Kirov III: Pacific Storm

Aboard Kirov the crack of the deck guns punctuated Samsonov’s report, “Target Alpha, two hits—Target Beta, hit.” For the next ten minutes they listened as Samsonov fired a total of sixty rounds, putting 24 directly on targets, with many others reported as ‘close hits.’ It could have been much worse. He was firing at a measured pace and not using the full rate of fire the 152mm guns were capable of.

“Just like the Italian cruisers,” said Karpov. “We’ll riddle them to pieces before they get in range.”

“They are firing now,” said Rodenko. “Rounds inbound… trajectory is short.” They saw a salvo pattern fall very short in the distance, though it was remarkably tight.

“Mister Fedorov,” said Volsky. “Will we have to sink these ships with gunfire?”

“Most likely, sir. They will press home the attack until they at least reach torpedo range. Our rounds are hurting them, but they are not fatal blows.”

“A little something more then, Karpov. Let’s use a MOS-III, shall we? I want to shock them.”

“Very well, sir. Target discretion is yours, Mister Samsonov. One missile please.”

“Aye, sir, firing missile number nine now.” The number ten missile had been used by Karpov to savage the American Task Force 16 in the North Atlantic—with a nuclear warhead. He hit the firing pad and the missile fire warning sounded, the hatch on the forward deck opening and catapulting a sleek missile up, its declination jet firing precisely and the roar of the powerful engine vibrating the deck at it hurtled into the sky. The ‘Starfire’ was the fastest missile on the ship, though its warhead was 100 kilograms smaller than the Moskit-II Sunburns. Samsonov called out the time to target as 18 seconds. They soon saw a brilliant orange explosion on the horizon, and thick black smoke billowed up.

What we target, we hit, thought Volsky, remembering Karpov’s words. He wondered if the enemy would be discouraged, because now their SSM count slipped one more notch to 25 missiles. Rodenko was watching his signal returns closely and reported one enemy ship had reduced speed and was falling out of formation. It was Haguro.

~ ~ ~

Kiyota saw it coming, first high in the deepening blue of the sky, a long white tail of smoke behind a fiery dart. It moved impossibly fast—faster than any plane he had ever seen, so fast that he had barely time to point at it when he saw it suddenly swoop low, then level off and come thundering in at Haguro on his left. It struck like a hammer, the explosion and fire awesome to behold, right against the forward bow of the ship and just below the triple batteries there, and he gasped to see that it blew completely through the ship, sending fragments of torn metal and fire out the other side.

What demon from a thousand hells was that? It was Raiju, the thunder beast that falls from the sky like a ravenous wolf wrapped in lightning, and with that horrible thunderous roar. Then the magazines for the six forward eight inch guns exploded in a cataclysmic uproar. He saw the entire bow of the ship ripped apart, one of the massive 8 inch turrets hurled up into the sky like a toy. Haguro immediately was swamped at the bow, settling deeply in the water, and he knew she had been dealt a fatal blow.

“Signal Kirishima,” he said. “Tell them this is no cruiser, but a battleship! Tell them we have hold of Mizuchi’s tail, and we have lost Haguro.”

Mizuchi was a legendary and much feared water dragon, in Japanese and Chinese lore. He could now dimly see the enemy ship in the distance, then felt the thud and explosion of yet another round against his side armor. His forward batteries fired again, but the range was still 28,000 yards and he knew it would be long minutes before they had any hope of even spotting their own rounds, let alone doing any harm to the enemy. He saw the ship turn away from him now, running towards Melville island to prevent the range closing. He could probably outrun it, but by how many knots per hour? How long would it take him to get within a decent range? In time the enemy ship would have to turn to port to avoid the island, but how much damage would he take before then? His guns fired again, the rounds still well short as he watched through his binoculars.

There were over 700 men on Haguro, and most would soon be in the water where they might be saved. Should he press on with his attack? Five minutes later he received an order to break off, and steer a shadowing course outside the range of the enemy guns. Iwabuchi was dispatching his two destroyers to the scene for rescue and recovery. He was to maneuver to lead the enemy away from the area or effect a rendezvous with Kirishima, which was rushing to intercept the enemy ship at her top speed of 30 knots.

“Very well,” said Kiyota as he gave to order to turn. “Our big brother is coming, Mizuchi, a fair fight this time, and then we will see how much thunder you have left!”

~ ~ ~

Rodenko reported the advancing cruisers had altered course, one now dead in the water. Admiral Volsky immediately gave the order to cease fire.

“Thankfully these men were not of a mind to sacrifice themselves for their empire,” said Volsky.

“The maneuver we made turning in towards Melville Island may have helped, sir,” said Fedorov. “They weren’t going to close the range before we reached the coastline and the damage they were taking may have been enough to let them realize they were no match for us.”

“I still have a large signal return vectoring on our position,” said Rodenko.

“And we will have to turn north in ten minutes to get around the headlands soon. I’m taking us right between Parry Shoals and Mermaid Shoals, and up around Cape Van Diemen.”

“What about the battleship?”

“Still vectoring in at 30 knots. It looks like the remaining two cruisers are maneuvering to join it now.”

“How long before it could engage us?” asked Karpov.

“If we could stay on this heading we could keep it astern indefinitely, but we must turn, as Fedorov says, and in that instance I would say they could be within 30 kilometers in shortly after our turn.”

“Fedorov?”

The Starpom did some hasty calculations and then tapped the Plexiglas screen. “They’ll be in firing range here, sir. Just as we round the tip of Cape Van Diemen. I’ll have to take us through Beagle Gulf south of Marie Shoals. Thereafter we can turn due east and run full out. It will allow us to slowly break away from them, though our speed advantage is only two knots and we may be under fire for a time.”

“Due east…” Volsky tapped the arm of his chair. “They are running us out of the Timor Sea! Not a very hospitable welcome.”

“Yes, sir,” said Fedorov. “But if we take any other heading we will have to confront this battleship, and don’t forget the carriers west of our position as well.”

“What happened to the aircraft that were sent to bomb Darwin, Rodenko?” Volsky asked.

“I tracked them northwest and that signal is diminishing,” said Rodenko. “I’m losing the contacts one by one as they descend to lower altitudes.”

“That is probably the recovery operation. It may take them another thirty minutes to an hour, but I would say they could have a new strike wave spotted on deck by 16:40 hours. That’s still enough daylight for them to hit us again.”

“We can stop the carriers from launching just like we hit that cruiser, with a couple more MOS-III Starfires,” said Karpov.

“That may not be necessary,” said Rodenko. “That weather front is moving at over thirty-five Kph now and creeping up on them. It could inhibit flight operations soon.”

“Yes,” said Fedorov. “They will have to turn into the wind if they want to launch, and that would take them right into the storm front. I’m not saying that would dissuade them, but it is something they’ll have to deal with.”

Volsky thought for a moment. “How long can this battleship stay with us?”

“It has long legs, sir. Really quite a remarkable ship, all things considered. Kirishima could steam for 10,000 miles at 14 knots. At high speed that range will diminish, but they will be with us for a good long while if they choose to follow.”

“I think this man you described to us earlier will want us by the throat in short order,” said Volsky. “And from