Battlefield Pacific

Ambush in the Pacific

After nearly a month of consolidating the Allied fleet around the US territory of Guam, Vice Admiral Jeff Richards was ready to launch his offensive to once and for all crush the People’s Liberation Army Navy and begin the liberation of Taiwan and the Philippines. Richards had spent the better part of a month wargaming the plan they were now going to implement and felt fairly confident in their ability to respond to the different types of threats the PLA Navy was going to throw at them.

His biggest relief was that the Chinese submarine Wuhan, which had been equipped with the new Chinese supertorpedo, had finally been hunted down and sunk. Sadly, two additional destroyers and another Los Angeles-class submarine were lost in the process. Fortunately, naval intelligence had no indications that the Chinese had figured out how to equip the specialized torpedoes to their aircraft, and apparently, the torpedoes required special modifications to the torpedo tubes, which meant that for the time being, the Wuhan was the only sub equipped to use them.

“If only we knew exactly how many anti-ship missiles the Chinese have to throw at us,” he thought.

However, there was no turning back now. The battle plans had been set, and now it was time to once again place his sailors in harm’s way. As the Allied fleet headed toward the Philippine Sea, the four Japanese light carriers fell in line with the six American supercarriers, adding their own capability to the mix. Those ships had been quickly modified at the beginning of the Korean conflict, adding arrestor wires to the rear deck of the ship and magnetic catapults along the front deck. With the equipment needed to launch and retrieve aircraft, they were now functional as carriers in their own right, capable of collectively carrying 96 combat aircraft.

Admiral Richards smiled as he saw these ships move with his forces. “The Japanese finished those modifications rather quickly. This should be a nasty surprise to the Chinese,” he thought.

The fleet had already been at sea for nearly two days as they sailed ever closer to the inevitable battle that might ultimately decide the outcome of the war. Sitting in the wardroom on the USS Gerald Ford, Admiral Richards again reviewed the plans for how they were going to incorporate the Japanese aircraft into the fleet’s defense. Although half of the pilots flying off the Japanese light carriers were actually US naval pilots, it was still important to make sure they fully understood the plan and their role in the coming fight.

Richards had nearly every EA-18 Growler in the Navy assigned to his fleet for this coming battle. Eight of them were operating on the Japanese ships while the rest of the aircraft composition comprised F/A-18 Super Hornets. Admiral Richards knew that the Chinese were going to hit them with one or more missile swarm attacks, and he had the fleet prepared accordingly. To increase the likelihood of their survival, the Hornets were equipped with AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles, which had the ability to also go after the cruise missiles that would be swarmed at them. It wasn’t a sure bet they could hit the enemy missiles, but if they could help thin them out, then it was worth using them. When Richards had been in command of the Carl Vinson at the outset of the Korean War, this had been a tactic he employed with his airwing. It was probably the one thing that had saved his ship and the rest of his strike group from certain doom. He hoped it would save them again in this coming battle.

In addition to the Japanese light carriers, the Allied fleet had the two Zumwalt-class destroyers, which had recently been upgraded with the Navy's new railguns. The USS Michael Monsoor and the USS Zumwalt were about to make their combat debut, and they fielded a new and revolutionary combat system, the magnetic railgun. The penetrator rounds the railgun fired weighed ten kilograms and could travel 160 kilometers, hitting their targets traveling at speeds of Mach 7. The Zumwalts could fire a sustained six rounds a minute for three minutes before dropping to one round a minute to allow for their capacitors to recharge. Admiral Richards hoped these two ships would be his ace in the hole.

For the time being, Vice Admiral Richards planned on making the Gerald Ford not only his floating forward command but the centerpiece of the Allied fleet and the nerve center for the coming battle. To that end, he made sure to place a Ticonderoga cruiser on either side of the carrier for added antimissile defense.

Thirty thousand feet above the largest naval fleet since World War II, the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone observed everything happening below. The continuous data it provided was feeding a steady stream of intelligence to the ships below, as well as the 7th Fleet’s forward headquarters in Guam, Hawaii, and the Pentagon.

While the Triton kept its high orbit above the fleet, it intercepted a short burst message to a group of five cargo vessels near the Island of Colonia and Palau, 530 kilometers to the southwest of the Allied fleet. Within minutes of the transmission, the five ships changed course and headed in the same direction as the fleet.

