Джон Шеттлер - Condition Zebra - The Next War - 2025

Aboard Argos Fire , Commander Dean had taken the ship west after joining the cruise missile attack that nearly hit the Eagle God . They had been coming up to support Vengeance when the enemy attack pounded the carrier senseless, and now they were 13 miles southwest of the scene, just beyond the position of Victorious .

“My god,” said Mack Morgan. “Look at Vengeance .”

Dean was too busy to gawk, ordering his Aster-30’s to get after the last two harassing J-31’s that had tried to break up the fighter defense of the carrier. Four missiles tracked them down, and killed both planes.

“We’d better answer that,” said Morgan, fuming as he stared at the burning carrier.

The Eagle God was now about 215 miles to the west, leading in a squadron of eight enemy ships, but that put every ship in TF Vengeance out of range, except DDG Lightning , but it had only four missiles left. Dean saw them fire, for honor’s sake, if nothing more. The four LRASM-A class missiles started away to the north, programmed to jog west about 60 miles out. It seemed a pathetic response, with little chance of putting any real harm on the enemy. Commander Dean knew that, and finally the anger that had been burning in Mack Morgan started to rile him up as well.

“We’ll put eight missiles on that lead ship,” said Dean. “Two salvos of four. Jog the leading set, then just ram the last four home.”

As they were firing, they saw that the Victorious group was also putting Tomahawks in the sky. They would fire off twelve, but now that TF had nothing left that could reach out more than 100 miles and target a ship. The Chinese, well aware of their advantage in missile range, had decided that not one of those shiny new Naval Strike Missiles the British had bought from Norway would ever be used here. They had over 250 SSM’s, and all but 36 of them could achieve ranges of at least 200 miles. That was where they would fight their battle, which had only just begun.

The Eagle God was already firing again, a series of 16 YJ-100’s aimed at TF Vengeance to try and finish her off. That seemed to be a signal fire, because all the ships following in that destroyer’s wake suddenly began to launch a storm of YJ-18’s, a total of 48 missiles in that massive salvo. The Chinese were now opening their main effort against the British. They had drawn blood, putting heavy wounds on a carrier, and now they would deal the death blows to TF Vengeance , while also targeting TF Victorious to the east.

By 08:40, the Eagle God had defeated the LRASM attack, and was finally seeing the twelve Tomahawks fired by Coventry . Now it was time for turnabout, always fair play in war. When Admiral Sun Wei saw what the British were doing with their fighters, he had called for any support that could reach the scene from East Africa. That sent out ten J-20’s, the only planes with the range to get out there, and now they had overflown the Chinese fleet to take up forward screening positions 150 miles further east. It was their searching radars that had spotted the Tomahawks, and now they swooped down to sink their talons into them, and all while the British were struggling to get more fighters ready.

Six more lined up for takeoff on Prince of Wales , all freshly rearmed with Meteors. Victorious reported it now had another six ready and they were immediately ordered aloft. That was going to put a dozen F-35’s into the fight, carrying a combined 48 Meteors to the defense. The British ships could now see the incoming missile storm, with a light squall of 12 Vampires 60 miles out, and the main missile front another 60 miles on.

“Rabid One, Livewire. Make your heading 270 degrees west, and cleared hot. Vampires! Vampires! Continue dry on opposing fighters. Over.”

“Roger Livewire, Weapons hot on Vampires. Over.”

The Meteors would stream out, immediately breaking up that leading squall of 12 Vampires. Then the F-35’s turned their fire on the main stormfront, the missiles racing out and diving for the sea. It was a Perseid shower of death that got six quick kills, but it wouldn’t be enough. More Chinese ships had fired, making up for the 18 missiles the fighters had taken down, and there were still 48 Vampires tracking in on the British Fleet….

At 09:00 that morning HMS Vengeance was dying, her speed down to a crawl, heavy flooding pulling the 60,000 ton carrier into a list to port side, her fires still raging amidships. She still had a RIM-7P Sea Sparrow mount active, and it was among the first to engage the enemy SSM’s, along with Type 42 class destroyer Gloucester , with her Sea Darts. As these went out, aimed at missiles cruising in at 500 knots, they were suddenly evaded when the missiles leapt ahead. The Sea Darts turned at 1360 knots, unable to catch up to the Sizzlers as they sped away.

Three came for Argos Fire , but her Aster 15’s were able to take them head on and kill them. Commander Dean was riveted at the radar screen, seeing his ship now engaging missiles heading for the stricken carrier. They saw the frigate Iron Duke maneuvering between their position and Vengeance , and then the YJ-18’s found the frigate and blew it to hell. Destroyer Edinburgh took the next hit off the starboard side of Argos Fire , and both those ships would sink that hour.

Then Dean and Mack Morgan watched in horror as another set of four YJ-18’s fired up their rocket boosters, surged away from two more Sea Darts, and then slammed into the listing hulk of HMS Vengeance . With one more mighty explosion, the carrier was swallowed by the sea, her fires boiling into steam as it started the long journey down, men sliding off the aft deck into the water. There had been over 1500 officers and crew aboard that carrier, which took down all the remaining planes and helicopters that had somehow survived that first strike. Aboard Prince of Wales , Admiral Wells got conformation of the sinking of those three ships, his jaw tight.

“ Victorious reports four Sea Harriers ready with Sidewinders for close in defense, and two F-35’s in an hour,” said Hurly, his faithful adjutant. “Captain Kemp tells me we now have six fighters on deck in Sundog Flight, and ready for operations. We’ll have a dozen more still rearming.”

“Thank you Mister Hurley. Please have the Captain put out a fleet wide message. All ships to assume a heading of 058 degrees northeast, and make your best speed. We’ll not linger here. The fleet will move to support the Victoria landings, and if the Chinese want to follow us out into the Deep Blue, we’ll carry on.”

It was stiff upper lip, as might be expected of a British Admiral, but the fact that the fleet was being horsewhipped and relentlessly driven east was evident to all, if unspoken. Things were bad, but they were going to get much worse, and Wells could feel the pressure mounting.

The Chinese were still pursuing, and at good speeds as they attempted to bring their frigates and the trailing groups in the line into range. At 12:15, some of those groups, led by Jinlong , ( Golden Dragon ), began firing salvos of YJ-18’s at the retreating British ships. DDG Lightning was the first to feel their wrath, bore sighted by a string of 16 Sizzlers. The ship still had Asters, but with targets moving that fast, and maneuvering, they would have to empty the barn.