Captain Johnson couldn’t believe what was happening. His ship was actually being boarded. Not since the heady days of the civil war between communists and nationalists in 1928 China had an American ship of war been attacked in this manner. Johnson grabbed the 1 MC microphone and then said the words no American warship captain had uttered in close to a hundred years: “All hands, repel boarders, repel boarders!”
Several of the strange weapons crashed through the bridge windows, and then one of the .50-caliber Brownings and one of the heavy searchlights illuminated the attackers in their boats to the port side of Shiloh. The brutal size of the American rounds caught the boats and their crewmen and chopped them to pieces.
“XO, get the anchor up. Engine room, get me some power up here. Helm, steer straight ahead. Get us moving!”
On deck, Jack heard the anchor start to raise, and Shiloh surged to life. He turned quickly and saw Master Chief Jenks and Charlie Ellenshaw as they were firing M4 assault rifles over the side. Thus far, they had kept their attackers at bay, and only a few had managed the treacherous climb to Shiloh’s deck. There were bodies floating all around the large missile cruiser. As Jack raised his head, one of the attackers who had made the climb screamed as it launched itself at him. He moved too slowly and was knocked down, and the creature seized that opportunity and pounced. Jack tried in vain to get his pistol up in time, but the attacker wedged his hand between it and the deck.
Jack looked into the animated face of his adversary, and he didn’t care for what he was seeing at all. The clear, small, sharp teeth were in full display, and the drool from its mouth spiraled down as the beast saw the opportunity. It raised the mother-of-pearl knife high into the air, and Jack prepared himself for the sharp blade to crash into his chest. The gleaming earrings and other pearl-like adornments rattled and shook as the beast, who dressed like the pirates of old, prepared to kill him.
Suddenly, the head of the attacker swung sharply to the left as a rifle butt crashed into its skull. The beast went limp, and before Jack knew what had happened, Carl was helping him to his feet. The M4 was at his side as he faced the colonel.
“Sorry. Ran out of ammo. Had me scared there for a minute, Jack. You’re slowing down a little, enough so that you let Flipper’s ugly cousin almost gut you.”
“I could say the same for you, Swabby. A little later and I would have been sushi.”
As the scream of heavy-caliber bullets streaked over into the waters, Shiloh started her run. The foam and burst of power at the stern caught several of the attackers as they climbed their ropes and made it to the stern railing, just as Shiloh took a powerful leap forward in the water. Violet spray and foam flew high into the air, and her thrust forward slung the boarders from the railing.
As Jack regained his breath after the brief struggle with death, he felt the deck beneath him heave as Shiloh used her two powerful turbojet engines to spring forward. Almost all personnel on her exposed deck lost their footing due to the acceleration of one of the world’s fastest warships.
The night sky was crisscrossed with blue, red, and green tracers. Star shells started to explode from the five-inch main mount on the foremost section of Shiloh, and their magnesium flares lit up the night sky. Luckily, they didn’t need computer guidance to fire the five-inch gun straight into the air. It was better than nothing.
“Look!” Charlie said, pointing toward the two anchored Russian ships.
Peter the Great was also slowly starting to move. Her anchor had been cut loose as her powerful engines were throttled to their stops. Only the Simbirsk was idle. And to all their horror, she was also burning from her forecastle to her bridge. Flames licked at her forward sixteen-inch gun mount, and an explosion could be seen rising high into the sky.
Collins suddenly sprang and moved quickly to the stairs leading to the bridge. He entered and saw Johnson directing the intense fire from his station at the bridge windows.
“Captain, get us over to the Simbirsk. She’s starting to burn!” Jack yelled.
Johnson had to be given credit for not even questioning the direction. He immediately ordered Shiloh’s helm hard over.
“Damage control, stand by to board Simbirsk and assist in firefighting.”
Jack nodded at Johnson and made his way down to help in the endeavor to save their only ticket home. Shiloh sped through the floating carnage of the attackers. It rammed smaller boats with their screaming crewmen and crushed them beneath her massive weight. The twin propellers slashed and mutilated those creatures that had escaped the ramming. The battle was one of the more ruthless scenes any of the experienced Event Group personnel had ever witnessed.
Of the three ships anchored that night, one was burning heavily, and the other two had been boarded by an unknown threat. All of this from sixteen small boats and the tenacious creatures that crewed them. The last thing they saw was one of the searchlights picking up the largest of the ships as it moved off into the dwindling moonlight, the pirate flag flying magnificently on the topmost sail.
The attack lasted no more than seven minutes.
14
Three hours later, the fires on board Simbirsk had been put out. The crews of Shiloh and Peter the Great examined the damage as both cruiser captains had straddled the damaged World War II warship in a protective layer that any enemy would find hard to get past. A total of over six hundred men lined the decks of both with automatic weapons as they all scanned the sea for further threats.
The two captains, Jack Collins, Carl Everett, Henri Farbeaux, and Salkukoff met at the burned fantail of the Simbirsk.
“The phase shift power plant, was it damaged at all?” Captain Kreshenko asked, looking at Jack.
“Professor Gervais and the master chief are evaluating that as we speak. Thus far, it looks as though the quick thinking of Gervais saved us from the enemy getting to the equipment. He and his assistants locked themselves inside the engine room and dogged the hatches. They couldn’t get in and were butchered by the Russian, American, and Royal Marine contingent sent by you. Obviously, we need more security aboard Simbirsk. We can’t risk losing that ship at this point.”
“Are you suggesting that these… these creatures were after the power plant?” Salkukoff asked with skepticism written on his stern face.
Collins now turned his attention to Salkukoff. “Well, let’s see here, Colonel. Their boarding parties never made an attempt to get belowdecks of either Peter the Great or Shiloh. But they did the Simbirsk. I’ve never been a big believer in coincidence, and if your files on me are as accurate as I think they are, you should know that.”
“As you say, they are accurate files, Colonel Collins. So why do we not cut to the chase, as you Americans say? Ask me your questions, and maybe I can allay your suspicions about my mission.”
“I’ll bite. What are your orders?”
At this, even Captain Kreshenko raised a brow, as he wanted the full details about Salkukoff’s mission as well. He could see that the American colonel was as suspicious about this man as himself.
“To put it bluntly, Colonel, I am here to assure my superiors are not embarrassed by this ship and the ways and means we received the technology.”