Rear Admiral Shelley Cord was both excited and nervous as her strike group continued to near the enemy and the coming battle. While she reviewed their current plans, she became lost in a sea of reminiscent thoughts.

When Shelley had been given command of the Ford strike group, she’d figured that would be her last command, and then she’d would retire. As a two-star admiral and woman, she felt she had helped to pave the way for other women to achieve the same rank and hold the same commands a man could. She was the first commander of what was arguably the most powerful warship in the world, and that said a lot for how far women had come in being considered equal to their male counterparts in the Navy.

While the Ford was going to be the most powerful warship in the world, it was still technically not supposed to be ready for combat for another year. Her job was to oversee its sea trials and the myriad of certifications needed to make the strike group ready for combat operations.

Once the war in Europe had started and the George H.W. Bush had been sunk, the Ford had suddenly become inundated with contractors and support personnel, rushing to get the supercarrier ready for combat operations. Instead of being in charge of the final stages of the carrier’s readiness for the fleet, Admiral Cord found herself in charge of an entirely new strike group that would center around the Ford and be the anchor for the Seventh Fleet. The Secretary of the Navy and SecDef had waived hundreds of certifications and tests to get the ship ready for combat — the only thing that mattered was getting the Ford ready and staffed up with fighters and personnel.

When the Second Korean War had started, the loss of the Reagan and the Vinson had placed renewed urgency and strain on Cord to get her strike group ready for battle. They were desperately needed in the Pacific.

When she’d heard that the captain of the Vinson would be taking over command of the entire 7th Fleet, she’d felt a bit miffed that a captain who had essentially lost his own ship was going to be taking over command of the entire fleet instead of one of the more seasoned rear admirals. However, within twenty minutes of listening to Richards speak about his experience in fighting the People’s Liberation Army Navy and how his strike group had survived the missile swarm that ultimately overwhelmed the Reagan, she felt guilty for her earlier feelings. Richards had gained something that none of them had, combat experience fighting the Chinese — and neither she nor the senior admirals in the Navy currently had that knowledge.

That first battle with the Chinese had cost the Navy two rear admirals and a vice admiral, along with the lives of nearly 8,000 sailors. It had been the single greatest loss of life in the Navy since World War II. Senior leadership who had experience fighting the Chinese were in short supply, and as her strike group neared the enemy, she was glad they were being led by an officer who understood what they would be facing.

The combat information center or CIC commander pulled her out of her thought bubble and back to the real world. “Ma’am,” he said. “We’ve spotted something unusual that I think you should take a look at.”

“What do you have, George?” She stood up and walked toward him.

“I’m not sure. The Triton just intercepted a burst transmission to what appears to be a small cluster of cargo ships near the Micronesia Island chains. We’ve looked at the area, and there are no PLA Navy ships in the area. There don’t appear to be any hostile planes in the area either,” he explained, a bit puzzled by the information.

“Hmm. Well, let’s take a closer look, shall we?” she commented. They walked over to the console, where a couple of the intelligence folks were looking at the drone’s feed.

“Petty Officer, are you able to zoom in any closer to those ships so we can see what flag they’re flying?” inquired the admiral.

The petty officer nodded and zoomed in as far as the camera would allow. She wrinkled her face as she realized the image wasn’t going to get any clearer. “I’m going to need a better image,” she said.

“Those ships are roughly 500 kilometers away from us right now,” replied the petty officer. “My camera is good, but it’s not a telescope.” With that, she nudged the lieutenant next to her, who was flying the UAV.

“I can turn and head in that direction, but the best I can do is get us maybe 80 kilometers closer,” said the lieutenant. “I have to stay in a certain orbit over the fleet to keep providing us the coverage requirements. If you want a better image, I’d recommend we send a fast mover. They can get over there a lot quicker than I can.”

Admiral Cord nodded. “You’re right, Lieutenant. Good call,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.

She turned to the commander, air group, or CAG, who had walked over to see what they were discussing. “CAG, get me a fast mover to head over to that cluster of ships. I have a feeling there’s more than meets the eye with them, and I want a little more information before I let Admiral Richards know something might be amiss.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” replied the CAG. He rushed off to complete his new mission.

Cord grabbed the attention of a couple of the other petty officers nearby. “Also, someone send a message to the captain to come to CIC and join us,” she ordered.

“Yes, Ma’am,” one of them replied.

Three minutes later, the alert fighters on the flight deck were given the task of investigating the suspicious ships. Seeing how far away the ships were from the fleet, they would need to top off their fuel tanks before they began their journey.

