Kirov III-Pacific Storm (Kirov Series) (15 page)

“Just like the Italian cruisers,” said
Karpov. “We’ll riddle them to pieces before they get in range.”

“They are firing now,” said Rodenko.
“Rounds inbound… trajectory is short.” They saw a salvo pattern fall very short
in the distance, though it was remarkably tight.

“Mister Fedorov,” said Volsky. “Will
we have to sink these ships with gunfire?”

“Most likely, sir. They will press
home the attack until they at least reach torpedo range. Our rounds are hurting
them, but they are not fatal blows.”

“A little something more then, Karpov.
Let’s use a MOS-III, shall we? I want to shock them.”

“Very well, sir. Target discretion is
yours, Mister Samsonov. One missile please.”

“Aye, sir, firing missile number nine
now.” The number ten missile had been used by Karpov to savage the American
Task Force 16 in the North Atlantic—with a nuclear warhead. He hit the firing
pad and the missile fire warning sounded, the hatch on the forward deck opening
and catapulting a sleek missile up, its declination jet firing precisely and
the roar of the powerful engine vibrating the deck at it hurtled into the sky.
The ‘Starfire’ was the fastest missile on the ship, though its warhead was 100
kilograms smaller than the Moskit-II Sunburns. Samsonov called out the time to
target as 18 seconds. They soon saw a brilliant orange explosion on the
horizon, and thick black smoke billowed up.

What we target, we hit, thought
Volsky, remembering Karpov’s words. He wondered if the enemy would be
discouraged, because now their SSM count slipped one more notch to 25 missiles.
Rodenko was watching his signal returns closely and reported one enemy ship had
reduced speed and was falling out of formation. It was
Haguro
.

*
* *

Kiyota
saw it coming, first high in the
deepening blue of the sky, a long white tail of smoke behind a fiery dart. It
moved impossibly fast—faster than any plane he had ever seen, so fast that he
had barely time to point at it when he saw it suddenly swoop low, then level
off and come thundering in at
Haguro
on his left. It struck like a
hammer, the explosion and fire awesome to behold, right against the forward bow
of the ship and just below the triple batteries there, and he gasped to see
that it blew completely through the ship, sending fragments of torn metal and
fire out the other side.

What demon from a thousand hells was
that? It was
Raiju
, the thunder beast that falls from the sky like a
ravenous wolf wrapped in lightning, and with that horrible thunderous roar.
Then the magazines for the six forward eight inch guns exploded in a
cataclysmic uproar. He saw the entire bow of the ship ripped apart, one of the
massive 8 inch turrets hurled up into the sky like a toy.
Haguro
immediately was swamped at the bow, settling deeply in the water, and he knew
she had been dealt a fatal blow.

“Signal
Kirishima
,” he said.
“Tell them this is no cruiser, but a battleship! Tell them we have hold of
Mizuchi’s
tail, and we have lost
Haguro
.”

Mizuchi
was a legendary and much feared water
dragon, in Japanese and Chinese lore. He could now dimly see the enemy ship in
the distance, then felt the thud and explosion of yet another round against his
side armor. His forward batteries fired again, but the range was still 28,000
yards and he knew it would be long minutes before they had any hope of even
spotting their own rounds, let alone doing any harm to the enemy. He saw the
ship turn away from him now, running towards Melville island to prevent the
range closing. He could probably outrun it, but by how many knots per hour? How
long would it take him to get within a decent range? In time the enemy ship
would have to turn to port to avoid the island, but how much damage would he
take before then? His guns fired again, the rounds still well short as he
watched through his binoculars.

There were over 700 men on
Haguro
,
and most would soon be in the water where they might be saved. Should he press
on with his attack? Five minutes later he received an order to break off, and
steer a shadowing course outside the range of the enemy guns. Iwabuchi was
dispatching his two destroyers to the scene for rescue and recovery. He was to
maneuver to lead the enemy away from the area or effect a rendezvous with
Kirishima
,
which was rushing to intercept the enemy ship at her top speed of 30 knots.

“Very well,” said Kiyota as he gave to
order to turn. “Our big brother is coming,
Mizuchi
, a fair fight this
time, and then we will see how much thunder you have left!”

*
* *

Rodenko
reported the advancing cruisers had
altered course, one now dead in the water. Admiral Volsky immediately gave the
order to cease fire.

“Thankfully these men were not of a
mind to sacrifice themselves for their empire,” said Volsky.

“The maneuver we made turning in
towards Melville Island may have helped, sir,” said Fedorov. “They weren’t
going to close the range before we reached the coastline and the damage they
were taking may have been enough to let them realize they were no match for
us.”

“I still have a large signal return
vectoring on our position,” said Rodenko.

“And we will have to turn north in ten
minutes to get around the headlands soon. I’m taking us right between Parry
Shoals and Mermaid Shoals, and up around Cape Van Diemen.”

“What about the battleship?”

“Still vectoring in at 30 knots. It
looks like the remaining two cruisers are maneuvering to join it now.”

“How long before it could engage us?”
asked Karpov.

“If we could stay on this heading we
could keep it astern indefinitely, but we must turn, as Fedorov says, and in
that instance I would say they could be within 30 kilometers in shortly after
our turn.”

“Fedorov?”

The
Starpom
did some hasty
calculations and then tapped the Plexiglas screen. “They’ll be in firing range
here, sir. Just as we round the tip of Cape Van Diemen. I’ll have to take us
through Beagle Gulf south of Marie Shoals. Thereafter we can turn due east and
run full out. It will allow us to slowly break away from them, though our speed
advantage is only two knots and we may be under fire for a time.”

