All 16 of the YJ-100’s off the Eagle God had been killed by the F-35’s, but there were still eleven of the more deadly YJ-18’s, and they were just reaching their jump point for the terminal run. Twenty miles from Vengeance, their turbojet engines ignited with sudden fire, and they began to accelerate rapidly, jogging with evasive maneuvers as they came. Destroyers Edinburgh and lightning were east of the carrier, and that left Type 23 class frigate Sutherland as the only ship screening Vengeance from immediate harm, nine miles due west of the carrier.
It was those two brave pilots in the Seafire flight that rushed in to attack, putting all their eight Meteors out after the Vampires in an attempt to defend that carrier. They would get only two of the speedy enemy lances, which screamed right past the bow of the Sutherland, intent on bigger fish.
Commodore Jack Westfield was back on his ship, aghast as he saw the enemy missiles ignore the frigate and come burning in after Vengeance. Four Sea Ceptors off the Sutherland were fired, all failing to even get close to the Vampires, which were just too fast for them. Then Vengeance lit off with every gun it had, knocking down the lead missile with a Phalanx.
Chaff and decoys fluttered into the sky all around the carrier. Defensive jammers wailed like banshees, but none of the enemy missiles were fooled. That target was just too large, dead ahead, and they came in like sharks to the kill. When the first missile hit, the ship was jolted and the radar screens on the bridge fluttered and went dead.
Two more missiles were finally spoofed, but the next three would slam into the carrier with heavy explosions amidships. The port side of the ship was ravaged, open to the sea, and fires leapt from the great yawning gash in the ship’s hull. Inside on the hangar deck, the feverish rearming effort on the F-35’s was caught up in a holocaust, which set off a series of explosions that rocked the ship heavily as the planes blew up. Six more Merlin helicopters that had been assigned to the planned assault on Victoria were now consumed by the raging fire. Men were down everywhere, some killed in the blast, others groping through the choking black smoke. Captain John Grant on the Victorious was out on the horizon to the southwest, and he saw the heavy column of smoke rising up into the morning blue. In spite of every effort, the YJ-18 had scored again.
Aboard Argos Fire, Commander Dean had taken the ship west after joining the cruise missile attack that nearly hit the Eagle God. They had been coming up to support Vengeance when the enemy attack pounded the carrier senseless, and now they were 13 miles southwest of the scene, just beyond the position of Victorious.
“My god,” said Mack Morgan. “Look at Vengeance.”
Dean was too busy to gawk, ordering his Aster-30’s to get after the last two harassing J-31’s that had tried to break up the fighter defense of the carrier. Four missiles tracked them down, and killed both planes.
“We’d better answer that,” said Morgan, fuming as he stared at the burning carrier.
The Eagle God was now about 215 miles to the west, leading in a squadron of eight enemy ships, but that put every ship in TF Vengeance out of range, except DDG Lightning, but it had only four missiles left. Dean saw them fire, for honor’s sake, if nothing more. The four LRASM-A class missiles started away to the north, programmed to jog west about 60 miles out. It seemed a pathetic response, with little chance of putting any real harm on the enemy. Commander Dean knew that, and finally the anger that had been burning in Mack Morgan started to rile him up as well.
“We’ll put eight missiles on that lead ship,” said Dean. “Two salvos of four. Jog the leading set, then just ram the last four home.”
As they were firing, they saw that the Victorious group was also putting Tomahawks in the sky. They would fire off twelve, but now that TF had nothing left that could reach out more than 100 miles and target a ship. The Chinese, well aware of their advantage in missile range, had decided that not one of those shiny new Naval Strike Missiles the British had bought from Norway would ever be used here. They had over 250 SSM’s, and all but 36 of them could achieve ranges of at least 200 miles. That was where they would fight their battle, which had only just begun.
The Eagle God was already firing again, a series of 16 YJ-100’s aimed at TF Vengeance to try and finish her off. That seemed to be a signal fire, because all the ships following in that destroyer’s wake suddenly began to launch a storm of YJ-18’s, a total of 48 missiles in that massive salvo. The Chinese were now opening their main effort against the British. They had drawn blood, putting heavy wounds on a carrier, and now they would deal the death blows to TF Vengeance, while also targeting TF Victorious to the east.
By 08:40, the Eagle God had defeated the LRASM attack, and was finally seeing the twelve Tomahawks fired by Coventry. Now it was time for turnabout, always fair play in war. When Admiral Sun Wei saw what the British were doing with their fighters, he had called for any support that could reach the scene from East Africa. That sent out ten J-20’s, the only planes with the range to get out there, and now they had overflown the Chinese fleet to take up forward screening positions 150 miles further east. It was their searching radars that had spotted the Tomahawks, and now they swooped down to sink their talons into them, and all while the British were struggling to get more fighters ready.
Six more lined up for takeoff on Prince of Wales, all freshly rearmed with Meteors. Victorious reported it now had another six ready and they were immediately ordered aloft. That was going to put a dozen F-35’s into the fight, carrying a combined 48 Meteors to the defense. The British ships could now see the incoming missile storm, with a light squall of 12 Vampires 60 miles out, and the main missile front another 60 miles on.
“Rabid One, Livewire. Make your heading 270 degrees west, and cleared hot. Vampires! Vampires! Continue dry on opposing fighters. Over.”
“Roger Livewire, Weapons hot on Vampires. Over.”
The Meteors would stream out, immediately breaking up that leading squall of 12 Vampires. Then the F-35’s turned their fire on the main stormfront, the missiles racing out and diving for the sea. It was a Perseid shower of death that got six quick kills, but it wouldn’t be enough. More Chinese ships had fired, making up for the 18 missiles the fighters had taken down, and there were still 48 Vampires tracking in on the British Fleet….
Part IV
A Near Run Thing
“I hope to God that I have fought my last battle. It is a bad thing to be always fighting. While in the thick of it, I am much too occupied to feel anything; but it is wretched just after. It is quite impossible to think of glory. Both mind and feeling are exhausted. I am wretched even at the moment of victory, and I always say that next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.”
Chapter 10
At 09:00 that morning HMS Vengeance was dying, her speed down to a crawl, heavy flooding pulling the 60,000 ton carrier into a list to port side, her fires still raging amidships. She still had a RIM-7P Sea Sparrow mount active, and it was among the first to engage the enemy SSM’s, along with Type 42 class destroyer Gloucester, with her Sea Darts. As these went out, aimed at missiles cruising in at 500 knots, they were suddenly evaded when the missiles leapt ahead. The Sea Darts turned at 1360 knots, unable to catch up to the Sizzlers as they sped away.