Once the planes left the deck, Captain Patricia Fleece, who had only just found out about their mission, walked into the CIC. “I just saw the alert fighters take off — anything important I should know about?” she asked, directing her question to the CAG.

Admiral Cord knew she should have told Captain Fleece before they’d launched the alert fighters, but she’d felt she needed to get them in the air ASAP. Something just didn’t feel right. “It’s my fault, Captain Fleece. I ordered the CAG to launch them ASAP and get them heading out to investigate something. Let me show you what we’ve found and get your take on this, too.”

The small group now walked over to the monitor that was piping in the video feed of the vessels. Cord explained what they had found, and the odd behavior of the cargo vessels once they received the burst transmission. “Has anyone told Admiral Richards about this? He may know something we don’t,” Fleece said.

“I was going to inform him once we had a better idea of whose vessels those are,” Admiral Cord answered. “The Triton doesn’t show any PLA Navy ships in the area, and we don’t see any air activity.”

Fleece bit her lower lip. Admiral Cord knew by now that this meant Fleece was uncomfortable with the decision to wait. However, she didn’t voice any objections.

“Let’s just hope I know what I’m doing,” Admiral Cord thought, second-guessing herself. It would take some time for the Hornets to check the situation out, and if there was truly something amiss, they might have lost too much valuable time.

Suddenly, the lieutenant handling the UAV loudly announced, “Captain, you need to see this!”

Sensing something important, Admiral Cord also walked over to see what was going on. Then, one of the communications officers vied for their attention as he waved a yellow paper in the air.

“Admiral, we’re receiving a FLASH message from Guam. You need to read this, Ma’am,” the commander said in an urgent voice.

Cord turned toward her comms officer and moved quickly in his direction. As she approached his station, he handed her the message traffic:

The blood in Admiral Cord’s face seemed to drain out of her head, and she almost felt weak at the knees. This was the very thing she was terrified of.

“Are we cruising into a trap?” she wondered in horror.

“Someone, get Admiral Richards in here ASAP! Set Condition One. Sound general quarters and send a FLASH message to the rest of the fleet of a possible ASBM attack,” Admiral Cord ordered.

In seconds, the general quarters alarm blared throughout the ship, alerting everyone of a possible attack. The men and women on the ship moved as quickly as possible to their battle stations and prepared for the worst.

Captain Fleece turned to the CAG. “Get on the radio to the Raptor flight and order them to get us real-time video of those cargo ships at once!” she ordered. “They may be part of the PLA Navy attack, and we just don’t know it yet.”

The CAG nodded and grabbed the handset.

Lieutenant Josh McDaniel’s Super Hornet had been cruising toward the mysterious cargo vessels now for nearly an hour. “Oh my God, this is boring,” he thought. “We’re still roughly twenty minutes away from even being close enough to use our cameras.”

His radio crackled, startling him. “Raptor Two Two, this is Henhouse. Fleet has gone to Condition One. Initiate afterburners and get a visual of the cargo ships. Approach with caution, possible PLA Navy trap. How copy?”

“That’s a good copy, Henhouse,” Lieutenant McDaniel responded. “Will initiate afterburners. Please be advised that we’ll need to top our tanks off again at the halfway point.”

“Crap, what the heck are we flying into?” he thought.

The two Hornets hit their afterburners and, in seconds, were zooming toward their maximum speed as they quickly closed the distance to the cargo vessels. In a matter of minutes, they came within range of their cameras and beamed the video back to the Ford, where they would analyze the ships for potential threats.

Lieutenant Commander Mary Teller, his back seater, was looking at the video display when she suddenly blurted out, “Those aren’t cargo holds, Josh. Those are vertical launch systems… hundreds of them!”

“Are you sure, Mary?” McDaniel asked in shock. “I’ve never heard of a VLS system on anything outside of a warship.”

“I’m telling you, those are VLSs. The entire ship is covered in them,” she replied. “I’m going to radio back to the carrier to see if they see it as well.”

“Hang on, Mary,” he said. “I’m going to make a low pass over the ships, so we can get a better look at them.”

He slowed them down and began a descent. Just as McDaniel flew over the first cargo ship, his missile warning alarm sounded in his headset, letting him know an enemy missile had just locked on to him. Before he even had a chance to react, his aircraft was hit by a Chinese FN-6 man-portable air-defense system, or MANPAD, erupting in flames before either he or his back seater was able to eject. His wingman, who had been flying at a slightly higher altitude, suddenly found himself being chased down by three FN-6 missiles as well. The missiles were so quick, they left very little time to react or get away. In mere seconds, both Hornets were downed.

