The enemies were running at over fifty knots, and it was three against one. Their top speed was probably greater than the Tuatha de Danaan’s. And worst of all, they were flaunting the ironclad law of combat. He’d never expected them to sneak up in secret and attack them from behind.
They want to take us down fast, huh? he thought with resignation. To approach at unthinkable speeds, slam them with all the power they had, then rush away from the area of engagement, all in mere minutes... This enemy could do things that normal submarines couldn’t. Goddard would find it implausible, if he hadn’t experienced the capabilities of the de Danaan first-hand.
Any way you looked at it, they were at an overwhelming disadvantage. Against small boats with the maneuverability of torpedoes, the de Danaan felt impossibly large and unwieldy. If this situation was presented as a training exercise, everyone would agree it was a no-win scenario. It was utterly unprecedented.
Goddard peered over at his XO, Lieutenant Colonel Mardukas. The other man stood ramrod straight at the center of the control room, silent, with a melancholic expression. He was probably using the data they’d acquired to extrapolate the capabilities of the enemy vessels.
That grave expression of his was making Goddard feel more and more anxious. What’s going on here? he wondered. The enemy’s movements were straightforward, boasting absolute confidence in their victory. How could they be so haughty? Did the weapons they carried also defy common sense?
The sonar tech spoke, as if to respond to Goddard’s unasked question. “Con, sonar! Torpedo in the water! Bearing 0-4-9! From Mike-13!”
“Can you give me the type? And the speed?” Mardukas prompted, seemingly unfazed by the threat of enemy attack.
“Wait a minute... no way! It’s too fast! Over 100 knots?! This torpedo is impossible! What in the world...”
“A Burya,” Mardukas decided.
“Burya?” Goddard questioned, and scowled at the XO’s words.
“An ultrafast torpedo made in the USSR,” Mardukas clarified. “It creates a bubble of gas around itself and is propelled with a rocket motor. It’s likely wire-guided. I suppose the intelligence division does their jobs right from time to time.”
“B-But XO, even if we know what it is, we can’t shake it off at that speed.”
“It would be stranger if we could shake off a torpedo. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“But...!”
Mardukas glared at Goddard. “Calm down, Captain. Your panic is annoying me, and if I get annoyed, we all go down. I’m afraid I don’t have time to explain every element of my plan, so stop thinking and follow my commands, quickly and to the letter.”
“Y-Yes sir,” Goddard responded.
“Good. Now, make our course 1-3-6, and gradually increase to sixty knots. Don’t worry about cavitation. Open the door for the third torpedo tube and release all safeties.”
“Ah... Aye, sir.” Each position repeated the orders.
《Estimated sixty seconds to impact.》 The Mother AI, undergoing complicated TMA calculations, began the countdown to their doom.
As if to punctuate her words, the sonar tech screamed, “More torpedoes! One each from Mike-14 and Mike-15! They’re both ultrafast as well! Bearings 0-6-8 and 0-8-9!”
The enemy torpedoes currently bearing down on the de Danaan were on another level from the ones that the US Navy submarine had fired at them near the Perio Islands. It would be hard enough to dodge just one... and now they had three incoming from all different directions.
Time was short. They had only about fifty seconds left. But as far as Goddard could see, Mardukas wasn’t panicked in the slightest. He just glared at the multipurpose screen, like a cryptologist deciphering a line of code. All the data available suggested no way out. But, Goddard thought, is the XO seeing something we aren’t?
“Up to fifty knots.”
“What’s the course of the torpedo from Mike-13?” Mardukas wanted to know.
“2-2-1.”
Right now, the de Danaan was running perpendicular to the enemy torpedo. The enemy weapon was gradually adjusting its course to better home in on them.
“Forty seconds left!”
Then Mardukas said, with the nonchalance of someone ordering off a restaurant lunch menu, “It’s time. All stop. Left full rudder, course 0-4-5.”
“Aye, sir! All stop! Left full rudder! Course 0-4-5! ...Wait, what?!”
Despite following the orders to the letter, nearly everyone in the control room went pale at the command. Mardukas had turned them on a course straight at the oncoming torpedo. “Fire control,” he continued calmly. “When we reach 0-4-5, fire torpedo three.”
“But at this range, the safeties—”
“Five degrees more.”
“Aye, sir! Fire three!”
The torpedo launched from the tube, and Mardukas continued to give orders out swiftly. “All start, full reverse. Activate EMFC.”
“Full reverse!”
“EMFC, contact!”
The large vessel abruptly slowed. As the torpedo they’d shot screamed away from it, the submarine stopped, and began to move backwards. But the enemy’s ultrafast torpedo was already on their doorstep.
Is he trying to shoot down an ultrafast torpedo? Goddard turned pale at that thought. It was impossible to use one torpedo to intercept another one moving that quickly. Water pressure limited the radius wherein a torpedo’s explosion was effective, so while fragments and shockwaves could make anti-air missiles effective over several meters, a torpedo had to score a direct hit to do any damage at all. It was like a batter trying to hit a 150 kilometer-per-hour fastball, blindfolded, using sound alone. The XO must know that. But then, why—
“All hands, brace for impact,” Mardukas said calmly over the ship phone, and then gripped the armrest of the captain’s chair beside him. Goddard quickly did the same.
On the front screen, the marks showing the approaching enemy torpedo and the one they had just launched closed distance. They were now just a few seconds apart.
“FCO. Are you calm?” Mardukas asked.
“Y-Yes sir!” the fire control officer replied in falsetto.
“Good. Detonate torpedo three,” Mardukas ordered. “Now.”
“Aye, sir!”
Their torpedo detonated right in front of the enemy’s...
