Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (7 page)

The American carriers don’t hear the Chinese submarines launch their spread of four torpedoes each due to the churned water behind them.  Six of America’s ten Nimitz Class carriers each have four heavyweight anti-shipping torpedoes targeted against them. Each Chinese torpedo has a 678-pound warhead. The first warning the Americans have is when the USS Lincoln is struck by four torpedoes. The torpedoes appeared to come out of nowhere, they struck the stern of the large carrier. Her four propellers are damaged, as are both of her forty-foot rudders. The double hull plating is cracked, allowing the cold Pacific Ocean to rush into the carrier. Damage alarms sound throughout the Lincoln. One moment she’s launching F/A18s to attack the Chinese fleet, the next the entire ship shudders and shakes with fires burning in many areas. She slows due to the loss of her propellers, Captain Jack Wilson picks himself up from the deck, his heart sinks when he looks at the damage control display, he knows his ship is out of action. She’s been hit in the stern, she’s lost all power and the ability to steer. Fires are burning in her engineering spaces. “Captain, reactor, the reactors SCRAMED from the shock waves. I’m going to hot start them. I need five minutes to get them back online. We also lost all four generators in the attack.”

“How bad is it down there?”

“We have fires burning out of control in ten compartments. We got hit by at least three heavyweight fish, they must have been wake homers, we never saw them coming.”

“Will we be able to move and steer once you get the reactors back online?”

“No, sir. I think the props and rudder are severely damaged, if not destroyed.”

“Do the hot restart and get back to me.”

The damage control line buzzes, “Captain, weaps.”

“Weaps, Captain, go.”

“Sir, fires are getting close to the stern magazines, I recommend we flood them.”

“Do it.”

“Aye, sir.”

The line buzzes again, “Captain, CAG, what happened?”

“CAG, we got hit by a Chinese sub, fucked us in the ass. We can’t navigate. I suggest you start making arrangements to move your planes to the other carriers. The Lincoln is going to be out of the battle. We’re fighting fires and I just ordered the stern magazines flooded. We’ll most likely require a tow to get home. We can’t afford to lose the firepower your planes represent.”

“Aye, sir. I’ll check with the other CAGS.”

“Good, keep me informed.”

Captain Wilson opens the bridge door to look at his ship, the stern third of the ship is covered in billowing dense black smoke. The ship has started to settle in the water, the stern slipping lower due to the weight of the water filling the stern sections of the ship. Captain Wilson picks up the sound powered phone, “Damage control, Captain. Can we counter flood to level the ship?”

“Captain, damage control, sir, we’re fighting the fires, I have people seeing if we can close the holes. Sir, we have the pumps running 100%. I need twenty minutes before I know how bad we’ve been hurt.”

“OK, get back to me when you know the damage.”

Captain Wilson lifts the phone to call the Admiral. He has to report that the Lincoln is out of the battle, he’s about to make the call when he sees water plumes rise into the air behind three other carriers. He thinks to himself,
shit we’ve been suckered. They snuck subs up our asses. They got us in our most vulnerable spot. Damn them. At least four of us are out of action before we got a punch in.
Captain Wilson sees a huge flash out of the windows, the flash pulls his attention to port, he sees the USS Missouri fire a two-third broadside of six rounds. Her guns point up, huge flames jet out of her barrels. The Missouri is pushed back from the over pressure of her front guns firing. He smiles thinking,
Mighty Mo, give them hell. Make them pay for what they just did to us.
Before he completes his thought, he sees two ships blow up, one an LCS, which was behind one of the carriers, and a destroyer which was cutting across a carrier’s stern when the torpedoes found her first. The two carriers were saved, at the loss of the two ships. The LCS just disappeared, the destroyer slowed with smoke pouring out of her bow and midsection, when the wind blew some of the smoke away he saw that the destroyer had no bow. The torpedoes blew it off of the ship. Captain Wilson said a silent prayer for those who just died.  He presses the button to connect him to Vice Admiral Long, “Admiral, Captain Wilson, Lincoln actual. Sir, we’ve been struck by an undetermined number of Chinese heavyweight fish. We’ve lost propulsion and steering. Damage control believes we’ve lost most of our props and rudder. We’re working on putting the fires out, I’ve had to flood the aft magazine. We’re going to counter flood to level the ship. I’ve ordered the CAG to move his planes to another carrier.”

“Captain, the Chinese were able to slip submarines into the wakes of all six of our carriers. You, the Nimitz, the Reagan and the Truman were all hit the same way. The Bush was lucky she had one of the LCS in her wake, the poor ship was struck by four fish and disappeared, the George Washington had a DDG 52 crossing her wake, the fish hit her. She lost her bow, we might lose the DDG before the day is over. Tell your CAG to hold his planes on board unless you think you’re going to lose the Lincoln, if you lose her, have the good sense to go down with her. We don’t have the deck space to absorb the aircraft from the four struck carriers. We may need yours and the others depending on losses from the attack as a reserve force. Jack, they gave us a black eye in front of the entire world. They destroyed most of our naval power when they took out our carriers. I’d issued the orders to send a destroyer to sit in the wakes of each of you when you got hit. The bastards hit us first. The Missouri is going to take out their carrier, then our planes and missiles will take out the rest of their fleet. We’re going to win today by destroying the Chinese fleet and save the people of Hawaii from having to learn Chinese.”

“Admiral, what can I do to help?”

“Jack, get your ship as ready as it can be. I’ve called Pearl to order ocean going tugs. Get your anti-submarine helicopters up, find the SOBs who hit us and sink them. They couldn’t have gone far.”

“Aye, sir.”

