Лю Цысинь - Ball Lightning

Colonel Xu Wencheng answered in the affirmative.

“Then what’s the use of your gadget? A basic requirement for modern weaponry is the ability to strike from beyond line-of-sight. Maple Leaf isn’t any better than a premodern weapon.”

“Colonel, I’d say it’s your mind that’s premodern,” Lin Yun snapped, drawing disapproving looks.

“Well then, would Maple Leaf’s commander please discuss their ideas for a battle plan?” the operations director asked.

“We plan to use a submarine as a launch platform for Maple Leaf,” Colonel Xu said.

“Can Maple Leaf strike underwater?” a submarine colonel asked.

“No.”

“To conduct a line-of-sight surface attack, even under ideal conditions, will require approaching to within eight to ten thousand meters of the target. If a submarine surfaces that close to the enemy’s antisubmarine center, isn’t that basically suicide?” the submarine commander said angrily.

“Colonel, a very short time after Maple Leaf strikes, the enemy’s electronics systems will be destroyed. Its antisubmarine system will be completely disabled and no longer pose a threat to you,” Lin Yun said.

The submarine commander snorted almost imperceptibly, but he clearly had no regard for the female major. He shot a glance at the operations director, and his meaning was clear: Do you trust this girl’s assurances?

The operations director shook his head firmly. “Vetoed. This idea won’t work.”

After a heavy silence, a naval lieutenant colonel proposed another plan: “Let high-speed torpedoes lie in wait outside the line of sight of the enemy fleet, and, when the target approaches, speed into line-of-sight and attack.”

“That won’t work, either,” another naval officer said. “Torpedoes can’t be hidden. Have you forgotten that the enemy has aerial reconnaissance? They have very strong aerial patrols cruising coastal waters. Stealth only applies to radar. And since this operation will strike the entire fleet at the same time, it will need a considerable number of torpedoes, which will form a target that will definitely be detected from the air. Unless the torpedo ambush is set up outside the enemy’s three hundred kilometer aerial patrol radius, it won’t have any use in combat.”

An army senior colonel looked around the room. “Is there no one from the air force? Can’t we consider an air strike?”

Colonel Xu said, “Maple Leaf does not have any airborne models. Besides, line-of-sight attacks are even more dangerous in the air.”

Another heavy silence. The members of the ball lightning unit could feel the unspoken accusation of the other participants: What a piece of junk.

The operations director said, “Let’s focus our thinking on a single problem: Is there anything that can get to within sight of the enemy fleet?”

Lin Yun said, “There’s only one thing: a fishing boat.”

A few chortles sounded in the meeting room.

“According to our observations, the enemy fleet generally ignores fishing boats near its sea routes. Even more so for small-tonnage fishing boats. So we can use fishing boats as a launch platform for Maple Leaf, and get even closer to the enemy than just within sight.”

There was more laughter. The shore defense commander shook his head and said, “No need to be patronizing, Major. We’re just coming up with ideas, aren’t we?”

Colonel Xu said, “No, this is a plan we’re actually working on. And it’s the plan we believe is the most workable. Before we received this battle order, we had already been thinking about it for quite some time, and we sent a task force to carry out research.”

“But it’s just—” a naval officer started to say, before a gesture from the operations director cut him off.

“Don’t say it. It really looks like a plan! They’ve evidently put some thought into it.”

The missile unit commander that Lin Yun had attacked laughed. “It really is a premodern plan.”

“Not even premodern,” the submarine commander said. “Have you heard of anyone using fishing boats to attack warships in Jutland or Tsushima?”

“If we had Maple Leaf back then, we would have,” Lin Yun said.

“It just doesn’t seem like naval warfare. It’s more like piracy. If it gets out, won’t we look ridiculous?” asked a navy captain.

“So what? If we can give shore-based firepower a chance to strike, then we can be thieves, not just pirates,” one of the battle plan’s drafters, a shore-based defense system commander, said.

The operations commander said, “The flaws of the fishing boats are, one, they have no defensive weapons, and two, they are slow. But in the face of the total attack power of the enemy fleet, the difference between fishing boats and torpedoes on those two points can be ignored.”

No one spoke. The meeting attendees thought over this plan carefully, several naval officers occasionally exchanging views in low voices.

“For the time being, it looks basically workable. However…,” a naval officer said.

Again there was silence, silence for the “however,” since everyone knew what it implied: if the attack failed, or if it succeeded but the land-based missiles did not arrive in time, then those small fishing boats would have no chance of escaping from the powerful fleet.

But as soldiers in wartime, they knew that there was no need of further discussion of that “however.”

After a brief, whispered exchange with the shore defense systems commander, the operations director said in a loud voice, “Very well. Teams for each branch should draw up detailed battle plans based on this framework at once.”

The next day, Dawnlight, fully equipped, took three military transport planes to a small airfield in the Fujian theater. Ding Yi and Lin Yun disembarked first. On the runways to either side of them, fighters and bombers were landing in succession, while on a runway a little farther away, a large number of transport planes were landing, depositing a stream of tanks and soldiers in fatigues. More planes were circling, their engines thundering as they waited to land. On a road in the distance, an iron river of military vehicles sped through the dust, with no end in sight.

“Deployment against a land invasion has begun,” Lin Yun said darkly.

“Ball lightning will make it unnecessary,” Ding Yi said to console her. At the time, he believed it too.

At this point, Ding Yi said, “After I said that, Lin Yun looked at me for a few seconds, with the face of a woman looking for comfort. I had the wonderful feeling that, for the first time, I was not just a thinker, but a strong, powerful man.”

“Do you really believe that you’re stronger emotionally than she is?” I asked.

“She has her weaknesses, too. She can even be fragile. After Zhufeng sank and Jiang Xingchen died, that fragility became increasingly apparent.”

Lin Yun pointed out a grassy area not far off that was closely guarded. Heavily armed soldiers stood watch over tall stacks of goods, all of them in dark green metal containers half the size of a standard freight container. A large number of military trucks were constantly loading them and carrying them off.

“It’s all C-805 missiles. Probably in preparation for this operation,” she said softly. Ding Yi knew she was referring to the “Chinese Exocet” anti-ship missile, the most powerful weapon in China’s shore-based defense system, but he was shocked by the sheer quantity.

The first set of thunderball guns arrived, and were immediately shipped to the harbor and installed on the requisitioned fishing boats that were waiting there. The boats were small, the largest having a displacement of no more than one hundred tons. Each thunderball gun’s superconducting batteries were placed in the cabin, but the launchers were too long and had to be placed on deck, covered with a tarp or fishnet. Naval sailors and engineers took the place of fishermen, more than one hundred in all to pilot the fifty fishing boats.