The Icarian legacy: Brave Souls

by Kocho

  Mran knew that he can be only proud of his crew.

  “It is a shame that a combination of bad luck and my own arrogance will lead them all to their deaths.”

  After that he closed his eyes and started telling his own prayer to the gods.

  * * *

  Jennings looked at the radar in disbelief. The object that was several clicks in front of them was huge easily dwarfing the super carrier on the surface. He looked at the other technicians that were monitoring the incoming signals. They were staring him back with the same confused expression on their faces. No one could explain the object that they were sure was ahead of them. The signals emanating from it were like nothing they’ve seen before.

  He took the readings and looked at them again. The size of the object was impressive, 220 meters wide and 1700 meters long. Not even the biggest ships on Earth were that large. He twisted his head and then took the results and called the commander.

  Captain Adams looked at the results that Jennings was showing him. Then he looked at the young seamen and with a confident but low voice spoke:

  “Are the results confirmed? Did you confirm the results with the Aurora and the Red October?”

  The young seamen looked at his captain.

  “Sir the results were checked…triple checked and confirmed by both the Aurora and the Red October. There is something up there. Something that is not ours and it definitely it’s not Russian.”

  The captain looked at his XO and after a moment took the results from Jennings. He looked at them with a face that showed no emotion. After couple of seconds he raised his head and looked at the young officer in front of him.

  “Were there any communications from the object? Did you try to raise them?”

  “There are no communications from the object. We tried hailing them on all known frequencies both ours and Russian. There is no answer yet. There was a slight increase in the power readings couple of minutes ago but that was all.”

  “Keep trying to raise them and slow our approach. Relay all information to the fleet on the surface and inform both the Aurora and the Red October that they should take flanking maneuvers. And tell the Yuri Dolgorukiy to stay behind.”

  Jennings knew what this orders meant. The captain was preparing for the possibility of a confrontation.

  “Yes sir.”

  The captain dismissed the young officer and turned to his XO.

  “What do you think Bill? The report said that the Boeing had a collision with something. Can this be the thing they collided with?”

  The XO looked and just shook his head. The situation looked absurd but with every passing moment his gut instinct was telling him that there was danger ahead. And he learned a long time ago that he should trust that feeling. He knew that his captain felt the same.

  “We both know what this will look like. But you are making the right call. Something smells wrong.”

  “Yes.”

  The captain turned and gave a simple order that was expected by the crew.

  “Load all tubes and get ready for emergency dive.”

  It was just a precaution he hoped he won’t have to use but it was better to be safe than sorry. The same order went out on all the other submarines. They all knew that there was danger ahead and they were all preparing to meet it head on.

  * * *

  The young officer looked with surprise on the screen that showed the human submarine that appeared on the screen. The surprise on his face stayed for just a second as he checked the results again. He then turned to his commanding officer and informed him.

  “Sir a human vessel just came from the deepwater and is scanning us with their equipment.”

  “What?”

  Mran’s expression was filled with anger. The human ship came too soon and it surprised him. He pressed a button on his command chair and the scans from his ship appeared on the main screen. The human underwater ship was to close.

  “Do they see us? Do they know we are here?”

  The communications officer was the one to answer him.

  “They are trying to communicate on several languages. They know we are here.”

  Mran thought for a second and cursed the gods in his mind. If only the human ship didn’t appear for seven more arns. He knew that that ship will relay the results to the fleet on the surface. And from the movements of the other two human ships it was obvious that they are surrounding his ship. Those ships were small compared with the cruiser but they could do a lot of damage. There was only one thing to do.

  “Destroy them. Target all three ships.”

  The weapons officer looked at him.

  “Sir the damage we took damaged our sensors and most of our weapons. We have active point defense weapons, and without sensors the water is going to make the targeting with the lasers difficult. They are to close for use of the plasma guns and lasers so we have to use the rail guns.”

  “Use whatever you can but destroy them before they contact the surface.”

  The officer turned on his console and gave the order to fire.

  At that moment multiple gun ports on the ship’s hull opened up. They couldn’t target the human ship precisely without their targeting scanners. But there were enough of them so they knew that they can’t miss with a barrage.

  The order went and the guns opened fire.

  Jennings dropped the headphones the moment he noticed the sounds of the gun ports opening and yelled to his captain.

