It packed a punch as well, even though its stealth properties precluded it from having the main gun that many other ships of its class were armed with. It had been designed as a near-invisible missile platform, a surface ship with comparable stealth capabilities to a submarine. Although without a main gun, it was armed with two fully automated 30mm Bushmaster auto-cannons and two rotary, radar guided, 20mm Phalanx close-in weapon systems designed to shoot down incoming missiles. As well as air defence missiles and ship-to-ship torpedoes it also carried 24 CVS401 Perseus multi-role cruise missiles.
Its inward sloping, or tumblehome, hull design, its lack of vertical surfaces or right angles and its construction out of hardened, molecular-bonded carbon fibre all added to a reduced radar cross section as well as reducing its heat and sonar signature.
However, the most impressive aspect was the cloak. An array close to the stern of the ship was capable of projecting a lensing field that bent light around the ship. This effectively made the Robin Hood invisible when it was stationary or travelling at speeds below twenty knots, and significantly obscured views of the ship at speeds in excess of twenty knots.
Harper had had to see it before he believed it. He was still less than convinced that the cloak wasn’t going to give the entire crew cancer. Allegedly developed from technology derived from the US government’s Project Rainbow, a smaller version of the cloak was rumoured to have been utilised by US special forces operators in the Pacific during the Lingshan incident and again in New York during the Ceph incursion.
The cloak was the reason that Harper had a love-hate relationship with the Robin Hood. Not because there was something sneaky, or indeed un-gentlemanly about an invisible ship, though the old fashioned, traditional, hidebound part of him felt there was. The hate he felt for this amazing ship stemmed from the cost.
A company that had been bought out by CELL had built the ship. The cloak had doubled the price of the vessel and the ship had come in significantly over budget. The Robin Hood and its two sister ships had significantly contributed to the financial strain that had forced Britain to sell its navy, which, despite its size, was arguably the best in the world. CELL had squeezed and squeezed the Admiralty, and then the Treasury and then the government. That was why Harper found himself hating the ship, despite how hard its capabilities tried to woo him.
The bridge was in the centre of the ship. It contained a series of dark carbon-fibre workstations illuminated by the holographic projections from the various departments: helm, weapons, engineering, communications, navigation etc.
Lieutenant Commander Samantha Swanson didn’t seem surprised to see the Captain, despite it being her watch.
‘Captain on the bridge,’ she announced, saluting. Harper returned the salute. She relinquished his raised leather swivel seat, which allowed a commanding view of the bridge, and stood with her arms behind her back by the navigation area. She was too professional to question or even show any reaction to his presence, though Harper guessed that Stevens almost certainly would have spoken to her and she would be aware of the Robin Hood’s orders.
Harper had worked with Swanson before, and had found the tall, sandy-blonde-haired woman to be a capable officer. He had recommended her for XO of the Robin Hood, which might have resulted in her eventual captaincy of the vessel but politics, and it was starting to look like corporate rather than Admiralty politics, had resulted in Stevens being foisted on him.
‘Navigation, plot a course to the west end of Long Island Sound, please. Engineering, enable the cloak. Helm, I want you to remain steady at twenty knots. Let’s see if this cloak can do everything they say it can. We are going to be giving our new employers a demonstration of their stealth technology.’
‘Sir, should we make Liberty Station aware of our new heading?’ Midshipman Walters, the head of comms, asked. Liberty Station was the CELL installation at New York that was ostensibly in command of the Robin Hood at the moment.
‘The purpose of this exercise is to test the Robin Hood’s stealth capabilities. We are going to see how close we can get to New York without being detected. Comms discipline will be maintained.’
‘Aye sir.’
Swanson glanced at the Captain but said nothing. She knew he was disobeying orders, and those that knew the purpose of the Robin Hood’s mission out here also knew that they could bombard the rebel positions in Yonkers from over a hundred and fifty miles away if they so wanted. A few people swapped glances but nobody raised any objections.
He felt rather than heard the background hum of the cloak as it initialised. The ship changed course. Even on the choppy sea the ship’s ride was so smooth it felt like they were sailing silently across silk.
They passed the lights of New London, New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk and they were heading towards Stamford on the northern, Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound. To the south, Long Island itself was dark. After the Ceph incursion and CELL’s aggressive land grab, real estate prices had plummeted horribly. Now the wealthy neighbourhoods like Port Jefferson and Whitestone had been abandoned. Empty mansions were homes for the displaced poor from the city, rats and wild dog packs.
Despite the tension that he could feel in the bridge, Captain Harper was appalled at how easy this was. Particularly as by now CELL must know that the Robin Hood was missing.
‘Mr Hamilton, will the East River provide you with any significant problems?’ Harper asked.
‘Er… no, sir,’ Lieutenant Hamilton said, not sounding entirely sure of himself. Harper had never worked with the plump moustachioed man before, but he had reviewed the navigation officer’s record and it had seemed more than adequate. You had to be something of a high flyer to have been posted to the Robin Hood.
Closer to the city, more and more of the surrounding habitation had been abandoned. There was mile after mile of dark empty buildings that used to be some of the most desirable real estate in the world. Now they were ghosts of suburbs and, as they got closer to the city, the neighbourhoods of New York. The only light or movement was from the occasional CELL patrol vehicle or helicopter, their searchlights lancing through the darkness.
What had once been a very busy waterway was now all but empty. The patrol vessels they did see in the distance, mainly CELL but some were US Navy, they gave a wide berth to. Nobody challenged them. Nobody even noticed them. The stealth field was working perfectly.
‘This is obscene,’ one of the ratings in the comms section muttered before being shushed. Harper wasn’t sure that he disagreed.
As they entered the East River, New York was a faint glow to the southwest.
Inside the bridge the silence was only broken by the occasional quietly spoken instruction. The tensest moment came when they passed within two hundred feet of a patrol vessel. The craft’s searchlights were being played across the dark riverbanks on either side of the river. They were presumably looking for resistance fighters. Lieutenant Chalmers, who ran the weapons section, glanced up at Harper but the Captain said nothing. He wasn’t even sure what he was going to do if they were discovered. Would he fight or surrender? If he fought would the crew follow his orders? The searchlight must have shone straight through the Robin Hood but the patrol craft did not notice them.