Able Sentry

by John Schettler

  As Kirov sailed northeast, Karpov and Fedorov were pleased to learn that the situation in the reactor room was slowly abating. Dobrynin reported that the quavering light was diminishing, fading away until there was only a faint sound that only the Engineering Chief seemed to hear. Then that also faded away, much to the relief of Fedorov.

  “It has to have something to do with Krakatoa,” he told Karpov. “If that region is still unstable, temporally unstable as I suspect, then the approach of Kirov seemed to cause a disturbance. Who knows why, but this ship cuts time like a knife, and borders may be thin in that region.”

  “I suppose that’s as good an explanation as any,” said Karpov. “It’s a good thing Dobrynin’s ears are so sharp, but a pity we lost Markov.”

  That prompted Karpov to look over at the sonar station, where the best ears in the fleet had now taken up his post again. Karpov went over and tapped his shoulder, which prompted Tasarov to straighten up in his chair. He wondered if he was in trouble, and slowly removed his headset.

  “Comrade Tasarov,” said Karpov. “Have you heard anything unusual on the passive sonar of late?”

  “Unusual? No sir… Well, there was an increase in geothermal activity as we moved west, but its abating now. There was some acoustic scattering from hydrothermal venting, so I looked at one of the navigation charts and noted there was volcanic activity in this area.”

  “Right,” said Karpov, “Good thinking. But you heard nothing else that sounded odd to you.”

  “Just that, sir.”

  “Very well. As you were.”

  Karpov looked at Fedorov, drifting his way again. “It seems like the most obvious connection,” he said. “Krakatoa. Could that monster be stirring to life again? What is it with these damn volcanoes?” There was frustration in his tone.

  “You act like they’ve been conspiring,” said Fedorov. “Remember, these are all natural events, though I found it very odd that Krakatoa erupted in 1942 like that. Such things were thought to be imperatives, but we see that isn’t the case—not on this meridian.”

  Nikolin looked over, raising a hand to get Fedorov’s attention.

  “Sir,” he said, “we have message from the Enterprise. They are transmitting an intelligence assessment.”

  “Send it to my ready room,” said Karpov. “Let’s have a look, Fedorov.”

  09:00 Local, 16 JAN 2026

  They would learn that the US Intelligence system had determined the Chinese were launching a new operation against Singapore, and the American Admiral Thomas Cook on the Enterprise invited the Siberians to join him for the defense. That was music to Karpov’s ears. There was no need to go looking for a fight now, the fight was coming to him.

  Kirov had coordinated with the Enterprise earlier in the Pacific, when they first made that unexpected shift to this meridian. As Karpov had complained to Fedorov, it had been the work of another volcano, this time the Demon Volcano in the Kuriles, that sent Kirov forward for a preview of the war they now found themselves in.

  Karpov had met with Admiral Cook, and found him to be a clear headed, no nonsense professional, and in their earlier mission, they had fought against the Chinese Admiral Yang Kai Yong in his operation against Iwo Jima. In that battle, the US carrier had put damage on the fleet carrier Haishen and two of its escorting destroyers. In the midst of that action, Karpov finished the job sending six Zircons that ended up putting all three of those ships under the sea. That had sealed his reputation as “the carrier killer,” which continued with the damage he put on Zhendong, and the sinking of its sister ship Shandong.

  The bold thrust made at Iwo Jima had been parried, and the Chinese fleet made an ignominious retreat. Now they were out for another round of violence at sea, coming at Singapore again, and the Rock of the East had to be defended.

  In the weeks after the last engagement here, where Kirov and the New Jersey Group had taken the watch, the Chinese had repaired damage to their airfields at Ranai and Miri, and sent new SAM and SSM batteries to defend those fields. The Chinese fleet had been north of the island outpost where the small field at Ranai was operational again, with a flight of six J-20’s and a full squadron of 12 J-10’s. As the Enterprise shared their contact data, Karpov saw that the Chinese fleet had now moved east of the islands, and they were heading for the coast of Borneo.

