Shattered Trident (61 page)

In the infantry, a unit would simply dig in for protection and concealment, but all the crew of
North Dakota
could do was stay quiet, mill about smartly, and wait.

Thigpen and his fire control team had plotted every bit of information on
Chakra
’s patrol patterns, but there was no observable pattern, and besides, their launch position was dictated by geography and hydroacoustics. For this torpedo shot, tactics had to take a backseat.

He’d run the boat at Condition II, port and starboard watches, since leaving Apra Harbor. An hour before launch time, Jerry ordered general quarters. At thirty minutes before H-hour, he went to periscope depth for a final look around. After three slow sweeps with a photonics mast, Jerry was satisfied there wasn’t a soul near him. They headed back down to launch depth.

18 September 2016

1140 Local Time

INS
Chakra

South China Sea

“New contact, number seven three, bearing zero four nine. Hull-popping noises, contact is likely submerged,” blared the intercom speaker.

Samant quickly grabbed the mike. “Sonar, is the contact the American submarine?”

“Captain, contact is very weak. We can’t tell what it is yet.”

Samant threw the mike onto the desk and bolted to the sonar room. Opening the door, he thrust his body between the two operators. “Show me what you have.”

Lieutenant Rajat pointed to the slight trace on the waterfall display. The tonal was weak, unstable. The lieutenant was right, it was too hard to tell whether the new contact was a submarine or a ship, but the hull-popping noises meant a submarine was changing depth. And if it was a submarine, it was probably an American. All of the Chinese boats he’d detected thus far had been much farther to the north. Until proven otherwise, he had to assume it was an American attack submarine.

Jain’s voice came from behind him. “What is it, Captain?”

“We don’t know for sure, Number One, but I think our nemesis is back,” answered Samant.

“What!? We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him in over a week! Why would he be back now?” Jain asked, surprised.

“I have no idea, Number One, but please be so kind as to bring the boat to action stations.”

USS
North Dakota

“Captain, new sonar contact, designated Sierra-one three. The contact is in the forward end fire beam of the TB-33, bearing is two two zero, but it’s really sketchy, sir,” reported Chief Halleck.

Jerry chuckled cynically and rolled his eyes. “Figures.”

“Do you think it’s your buddy Samant?” questioned Thigpen.

“Who else? You couldn’t get any more inconvenient if you tried. It looks like Murphy is working overtime!” Jerry grumbled. “Attention in Control, I’m about to come left to get Sierra-one three out of the forward end fire beams of our towed arrays. Things could get ugly quick, so keep alert. Carry on.

“Pilot, left fifteen degrees rudder. Steady on course east,” ordered Jerry.

“Left fifteen degrees rudder, steady course zero nine zero, Pilot aye.”

INS
Chakra

“Captain, contact seven three is classified as an American SSN. Contact is altering course, turning away from us,” Lieutenant Rajat reported over the speaker.

“I knew it!” Captain Samant’s exclamation made Jain and several others in the central post jump. “I had a feeling he’d be skulking around here somewhere, he knew we’d have to head south eventually to find more targets! Has he detected us yet?”

“At this range and in these water conditions, it’s likely, sir. He’s moving away from us at low speed,” said Jain.

“Of course he is,” Samant remarked acidly. “He’ll try to stay at the edge of his sonar’s detection range, following us, and then, when we find a potential target, he’ll do his best to interfere. I wouldn’t put it past him to put a radio antenna up and warn a ship we were attacking!”

Jain, his first officer, suggested, “Sir, if he’s moving east, let’s just move westward and break contact.”

“Absolutely not!” Samant shot back. “He’ll use his acoustic advantage to trail us, and we won’t be able to tell whether he’s there or not until it’s too late. I don’t want to play underwater tag with this man for the rest of the war. Let’s scrape him off our shoe so we can get back to business. I’ll make him regret his career choice,” Samant promised grimly.

“Helm, left twenty five, steer zero four five, increase speed to twenty-five knots. Sonar, go active and track the American.”

USS
North Dakota

“Confirm target zig by Sierra-one three. He’s changing course and increasing speed, Skipper. WLY-1 has Skat-3 active transmissions.”