“Due east…” Volsky tapped the arm of
his chair. “They are running us out of the Timor Sea! Not a very hospitable
welcome.”

“Yes, sir,” said Fedorov. “But if we
take any other heading we will have to confront this battleship, and don’t
forget the carriers west of our position as well.”

“What happened to the aircraft that
were sent to bomb Darwin, Rodenko?” Volsky asked.

“I tracked them northwest and that
signal is diminishing,” said Rodenko. “I’m losing the contacts one by one as
they descend to lower altitudes.”

“That is probably the recovery
operation. It may take them another thirty minutes to an hour, but I would say
they could have a new strike wave spotted on deck by 16:40 hours. That’s still
enough daylight for them to hit us again.”

“We can stop the carriers from
launching just like we hit that cruiser, with a couple more MOS-III Starfires,”
said Karpov.

“That may not be necessary,” said
Rodenko. “That weather front is moving at over thirty-five
Kph
now and creeping up on them. It could inhibit flight operations soon.”

“Yes,” said Fedorov. “They will have
to turn into the wind if they want to launch, and that would take them right
into the storm front. I’m not saying that would dissuade them, but it is
something they’ll have to deal with.”

Volsky thought for a moment. “How long
can this battleship stay with us?”

“It has long legs, sir. Really quite a
remarkable ship, all things considered.
Kirishima
could steam for 10,000
miles at 14 knots. At high speed that range will diminish, but they will be
with us for a good long while if they choose to follow.”

“I think this man you described to us
earlier will want us by the throat in short order,” said Volsky. “And from that
chart you displayed it will take a little more than a few missiles to dissuade
him. And so, gentlemen, we will run. I have no intention of engaging this ship
unless we are forced to do so. Soon we will have darkness on our side.”

“We will be entering the Arafura Sea
now, sir, but ahead lies the Torres Strait.”

“Another bottleneck,” said Volsky.
“Very well. Let’s get up around this cape and see if we can slip by this
monster. Then it is into the Arafura Sea, and God only knows what lies ahead
once we pass the Torres Strait.”

Part IV

Thunder Gods

“Never
had the gods of all the tribes

put
upon the seas such monsters

as
man now sends over them.

Their
steel bowels, grinding and rumbling

below
the splash of the sea,

are
fed on quarried rock.

Their
arteries are steel, their nerves copper,

their
blood red and blue flames.

With
the precedence of the supernatural

they
peer into space.

Their
voices scream through gales,

and
they whisper together over 1000 miles of sea.

They
reach out and destroy

that
which the eye of man cannot perceive.”

~
Homer Lea,
The Valor Of Ignorance

Chapter
10

Captain
Sanji Iwabuchi was growing impatient,
and impatience in a man of his disposition became a real vice in short order.
Kiyota’s cruisers had been badly overmatched. The loss of
Haguro
stung
him like a whip lash on his face, and he was quick to pass the pain along to
any man near him.

“A shameful display,” he said to his
executive officer, Koro Ono. “Our forces were scattered. We had no
chi
in the attack. This ghost dancer appears from thin air, neh? What ship is this,
Ono? Surely not an American battleship cruising alone in these waters.”

“It must be British, sir. They are
trying to reinforce the Australians. It could have come out of the Indian Ocean
while we were assembling for this operation north of Timor Island, and before
our submarine picket lines were deployed. It might even have reached Darwin and
is only now sent fleeing from its hole to avoid being sunk by Admiral Hara’s
planes.”

“Yes, and we are supposed to be
shelling that place at this very moment!” Iwabuchi’s dour face clearly
indicated his displeasure.

“Kiyota has a good name for this one,”
said Ono.
“Mizuchi
—the ancient sea dragon. He says it took the bow off
Haguro
with just one bite, and engaged them at well over 30,000 yards with secondary
batteries.”

“That is nonsense!” Iwabuchi fumed.
“We will see how this ship fights soon enough. In the meantime, what about
Hara’s carriers? It would be best if we could coordinate a strike with this
engagement. Signal him at once.”

Ono bowed, and was off to the radio
room to send a coded message. When he returned his face was set, lips tight,
and he saluted before he spoke. “Sir, Admiral Hara reports that his task force
is now experiencing force 7 winds with worsening conditions and severe thunder
storms. He has elected not to launch another strike wave under those
conditions.”

Iwabuchi just looked at him, his jaw
tightening, eyes narrowed and threatening. He had been known to kill the
messenger on more than one occasion, but he composed himself, staring ahead at
the relatively calm seas in front of them.

“Ship ahead! Thirty degrees south.”
The call came down from the high pagoda mast. Three bridge officers raised
binoculars, and one man was already working out an estimated range.

“About 30,000 yards,” he said and the
Captain grunted.

“Sir,” Ono continued. “Admiral Hara
suggests we shadow this ship and keep contact throughout the night. Our
bombardment mission to Darwin is canceled and we are herewith detached to
pursue this vessel.”

“Detached? What about the invasion?”

“Sir, Admiral Hara still has
Tone
and five destroyers. And he has
Mutsu
and
Nagato
with the second
wave troops coming out of Amboina and Kendari as well.”

“Yes, I hear he haggled with Yamamoto
for them, and was even trying to get his hands on
Musashi!”