Patrick felt a rush of relief-and then a thrill of fear as his sensors picked up the aircraft. He saw two at first, then three. 'Contact, range nine miles and closing fast.' The roar of the Hammer's engines increased-it was close to liftoff speed. 'Eight miles.. seven miles… bandits climbing slightly… six miles…'
'Sparkle! Sparkle!' Luger shouted. Everyone knew what that meant-they were being highlighted by a targeting laser.
Just then, Patrick saw another target appear-much smaller and much faster. 'Stalkers, missiles inbound Missiles inbound! I've got two in sight!' Patrick raised the big Vulcan cannon and snapped off the safety with a quick thought-command. The two missiles were coming in fast, wavering slightly up and down in altitude but coming in straight and true. 'Dave, countermeasures starboard nowl'
Behind him, two rockets streaked from hidden launchers. Each rocket was an electronic decoy, designed to broadcast radio and infrared signatures several thousand times larger and brighter than the ship. They drifted up slowly, making inviting targets. Would they be inviting enough…?
They were. Both missiles veered to the right, chasing the decoys. Patrick tracked them with ease. The first missile hit the first decoy-but the second decoy must've crashed or malfunctioned, because the second missile only jinked slightly right and then veered left, back on the Catherine. Patrick issued an electronic command, and the big Vulcan cannon opened fire. A shaft of fire fifteen feet long belched from the muzzle, and a hundred empty cartridges showered onto the deck in front of the Stinger crew. Off in the distance, the second enemy missile exploded in a cloud of fire.
'Forward MANPADS up!' Patrick shouted. As he placed the Vulcan cannon on the deck as gently as if he were setting a golf bag down on the fringe of the green, the team of commandos stepped forward and placed the Stinger launcher on his shoulder. Patrick immediately locked onto the incoming fighter, waited until it got within range, then fired.
The lead fighter must've seen the launch immediately, because it immediately banked hard right and started ejecting decoy flares. But the second fighter was not as quick. He made a gentler turn, obviously hesitant to get too close to his leader at night and low to the ocean, and did not pop any decoy flares until it was far too late. The Stinger missile flew a smooth, unerring arc right up the fighter's hot tailpipe and exploded. The Stinger crew could not see anything so far away at night, but through his millimeter-wave imaging radar and infrared sensors, Patrick could see the second fighter dip precariously close to the ocean, regain altitude, dip again, climb, then plunge almost straight down into the dark Mediterranean. He saw no ejection seat blast free, or any parachute.
'Splash one,' Patrick announced. After all the death, destruction, and pain he had seen that day, the crash of this unidentified attacker meant absolutely nothing to him. 'First bandit is bearing zero-eight-zero, twelve miles, turning east.'
At that moment, he heard the CV-22 Pave Hammer tiltrotor aircraft lift off the deck. Thank God, he breathed, Wendy was going to be safe, as long as they were able to keep those fighters off its tail until they were safely wavehopping away.
'Taurus has three bandits, bearing two-five-zero, range nine miles,' Hal Briggs shouted on the command network. 'Comin' in low and smoking.''
'Nike has contact on the bandits at two-five-zero,' Chris Wohl chimed in. 'Switching to Stinger. Taurus, you hang on to the Vulcan.'
'How about we both take a Stinger?' Briggs suggested. 'I can grab the Vulcan and knock down any stragglers after I launch.'
'Rog.'
'Stalkers, I have a surface contact, bearing two-twothree, range twenty-nine miles,' Dave Luger announced. 'He's hitting us with an India-band Plank Shave surface search radar and an India-band Hawk Screech fire-control radar. I make this a Koni-class frigate, probably Libyan. He's coming in fast, almost thirty knots. He could be within missile range at any time.'
'Should've known it was the Libyans,' Wohl muttered on the command net.
'Think they might be pissed at us for blowing up their nukes?' Briggs chimed in.