Vice Admiral Jeff Richards sat in the wardroom, compiling some notes for a report he planned on writing following the end of the battle with the PLA Navy. He wanted to make sure he captured some ideas and feelings he had prior to the battle starting.

Lifting his cup of coffee to his lips, he took a long drink from the now-lukewarm java.

Suddenly, the general quarters alarm sounded. Instinctively, he got up and quickly made his way to the CIC to find out what was going on.

It took him nearly five minutes to move through the maze of corridors and ladder wells, wading through all the sailors running to and from one location to another. When he entered the CIC, he saw controlled chaos as the men and women running the CIC expertly managed the situation unfolding around them.

“Talk to me, people,” he said. “What the heck is going on?”

One of the battle managers, who had been watching the video images being relayed by the two Hornets, yelled out, “Raptor Flight is down! Raptor Flight is down!”

The CAG quickly jumped on that. “What do you mean, they’re down? Did they just disappear?”

“Sir, they were transmitting video and then all of a sudden it stopped. One second, they were there, and then everything went black. I think they may have been shot down,” he replied.

“Bring up the video they were broadcasting just before it went blank,” said Captain Fleece. She began biting her fingernails nervously.

The video began. To their collective horror, they saw what the pilots must have seen just before they died. The forward sections of the cargo vessels were covered in vertical launch systems. These merchant raiders had been converted into cruise missile platforms. They were less than 460 kilometers from the fleet, well within their operational range. Couple that with the flash message they’d just received, and it was suddenly clear — the fleet was moving right into a cleverly laid Chinese trap.

As Admiral Richards realized what was happening, anger billowed up inside him and he lashed out at his strike group commander and captain. “Why were these vessels not checked sooner? How could we have let them get so close to the fleet?” he yelled.

Admiral Cord and Captain Fleece were silent and stonefaced.

“Never mind,” said Richards, softening his tone. “We have to deal with them. I want those ships sunk now before they can launch their missiles, if we’re not already too late.”

Captain Fleece turned to the CAG. “Scramble your airwing,” she ordered. “Have them focus on disabling the enemy missiles that will be headed our way soon.”

Admiral Cord went to work getting the rest of the strike group ready and organized to deal with the newly identified threat. She ordered two more destroyers to move in the direction of the cargo vessels, since this would be the direction the largest quantity of enemy missiles would be traveling from. She also handed Admiral Richards the flash message from NORAD about the imminent attack. He only shook his head, as if he had known this was going to happen.

“This is Korea all over again…” thought Richards.

He turned and walked over to a small cluster of workstations he had taken over, separate from where Admiral Cord would be coordinating her strike group. He needed to make sure the fleet was adjusting their ship formation and placing their defenses in the area most likely to receive the largest volume of enemy missiles. He also wanted to get on the radio to Guam and see if the Air Force would be able to get some tankers headed out in his direction so he could keep his aircraft in the air longer over the fleet while they dealt with this new threat.

Twenty-six thousand feet above the Allied fleet below, the myriad of surveillance cameras on the MQ-4C Triton UAV captured ballistic missile launches from the islands of Taiwan and Luzon. Within seconds, a short burst message was detected between the Chinese fleet and the cargo vessels. Shortly after, one of the now-classified merchant raiders fired off its missiles at the American fleet. While the first vessel disgorged its missiles, the Chinese destroyers with the main fleet also fired off their first volley of anti-ship missiles.

When the first merchant raider finished firing off its first set of two hundred missiles, the next two raiders fired off their own barrage. A couple of minutes went by, and then all five raiders fired off another barrage of missiles, holding their final barrage in reserve. As the missiles leveled out and headed toward the American fleet, it became clear the Chinese had timed the launches and elevation of the missiles so they would converge on the American fleet from multiple height levels and directions. This would make it significantly harder for the fleet’s close-in defense systems to move from one target to the next.

While the data was being transmitted to Guam and the fleet below, the outer skin of the drone suddenly became superheated. The paint started to peel, and in a fraction of a second, the inside guts of the drone overheated. Then the UAV suddenly crumpled under its own weight and airspeed as it disintegrated from the heat of a high-energy beam.

