Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (15 page)

“I thought our anechoic coating makes us almost nonmagnetic.”

“Sir, almost. The Chinese must have designed the mines knowing their targets were coated submarines. They may have even used a laser to locate us. Either way, we’re out of the fight.”

“Sparks, Captain, any word on how many of our squadrons got nailed by the mines?”

“Captain, sparks, we haven’t received any messages. However, the mine may have damaged our receivers.  Sonar recorded at least sixteen underwater explosions.”

“XO, launch a communication buoy to inform the Admiral that we’re out of the fight. Turn us around and head for Pearl. Hopefully, they’ll be able to repair us in time to rejoin the fight.”

“Aye, sir.”

Vice Admiral Long is holding a handful of radio messages sent via communications buoys. “Commander, the Chinese pulled a new one on us. They seeded the approaches our boats would use to attack their fleet with stealth mines. They caught sixteen of our fast attacks. We lost eight of them, they went down with all hands. The other eight are damaged to an extent that they are out of the fight. Two had to surface, the damage was so severe they couldn’t stay submerged.”

“Admiral, how did they know which course our boats were going to take?”

“My gut says we have a spy on our staff. Please send me Colonel Bradley, I think this is something the good Colonel and his security staff need to handle.”

“Aye, sir. Admiral, what are we going to do now?”

“Get me Captain Jefferson on the Missouri, the future of this battle is in the hands of a seventy-year-old battleship.”

@@@@@

In the Chinese military command and control facility, located inside a hollowed out mountain, Admiral Zin smiles when he reads a report similar to Vice Admiral Long’s. Zin thinks, we sank eight of their fast attacks and also damaged another eight of them. They drove right into our special mines, never suspecting their location or impact. We’ve succeeded in removing their submarine threat to us. They stumbled into one of our surprises, we have a few more tricks to spring on them. They caught me by surprise with that damn Battleship, who would have thought a World War 2 Battleship would hurt us so much in the twenty-first century. We’ll soon see how she handles the sunburn anti-ship missiles that should be launching against her in three minutes. His thoughts are interrupted by an aide, “Admiral, message from the fleet, twenty missiles have been launched at the Missouri.”

Smiling like the Cheshire cat Admiral Zin replies, “Excellent, please keep me informed.”

“Aye, sir.”

@@@@@

Captain Jefferson is exiting the head when the general quarters alarm echoes through the USS Missouri, he’s thinking, at least they let me finish my morning constitutional before they attacked us. He jogs to the armored bridge yelling, “Make a hole!” Reaching the bridge he asks, “XO, what’s going on?”

“Sir, Aegis radar picked up a swarm of missiles heading in our direction, they’re coming in very low and fast. Sir, they’re Sunburns.”

“I guess we’re going to see how the seventy-year-old armor stands up to modern weapons.”

The XO smiles, “Sir, I don’t think the Sunburn is going to hurt us, our midsection is protected by twelve inches of armor designed to protect the ship from Japanese 18-inch shells.”

“Weapons, Captain, place the CIWS on auto.”

“Captain, weapons, Aye, place the CIWS on auto, sir when you and the XO enter your keys, the ship self-defense network will engage its Armageddon mode.”

“Tell the crew to get inside the armor belt right now! I don’t want anyone on deck or outside of the armor. XO, prepare to enter your key and turn on my mark. Three, two, one, mark your key.” Both officers turn their command keys to the right, they hold them for a count of three before they release them. The Missouri’s newly installed ship-self-defense network takes over the defense of the seventy-year-old ship. In an instant, mortars fire chaff and IR decoys to lure the incoming missiles away from the ship. The chaff creates clouds of radar reflecting foil to the sides and rear of the Battleship. Four incoming missiles locked onto the chaff, the other sixteen missiles continued their pursuit of the Missouri. Captain Jefferson ordered the ship to begin quick zig-zagging while the ship’s computer continued to fire chaff into the air. Recently installed RAM launchers begin firing RAM missiles towards the Sunburns. The two missiles have a combined closing speed of Mach 5, six of the Sunburns are struck and destroyed by the RAMs, twelve other RAMs missed their targets. The Missouri’s last ditch defense was four CIWS, which fired 20mm depleted uranium shells in bursts. The CIWS radar matched the outgoing shells with the incoming missiles. CIWS got four of the remaining ten attacking Sunburns. Six Sunburns strike the Missouri. The ship shakes and rings with vibrations from the six missile strikes. Smoke covers the ‘Mighty Mo’. Captain Jefferson is knocked out of his chair, picking himself up off of the deck, he called damage control, “DC, Captain, how bad is it?”

There is a long pause before DC responds, “Captain, DC, sir, we lost a lot of new paint and six antennas. We also lost eight boats which were blown off their mounting amidships.”

“DC, what about the ship herself?”

Captain Jefferson hears the voice on the other end of the line snicker, “Sir, that’s it. The sunburn is a blast warhead, it couldn’t penetrate our armor belt. I’ve got DC members checking the hull and machinery, so far we haven’t suffered any real damage.”

“I’ll be damned, the seventy-year-old armor held up to the Russian’s latest anti-ship missiles. DC, keep me informed.” Hanging up the handset, Captain Jefferson picks up the handset again, “Weapons, Captain, when will we be in range for our main guns?”

“Sir, we are currently in range.”

“Good, fire at will, give the Chinese a full broadside, fire all nine main guns.”

Smiling the weapons officer replies, “Aye, sir!”

