M/Sgt Bart Kopak had been light heartedly pursuing Becky since the Brits had arrived, with limited success. It was not that Becky didn’t like Bart but she was married to a Petty Officer aboard HMS Cuchullainn, first of the Hero class destroyers. Their married quarters down the road at Catterick camp was frequently absent one of them, but that did not make their marriage any less secure. Becky knew her husband would keep his trousers on in Singapore and Manila during his present voyage and she would do the same. Kopak however, was apparently persistent if nothing else.
“Does Mrs Kopak know you act like this?” Swatting away his hand, she was tired, dirty and in no mood to be tactful. Bart had not meant it to seem a predatory act. He intended to ask her if she wanted to join himself and his buddies at a local watering hole the next day, the errant lock of hair had seemed very becoming. If he hadn’t been so tired himself he would not have allowed the impulse to become action. Before he could explain that the only Mrs Kopak in his immediate family was his mother, there were two thuds behind him as two members of Becky’s section jumped down from their vehicle. Not liking what they had heard in Becky’s angry retort they were prepared to give whoever was responsible a kicking.
Becky saw the look in Bart’s eyes and realised that he had not intended to cause upset. The arrival of her two soldiers, whose entrance was only lacking capes and underpants worn over blue tights, made her step toward them with both hands raised.
“Whoa guys… just a misunderstanding!” As her would-be rescuers gave Bart warning stares and departed, Becky turned to Bart.
“Look, I am flattered by the attention but I am married, happily, and not interested Bart.”
He looked down at her hands.
“You don’t wear any ring’s Becky.”
She pulled on the cord around her neck and fished out her I.D tags. A tiny velvet bag was strung on the same cord.
“I’m a mechanical engineer Bart, at best they would get damaged and at worst I’d lose a finger,” she explained before tucking them back out of sight.
“I was just going to ask if you and your mates wanted to join my guys and hoist a few tomorrow.” Bart’s use of the rather English term ‘mates’ made her smile. It was rather like a well brought up person trying to say ‘fuck’ for the first time and sound cool.
“If we can get the time we will be there, no promises though and just a pint or two, ok?”
“OK!” Bart replied, “Just a brew or two, see you there”, and left smiling.
“New contact, bearing 327’, range 14600 yards captain” the sonar department reported. The Hood had been using a fast moving container ship to mask any noise she made on her way north. Two hours’ previously they had come up to periscope depth to investigate a Chinese trawler that was barely making seaway yet not trawling, despite abundant fish nearby. The captain intended to inform the Admiralty tonight that he suspected the innocent looking ship was acting as a covert picket; she had definitely been towing some form of array. Under an awning on her deck had sat what looked very much like a second array being worked on. Photographs taken through the periscope had been examined and showed it looked scarily similar to their own. The submarines captain did not know it but had the picket ship not strayed over a Russian mud bank, uncharted on their Chinese charts, he would never have been alerted to their presence. Striking the bank had damaged the array and the mud churned up by the picket in its recovery of it had clogged its copied Prairie Masker system’s intakes, rendering the trawler detectable.
“Captain, classify new contact as Sierra four, Haizhou class destroyer.” Purchased from Russia where it was known as a Sovremenny class. 4,480 tons, top speed of 32.7 knots, two RBU-1000 ASW launchers, MG335 sonar on the bow and her own ASW helicopter. Although a multi-role surface combat ship she was a sub hunter to be respected thought Hood’s captain.
“New contact bearing 322’, range 17000 yards, Captain”. Looking up at the plot being updated constantly, they had detected the Haizhou, a Chinese warship, departing the Russian Sea of Okhotsk and heading north. By rights this new contact should be either another PLAN vessel or a merchanter.
“Captain, classify new target as Sierra five, Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, sir.” Curiouser and curiouser thought the captain. “Captain, four new contacts, bearing from 321’ to 333’, mixed ranges, nearest 17400 yards”. The ships were all being masked from the submarine by the island chain of the Kuril’Skiye Ostrova until they emerged from the channel between the two northern most clusters. According to the latest intelligence reports the Kuznetsov was supposed to be in port at Arkhangel.
Picking up the handset beside him he asked them to confirm Sierra fives classification.
“Sir, we double checked before informing you, classification is confirmed sir.” Replacing the receiver he turned to his Number One, “Well bugger me ‘Jimmy the One’” calling his First Lieutenant by the age old ratings nickname.
“Either someone dug a canal from the Barents Sea without telling me or someone has screwed up big time.”
The same old faces were present from the previous meeting, all looked slightly more rested, however there was more tension present in the air.
The notes passed to the Russian and Chinese Embassy’s had so far not been responded to by either Government. The United States Ambassador in Moscow had gone to the Kremlin to seek an audience with the Russian Premier and been kept waiting for seven hours’. Finally he had been seen by a junior minister and left angered by the man's insulting remarks regarding the American accusations. As there was apparently no hope of resolving the matter quietly a special session of the UN Security Council had been called and the USA had publicly accused the Russian Federation of assisting international terrorists with nuclear weapons. The Russian delegate had sat in defiant silence throughout. Faced with the old cold war response of the Russians and the high tech attack on her intelligence satellites the United States and NATO had gone onto a war footing. This was as much in the hope that the act would bring Russia to its senses as it was to prepare for possible hostilities. It was not to be though as evidently long term subversive operations had that morning seen distinctly unfriendly parties replacing the democratically elected heads of government in the Czech Republic, Rumania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and The Ukraine in violent coups. In Poland, Belorussia and Lithuania, fighting was still going on after abortive coup d'état’s in those countries. International news agencies in Russia had been raided and all foreign journalists detained. A roundup of all foreign nationals had begun; however, emails from individuals had made it out with the news and alerted of a mass call up of reservists. There was silence now as the international phone system had been shut down.
The Iron Curtain was again erect.
General Shaw had informed the president of the receipt, via the British Admiralty, of HMS Hood’s contact report. The Kuznetsov accompanied by two Russian cruisers, the Velikiy and Nakhimov, three Haizhou/Sovremenny destroyers, either Russian or Chinese. Two Udaloy destroyers, nine Krival-1 frigates and five at-sea replenishment ships. HMS Hood had been unable to properly identify each ship due to the appearance of an Alfa class Russian hunter killer submarine and at least one suspected diesel boat. At about the same time as the submarines had been detected seaward of the Hood, sonar buoys had started being dropped by aircraft. Although confident that he was undetected and the other fellows were just being cautious, her captain had elected for caution also and slipped back to shadow at a distance but still inside the covert picket ship screen.