“Admiral Cord, we just lost the Triton feed,” announced a very nervous lieutenant. “One minute it was fine, sending us targeting data of the incoming missiles — then it just cut out. It’s no longer transmitting any data. Its transponder is also out.”

Cord grumbled. “Send a message out to the other strike groups about what just happened. Launch more drones and tell everyone to switch to the alternate plan. Unless the Chinese shoot our satellites down again, we’ll switch back to them,” she said, hoping the satellites would be able to pick up the slack.

The military satellite system was still recovering from the first Russian attack, when they’d carried out a complex “internet of things” attack that overheated many of the internal systems on the satellites, burning them out. SpaceX had been incredibly busy launching replacement satellites into orbit as fast as the factories could produce them. However, despite the valiant efforts by SpaceX and the satellite producers, not all of them had been replaced yet, so the ones they did have operating could only handle so much data.

It was controlled chaos in the nerve center of the carrier as they worked feverishly to integrate and analyze all the data streaming into the command center, and Admiral Cord nervously watched every detail as it unfolded. The sophisticated computer system that ran the fleet’s defensive system was now tracking 1,900 inbound threats. The twenty-six EA-18 Growlers went to work with their jamming pods as they tried to confuse the anti-ship missiles defensive systems, while the Super Hornets dove in to attack them with their own weapons.

The fighters were going to have one chance to hit as many of the incoming threats as possible; once the missiles flew past them, they would have no hope of catching up to them again. All 420 fighter planes from the carriers descended on the incoming threats, firing their weapons into the swarm that was heading toward their floating homes.

In an almost miraculous effort, the fighters managed to destroy 509 of the incoming enemy missiles. If it weren’t so deadly, it would have made for a beautiful fireworks show. Having dispensed their missiles, the fighters loitered at a high orbit above the fleet to allow the destroyers and cruisers to initiate the next layer of defense.

In seconds, the destroyers Michael Monsoor and Zumwalt made history as their railguns engaged the missile threats at a rate of ten rounds a minute, scoring a consistent one hundred percent hit ratio. While the missile count was steadily dropping from the railguns, the rest of the destroyers joined the fray with their own SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 missiles at the carrier killer ballistic missiles and the remaining cruise missiles still bearing down on them. The sky and water around and in between the ships was filling with smoke trails and exhaust plumes of friendly missiles streaking in all directions. It was almost reminiscent of a 17th- or 18th-century naval battle between wooden sail ships, firing gunpowder cannon — except these weapon systems were far more lethal and devastating in their use.

While the battle was well underway above the water, deep beneath the waves, a dozen Virginia-class attack submarines moved into position to attack the Chinese fleet while a handful of the older Los Angeles attack subs kept the fleet safe from any underwater threats.

It was now up to the CIWS and the remaining RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile or RAM system to take over. However, those missiles were going to be extremely difficult to hit as they reached their terminal velocity. The stone-cold truth was that some of the missiles were going to get through.

Admiral Cord stood, not knowing what more to do at this point. She watched as the training the Navy had put its officers and enlisted men and women through took over. What might have appeared to a civilian as dozens upon dozens of individuals shouting and motioning from one item to the next was actually being played out in a well-organized and exceptionally choreographed dance of decisions and reactions to those decisions.

The ship’s highly complex targeting system was managing the entire fleet’s point defense systems, identifying what CIWS or RAM system was closest to each threat and vectoring them in to deal with it. The system was handling these hundreds of decisions a second far faster and efficiently then the men and women who managed the system could ever hope to achieve.

Moments later, the wind blew more of the exhaust and smoke from the missiles away from the ships, and Admiral Richards watched in horror as many of the enemy missiles struck his beloved fleet. Two of the DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missiles slammed into the forward and rear flight deck of the USS Eisenhower, scoring direct hits. The flight deck burst into flames.

Richards winced as he saw the billowing clouds of flame and smoke rise, knowing that hundreds of sailors had just perished. It brought back horrible memories of when his own carrier had been hit by one of those missiles at the start of the war. Just as he thought that might have been the only ship to get hit by the ASBMs, another one streaked down from the sky and rammed into the center of the USS Nimitz. Seconds later, the Nimitz was hit by three more missiles, which nearly ripped the ship apart. The entire flight deck and superstructure of the carrier was now engulfed in flames and was being rocked by secondary explosions. The ship was clearly in trouble as it listed quickly to one side.

