Alarms on the consoles in front of Veyron and Matthew started lighting up red, one after the other. Reverberation shook the trembling room like an earthquake. Veyron jettisoned the last of the ballast, waiting expectantly for the ship to shoot to the surface like a rocket. The commander stared maniacally at the screen below him as he leaned over the main console island which stood in the middle of the room.
The ship rattled and ground against itself, vibration thrashing everything.
“Come on baby!” Commander Bower yelled above the cacophony.
The others shared momentary glances and looked about for anything that might disconnect itself from the ceiling and drop onto them.
The ship continued to heave against itself, like a jumbo jet under brakes at the start of a runway. She seemed as though she would tear herself apart. The thunderous noise of the water moving away from the mighty jets and the trapped energy in the boat were rocking her and her crew in a thousand directions at once.
Finally, the sea bottom relented and released its grip on the massive submarine. The fuselage issued a mighty metallic groan of relief, and the tension was relieved as she pulled up and away from the bottom.
“Hooray!” The crew cheered as one.
Sam looked at the commander and thought the old seaman might cry in joy and relief, as he pulled back the power to the reactor.
Veyron flooded ballast into the ship as fast as he could, and Matthew battled to catch and carry the ship as she jumped to life undersea.
Tom stood and climbed out of the navigation station. He turned to congratulate his father on the extrication.
It was at that moment the proximity alarm on Svetlana’s screens lit up in concert with a wailing siren, and the ship automatically deployed her counter-measure device against an incoming torpedo strike. In days gone by, decoys were deployed against torpedoes, but these days American submarines used high-tech Countermeasure Anti-Torpedoes (CAT’s) that seek and destroy incoming ordnance. CAT provides a rapidly deployable kinetic energy, hard-kill solution to use against torpedo threats. Launched in an instant, it homes in on the enemy torpedo and destroys it through proximity detonation and/or collision.
“Contact, starboard, 150 feet and closing!” Svetlana called.
Sam scrambled back to his station, roughly mashing the headset against his right ear as he dropped into the seat. “Torpedo!” he said, “Brace for impact!”
The torpedo chasing the Omega Deep was relatively small, intended to disable her by puncturing her hull — but not destroy her. The artificial intelligence in the CAT’s onboard computer triangulated a trajectory as far from the submarine as possible, yet close enough to confuse the targeting device on the incoming weapon.
Self-propelled, the Omega Deep’s CAT closed proximity on the incoming deadly underwater missile. Nearing the attacker, it released a sonic shockwave which produced both sound and an underwater wake. This confounded the hostile torpedo’s homing system, breaking its lock on the Omega Deep and successfully nominating itself as the target of choice. A few seconds later the two torpedoes made contact, and both weapons initiated their explosive systems.
Boom!!
A shockwave slammed over the Omega Deep from the starboard side, and the tubular vessel rolled violently 30 degrees to port, knocking the commander off his feet. He fell hard to the floor, striking his head on the counter as he went down.
In the same moment, the attacking torpedo tore into the CAT. Inside the broad casement of the CAT, a series of magnesium fueled fireballs in excess of one million degrees Fahrenheit each erupted one after the other, the last of which also ignited a charge equivalent to 500kg of C4 explosive. The torpedo’s TNT warhead detonated. The remainder of the missile changed course by 45 degrees, and exploded into four pieces, each now white hot and pliable as a rubber ball.
If what was left had struck the Omega Deep, it would have merely glanced off her armored side. As it was, the pieces traversed another 300 feet of water, sinking and disintegrating, brittle under the rapid temperature change. The whole event took less than four seconds.
In the command center on the Omega Deep, a siren mercilessly throbbed and the crew held on to their stations with both hands. Matthew pushed all his controls against the inertia of the explosion and pushed the submarine back over.
“Evasive maneuvers!” The commander called from the floor, reaching up to the counter-top to pull himself to his feet. “Elise, how much water do we have?”
“One forty feet sir, in another 600 yards east we can dive though. There’s a drop-off over two thousand feet.”
The commander hunkered over the powertrain control screen and swiped thrust to the propulsion to 100 percent. The ship silently leaped forward into the free ocean before her. This was what she was made for — combat.
“Power at 100 percent. Pilot!”
“Yes sir,” Matthew responded.
“Let’s make for the drop-off, then take us around to due east, and down to a thousand or so feet. We’ll skirt along the rim of the drop for a while and come about somewhere down the line. She’s built for hard angles, let’s put her through her paces.”
“Copy that,” Matthew replied.
“What’s our top speed, sir?” Sam asked
“She’s pretty comfortable at 40 knots,” The commander answered. “Elise, let us know the moment we can dive.”
“Will do, commander.”
“Pilot, keep her as low as you dare. Keep at least fifty feet between us and the bottom, but beyond that, it’s up to you.”
“Aye sir, fifty feet,” Matthew responded.
“Sonar, weapons, report!”
“Sir, one enemy sub,” Tom started. “Computer identifies it as a Russian Typhoon class — whatever that is.”
“A Typhoon! They were all supposed to be retired under the START treaty.”
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994.
Sam said, “I guess they were retired to the highest bidder because this looks like a perfect match.”
“Range?”
“4100 yards, speed 27 knots. We’re pulling away from her.”
“Well she can’t keep up, but she’ll give us a run for our money. That’s a monster of a sub — and God knows what she’s armed with. They used to run Type 53’s. And a bucket-load of ICBM’s, but those are definitely accounted for. Weapons, what’s your status?”
“Sir, we have fifteen more CATs, all four torpedo tubes are operational, and I’ve got Mark-48’s live, locked and loaded in each one.”
“We’ll run for a bit. Then we’ll come around on ‘em. Sonar, do not lose that ship.”
“I’m all over it,” Svetlana replied.
“Copilot!”
“Copilot,” Veyron responded grinning, apparently enjoying himself a little too much.
“How are my pumps and ballast?”
“All good sir, this tin can seems pretty tough.”
“Let’s hope so. I’m going to need your help to carry this boat around some hard angles if we’re to outsmart this Typhoon.”
“Let me know what you need sir. I think I’m getting the hang of her. You said it was a crash course, but this is a little extreme!”