Hanging up, Captain Wilson punches another button on the phone, “CAG, Captain, Admiral says hold your planes here. We’re in no danger of going down. I want your anti-sub copters up. CAG, find that SOB that hit us.  When you find it, sink it!”

“Aye, sir.”

Two minutes later four anti-submarine helicopters lift off of the Lincoln’s deck. Each is armed with two anti-submarine torpedoes. They have orders to find and sink the Chinese submarine who struck their carrier.

Meanwhile on the Chinese submarine Ling, the crew rejoiced over their torpedoes striking their target, the USS Lincoln. The Ling’s captain, SingHo told his men to be quiet and to turn 90 degrees to port. He knew he and the other Chinese submarines kicked over a hornet’s nest of very angry hornets, each with a fatal stinger.  He knew the US Navy was going to pour every resource they have into finding and destroying them. Ten minutes into their turn, they hear a strong sonar pulse strike their submarine. “Captain, Sonar, US Navy dipping sonar just located us. Recommend we come to a new course of 225 degrees.”

“Sonar, Captain, keep me informed. Control, change course to 225 degrees. Crew of the Ling, this is the captain, we need total silence, the US Navy is hunting us.”

Unknown to the Ling’s captain the US Navy has her plotted.  Between the helicopters and a destroyer, they have the Ling in a box. A helicopter hovers over the Ling, she releases one of her Mark 50 digital lightweight torpedoes. The torpedo enters the water above and slightly to the right of the Ling, it went active the moment it hit the water. The digital signal processor in the torpedo quickly locates the Ling, it accelerates to 45 knots, striking the Ling where the conning tower meets the hull. The torpedo’s warhead blows a hole in the Ling, the Pacific Ocean flows in sinking the Ling with all hands.

Within two hours of the Chinese attack against the US carriers, five of the six Chinese submarines were found and sunk. The American damage control was well trained, they got the fires on the four carriers under control within two hours, the Nimitz was the only carrier of the four struck that was able to get one of her four screws turning. She was able to make eight knots. The other three required ocean tugs to take them under tow to Pearl Harbor where it is hoped they could be repaired. Admiral Long wanted to keep the carriers in the area in case he needed their firepower.

The Liaoning’s captain had just received the news that the Chinese submarines were able to surprise and damage four of America’s carriers. He turned to his aide saying, “I’d hoped for a clean sweep of all six, but taking four out beats the computer projection of taking down three of them. Our fleet has enough anti-air weapons to take down their combined air wings. We’ll fly our attack planes just a few meters over the wave tops. Our planes will come in under their radar coverage, we’ll surprise them again and take out their last two carriers before they can launch at us.”

“Aye, sir. The orders have been issued to the flight leaders. They know to remain no more than four meters over the ocean.”

“Good, in ten minutes we will turn into the wind and launch.” 

Two minutes later the first rounds from Missouri arrive. The initial six GPS guided rounds crash through the Liaoning’s flight deck exploding inside the pride of the Chinese fleet. The ship shakes and shudders from the six explosions. Dense dark smoke pours up out of the six holes on the flight deck. The flames inside the ship find one of the fuel tanks holding the planes fuel. The tank explodes ripping a huge hole in the side of the ship, the explosion spreads the fire through 80% of the ship.  The Liaoning starts listing from the weight of the water pouring in. Planes that were on the deck slide into the ocean, additional explosions rock the interior of the Liaoning. Some of the Chinese planes that were waiting to launch are burning wrecks, their bombs cook-off from the heat, blowing additional holes through the deck. The Chinese damage crew isn’t as experienced as the US Navy’s teams. The fire spreads inside the Liaoning as the next six rounds from the Missouri arrive breaking the carrier into three pieces. The bow quickly slides under the waves, the stern follows within twenty minutes, leaving only the burning midsection. With the ship’s officers all dead, no one is available to give the abandon ship order. Even without the order, the crew starts jumping off the burning hull, trying to get as far away from it as possible. They don’t want to be dragged under when she goes down. Forty minutes after the first six rounds struck the Liaoning, she is no more, the Chinese lost over 3000 men, plus their only operational aircraft carrier and thirty-five modern jets. They lost their first line of air defense with the loss of their fighters. The US Navy’s attack planes are already in the air with a bone in their teeth. They want revenge for the attack on their carriers. The Missouri fires a full broadside of nine rounds aimed at the Chinese air defense ships. The massive rounds break apart each ship they strike. In the Chinese confusion wondering where the massive rounds that are tearing their fleet apart came from, the US Harpoon anti-ship missiles launched F/A18 fighters from the carrier arrive adding their destruction to the Chinese fleet. The Harpoons are slow, traveling at only 550 mph, they carry a 488-pound warhead which devastates Chinese destroyers. The F/A18s come in behind the Harpoons with smart bombs. As the US fighters are bombing the Chinese, the Missouri fires the last of her sabot rounds. Her commanding officer, Captain Jefferson orders, “Weaps, fire our Tomahawks.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Engineering, Captain, I want every ounce of speed you can squeeze out of the engines. I want to get into range ASAP to fire our normal 16-inch rounds.”

“Captain, I think I can get the old girl up to 34 knots.”

“Scotty, more power, get us into the fight before the air-dales sink all of the Chinese ships.”

“Aye, sir, I’ll get us there.”

The American carriers and their escorts held back while the Missouri led six destroyers towards the Chinese fleet. Captain Jefferson smiles thinking to himself, we’re three times their displacement and I’m still pulling ahead of the tin cans. They should never have retired the battleships.

As the US fleet draws close to the remaining Chinese fleet, they are surprised by a swarm of Mach three Chinese anti-ship missiles coming over the horizon towards the American fleet.