'Pissed enough to attack every ship close enough to have based the chopper,' Patrick said. 'Let's deal with the fighters first, then the frigate.' He didn't have to say the obvious-they were going to have a fight on their hands, one they had very little chance of surviving.
Stinger missiles soon began rippling from the starboard deck and fantail as the Libyan fighters closed in. Only the combination of the Vulcan cannons and decoys were able to keep the Catherine from being hit. Even so, one missile came close enough to rattle the deck with bits of shrapnel, caught at the last possible moment by a last- instant blast from Hal Briggs's cannon. But their efforts finally paid off. 'Stalkers, air search radar is clear,' Luger announced. 'Good shooting. No radar contacts. The rest RTBed.'
'I got a problem over here, boys,' Briggs said. 'I'm real low on ammo. Maybe two or three more bursts and I'm out.'
'Same here,' Wohl said.
Patrick checked his magazine and found he had just a handful of rounds remaining-not enough for even a halfsecond burst. 'How about your Stingers?'
'One on the fantail.'
'Two starboard.'
'One on the bow,' Patrick said. 'And there's no way we can outrun that frigate.'
'I just got a call-the Egyptian Navy is dispatching two Perry-class frigates,' Luger reported. 'ETE sixty minutes.
They've launched patrol aircraft and helicopters, too.'
That was good news, Patrick thought, but they wouldn't be on time before the Libyan warship struck.
He hesitated, but only for a moment. For the second time, he was going to lose another base ship to enemy attack. The Iranians had sunk another commando carrier, the S.S. Valley Mistress, in the Persian Gulf, killing several dozen men. That incident had brought Patrick out of his first retirement to start a campaign of revenge against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that had captured the survivors. He was determined not to allow that loss of life again. 'Abandon ship,' Patrick ordered. 'All crewmen to lifeboats. Right now.'
'Patrick-' Dave Luger began.
'This means you, Dave,' Patrick interrupted. 'We'll stay up here with whatever weapons we have left and hold off that frigate as long as possible. Then we'll-'
Suddenly, Hal Briggs shouted, 'Hey, Dave, is that a FlightHawk on the launcher over on the starboard side raising up to launch position?'
'A FlightHawk?' Patrick asked. 'Dave, how did you get a FlightHawk ready so fast?'
'I didn't do it, Muck,' Luger replied. 'I just noticed it elevating too. It's already spun up its guidance system. I didn't do it from here. I don't know…' He paused, then shouted, 'Missile inbound! A missile just lifted off from that frigate.. a second missile just launched. Two missiles inbound! Sea-skimmers, accelerating to point nine Mach, range twenty-five miles!'
'Get your asses on those lifeboats now!' Patrick shouted to the two MANPADS crew members with him, pushing them toward the lifeboat stations on the port side. He grabbed his last Stinger missile and dashed down the starboard side of the salvage ship. He saw the FlightHawk on the amidships launch rail, but he couldn't see what weapons, if any, it was carrying, or any other markings that would tell him which UCAV it was. Just as he reached the fantail alongside Briggs and Wohl, the FlightHawk unmanned combat air vehicle blasted off from its launcher on deck.
'Good job, Dave,' Patrick said. 'Now get to the lifeboats.'
'I'm telling you, Muck, I didn't-'
'Contact! Here they come!' Briggs shouted. 'Man, they're damned low. I don't know if the Stingers will be able to lock on them.' But he raised his Stinger, aimed, and fired. Seconds later, the first antiship missile, a Russianmade SS-N-2C Styx missile, exploded in a brilliant ball of fire. Patrick's Stinger missile missed the second antiship missile, but Chris Wohl was ready with his Vulcan cannon and destroyed it seconds before it hit. This time, the starboard side of the Catherine was showered with unspent rocket fuel and fiery bits of the obliterated warhead. It was a very close call.
'Lifeboats away,' they heard Dave Luger report. 'One lifeboat starboard, another on the port side, ready and waiting for you guys.'
