“All right, everyone, check fire,” McLanahan shouted on interphone after both Wolverine cruise missiles were on their way. “Brad, turn us away from the Chinese battle group before they backtrack those Wolverine missiles.”
“We can’t stop now, Patrick,” Elliott shouted. “Get the Rainbows and Strikers out! That Taiwanese frigate is still unprotected!”
“Negative, pilot,” McLanahan responded. “Everyone standby.” He switched his radio to the scrambled satellite channeclass="underline" “Buster, this is Headbanger, we’ve got Screamers in the air, repeat, Screamers in the air. Advise if you want seconds.”
“Say again, Headbanger?” Samson responded. “You launched? On whose orders?”
“Let’s get with the program, Earthmover,” Elliott cut in. “We’re the only thing standing between that carrier battle group and the Taiwanese navy. Let’s send the Tacit Rainbows and Strikers and end this right now” “Headbanger, you check your fire until we get word from the boss,” Samson said. “Stay nose cold. You hear me, pilot? Noses cold. If you’re still in contact with the Taiwanese frigate, tell him to disengage and get out of the area. I’m getting permission for you to cover his withdrawal.” “What if he attacks again?” Elliott asked, but Samson had no reply. He swore loudly into his oxygen mask and switched to the secondary secure radio channeclass="underline" “Kin Men, this is Headbanger,” Elliott radioed to the Taiwanese frigate. “We showed PLAN missile launches on your position. We recommend you get the hell out of there. Do you copy? ”
There was no response, but, seconds later, McLanahan shouted, “I’ve got missiles in the air, high-speed, high-altitude ballistic, from the Kin Men again. Multiple high-speed missiles, probably Standard missiles programmed for anti-ship attack. Targeting the lead destroyer and the carrier… looks like the destroyer took a couple hits… can’t tell if the carrier got hit. It might’ve taken one hit or a near miss… frigate Kin Men launching missiles again, subsonic sea-skimmers, probably Harpoons, a couple at the destroyer and the rest at the carrier… the Taiwanese frigate is reversing course, looks like he’s heading back to Quemoy… about sixty seconds to Harpoon missile impact…”
“PLAN destroyer launching antiair missiles,” Vikram announced. “Targeting the Harpoon missiles, not the Taiwanese frigate.”
“Anything still tracking the Kin Men?” Cheshire asked.
“They’ve got everything up and transmitting,” Vikram said. “The PLAN fleet is still alive and probably mad as hell. Sungs never going to get out of there.”
“Launch commit on all battle group anti-ship missiles! ” Admiral Yi ordered after the report of inbound Taiwanese missiles was relayed to the bridge. “Sink both those ships! Now! Radio South Sea fleet headquarters, request air support for possible follow-on surface and submarine attacks. Full countermeasures! I want—”
“Bridge, combat, radar contact aircraft, close aboard, bearing three- zero-zero, range three-five kilometers and closing, altitude two thousand meters, speed four hundred knots, turning! ” the first officer shouted, relaying the message from the Combat Information Center.
Suddenly, the reports stopped. Yi fairly lunged for the intercom mike. “Combat, continue report! Where is that plane?”
“Bridge… bridge, combat, we have lost contact!” the first officer reported in a high, squeaky, panicked voice. “No contacts. Attempting optical and thermal contact, still negative. Heavy jamming on search and uplink frequencies, all bearings.”
Just then, the unit-to-unit radiophone buzzed, and Yi picked it up himself: “Speak.”
“This is the Kang” came the reply. It was the captain of one of the destroyers, Commander Xiao Rongji. This was Xiao’s first major command, and he was known in the Chinese navy as a bold, even rash, young boat commander; it was no surprise to Yi that he was the first to break tactical radio procedures. “We have detected a small aircraft just over the horizon, bearing two-three-four, range ten kilometers, altitude approximately five hundred meters.” Xiao had detected one of the Wolverine “Screamer” decoy missiles that had strayed within range of the frigate’s sensors. “Are we cleared to engage?”
“You will protect your ship and this carrier with everything you have got — including your life! ” Yi shouted in reply. “Full air defense screen. Stand by to launch another missile salvo on my command. And keep this channel clear!” Yi hung up the radiophone in disgust.
“Carrier Mao, this is the Kin Men” the rebel skipper radioed again.
“All of your weapons missed their targets. The bomber is now targeting you and your capital warships. If you do not reverse course, they will attack.”
“Bomber?” Yi shouted. “Did he say ‘bomber’? Combat, any contact on that aircraft?”
“No, sir,” the first officer replied. “Lookouts report occasional contact with dark contrails low on the horizon, possibly from a formation of small aircraft or a few large aircraft, but we have no visual or electronic contact.”
“Check your systems, make sure everything’s working properly. Find whatever’s out there now\ ” Yi swore loudly, then fell silent once again.
It had to be an American stealth bomber, he thought. The American stealth bombers almost destroyed the Mao, then known as the Khomeini, in the Gulf of Oman just a few weeks earlier. It stood to reason that the Americans would track the carrier with the same stealth bomber so it could strike. If so, there was nothing he could do. His radars couldn’t detect it — the intermittent contacts were probably when the bomber was releasing attack missiles.
“Bridge, Combat!” the intercom buzzed to life, “the Kang locking fire control radars on unidentified aircraft!” Yi swung around to starboard and raised his binoculars to his eyes — just as the frigate opened fire with its 100-millimeter dual-purpose guns.
“Sequence the fighter launch and get Interceptor One off the deck before the P-500 or M-ll missile launches,” Yi shouted. “Find that American bomber! ”
“Drum Tilt fire-control radar up from the northwest destroyer,” the EB- 52 Megafortress’s DSO, Emil Vikram, called out on interphone. “Drum Tilt radar… radar locked on, looks like he’s tracking one of our Wolverines… or he could be tracking us l ”
“He can match bearings back to us — we’ve got to turn!” McLanahan shouted on interphone.
At that same instant, they heard on the secure radio channel, “Headbanger, Headbanger, this is Kin Men, northwest Communist destroyer just opened fire!”
“Emitter, what do you got?” Elliott shouted.
“Just the Drum Tilt fire control,” Vikram responded. “Constantly changing bearings — I don’t think they have a lock-on, or they’re locking on false targets and have to manually break lock to try to reacquire a real target.”
“Good enough, DSO,” Elliott said. “Don’t fire up our jammers unless we become an item of interest. Patrick! ”
“We don’t have authorization to launch Striker missiles,” McLanahan said immediately, anticipating Brad Elliott’s order. “Besides, we’re not an item of interest. My nose is cold.”
“What else do you need, Muck — you want to see how fast that frigate can go down with a Granit missile in its gut? We’ve got to launch an attack before the Chinese carrier or that destroyer can take a shot. ”