“Then there’s no point in going east now,” Jerry remarked. “Pilot, hard left rudder, steady course north. All ahead two-thirds, make turns for ten knots. I want a little more energy if I have to maneuver suddenly.” Even as he said it, he realized that even after all this time, he still thought in aviator terms.

“Sonar, go active as well, and track
Chakra
. I want the best information we can get on his position and speed.”

Jerry marveled at the situation. Submarines rarely used active sonar, because it revealed their position. But in this situation, stealth was the last thing on either captain’s mind.

He could see
Chakra
’s position on the VLSD. A projected course line ran from her toward and past
North Dakota
. Jerry’s turn to the north had shifted the line behind him; his intention was to open the range between the two subs. Now, as they watched,
Chakra
’s course line swung to the left again and steadied in front of the American boat’s bow.

The computer’s estimate of the closest point of approach was no more than a hundred yards, the approximate length of either sub. “I don’t like the look of that,” Thigpen remarked.

“At least it’s not an intercept course,” Jerry answered.

A few moments later, sonar confirmed the Indian sub’s course change.
Going active was the right move
, Jerry thought.
Passive tracking takes too long for this business
.

“Pilot, make turns for fifteen knots.” Jerry could see Thigpen’s worried reaction to the speed change, but the XO remained silent, and Jerry took that as a compliment.

North Dakota
’s speed built up quickly, but
Chakra
’s projected vector continued to stay just ahead of
North Dakota
.
That’s his active sonar tracking
, Jerry thought.
He can see small changes in my course and speed as well. Good.
It also showed Samant didn’t want to ram them, just make a dangerously close pass.

“Two minutes to CPA,” Thigpen reported. “We’re still well within our box.”

“Then we’re done maneuvering for now. No surprises until after they are clear. Attention in Control, stand by for rapid maneuvers by both boats.”

INS
Chakra

As he closed, the American’s sonar pulses became noticeably louder. It was an unusual sound, but Samant welcomed the noise. He felt he could almost gauge the boat’s distance and direction through the hull.

“Closest point of approach in thirty seconds,” Jain reported. His first officer was tense, but all business.

The active sonar gave them an unrealistically clear picture of the American sub’s position, course, and speed. In Perisher, he’d had to keep this all in his head based on periscope observations, but then again, this was going to be harder than lining up for a simple torpedo shot against a frigate.

Jain’s voice was steady. “Loss of active signal! We’re in his baffles! Ten seconds, Captain. Five seconds. At CPA …
now
!”

Rajat reported, “Captain, the U.S. boat is slowing and turning to the right. He’s changing depth, going deeper.”

He’s trying to open the distance between us as we pass,
Samant thought.
I don’t care. I’ve got the speed I need to compensate
. The correction came to him instantly.

Samant ordered, “Left thirty, steer zero zero five, make your depth one three zero meters.”

“We’ll pass two hundred meters astern, and we should be slightly higher than him in depth, perhaps twenty meters,” said Jain, looking at the fire control console.

“Perfect.” Samant smiled.

USS
North Dakota

“He’s turning to the left again, Skipper, blade rate’s unchanged.” The chief paused for a moment, then added, “Sir, he may have changed depth.”

“Continue the descent,” Jerry ordered. There was little else he could do. If Samant had immediately turned back toward him, then they were dangerously close. No zigging or zagging.

Jerry flashed back to Captain Rudel’s maneuvering duel with
Severodvinsk
. He’d been just the navigator then, as he watched
Seawolf
’s captain skillfully maneuver his boat during the Russian sub’s insanely close passes. Rudel had done his best to stay out of the Russians’ way, and yet they still collided.

“He’s going co-depth, sir, matching our change…”

Before the chief sonarman could finish his report, a slight jolt ran through
North Dakota,
and half the sonar displays went dark. Alarms rang and Jerry felt a surge of fear. “All stations, report!”

There was no flooding, no apparent effect on their propulsion, but the TB-33 thin-line towed array was gone, snapped off cleanly.

“He’s on our port side now sir, bearing two nine zero. Speed is slowing to ten knots. His active sonar is off now.”

