Read Online By Dawn's Early Light by David Hagberg - Free Book Online
Authors: David Hagberg
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mines.
With even more to come, Dillon thought.
He nodded for Bateman to precede him into the officersâ wardroom and they went in. Submarines were too small and cramped, filled with machinery almost everywhere, for the crew to jump to attention every time the captain entered a compartment. But the twelve officers crowded around the long table that was bolted to the deck stiffened slightly, as they looked up in anticipation.
âGood afternoon, gentlemen. Weâve been pulled off robin redbreast and have been handed a new mission,â Dillon said from the head of the table. He didnât sit down. âItâs called urgent suitor . Weâre going sub hunting in the Indian Ocean. And weâre going in weapons hot. This isnât a drill.â
There was a stir, but the wardroom was quiet. Dillon listened for the sounds of his boat, or rather for the absence of noise. Submarines were quiet machines, inside and out. Underway no one shouted, or even raised their voices. The habit carried over in port.
Dillon handed a rolled chart of the Indian Ocean to Bateman. The table was cleared and they spread it out.
âThe day before yesterday a Kilo boat came to the surface a couple hundred miles off the coast from Calcutta and fired a laser weapon at one of our spy satellites. In the past few weeks two more of our satellites were fired on and damaged, from the same geographical location.â
Dillon pointed to the position on the chart. âAn American oceanographic research ship, the Eagle Flyer, saw the whole thing and called a sécurité. But the submarine fired on them, and so far as we know there were no survivors among the twenty-seven crew and scientists.
âONI is just guessing on the type of submarine it was, but I think itâs a pretty fair guess. The only nukes we have to worry about are the Chinese and Russians. I was given a fairly high confidence that they had no boats anywhere near there.â
The Kilo was a Russian-built diesel electric submarine, and possibly the most successful and widely used sub in the entire world. Like the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle that three-fourths of all the fighting forces in the world used, the Kilo was a dead simple and exceedingly rugged design. At 230 feet in length, and displacing 3,200 tons submerged, she could make sixteen knots underwater. She carried a crew of around sixty men and officers, and was equipped with six 533mm torpedo tubes and a respectable weapons load. Since she was electric, and therefore had no reactor pumps, she was possibly one of the quietest submarines in the world.
Every submariner had a good deal of respect for the class. In the hands of a good captain and experienced crew Kilos were formidable warships. In addition to HE loaded torpedoes, Kilos were also capable of carrying tube-launched SS-N-15 and SS-N-16 long range nuclear missiles.
âA couple of hours after the satellite was blinded, Pakistan tested another nuclear weapon. This time above ground. The air force believes it was a thermonuclear device.â
Their weapons officer, Lt. (jg) Marc âDoctor Deathâ Jablonski, raised his eyebrows. As far as he was concerned it was only a matter of a few more years before almost every military force in the world went nuclear. When he got out of the navy and finished his Ph.D. in nuclear physics, he wanted to work at Los Alamos on the next generation clean, shock bombs that would kill only people, but leave the environment intact. It would make conventional nukes obsolete.
âThe latest satellite that was taken out of service was a Jupiter that was put up to monitor both Pakistanâs and Indiaâs nuclear development programs. We have nothing currently in orbit that can do the same job. Or at least not as good a job. Leaves them a lot of wiggle room.
âIn two weeks the space shuttle Discovery will be launched. Two days later sheâll rendezvous with the Jupiter and replace her optics
With even more to come, Dillon thought.
He nodded for Bateman to precede him into the officersâ wardroom and they went in. Submarines were too small and cramped, filled with machinery almost everywhere, for the crew to jump to attention every time the captain entered a compartment. But the twelve officers crowded around the long table that was bolted to the deck stiffened slightly, as they looked up in anticipation.
âGood afternoon, gentlemen. Weâve been pulled off robin redbreast and have been handed a new mission,â Dillon said from the head of the table. He didnât sit down. âItâs called urgent suitor . Weâre going sub hunting in the Indian Ocean. And weâre going in weapons hot. This isnât a drill.â
There was a stir, but the wardroom was quiet. Dillon listened for the sounds of his boat, or rather for the absence of noise. Submarines were quiet machines, inside and out. Underway no one shouted, or even raised their voices. The habit carried over in port.
Dillon handed a rolled chart of the Indian Ocean to Bateman. The table was cleared and they spread it out.
âThe day before yesterday a Kilo boat came to the surface a couple hundred miles off the coast from Calcutta and fired a laser weapon at one of our spy satellites. In the past few weeks two more of our satellites were fired on and damaged, from the same geographical location.â
Dillon pointed to the position on the chart. âAn American oceanographic research ship, the Eagle Flyer, saw the whole thing and called a sécurité. But the submarine fired on them, and so far as we know there were no survivors among the twenty-seven crew and scientists.
âONI is just guessing on the type of submarine it was, but I think itâs a pretty fair guess. The only nukes we have to worry about are the Chinese and Russians. I was given a fairly high confidence that they had no boats anywhere near there.â
The Kilo was a Russian-built diesel electric submarine, and possibly the most successful and widely used sub in the entire world. Like the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle that three-fourths of all the fighting forces in the world used, the Kilo was a dead simple and exceedingly rugged design. At 230 feet in length, and displacing 3,200 tons submerged, she could make sixteen knots underwater. She carried a crew of around sixty men and officers, and was equipped with six 533mm torpedo tubes and a respectable weapons load. Since she was electric, and therefore had no reactor pumps, she was possibly one of the quietest submarines in the world.
Every submariner had a good deal of respect for the class. In the hands of a good captain and experienced crew Kilos were formidable warships. In addition to HE loaded torpedoes, Kilos were also capable of carrying tube-launched SS-N-15 and SS-N-16 long range nuclear missiles.
âA couple of hours after the satellite was blinded, Pakistan tested another nuclear weapon. This time above ground. The air force believes it was a thermonuclear device.â
Their weapons officer, Lt. (jg) Marc âDoctor Deathâ Jablonski, raised his eyebrows. As far as he was concerned it was only a matter of a few more years before almost every military force in the world went nuclear. When he got out of the navy and finished his Ph.D. in nuclear physics, he wanted to work at Los Alamos on the next generation clean, shock bombs that would kill only people, but leave the environment intact. It would make conventional nukes obsolete.
âThe latest satellite that was taken out of service was a Jupiter that was put up to monitor both Pakistanâs and Indiaâs nuclear development programs. We have nothing currently in orbit that can do the same job. Or at least not as good a job. Leaves them a lot of wiggle room.
âIn two weeks the space shuttle Discovery will be launched. Two days later sheâll rendezvous with the Jupiter and replace her optics
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