  Enterprise was about 430 miles to the south in the Java Sea, near Belitung Island, and moving southwest to rendezvous with Kirov, some 225 miles away north of the Sunda Strait. At 09:38 local, an attack alert jangled the nerves of all Coalition bases when missiles came in low over the ground to strike at Tengah airfield on Singapore. The attack came as a complete surprise, because it was made by the stealthy SCALP / Storm Shadow cruise missiles fired by four Vietnamese destroyers. In spite of a patrol of four F-23 Black Widows on CAP that morning, nothing was seen approaching Singapore.

  On our Meridian, only two of the stealthy the F-23’s had been built as prototypes, nicknamed Spider and the Grey Ghost. They were actually stealthier than the F-22, but not as agile, and here a short production run had been built to give the fighter a good test. Seen from above, the wing was a diamond configuration, with twin engines mounted above the fuselage to increase stealth when scanned by radar from below. But the fighters had been up at 55,000 feet, and the incoming Vampires were just 300 feet above the sea before they crossed the Malay Peninsula and came in for their terminal runs.

  64 missiles had been sent, and the SAM batteries on the island failed to illuminate and track the stealthy missiles, which pounded the airfield at Tengah mercilessly for the next ten minutes. There had been 18 F-16 Fighters in open parking there, with a flight of six British Typhoons and two Merlin helicopters rigged for AEW work. As explosions rippled across the field, those planes, armed and fueled, were blowing up one after another, and one of the big hangars was struck twice and collapsed. Smoke and fire raged across the field, and when the strike ended, there were only three F-16’s that had not been destroyed or damaged so badly that they would never fly again. The airfield was completely neutralized.

  When the next satellite pass revealed the damage, Admiral Wu was quite pleased. That attack had been a feint, a deception, but a most effective one. It had also set the template for how he would deal with the American bases on Palau and Yap. On Singapore, that massive missile raid augured worse to come, and sent a scramble order to the twelve F-15’s of the Singapore Air Force that were ready at Changi Airbase East, for more surprises were in store that morning. Six J-20’s out of Miri AFB in Brunei had suddenly appeared on radar near the Borneo coast. They were stalking the American Hawkeye off the Enterprise, which had not seen them until they were dangerously close. Wu Jinlong would now dance with the American CAP patrols, even as he shifted his course northeast.

  “Forward-4, Watchman. Come right and engage bogies.”

  “Roger Watchman, you’d better move. Over.”

  That would send four F-35’s against that flight of six J-20s, but though the American fighters had the new AIM-260, they could not lock on at long range, and had to close to engage. A swirling dogfight ensued, which saw both sides lose three planes. The Enterprise screen was also sending SM-6 out to get after the Chinese, and the action drove the remaining three planes to low level. The last F-35 was up high, and had to dive to a lower altitude to stay in the fight, it got two more Mighty Dragons with its AIM-260’s before going Winchester. The pilot saw the final J-20 fire another missile and then bug out.

  That had been the last arrow in the quiver for the Chinese fighter, and it was aimed at the retreating Hawkeye. All the lone F-35 pilot could do was watch that PL-15 track in toward the fleeing Hawkeye, until the AEW plane disappeared from radar.

  When Admiral Thomas Cook got the news on the Enterprise, he tightened his jaw. “Launch the ready CAP, and replace that Hawkeye. This is a new ballgame, gentlemen. Their fighters are stealthy enough to sneak in right through our radar coverage. The AIM-260 is a fine weapon, but the fighte
rs had to get in close to get target locks. We may need to rethink our loadouts, because if we can’t get long range locks on these guys, then we may need Sidewinders if we have to mix it up.”

  The only problem there was that the AIM-9X Sidewinder was mounted on the wings of the F-35, so any plane carrying them sacrificed some stealth for that extra missile punch. The only plane that carried the AIM-9X internally was the Raptor, and the few planes that had been at Singapore had since been moved on to Diego Garcia.

  The war was becoming a great proving ground for the weapons designed to fight it. Many weapon systems would be built by the thousands, deployed, but never see real combat. The old US Harpoon missile was a perfect example. Over 5000 had been built and deployed, but in its entire lifetime, the Harpoon only accounted for hits on a single destroyer and a couple patrol boats. That was not the case for the air to air missiles and SAM’s. They were proving to be quite lethal, if they could get a radar lock on a target, which was no longer a given with the advanced stealth aircraft out there on both sides.