“Maintain active sonar contact,” Jerry ordered. “I don’t trust that SOB. Bernie, best course to launch point?”

“Two one zero, Skipper. At ten knots we’re there in four minutes, with four minutes to spare.
Chakra
is still heading away from us, steady on course zero zero five at ten knots.”

“Understood, XO. Pilot, right fifteen degrees rudder, steady course two one zero.”

“Right fifteen degrees rudder, steady course two one zero, Pilot, aye.”

“Skipper, what if he’s still nearby when we have to shoot?” Thigpen asked.

“I can’t see him interfering with the actual launch, and being nearby is a good thing … for him,” Jerry answered. “That means he’ll be clear of the blasts.”

“Good point,” the XO observed. “But why was he messing with us to begin with? We weren’t interfering with one of his attacks.”

“It’s preemptive, and smart. He’s told us to get lost, and took away our primary search sensor. He can break contact and we won’t be able to find him as easily. Our TB-34 towed array was short enough to be clear of him, but it isn’t as good as his array. We’re even now.”

“Yeah,” grinned the XO. “For another eight minutes, anyway. Luckily, we don’t need our thin-line array to shoot our two little friends.” Thigpen paused, then suddenly realized that he’d have to document the lost towed array. “Wait a minute! That bastard! Now I’ve got to do the paperwork for Minot
and
the TB-33! Are you sure we can’t shoot him, sir?”

INS
Chakra

“All stations report no damage, Captain,” Jain announced.

Perfect
. He’d crippled the American’s sonar capability, and incidentally cost the U.S. Navy a million dollars or so. Samant had held his breath when they’d rammed the towed array. It was the exact opposite of what submarine captains were trained to do.

Running into another sub’s towed array was something one usually avoided at all costs. There’d been a very real risk of fouling
Chakra
’s screw with the array’s cable. That would have been embarrassing at the very least, and potentially deadly if they’d been forced to surface and request a tow back to a friendly port. But he’d bet and he’d won.
Take that,
he thought happily.

“What’s he doing now?” Samant demanded.

Lieutenant Rajat reported, “He’s come right, steadied on two one zero at ten knots, Captain.”

“Still at ten knots?”

“Yes, sir,” Jain confirmed. “He’s not leaving.”

Samant’s face slowly turned red. He looked ready to explode. “Can’t this fellow take a hint? He is not welcome here! We must convey that message to him in the strongest possible terms. Set up another UGST torpedo shot. Bring tube one to action state. Disable the seeker, five degree offset. He won’t dare ignore this!”

“It worked before,” Jain added hopefully.

USS
North Dakota

“Launch transients! Torpedo in the water!” shouted Halleck. “UGST torpedo bears three five zero. Weapon has not yet enabled.”

“Pilot, hard left rudder, steady course south! All ahead flank! Torpedo defense, launch an ADC Mark 5 and mobile decoy, stand by anti-torpedo defense system!”

The deck tilted under his feet as
North Dakota
turned sharply to port.

“Sonar, what’s the weapon doing?”

“Slight right drift, but the bearing rate isn’t changing as we change course.”

“So he’s steering the weapon, following our movements,” concluded Jerry.

“Yes, sir.”

“Just like before. XO, course back to the launch point?”

“We’re good, Skipper. On this course we’ll pass within five hundred yards of the launch point in two minutes. With five minutes to spare!”

“It was four minutes before!” Jerry protested.

Thigpen shrugged. “Sorry, sir. That last burst of speed caused us to close the distance a lot faster than anticipated.”

“Skipper, the torpedo is on our starboard quarter, and it’s going to pass astern,” reported a relieved Halleck.

Jerry relaxed a little. “Very well, Chief, reestablish active contact on Sierra-one three. Pilot, all ahead two-thirds.”

INS
Chakra

“Sir, the American is slowing again.” Jain paused, studying the displays, but then reported, “He’s ignoring the weapon, Captain. His course and speed are not consistent with evading our torpedo.”

Samant stiffened, as if fighting to control his anger. “Damn him! He can’t ignore me! Fire control operator, put the weapon on an intercept course and command activate the seeker.”