Two minutes later, nine sixteen inch cannons fire. The recoil moves the 65,000-ton displacement ship in the opposite direction of the guns firing. The sound from the nine canons sounds like hell itself is being ripped open. Each shell weighs 2,700 pounds, they were designed to attack other battleships. When the shells strike the thin armor of a modern warship, they tear it apart, the only thing left on the surface is an oil slick and a large debris field. Two shells strike Chinese destroyers, completely destroying them, three of the nine shells land close enough to a Chinese ship that their hull welds crack open, flooding the destroyers. Admiral Zin, watching the battle from video relayed via satellite, is shocked by the damage the Missouri’s shells cause. He sees the flames from the broadside, he says, “Holy Spirit, what was that?”

“Sir, those were armor-piercing shells fired from the American Battleship. They tore our ships apart, nothing is left of our ships when that shell strikes them.”

“I thought we targeted that ship with twenty sunburns.”

“Sir, we did. The Missouri is protected by over 320mm of armor. The Sunburn’s warheads didn’t penetrate her armor.”

“What do we have that will damage that ship?”

“Admiral, the only weapon we have that will sink her is a tactical nuke.”    

“Order all of our ships to zig-zag, those shells are dumb, they will land where our ships were, not where they will be.”

As they’re watching, the Missouri fires another broadside that destroys four Chinese ships. Admiral Zin shakes his head watching what was a few weeks ago a museum sinking his battle fleet. “Leak to the Americans that we are preparing to use a tactical nuke if they don’t withdraw, the threat itself should be enough for this President to stop his fleet. Once the American’s withdraw, make the best possible speed to Hawaii, get our transport planes in the air, I want 100,000 troops on the ground within 24 hours. We’ll give the Americans 12 hours to leave the Islands before we begin assimilating them with the mainland.”

“Admiral, what about any American military we find after the 12 hours?”

“Arrest them, they will make good work slaves, we’ll work them to death as an example to the population to not oppose our rule.”

“Yes, sir.”

They continue watching the World War Two battleship ravage their fleet hoping their ploy will cause the American President to withdraw the American fleet.

Admiral Zin is handed another message filled with bad news, the initial transports were all shot down by American F22 fighters based in Japan. He orders the transport flights held until he can arrange fighter coverage.

@@@@@

“Lacy, the only thing he didn’t say is he’s appointed himself King, or President until the end of this little crises, hence allowing him to legally serve for life. However, since he’s merging us with the UN, he doesn’t have to be king, he’s now become an emperor.”

“Maybe we’ll be lucky and he’ll choke on his words or one of the cigarettes he smokes behind the First Lady's back.”

“You know, she might get angry enough to him to put him out of our misery for us. They never look like a happy couple together. They take separate vacations from each other, they only attend official functions together, where she always wears her BRF, Bitchy Resting Face, the rest of the time they’re separate. I wonder if the rumors of their marital problems are real.”

“Jay, does it matter? He’s going to increase taxes again, he’s sending the army and the new UN world police to bring peace, the sight of an Army marching down Main Street is going to be enough to start problems he didn’t even think about. The gangs will slip away as they always do, the Army will try to disarm everyone, those who support the constitution will fight the Army, can you say civil war? When the fighting breaks out, the gangs and outlaws will resurface to loot the country’s limited resources. We could be fighting a three-front battle.” Lacy stops, thinking to herself
unless our U.S. armed services stick to their oath to defend the United States Constitution and side against this new world order and join patriotic Americans to defend our basic constitutional rights…

“Don’t forget the Chinese are still demanding we hand them Hawaii or pay them what we owe and the Russians are eyeing Alaska.”

“Remember, you told me one day I’d be happy you stockpiled so many guns and so much ammo, I’m not ashamed to say, I’m happy you did. I think we’re going to surface and need our supply of weapons to hold on to what’s ours. Fighting the asshole degenerates above us may be the least of our problems.”

I nod my head, “I agree.”

Chapter 9

Jason, the mobs new leader holds a meeting in Fred’s house to discuss how they’re going to deal with Dutch and his motorcycle club. Jason says, “The MC helped us win the battle which enabled us to have these homes. We found food and beer in the homes. However, not only did they kill Robert and Jack, they’ve been starving us. They limit the food they give us, they screw with us every minute they can. I’m not going to let Dutch and his asshole friends get away with screwing us. I want to kill Dutch before he can kill any more of us.  I want them to fear us versus taking us for granted. I want us to get the rewards so many of us died for.”

Bill, who's been walking with the mob since the first day, says, “How can we touch Dutch? He’s surrounded 24/7. None of us will be able to get close enough to him to kill him. We have a limited number of weapons compared to the club. They won’t let a lot of us in their large house at the same time.”

Jason smiles saying, “He likes his ladies. I think we should see if one of our women is willing to take out Dutch. We can make sure she catches his eye, he’ll pick her up, when they’re alone, she kills him, easy.”

Bill smirked saying, “Jason, that’s very easy to say, however, we know no woman is allowed near him unless she’s naked. If by chance she succeeds, his guards will most likely kill her and also assume we were behind Dutch’s murder and kill all of us. We may rid ourselves of Dutch at the cost of all of our lives.”

Jason smirks saying, “I can think of a place she will be able to hide a weapon.”

Bill shakes his head responding, “Jason, you’re a dirty person. Where are we going to find someone who is cold-hearted enough to risk her life?”