Arabian Storm (The Hunter Killer Series Book 5) by George Wallace (different ereaders .txt) 📕

complicated geometry—even as they closed to a tactically advantageous position deep in the Iranian submarine’s baffles, the vessel’s blind spot.

Toledo’s computers churned away on the amazing amount of data being fed to them by the sonar sensors while the section tracking party worked out various possible solutions. Finally, the computers and the human beings agreed on what the Iranian submarine was doing.

Durand turned to Joe Glass.

“Captain, I have a good tracking solution on Sierra Six-Two. He is on course two-three-nine, speed six-point-two knots, range seven-six hundred yards.”

Glass and his executive officer, Billy Ray Jones, both stared intently at the ECDIS display. The Yunes was operating about two hundred miles east of the Omani coast, paralleling the distant shoreline as it steamed to the southwest. All innocent enough in international waters. But there was one complicating factor.

“Skipper, looks like he’s chasing the Chinese battlegroup down toward Djibouti,” Jones quietly offered, the southern lilt in his voice intensifying in direct proportion to the stress of the situation. “I reckon he’s gotta be up to no good.”

Glass nodded in agreement. The captain turned toward Pat Durand, who was standing by the periscopes. “Officer of the Deck, come to periscope depth. It’s high time we told the boss that we have a new friend on the playground and that he is obviously not here to play nice. And ventilate the ship while we’re up.”

Durand brought the submarine up to periscope depth. The traffic was quickly sent and receipt confirmed. The message back to CTF 54 was bound to cause some wide eyes and scurrying about. Reporting contact on an Iranian submarine at sea—one that was almost a thousand miles from the home waters where they typically stayed, and one that no one knew was out and about but that was chasing a Chinese battle group—would certainly light some fires under a few seats. Glass figured that as long as he could hold contact on the Yunes and still stay at periscope depth, he might as well wait for the boss to get back with him, asking the inevitable questions. The Iranian sub was noisy and slow enough they could easily catch up with and keep an eye on the bastard.

Glass could not wait to watch the show. From a safe distance.

Ψ

Captain Yon Hun Glo finally maneuvered his slow but very quiet boat into firing position on the Iranian submarine. The AIP propulsion system allowed him to stay submerged and very stealthy for long periods, but on the downside, he could not move quickly without expending valuable battery capacity. Such a drawback really did not matter so much in this case. The Iranian Kilo either had to use his diesel and snorkel or use up his own precious battery power. Neither one allowed him to move fast for very long. Or suddenly become very quiet. And Yon had the distinct dual advantage of possessing the more modern, capable submarine and of having the element of surprise on his side. It merely required a bit more time to stalk his prey. But now was his opportunity.

Yon took a last look at the tactical picture. He was deep in the Kilo’s baffles and almost ten thousand meters away. There was zero chance of the Iranian hearing the torpedoes when they were launched. Or even detecting them as they homed in until it was far too late to avoid the sophisticated underwater bloodhounds.

“Shoot tubes one and two!” Yon ordered forcefully. Even angrily.

The two YU-9 torpedoes raced out of their tubes on command, quickly coming up to speed and running toward their unsuspecting target. Their electric-drive propulsion systems sent them through the sea at better than fifty knots.

It would only take them a few minutes to abruptly conclude once and for all this threat to the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China.

Ψ

“Launch transients, bearing one-one-two!” Joe Drussel’s voice was up several octaves as he screamed the alarm over the 21MC. “Hold...two weapons...on that bearing!”

Glass looked at the BQQ-10. The report did not make any sense. Not based on anything they were seeing. The bearing was almost one-eighty from where the Yunes was tracking. But there they were. The twin, burning-white traces on the display.

Where the hell did they come from? And, far more urgently, how the hell was he going to escape them?

“Ahead flank! Make your depth eight hundred feet! Left full rudder! Snap shot tube two!” Pat Durand spat out the orders, one after the other, machinegun-like.

They were precisely the correct actions to follow for a normal torpedo evasion. If such a thing could ever be termed “normal.” Exactly the maneuvers taught in all the attack trainers. But were they enough to save his boat now?

At the moment, Joe Glass did not think so.

“Incoming torpedoes, bearing one-one-two!” Master Chief Zillich’s voice had now replaced Joe Drussel’s on the 21MC. Up and down the length of the Toledo, crewmen at battle stations now were aware of just how dire their situation was. As they had been trained to do, they did exactly what they were supposed to. But many of them were simultaneously mumbling a prayer.

“All stop!" Glass ordered. A short pause, then, “Maintain periscope depth. Back two-thirds until you have zero speed.” He quickly followed that order with, “Chief of the Watch, launch two countermeasures. Then launch an EMATT.”

The countermeasure devices spun out of the launcher, putting up a curtain of noise as they tumbled away. A couple of seconds later the EMATT—Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Training Target—whooshed away from the boat.

“Incoming torpedoes, still bearing one-one-two. Zero bearing rate,” Zillich reported, surprisingly calm. The torpedoes were coming right at them. Moments 'til impact.

“We’re going to sit right damn here at PD and make like a very large log,” Glass called out. “We’ll hope those torpedoes prefer the EMATT.”

That, of course, was all they could do.

Billy Ray Jones ran to the torpedo launch control panel. His fingers danced across the screen.

“Weapon ready for...solution ready for...snap shot tube two on the bearing of the incoming