“Switch to a view of the Roosevelt, and then the Lincoln and Stennis. I need to see if any of the other carriers were hit,” Richards directed the chief petty officer manning one of the video feeds at the terminal near him.

The video zoomed into focus on the Roosevelt, which had a bit of smoke from a couple of hits it took to its hull, but no raging fires across her flight decks. The other two carriers appeared to be in good shape as well. Turning his attention to the Japanese ships, he saw that one of them had settled pretty deep into the water and was clearly going to sink; another one had taken several hits and was on fire. The other two appeared to have minimal to light damage, with their flight decks also in good shape.

“Sir, the bulk of Chinese cruise missiles are about to arrive,” one of the battle manager officers said.

Richards just nodded. There was really nothing more he could do at this point but wait to see how many of them made it through their defenses. He motioned for the chief manning the video feed to zoom out, so they could see more of the fleet as the missiles closed in. Many of the missiles were being destroyed at the last minute by the Zumwalt’s railguns, but many more were leaking through to slam into the hulls and superstructures of the Allied warships.

The USS Port Royal, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, took three direct hits by CJ-100 anti-ship missiles, each packing a 300-kilogram warhead. The ship burned wildly at first as the fires from the explosion quickly spread before the crew reacted and doused them with water and regained control of the flames.

As the rest of the missiles found their marks, Admiral Richards saw a large portion of his fleet had somehow survived the largest anti-ship missile swarm in history.

“Now it’s time for payback,” he thought.

The Chinese and American fleets had closed the distance gap to get within strike range of their fighters, but that also meant they had just moved within range of his new Harpoon Block II+ extended-range missiles.

He turned to Rear Admiral Cord. “Order the fleet to begin engaging the PLA Navy with our Harpoons. It’s time to get some revenge. Also, get our fighters back on the decks of the carriers that are still operational. We need them rearmed and ready to repel the next attack,” he directed.

In minutes, the American and Japanese ships fired off their own anti-ship missiles while the remaining aircraft landed on the carriers that still had operational flight decks. As quickly as the fighters landed, they were being brought below decks and placed into an assembly line system of being rearmed, refueled, and then placed back on the forward elevator to return to the flight deck and get airborne.

Having trained to do this type of operation only once, the flight crews were proving that the heavy emphasis on training by the Navy was paying off. Aircraft were landing and being turned right around for the next flight in record time, which also allowed room for the additional aircraft to land. With several of the carriers having been sunk or heavily damaged, there wasn’t a lot of flight deck real estate to go around.

While the American aircraft were being readied to go after the Chinese fleet and naval aircraft, a series of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which had been fired by two of the Ticonderoga guided-missile cruisers, hit the five Chinese merchant raiders, just as they were beginning to launch a series of missiles aimed at the US Air Force base on Guam. The five converted cargo ships quickly sank, preventing them from being able to further hit the critical air base or launch any other missiles at the fleet.

Vice Admiral Shen was beside himself when he learned his merchant raiders had been sunk. They had managed to successfully fire off several volleys of anti-ship missiles, which had proved his theory that merchant raiders could still play a pivotal role in modern naval warfare. Unfortunately, they had only been able to launch sixteen cruise missiles at the American air base on Guam before they were sunk.

“I should have known the Americans would have had a submarine or some other ship in the area that would be able to sink them,” he thought in regret. He wished that he had had them launch all their missiles at the Americans at once instead.

Turning to one of his officers, he asked the question on all of their minds. “How were the Americans able to shoot down so many of our missiles?” he barked. “A significantly larger percentage of them should have gotten through, and we should have caused far more damage to the fleet than we did.”

“Sir, while the Americans did intercept a larger percentage of missiles than we’d predicted, we still scored a great victory. We sank one more of the American carriers, and two more suffered heavy damage. One of the Japanese carriers was sunk, and the other two sustained heavy damage. We also damaged or sunk another thirty-eight American warships,” the officer responded, not accepting this as a defeat on any level.

“I want our aircraft to attack now. Order the carriers and land-based aircraft to launch their attack immediately. We need to finish off their fleet!” Shen ordered. He hoped his remaining naval assets would be more than enough to finish the Americans off. Somehow, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that the Americans were about to hit back, hard.

“Fast Eagle Six. This is November Six. Engage hostile ships. Get some payback for us, will you?” ordered Captain Grisham, the captain of the USS John C. Stennis.

