Warshot (The Hunter Killer Series Book 6) Don Keith (red seas under red skies TXT) 📖

is manned for battle stations,” Master Chief Dan “Hoss” Blocker called over his shoulder. Blocker was the chief of the boat and battle-stations diving officer.

“Thanks, COB,” Allison answered as he lowered number two scope and turned to the battle-stations fire control party assembled in the control room. The group of young faces looked up at him expectantly as he explained what they were going to try.

“This is going to be just like we have walked through and practiced a thousand times,” Allison told them. “We are going to stay at periscope depth and slip in nice and close to the harbor mouth. We’ll grab whatever pictures we can. Satellite imagery shows the Tarbox tied up at the wharf directly across from the harbor entrance, but we need confirmation from this angle. If we can positively verify that it is the Tarbox, we will move back out to launch range, and then we will launch the MRUUV that’s loaded in tube one and send it into the harbor. Weps, make sure the harbor mission is loaded on the UUV.”

The Mission Reconfigurable Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (MRUUV) was an unmanned underwater vehicle about the size and shape of a torpedo. It had been specifically designed to be launched and retrieved from a submarine’s torpedo tube. As the name implied, it was very versatile, easily converted from one mission to another.

Looking around the room, the skipper reviewed the safety precautions they had practiced.

“This bottom shoals up fast. Running aground would be a bad thing. We will set yellow sounding at ninety feet, red sounding at seventy-five feet. At a yellow sounding, immediately turn one-hundred-eighty degrees with a full rudder. Red sounding, immediately back down until all way is off. Then back out and turn using the outboard. Secure fathometer will be run continuously. Fathometer Watch, keep your eyes open. Let’s not put a dent in our nice boat.”

The sonar tech standing by the BQN-17 Secure Fathometer chimed in, “Yes, sir!”

Commander Allison quickly reviewed the rest of what they expected to accomplish, concluding with, “If we suspect that the Chinese have detected us, we will turn toward deep water and open the area as fast as covertly possible. If we are fired on, we will counterfire if possible and open the area. Make tube one ready in all respects for UUV launch. Make tube two ready in all respects for the self-defense weapon. Tube four will be the backup self-defense weapon. Any questions?” There were none. “Helm, right full rudder, steady course one-two-five, make turns for four knots,” Allison ordered.

The big boat swung around to the harbor-entrance course and slowed to four knots. At that speed, it would be almost an hour before the boat was close enough to get good photographs. However, the slow speed meant that the periscope did not leave a telltale feather, or water plume, behind it as they approached.

“Raising number two scope,” Allison called out as he swung the red lifting ring. The shiny silver tube rose from the scope well as the skipper slapped down the training handles and peered through the eyepiece.

“Bearing to the harbor entrance left tower, bearing mark,” he called out.

The navigator read out the result. “Bearing one-two-seven. Recommend steer course one-two-three. Looks like we are being set to the south.”

“Steer course one-two-three,” Allison ordered. “Lowering number two scope. Next observation in five minutes. Nav, keep the timer.”

Allison stepped away from the scope as it slid back into its housing.

The team repeated the process multiple times as the Boise slowly slipped toward the harbor mouth. Each time they raised the scope, they were a few yards closer, until finally Commander Allison could clearly see the shattered hulk of the Tarbox firmly tied to the wharf just inside the breakwater. Chinese workers dressed in blue coveralls scurried all over the wreckage like ants picking at a carcass, some stabilizing the ship, others stripping it for intelligence purposes.

As he watched, Allison had to grip the training handles and bite his tongue to keep from ordering the launch of something far more deadly than a UUV.

“Verify that Tarbox is tied to the wharf,” he finally said with a grunt of disgust.

“Confirm identity,” the navigator replied. “We have it on video.”

Allison lowered the periscope. “Okay, let’s back out and launch the UUV. Left full rudder, steady course three-one-five. Make normal one-third turns. Sounding?”

“Sounding one-nine-two feet,” the fathometer watch quickly replied.

“Dive, make your depth nine-zero feet.”

“Make my depth nine-zero feet,” Hoss Blocker answered as the boat slid a little deeper.

Thirty minutes later found them three nautical miles away from the island and back up, hovering at periscope depth. Dong Doa Island was once again a low green line on the southeastern horizon. The sons of bitches had even gone to the effort to do some landscaping.

“MRUUV launch checklist complete,” Weps reported. “All checks are satisfactory.”

“Ship launch parameters verified,” the executive officer reported. “Ship is ready to launch the MRUUV.”

“Launch MRUUV, tube one,” Allison ordered.

The weapons officer punched a couple of buttons on the launch control panel. Down in the torpedo room, the MRUUV quietly came to life and obediently swam out of the tube into warm seawater. The unmanned underwater vehicle stabilized on its ordered course and briefly came shallow, using its antennas to check communications with the orbiting comms satellite and obtain a precise GPS fix. Then, as its program ordered, the vehicle dropped to thirty feet off the bottom and swam toward Dong Doa Island. At four knots, it took forty-five minutes for the small submersible to center up on the harbor mouth and then to swim on in.

The MRUUV made its way directly beneath the wrecked Tarbox and planted a couple of sensors on the harbor bottom. It then released a pair of sensors that floated up and magnetically attached themselves to the ship. Each sensor was attached to the submersible with a hair-thin fiber-optic line.

With its sensor deployment complete, the MRUUV swam back out of the harbor and turned to the north, just enough