original Nagasaki design — computed the distance to the target and the target’s heading and speed. The weapon was driving toward a point in space where its speed would cause its track to intersect the carrier’s. It was guided in mid-flight by a nose-cone sonar array, the front of the weapon a flat-panel cover over the transducer.