“November Six, that’s a good copy. We’re moving to engage now,” Commander Greg Carlson replied, to the excitement of his fellow pilots. “You heard the captain. It’s time to go get some payback. Stay alert, guys, and let’s go sink some enemy ships.”

The Super Hornets in Commander Carlson’s squadron were armed with two long-range anti-ship missiles, or LRASM, which DARPA had helped to pioneer several years ago. The Navy only had a limited quantity of these missiles, so they were being used sparingly. The LRASM was a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile that had a range of 560 kilometers and packed a 450-kilogram warhead. Lockheed Martin had been running round-the-clock production of the missiles to get them in service for this specific battle, and if things worked out, it might just prove to be the decisive weapon needed to destroy the Chinese fleet.

Breathing heavily, Commander Carlson looked around to make sure his pilots were all where they were supposed to be while his backseater, Lieutenant Molly Balmer, made sure they had the proper target punched into the computer. His aircraft had been given the honor of targeting his two missiles at one of the three PLA Navy carriers.

Lieutenant Balmer cleared her throat. “Boss, we’re coming up on 320 kilometers from the enemy fleet. Weapons free in sixty seconds. You ready?” she asked.

“Copy that,” he responded. He switched over to the squadron net. “Sixty seconds to weapons free. Let’s get ready, folks.”

The minute went by in the blink of an eye. Carlson lifted the arming button for his missiles. “Weapons ready,” he called.

“Targets locked, ready to fire,” Balmer replied.

Commander Carlson hit the fire button once and felt the weight of the first anti-ship missile fall from underneath his wings. Then he depressed the button again. In seconds, the aircraft was 5,000 pounds lighter. The small wings of the cruise missiles opened up and the engines started. Commander Carlson watched the missiles for the briefest of seconds to make sure they had ignition and then turned his attention back to making sure they weren’t being tracked by any of the numerous enemy aircraft heading toward them.

“I show both weapons have acquired their targets and are moving to engage,” Balmer informed him.

“Good copy. Time to go home,” he replied. He turned the aircraft to head for the Stennis. They would land, refuel and, if need be, rearm with more Harpoon missiles and finish off whatever enemy ships remained.

Commodore Zhou Dongyou sweated profusely as he listened to the radar operators frantically call out the nearly one hundred American cruise missiles heading toward their fleet.

“Commander, when you identify a missile headed toward our ship, you make sure you target it first before we target any of the missiles headed to the Mao, is that understood?” barked Zhou, not at all happy that their illustrious strike group commander had demanded that all the fleet’s defenses focus on protecting the Mao at the expense of themselves and the other carriers.

“What about our orders?” the commander asked in an irritated tone. The conversation suddenly drew in the gaze of several men around them.

Zhou knew he could be in a lot of trouble for countermanding the admiral’s order, but he also knew the chances of any of them surviving if they focused all their weapons on protecting the Mao were slim to none.

“I have a duty to protect my crew, and my ship,” he thought.

Commodore Zhou squared back his shoulders and stood a little taller before replying. “I am responsible for the safety of this ship and its crew. I cannot fulfill that duty if I am not allowed to defend my ship. You will target the enemy missiles headed toward us first, and then assist the Mao when feasible. Is that understood, Commander?” he directed, a bit of heat in his voice.

“The missiles are closing to within twenty kilometers!” shouted one of the radar operators.

At this distance, the carrier’s close-in point defense systems readied themselves to engage the incoming threats. While the bulk of the American missiles were nearing the carrier’s defenses, the Liaoning was suddenly struck on the port side by four missiles. The explosions sent shockwaves throughout the ship, throwing crew members to the ground and temporarily knocking out power to the ship.

“What just hit us?” shouted Commodore Zhou as he looked for answers.

“Point defenses are engaging enemy missiles now!” yelled one of the young officers as the carrier’s HQ-10 antimissile system and the Type 1130 CIWS did their best to shoot down the remaining American missiles.

In seconds, another eight missiles impacted against the side of the ship. The fires that had been burning aboard now quickly spread as damage to key structures caused secondary explosions. Before Commodore Zhou could say anything further, the bridge section he was standing on took direct hit from a third wave of cruise missiles to hit his ship, killing him instantly.

In less than twenty minutes, the American fleet had successfully sunk the three Chinese carriers and the majority of their defending ships. With the enemy fleet essentially destroyed, the Americans began to pursue the remnants of the PLA Navy to officially finish off any naval threat to the landing force that would soon move to liberate the Philippines.