SSN - Tom Clancy [15]
"Firing point procedures," Mack ordered, "tube two, Master 11; tubes three and four, Master 12."
He gave the order to fire the Harpoons two minutes later. They were launched to the surface by the weapons control console and the sonar man heard the rocket boosters ignite. "Reload tubes two, three, and four with Mk 48s," Mack commanded.
Flying at just under the speed of sound, the missiles found their marks in less than five minutes. This time it was the Chinese who never had a chance.
Three large explosions marked the success of Cheyenne's attack. The Romeo was hit first. The Harpoon came from its cruising altitude, performed its popup maneuver, and slammed into the top of the Romeo's afterdeck while the submarine was recharging on the surface. The Chinese navy had tried to save money by not repairing the damaged snorkel system. That decision cost them their submarine.
The missile's 510-pound high-explosive warhead detonated on impact, tearing a large hole in the hull and sending the force of its explosion down into the belly of the submarine. The thin steel hull burst apart, splitting the submarine into two pieces. Both halves quickly filled with water and sank, opposite ends first, into the sea.
Twelve seconds later, it was the destroyer's turn. The first missile hit its front end, directly under the 130mm gun. There was a horrific explosion and the entire fore section of the destroyer was bent in a downward direction, bringing a large amount of water into the ship. The second Harpoon hit the ship's bridge, killing the captain and all in its command center.
The 3,400-ton destroyer did not sink right away. It didn't break up quickly enough for that. It would be three long hours before it sank into the depths of the Pacific. Instead, it sat, dead in the water, a spreading pool of oil and diesel fuel marking what would become its watery grave.
Aboard Cheyenne, the captain and crew knew only that they should have hit their targets, but they had no way of determining how well the missiles had done their job. As soon as the Harpoons were launched, Cheyenne descended to 375 feet and immediately departed the area. If there were any other enemy vessels nearby, they would undoubtedly be looking for her at this very moment. Mack waited for nearly an hour before he secured from battle stations.
Cheyenne had done her job extremely well, Captain Mackey thought. Mack's grandfather had served in the "Silent Service" of World War II, and Mack thought the old man would be very proud of their accomplishments, if only he were still alive.
Cheyenne was the newest operational attack submarine in the entire U.S. submarine force. She had been on active duty for only a short while. But already she had been directly responsible for two kills of enemy submarines and one kill of an enemy destroyer. Mack didn't know it, but Cheyenne was well on her way to becoming one of the most decorated submarines of the entire Pacific Fleet.
Life aboard a submarine was often a lonely existence in which sailors had little personal space and almost zero privacy. The newest sailors were often required to "hot bunk"-sharing bunks on a rotating sleep schedule. As soon as one sailor rolled out of bed, another crewman would take his place in the same bunk. The uncomfortable feeling of climbing into an already warm bed gave rise to the term "hot bunking."
After their most recent encounter, however, life aboard Cheyenne was anything but lonely. Every sonar contact seemed to signal an enemy, every noise from their reactor or propulsion plant threatened to expose them to the Chinese, and every incoming communication held the promise of action. Running at twenty-six knots in the same "sprint and drift" mode they had employed in their transit to Pearl, Mack wanted to reach Independence as quickly