  The next engagement would teach another lesson. The twelve Eagles out of Chanji were climbing, all radars on to try and see any threats with overlapping coverage from three flights of four. The four F-23’s remained dark. They suddenly saw a flight of J-31’s on radar, and moved to attack, but by that time, they had already been seen and streams of PL-15’s were in the air.

  The F-23’s could see what was going to happen, but when they turned to engage the J-31’s they could not lock on. So the flight leader ordered a charge.

  “Flight Leader to Widowmakers—let’s turn and burn. Get in close and tear these bastards up.”

  The F-23’s went to 1000 knots, and made a beeline toward the radar traces they had on the bogies. Seeing what was happening, the Chinese planes turned and went to military speed to escape. They were not far from their fleet, which now began to send streams of HQ-9’s up after the enemy, forcing the fighters to withdraw out of range.

  The result was that the J-31’s found and killed eight Eagles, then evaded all harm using the combination of stealth and speed to prevail. Not even the better radars on the F-23’s could get decent target locks on them. The painful lesson was made evident now—4th Generation legacy fighters were nothing more than targets against advanced 5th Generation fighters. Beyond that, the Chinese planes were proving to be difficult to find and kill at BVR ranges, and agile enough to evade many missiles out after them. The F-35 didn’t carry the highly effective AIM-9X in internal weapons bays, and the Raptors were far away, heading for the action around Saudi Arabia.

  Another painful lesson was about to be taught, that things were not always what they seemed. The cruise missile attack and these jousting air operations had all been part of the plan Wu Jinlong dreamt up when he proposed this operation—all a deception. Now he raced northeast for the northern tip of Borneo, and the Celebes Sea.

  Chapter 33

  “Comrades,” said Karpov, “it’s high time we announced ourselves. Battle stations missile.” He looked at the CIC station, seeing that Gromenko was there while Samsonov was on a break.

  “Comrade Gromenko, warm up two Zircons. I’m going to let the Chinese know they have something to fear as well—and not just from American airplanes. We have a good fix on the position of their fleet. Do any read as a Type 055 Destroyer?”

  “Yes sir, I have three identified.”

  “Good. Pick one, and fire those Zircons. Take them way off to the west, then north towards Vietnam. On the final two legs, jog then east and sneak up the back side of that enemy formation. Let’s make sure they aren’t having an afternoon nap.”

  That attack sent those speedsters racing off the forward deck with a roar, and climbing high in a matter of seconds. Rodenko watched as the missiles moved downrange, climbing to over 126,000 feet before they made that first turn towards Vietnam. To the Chinese, it appeared as though they were hypersonic land attack missiles, until they turned again. As the sirens began to wail, the missiles moved east, heading up behind the Chinese fleet.

  Thirty miles out, the HQ-9’s started firing, with several ships engaging. A dozen missiles went out, but the leading SAM’s could not catch the Zircons. The 8th SAM finally got a hit inside ten miles, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh missed the last Vampire as it came screaming in at Fengshen, the Wind God. The 130mm deck gun on the ship fired and missed as the Zircon broke through the three mile range marker. Then the last HQ-9, fired from a destroyer forward of the target, finally made contact, and the Zircon exploded. The Vampire plowed into the sea, just a thousand meters from its target.

  Wu Jinlong now had his wakeup call, remembering that the Siberians were still at sea, and still dangerous. So it begins, he thought…. The Siberians let me know they can put missiles on me in a matter of minutes, at any time. The Army should have crushed them for the insolence of invading our homeland. We should have forced them to withdraw their navy for that cease fire, but we were too eager to regain our lost territory in those negotiations. The Siberians… There is another ship I would dearly love to find and sink.

  The Admiral was considering his prospects when another unseen threat jangled the alarms. Singapore’s surface fleet had been largely gutted, but the submarine Archer had been stalking the fleet, waiting for the opportunity to strike. It had the carrier Zhendong in its sights, but screening frigates were making it difficult to get a certain firing solution.

