“Coming over the flight deck,” called her copilot.
“Roger.”
Victoria eased the aircraft forward over the large flight deck, steadied, and then lowered the power until the aircraft landed with a jolt. She gave a thumbs up to the plane captain in front of the helicopter, giving permission for the flight deck team to transit the rotor arc. Moments later they were chocked and chained. Her copilot departed the aircraft and Plug got in. He was the aircraft commander on the next crew.
“Hey, boss.”
“Good morning.” She was about to begin her turnover brief when a radio call interrupted them.
“Jaguar 600, Control, how much fuel do you have right now?”
Victoria frowned, looking at her fuel gauges. “About 1.5 until splash. They’re filling us up as we speak.”
“600, Captain says you need to take off immediately. We have just received intel of a hostile submarine getting ready to launch missiles. It’s last known posit is twenty-five miles to our north. We need an immediate attack. Standby for submarine datum.”
Plug waved to get the plane captain’s attention and signaled for them to stop refueling.
Victoria said, “Where’s your other pilot?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think we can wait.”
“Agreed.”
Victoria felt a vibration in her seat as the ship began speeding up. Then it listed to port as it made a hard turn in the direction of the Chinese submarine. The chocks and chains were removed, and the flight deck was soon empty except for their helicopter, rotors spinning.
Over the radio she heard, “You have green deck.”
Victoria said, “Coming up and aft.”
She pulled power, stabilized, and then brought the stick aft and pulled more power. The helicopter slowly moved backward, suspended in a hover over the back of the flight deck. She kicked the nose out to the right and pulled power right up to the limits. Instead of climbing, she moved the stick forward, bringing the nose down, skillfully transferring all of that increased engine power into airspeed while maintaining a constant altitude.
Plug and their aircrewman began announcing the completion of checklist steps to each other, then worked with the ship’s tactical controller to ensure they had the latest information on the Chinese submarine.
“Let’s spit a pattern of passive buoys and see if we can triangulate his position. Then we’ll dip and go active,” Victoria said.
“Roger.” Plug relayed the plan to the ship.
Ten minutes later, Victoria felt the vibrations of the speeding aircraft diminish as she slowed.
POP.
“Buoy one away,” called the aircrewman. “Good chute. In the water.”
POP.
“Buoy two away…”
Her aircrewman continued to make calls from the back of the helicopter, updating them on the status of the sonobuoys. Underneath each one, long strings of acoustic sensors lowered themselves into the deep, sending the data back to the helicopter through a transmitter atop the floating buoy.
The passive buoys they used wouldn’t send out active sonar pings. Every ping was a warning to their prey. And once the enemy submarine took evasive maneuvers, her job would become much more difficult.
“We got something, ma’am. All right… there… got a fix. It’s about one thousand yards from buoy number two.”
Plug passed the information back to the controller on the ship while manipulating his tactical display. “Okay, I got a track. It’s going zero-three-zero at five knots.”
The aircrewman said, “Signature sure looks like a Type 94. Making some weird noises though.”
Victoria looked at the display screen. Plug’s fingers raced over the keypad, updating the track and…
“Shit. I think we lost it. It was there a second ago and then… I think he must have gone deeper. Checking. Hold on. Yup, there it is. The submarine changed course and speed too.”
Victoria was flying in a racetrack pattern near the buoys, staying close enough that they would be able to attack quickly once they were ready.
“Okay, now we’ve got him headed two-seven-zero at fifteen knots. Let’s make our attack run. Boss, I’m giving you a fly-to point.”
“Copy.”
Victoria banked hard right and brought her helicopter around to line up for their attack. In the back of her mind, something was bothering her. Memories of the last time she conducted anti-submarine warfare came flooding back.
The submarine that had killed her father. She shook her head, hoping Plug didn’t notice as she physically tried to clear her exhausted mind. But the troubling feeling wouldn’t leave.
“Okay, I’ve got you on course. Going through weapons release checklist,” Plug said. His hands were still speeding over switches and buttons, setting up for their torpedo drop.
Victoria’s pulse raced as a million thoughts flooded her mind.
Just fly the aircraft.
She checked her gauges. Airspeed and altitude were good. Heading was where it needed to be. Fuel was low. Shit, fuel was really low. She wished they could have taken more, but it would only really be a problem if this first torp missed the bastard.
The memory came back.
The submarine that fired a missile at her father. Her brain was telling her something was wrong. This feeling wasn’t just anxiety about her past demons.
This was her mind telling her to wake up. There was a problem in front of her and they weren’t seeing it. She frowned at the tactical display.
“One mile until weapons release,” Plug said.
The day her father died, she had been hunting a submarine near his aircraft carrier. The tactical problem was just like this.
“Copy,” said the aircrewman.
“Roger,” replied Victoria, her pulse racing as she watched the distance count down. “Any update on the track?”
The submarine had changed depth and speed, and shortly after, Victoria’s aircraft had reacquired it. Just like this.
“Negative, same course and speed, ma’am.”
Then the P-8 had killed it with a torpedo. Or at least, everyone thought they did…
Plug said, “All right, 4 miles. Weapons release on my third now.” He paused. “Now… now…”
“Stop! Don’t press it!”
Plug stopped, looking at Victoria with wide eyes. His finger was suspended one inch over the button, unmoving, as he awaited further command.
Victoria looked at him, flipping up her visor. “I think it’s a decoy.”
“What?” he said.
“This is the same exact course and speed I saw when we thought we were tracking a submarine near the Ford. Same flipping course and speed. It was a decoy. I’m coming left. Take your finger away from that button, please.”
Plug did as commanded. “Shit, boss, are you fucking sure about this?”
“Let’s prepare to dip right near where you first held contact.”
Plug was still looking at her like she was crazy. “You think it’s still there?”
“Just do it.”
Plug said, “Yes, ma’am.” He wiped sweat from his forehead.
“Be ready to drop as soon as we ping. If it’s still there, that sub’s going to be getting ready to launch missiles. They’ll probably be shallow.”
“Roger.”
Victoria slowed their aircraft to a hover a little more than fifty feet above the ocean, and the multi-million-dollar dipping sonar, the most advanced in the world, lowered from beneath the helicopter. Once in the water, it continued to reel out until it was at Plug’s specified depth.
“Going active.”
“Roger.”
Victoria could hear the loud, high-pitched ping sending a jolt of sound energy out in all directions.
The aircrewman yellowed over the internal comms, “There it is!”