John Schettler - 9 Days Falling, Volume I

“My God,” he breathed. “It’s begun.”

Talanov shouted at the NBC watch station. “What’s our reading on Gamma?”

“Nothing to report, sir. No noticeable increase in background radiation.”

Then the meteorological desk quickly intervened. “It’s not nuclear, Captain. But we have high seismic readings. SVERT is reporting from Sakhalin Island. It’s an eruption from the volcano we’ve been monitoring, and a big one, sir.”

Volsky was up and across the room, leaning over the meteorological desk to look at the readings and then looking over his shoulder at the massive cloud darkening their eastern horizon. “It’s enormous,” he said. “The hand of God this time, and not the petty quarrels of man and machine. Our fleet must be very close to ground zero, yes?”

“They were about thirty kilometers south of the Kuriles, sir. They would have had a much stronger shock wave, and perhaps heavy seas. This looks like a very significant event. There could be major pyroclastic flows in an eruption of this scale.”

“Signal fleet flag and request immediate status update.”

“Aye, sir.”

The wait was agonizing, twenty minutes in oblivion where the fate of the Red Banner Fleet remained unknown, with no signal returns and interference all across the electromagnetic spectrum. The towering ash cloud was so massive it was creating its own weather, ripped by lightning and thunderous brimstone. Volsky was pacing, and ten minutes later he gave orders to move the A-100 AEW plane out of the danger zone. Talanov was quick to agree.

“The smoke and ash cloud from that volcano will complicate air operations in the region for days, Admiral. If these initial readings are accurate, the event could be a seven on the eruptive scale index, and ash fall could extend nearly a thousand kilometers. We’ve already lost communications links with most every facility in the southern Kuriles. Korsakov is preparing to terminate all operations on Sakhalin Island, as well as all other facilities at Aniva Bay there. We’ll have to consider a possible sealift evacuation if the ash fall prevents air operations. The whole of Hokkaido Island could be hit with a very large tsunami and be well under that ash cloud within the hour. This will also affect the American base at Misawa. The eruption is going to stop this engagement cold. There’s no way that American air strike can get through that ash now, but that said it will be all we can do to get the fleet to safe water.”

“Why don’t they answer? Have we sent out low frequency communications to the fleet undersea escort?”

“We have, sir, but they do not respond. The surface fleet would have been right in the path of that pyroclastic flow, assuming they survived the shock wave after that second eruption.”

They waited out the next ten minutes until the news finally came in. The Akula class escort sub Gepard was on close fleet escort and moved to periscope depth to attempt to confirm the location of the fleet.

“Sir! Gepard reports visual contact on Udaloy class destroyers Marshal Shaposhnikov , Admiral Tributs and Admiral Panteleyev.”

“They would have been in the outer ASW screen, farther away from the main fleet, but they are still afloat. We know Admiral Vinogradov was hit there, and most likely sunk. Give it some time, sir. The remaining units were in tight with the fleet flagship. Gepard is moving to make contact as we speak.”

Volsky waited, but no further news was received. Admiral Kuznetsov eventually called home over a very garbled communications band to request permission to withdraw west away from the ever widening ash fall zone. Gepard searched for the next three hours, including very risky active sonar pings aimed at locating the remainder of the fleet. They even deployed infrared detectors on the seafloor beneath the flagship’s last reported position and this led to some very disheartening news.

“We found wreckage, sir. Gepard is getting emergency transponder beacon signal traffic from the sea bottom at these coordinates.”

“What ship?”

“We can’t determine that yet. It was just a generic signal, with no IFF carrier wave data.” Talanov had a grim expression on his face.

“And Kirov? Any news from Karpov?”

Talanov could see the Admiral had a strong emotional connection to that ship. He never knew what had happened to Kirov in these last months, only that Volsky had conducted some top secret deployment to eventually relocate the ship from the North Atlantic to Vladivostok. Men and ships become one thing in a navy man’s mind, he knew, and he could see the obvious look of concern on the Admiral’s face, glassy eyed, as if he was waiting for news in a hospital waiting room.

“Sir…Request permission to move fleet undersea recovery units to the scene to investigate further.” Talanov waited respectfully, and Volsky slowly turned.

“Please do so, Mister Talanov. If they can get there safely. From the looks of that ash cloud that may prove impossible. What could be alive under that?” His face had an ashen look now, as though he himself were under that cloud. “I will be in my office. Keep me informed the moment you hear anything.”

There was nothing more to report. By mid afternoon it was beginning to look like the Red Banner Pacific Fleet had taken a fatal blow. There was no report from Kirov and they had lost contact with every other ship in the core fleet formation. Cruiser Varyag , destroyer Orlan and the new frigate Admiral Golovko were all still missing in action. Volsky waited, an inner intuition thrumming in his mind with dark presentiment and warning. It was physical, that old tooth that always acted up in the cold of the north Atlantic. He touched it with the tip of his tongue, felt a twinge of pain, and knew something was very, very wrong.

AboardCVN Washington Captain Tanner was desperately coordinating damage control operations on his stricken carrier while receiving scattered reports from the strike groups he had out after the enemy. Just after 10:40 hours the screen had detected another barrage of missiles inbound from the north. McCampbell had engaged, joined soon after by McCain and Fitzgerald . The cruiser Shiloh had recovered power and was able to get some of her medium range missiles into the action as well, but tanner’s harried flotilla was about to be hit by the wrath of the Vulkans .

They got more than half of the big missiles, and all but one of the P-700 shipwrecks, but it was another unexpected attack in the heat of a difficult situation, and ships were hit. The P-700 had picked on Lassen again, slamming her amidships and putting an end to her useful service. Five of the Vulkans penetrated the badly disorganized screen and bored in on the inner formation. Shiloh got three of them; the other two got Tanner’s big CV in their cross hairs and drove home. The carrier fired a frantic barrage from her RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile system and knocked one of these down, but the last slammed a 1000 kilogram warhead into her side, gravely injuring the carrier and making further flight operations impossible.

That last hit was an effective “mission kill” on CVN Washington , though her flotation was not compromised and she still had power. The fires on the hanger deck were very involved, and Tanner gave orders that all aircraft aloft would have to divert to Japan. He was busy on the line with his Air Boss giving orders to coordinate air refueling for his thirsty strike assets with anything they could get in the air from other land bases.