  The sub was a quiet diesel boat built by Sweden and optimized for the shallow waters of the Baltic, which made it perfect for the depths found here. It’s only problem was that its torpedoes had a very short leash. The Captain had to get inside five miles to have any real chance at getting a hit. Anything beyond that range forced the torpedo to reduce speed to only 25 knots, and even then, it could only run 12 miles. That gave any ship detecting the torpedo at launch a chance to turn and run. In this case, the Captain had six torpedoes ready, and he opted to fire them all in a spread at the tail end of the Chinese formation.

  The fish surged out, wire guided, and got the scent of a pair of frigates bringing up the rear. When the torpedoes were heard and detected in the water, the ships in harm’s way wheeled to starboard and churned up the sea to make their best speed. But torpedoes were always faster.

  The Captain had waited until he was four miles out, and he would not go hungry that day, getting two hits that blasted open the frigates Baisha and Wenchang, and narrowly missing the ill-fated carrier Zhendong. It was another warning that was particularly galling, because those frigates were upgraded for ASW work, and they had failed to detect the enemy sub. That shook the resolve of Admiral Wu Jinlong.

  How many more submarines are out there, he thought? Here I have lost two frigates before we even get this operation underway. That does not bode well.

  Sour faced and angry, the Admiral gave orders to contact the Vietnamese flotilla, where there were four more Chinese frigates in escort. He selected the best of them, the Type 054B class Haitang, and ordered it to break off and rendezvous with his main body.

  The Admiral was justifiably concerned, for the Archer was the least of his worries when it came to the undersea threat. Ace Captain Samuel Wood on HMS Trafalgar was still out there, and two newcomers were in theater, the stealthy Virginia Class boats named after battles from the civil war, Franklin and Nashville.

  At the heart of Wu Jinlong’s plan was the underlying truth that operations in the vast Pacific all needed support bases, and the United States was finding fewer and fewer bases from which it could operate in the Western Pacific.

  The loss of the Philippines was a great blow to US strategic interests. Losing basing rights at Subic Bay and Clark removed the primary US watch sites on the South China Sea. Now they were haunted by the Chinese military instead, a stunning reversal that the US had failed to prevent. The Philippines as a whole were now bathing in Chinese investment money for infrastructure projects, and China had the pick of the litter when it came to bases there.

 
; Soon the war would again revolve around the strategic islands the Americans had fought for under Admiral Nimitz in the last war. They were no less strategic today. The Japanese had set the template for picking the real fruit in their Pacific island campaigns. Now much of that fruit was still in the US baskets, with bases in the Marshalls at Guam, Tinian and Saipan, on Yap, Palau, and a new base first established by the Japanese during WWII at Momote on Manus Island. That base had Lombrum Harbor and the airfield at Momote, used as a backup to the main regional base at Rabaul. Now it was a joint venture, shared by both Australia and the US.

  Admiral Wu Jinlong had fingered Davao as the key port in his scheme, a major eastward expansion of Chinese power that this operation would aim to secure, and one that would pose an immediate threat to those American island outposts. China had already been working to bolster its defenses for the vital South China Sea, particularly on Palawan, which served as a great wall between the Sulu Sea and South China Sea. That defensive barrier now harbored three SSM batteries two HQ-9A SAM sites and the airfield at Puerto Princesa.

  Further east, the “elephant’s trunk” of Mindanao reaches west towards three island groups that were the tops of a steep undersea ridge connecting Mindanao with Borneo. There, at the tip of the trunk, was the small port and airfield of Zamboanga, another Chinese outpost. SAM and SSM batteries were placed on the islands at Akbar on Basilan Island, Jolo, and another old Japanese haunt, Tawitawi. That line of outposts defended the Sulu Sea, and could also project SSM’s and SAM’s out into the Celebes Sea.

  Nothing had been on the main eastern segment of Mindanao until Admiral Wu pushed his daring plan, and now the Chinese were rushing munitions and equipment to Davao. Some TEL’s were flown in by China’s biggest strategic airlift planes, but most of the munitions were being sealifted as part of the Admirals move around the northern tip of Borneo into the Sulu Sea. Their intention was to reach the port at Zamboanga, and then move overland from there to Davao rather than continuing with a risky naval transit through the Celebs Sea.