“Aspect change on Akula Nine; contact has changed course,” she reported and continued to give bearing changes on the Akula until they had a more solid fix. Her words no longer had to be passed to the control room as they were now on a hot microphone to save time. “Akula Nine has increased speed to eight knots and is now at seven thousand yards; she’s turning toward the Audacious,” Kristen reported.
She then heard Brodie’s voice. Calm and steady. She could almost envision him in the control room standing impassively. He’d tried to avoid a fight, but now it was upon him. “Make tubes three and four ready in all respects. Input the firing solution for the Akula into both weapons.”
Kristen knew it was coming. She’d expected it hours earlier and had been prepared for it then. But now, after hours of patient stalking and sneaking, she’d allowed herself to believe they might be able to avoid what was now staring them in the face. Even as she was thinking this, she heard him continue to ready the Seawolf to unleash her fury on the multiple contacts all around them. Solutions for both Kilo submarines were loaded into weapons and more tubes were flooded.
“Transients,” Kristen was about to call out as Martinez did. “Akula Nine is flooding her tubes.”
The order had been anticipated. Everyone knew it was coming. It had been only a matter of time from the moment they’d received their orders to break through the Strait and find the Borei. But now as the order was issued, it came as a surprise.
“Tube three, match bearings and shoot,” she heard Brodie’s voice over the speaker. “Stand by to commence high speed maneuvering. Prepare to launch a full spread. Ready Aselsan in tube seven.”
Kristen heard the order but didn’t quite believe it until she detected the MK48 torpedo clearing the tubes. The torpedo’s screw turned slowly, just fast enough to swim out of the tube. Trailing behind the weapon was a slender guidance wire spooling out from the rear of the torpedo itself as it swam away from the Seawolf in preparation to commencing a high-speed run toward the Akula. The guidance wire allowed the tracking parties on the Seawolf to provide constant course changes and target updates to the torpedo as it moved toward its objective, allowing the torpedo to leave its own active sonar seeker head in the standby mode until it was nearly on top of its victim.
Kristen listened intently, expecting the entire world around her to come alive as soon as the other submarines and vessels heard the torpedo’s high-speed screw. Once it started its run, the torpedo’s small screw would turn so fast it would cavitate, and the rushing of air bubbles created by the whirling propeller blade would be heard over a great distance. But the torpedo was still on a lower power setting and moving slowly, putting distance between itself and the Seawolf so when it did switch into high speed and was detected, the Akula didn’t immediately respond by shooting a torpedo of its own back down the bearing where the Seawolf had fired from.
Kristen then heard an ominous sound. “Akula Nine is opening outer doors and preparing to fire,” she reported to the control room via the open microphone. Kristen listened, knowing the Akula was about to clear her tubes on the unsuspecting Audacious. But then she heard Brodie direct the tracking party guiding the MK48 to order the torpedo to begin its high-speed run immediately and not wait for it to get clear of the Seawolf.
Kristen tensed anxiously. The moment the torpedo switched into high speed and began racing in at fifty plus knots, the Akula would hear the torpedo’s screw and realize it was under attack. The result would be, in all likelihood, the Akula forgetting all about the Audacious and turning on the Seawolf to deal with its antagonist. Brodie had to realize this too, and she knew he was placing the Seawolf in grave danger to save the unsuspecting Audacious.
Within two seconds of Brodie’s command, she heard the sudden rush of noise coming from the torpedo’s screw as it switched from a calm five knots to a blistering fifty-five knots. The sound was loud and distinct as the torpedo bore in on the Akula. There was no chance — absolutely none — that the Akula and all the other boats quietly listening wouldn’t hear the MK-48 ADCAP charging headlong through the water.
The sound of orders coming over the open microphone in the control room now made it clear that Brodie had lost his patience. The Seawolf was unleashing her fury on opponents all around her. “Launch Tomahawk,” Brodie ordered followed immediately by, “Tube eight, match bearings and shoot.” Which was followed a second later by, “Tube four, match bearings and shoot.”
Kristen lost all sonar signatures the moment the weapons started firing, especially the Tomahawk anti-ship missile variant which was expelled from the tube by high-pressure steam. She removed her headphones for a moment and looked up at the squawk box, hearing Brodie’s calm voice, “Load tube five with MK48 ADCAP. Standby on tube seven to fire Aselsan.”
Kristen looked at Chief Miller, who was wiping his sweaty brow nervously. “Jesus Christ,” the aging chief petty officer murmured.
Kristen turned her attention back to her display. She pulled her headphones back on just in time to hear the Tomahawk missile break the surface and its air breathing jet engine engage. It would cover the distance to the Iranian frigate in just a few seconds. The crew of the frigate would never even know it was coming.
Then, as expected, the Akula and the Audacious increased speed. They’d heard the sudden expulsion of multiple weapons into the water around them, and they were taking evasive action.
The fight was on.
As Brodie had predicted, it was like a knife fight in a dark closet. There was no room to maneuver, and victory would come to the quick. Death to everyone else. The Akula and the Audacious, fleeing the torpedoes in the water, were now cavitating as they increased speed to flank. Kristen ignored them and reported the information she gleaned about the two other submarines.
The Aselsan decoy was launched from tube seven. Once it was clear, Kristen heard the Kilo submarine as it too detected an approaching torpedo. “Kilo Nine has increased speed and is turning away,” Kristen reported.
“He hasn’t a chance,” Fabrini said cryptically.
He was right, and Kristen knew it. On her pitifully weak batteries, the Kilo submarine could move at maybe fifteen knots which, when compared to the fifty-five knot ADCAP boring in on her, meant the Kilo was only prolonging her life, not saving it. But as Kristen listened to the MK-48 closing in on the fleeing Kilo, she heard an ominous roar from the direction of the Akula.