Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) by Don Keith (dark books to read TXT) 📕

prolonged and vicious pounding. But tracer fire still came up from the smoke to meet the dodging and weaving Chinese jets. Sporadically, a surface-to-air missile would roar up as well. And sometimes flaming wreckage fell from the sky as a result.

It was mostly an awful sight, though, and Smythe was watching it from a front-row seat. He had his submarine cruising only a mile off of Dongsha Island, watching and recording the events for the rest of the free world. Every evening, he would slip out a few miles to report back to Submarine Command in Perth, all the while snorkeling so he could recharge the batteries for a bit. Then he would snake his way back in, close to the island again. It had become mostly routine, and it was apparent the Chinese were more interested in annihilating Dongsha than in detecting any observers in their midst.

Now it was time to again head back out to make yet another report. They were each pretty much the same lately. The PLAN warplanes pounded the island all day while the Taiwanese defenders did their best to shoot back. The only variables were how many of those planes attacked and how many managed to get themselves shot down by the determined and heroic Taiwanese on Dongsha.

Smythe was just about to order the boat deep when he was interrupted.

“Captain, Signals, picking up a Dragon Eye AESA radar. High signal strength. Probably in visual range. That type is typically carried on newer PLAN destroyers and carriers.”

With a swing of the scope, Smythe did a quick three-sixty scan. He did not see any ships at all.

“Well, Signals, but I don’t see...”

“Captain, Sonar, new broadband contact, Sierra Four-Six, bearing one-two-six. High-speed screws. Correlated to a destroyer type.”

Then, when Smythe wheeled around to the reported bearing, he saw it. The Chinese destroyer was coming fast, emerging out of a rain squall on the horizon. Looked like a Type Fifty-Two.

This was a definite threat. It was time to hide. Best course of action was to slink out of here quietly.

“Helm, come right to course two-one-zero. Ahead one-third.” Audacious slowly came around and headed south, away from the island. Hopefully away from the destroyer.

The Chinese ship turned broad. Suddenly, a column of flame shot up from the warship’s forward deck. A missile headed up high into the sky, then arced over and raced directly toward the tiny island. Four more missiles quickly joined the first one.

Then Smythe watched as the forward gun mount on the destroyer’s deck slewed around and commenced blasting away at the island, too. Jesus, the Aussie captain thought, they’re trying to wipe that bit of coral right off the map!

“Captain, Sonar, receiving active sonar. Equates to a Chinese Type Fifty-Two VDS. High signal strength. Better than fifty percent probability of detection.”

This was not good at all. The destroyer seemed to be looking for something or somebody. Smythe had to expect that any foreign submarines detected loitering about in this particular area would not be welcomed. This class of destroyer carried a CY-5 ASW missile. They packed a punch. A couple of those, dropped close aboard, would ruin a perfectly good day for a submarine.

Smythe ran the table, trying to find a good tactic to try. He could not hope to outrun the destroyer. And certainly not the bastard’s ASW missiles. He probably could not hide, either. There was precious little water beneath the keel. And based on the sonar signal strength, they would be easily tracked.

That left one option. Fight. And, at the moment, getting off the first shot made the most sense. Who owned these waters would be immaterial if what was left of the Australian boat and her crew were in the mud on the bottom.

Smythe turned to his XO. “First Officer, set up on the destroyer. Set your best solution. Surface tactics. Make tube one ready in all respects.”

The XO turned pale but immediately set to work. Meanwhile, Smythe did a quick calculation in his head. With the destroyer five miles away, the Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo he was setting up to fire would take about five minutes to get to the Chinese vessel.

On the other hand, the destroyer’s CY-5 ASW missile could make the distance in about seven seconds. The math was discouraging. It was way beyond a long shot that they would somehow get their asses out of this particular sling.

“Captain, Signals, receiving terminal homing radar, RIM-84A Harpoon missiles. Probably several.”

Harpoons? The Chinese would not have Harpoons. Smythe looked at the flat panel just in time to see six of the big surface-to-surface missiles flash across the screen in the distance. It was like watching a video game screen as he saw the Chinese destroyer’s close-in defense system perform as designed and splash three of the deadly weapons.

But the other three smashed into the ship’s superstructure with stunning results. There was a split-second delay before great gouts of fire leapt up from the stricken vessel.

Smythe knew there was no time to stay and watch the show or try to determine who had just saved his bacon. With one of their ships badly damaged—likely done for—the Chinese would be mad as hell and looking for any other potential threat in the vicinity.

This was not a place for a slow diesel submarine to hang around and see what happened next.

“Dive, make your depth two-hundred feet. All ahead standard,” Smythe ordered. “First Officer, let’s clear datum for a couple of hours. That will put us twenty miles out. Draft up a message to Submarine Command with what we’ve seen today. Make it good. They’re likely going to think we’re crackers.”

Ψ

Yon Ba Deng walked swiftly, leaving behind his office in one of the gray cement monstrosities that had been so unimaginatively named “the West Building Complex.” But the name was actually quite descriptive of the buildings’ reason for existing. They were nothing more than a compound of simple, utilitarian offices. Most of the buildings in Zhongnanhai—the true center of power