Aboard Kirov, Samsonov turned and gave Karpov a sheepish look. “Strike failed,” he said. “All missiles destroyed by enemy SAM defense.
Karpov nodded gravely. He considered running due north, hoping he could find that carrier before they could turn over those strike planes. To do that he would have to fight all three of those other destroyers… “Secure from offensive combat. The ship will come to 180 and increase to all ahead flank. Mister Nikolin, signal Turkey-1 to stay outside 50 nautical miles of that contact and begin a return path south. Have the Helo Deck ready the next available helicopter for operations, maritime surveillance loadout.”
Fedorov came over, looking at Karpov with questioning eyes. “We’re breaking off?”
“That is the wisest course for now. I tested that Kongo class destroyer, but they were ready. Look now,” he pointed to the Plexiglas screen. “They have two of those, and there’s one more bear in the woods over to the east. That’s probably another destroyer as well. You figure out how they got all these ships here, Fedorov, and I’ll figure out how we deal with them. We have between four and six hours before they can rearm and fuel those F-35’s, then we could be facing another air strike. So I don’t intend to waste any more missiles on those destroyers. We’ll move south. That’s what Gromyko is doing too, running fast and deep. He knows they’ll get up off the mat and start getting helicopters up soon, and that carrier they have up north is going to want a pound of flesh for what we did to Takami. As soon as we get the comms up, I want Gromyko to reverse course and see if he can find that carrier. ”
“Damn,” said Fedorov. “We’ve a real headache now. Cleansing this time line isn’t going to be as easy as we thought. How do we deal with all those ships? Are you sure we should retire now?”
“Retire? We’re just redeploying. I’m going to use one more weapon we have in our arsenal.”
“What? You mean you’re planning to use another nuke?”
“Now don’t get ahead of yourself,” said Karpov. “Those warheads are very dangerous, to us and any enemy I target. No, I’ll keep those weapons tight for now, unless I’m forced to deploy again. We were caught by surprise with that F-35 attack. I did the only expedient thing, but for now, we’ll use a much simpler weapon—speed.”
“You want to outrun them?”
“I can’t quite do that, as they can match us knot for knot, but we’re over 110 nautical miles ahead of them now, and I want to keep that interval as wide as possible. Look here…. Their carrier hasn’t been spotted by Turkey-1 yet, and this line here is indicating its radar coverage. That’s over 180 nautical miles from us now. So let’s say that carrier is at least 200 miles out; maybe more. I want to open that range as far as possible while they’re rearming. If they don’t turn now and pursue immediately, that’s exactly what I can do. It’s the carrier I need to worry about now, not those three destroyers. We still have 33 SSMs of various types. Kazan has 26 more. That gives us fewer than 60 ways to hurt them with missiles, but I have one weapon in my quiver that they don’t have. Kazan has it too.”
“What?” asked Fedorov, his eyes wide. He was thinking Karpov had something else tucked away in his larders that he never knew about. After all, he was still 70% a Navigator, and 30% Starpom. He didn’t really know how to fight the ship in modern combat like this, any more than he had known how to do battle against the men of this era when he was first put in command by Admiral Volsky.
“Mister Fedorov, we have a nuclear reactor—unlimited fuel, and I can run all day and night, as long as Dobrynin and Biko can hold things together. Those Japanese ships out there use good old fashioned gas turbines, and they burn a lot of fuel if they run up over 30 knots.” He smiled. “Understand now?”
Fedorov understood.
If these unexpected Samurai wanted to stay in the chase and keep after him, they were going to have to match his speed and endurance to do so. He was going to run them ragged, force them to burn that valuable fuel. Once they ran low, he would have yet one more advantage in the battles still waiting to be fought. He would have speed….
He looked at Karpov with renewed respect. Yes, it was true, he was headstrong, full of himself, devious and sly, but he was a fighter, a survivor, and every man aboard was still there breathing only because he had the will and nerve to do what he had just done here in this engagement, and the skill—with just a little help from Mother Time.
Aboard the carrier Kaga, Admiral Kita took the news concerning Takami very hard. He turned to Captain Jenzu, his arms folded, eyes serious. “This is more than we bargained for,” he said. “They have a submarine.”
“Aye sir. If that helo off Kongo had been up with an ASW loadout, we might have jumped on it when Takami picked it up. Yasen Class. They said they thought it might be that Russian sub that also went missing in the Kuriles—Kazan.”
“Well that complicates things, doesn’t it,” said Kita. “The Russians have given us the slip. We can see their helicopter, and it’s heading south, but it was Takami’s helo and that had a leash on Kirov for us, and we’ve lost that contact.”
“They’re down there, sir. We know where they were before they slipped off. We still have four birds ready to fly on Akagi. Two have GBU/53s, and the other two have the JSOW. There’s a fighter up on our flight deck ready to go right now. We could send it up for recon.”
“The fighter may be a good idea, but I think it wise to hold the strike planes on Akagi at the moment.”
“But sir, it will be nearly five hours before we have our planes ready again.”
“That’s why we should wait. If we hit them again, I want to use every strike plane we still have. We’ll run that recon sortie as you suggest, but we have to think about ASW operations now as well, and we may have good men in the water out there. I’m hoping a lot of Takami’s crew got safely off that ship.”
“Aye sir, we all are. What are your orders?”
Kita thought for a moment. “We move to Takami’s last known position. Get the Merlins ready for at-sea rescue operations. All the Seahawks get ASW loadouts. They caught us by surprise with that damn sub. Harada didn’t know it was there until it was right on top of him.”
“We need to even the score, sir,” said Jenzu.
“Damn right,” said Kita. “We’re going to get after those devils, nukes and all. Make it so.”
The hunt for Kirov was on.
Season four continues with Stormtide Rising
Book 29 in the Kirov Series
With the Allied forces closing on Tunisia from two sides, the Germans conceive a bold new plan that sends Rommel west to the heartland of Tunisia where he confronts the American Army under General Patton. The Axis forces launch Operation Sturmflut (Stormtide) as the famous names etched in the original history at Kasserine, Faid, Gafsa and El Guettar will again see the rising tide of war. Meanwhile, Hitler presses his daring invasion of Iraq and Syria in Operation Phoenix, while launching the cream of his airborne troops against the British outpost on Crete with a much belated Operation Merkur. As the action unfolds, Elena Fairchild’s exploration of Saint Michael’s Cave leads to a most unexpected place.