  Adams reacted quickly.

  “Dive to 2600 feet.”

  The submarine lurched and everyone felt the shock of the sudden turning. The captain then gave the next order.

  “Fire all tubes and countermeasures and turn to heading 235-220.”

  The order was carried out immediately.

  8 mark 48 class 6 torpedoes were launched and accelerated towards the enemy object. At the same time the other two submarines opened fire as well. In matter of seconds 24 torpedoes were launched and started heading towards the enemy object.

  In the next seconds hundreds of rail gun rounds were launched from the cruiser’s point defense batteries. The rounds were small and they were never planned for this type of battle. They moved with speeds up to 0.3c and were planned for taking enemy fighters and projectiles in space.

  The submarines dived, altered course immediately, but none of the movements were planned for battle with enemy rounds that were moving with those speeds.

  “The enemy is firing!!!”

  The yell came from the radar station.

  Adams turned towards the man who reported. It was the young Jennings. The captain felt deep regret looking at the young seamen’s face. He could see in his eyes that he also knew that this is a battle they can’t win. They all knew it.

  “Relay all information’s to the Yuri Dolgorukiy and the fleet. It was an honor serving with all of you.”

  As he saluted the first rounds hit the submarine.

  The Jimmy Carter was a Seawolf class submarine. It was the last one built from this class that was built as an answer to the Russian Acula class. The submarine was better armed and had stronger defenses than its predecessors the Los Angeles class. Its hull was made from HY-100 steel that was stronger than the HY-80 steel that was used for the construction of the previous classes. Its hull was stronger and it could stand up to hits from modern human weapons of war, but it was never made for taking the fire power that was directed at the submarine at the moment.

  The rounds of the Dacarian cruiser impacted almost immediately after they were fired. Most of them missed because they were fired almost blindly. But enough of them were fired that all three submarines took direct hits. The Jimmy Carter took three hits that splashed through its thick hull and released enough kinetic energy to completely vaporize the submarine.

  The last thing that everyone of its crew saw was the blinding light of the energy being released. Their deaths were quick and they were the first of the many that would come. Just moments later both the Auror
a and the Red October were destroyed. In just a second almost four hundred seamen lost their lives. And one third of them were Russian. Several of the rounds managed to hit the torpedoes that were launched.

  But the explosion of the submarines and the blinding flashes and pressures that were released blinded almost all remaining sensors of the powerful ship. Of the 24 torpedoes that were launched by the submarines 11 remained and they all carried out their last orders. Compared to the rail gun rounds that the Dacarians fired they were moving slowly with speeds of 50 knots. But different from them, all torpedoes knew their target, and they were fired from a knife taking distance. Even at their slower speeds it took them just seconds to reach their target and deliver their deadly payload.

  Eleven powerful explosions rocked the big cruiser. Its hull was a lot stronger than the one utilized by the submarines or even the human battleships, but it was never made for taking the pressures of the deep water. And by pure luck three of the torpedoes hit the same damaged area from the collision. The damage they did was far larger.

  Mran fell from his chair as the explosions rocked his ship. And then the shockwave of the destructions of the three ships hit the cruiser as well. He ignored the pain from the fall and turned towards his officers.

  “Give me damage reports, immediately!!!”

  The anger in him was great. He never expected that the humans will manage to launch something at his ship before they were destroyed. These creatures were dangerous, and when the reports came in the anger turned to fury. He could feel the fire burning in his veins.

  The damage on the hull was minor but the three torpedoes that hit the previously damaged sector from the collision now destroyed every chance that he had of repairing it. He looked at the time.

  “Just ten more arns, all we need is just ten more.”

  “Is there any chance that we might move at least a little from this place, to change our position.”

  “No sir. The engines are of line. And with the damage to our hull I wouldn’t recommend going any deeper because the pressure will increase.”

  He considered for a moment and then he turned to the officer.

  “Keep a careful watch on the screens. We can’t take any more hits.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “And watch the movements of the surface fleet. Let’s hope that they didn’t manage to contact them.”

  Captain Kamarov looked at the sonar operator that was holding tightly to his headphones and listening with high concentration. The crew of the submarine was young and they didn’t have much experience. This was their final test before becoming officially operational. But he already knew that this was a good crew like all the others he had a chance to command. The submarine was the newest model that the Russian navy designed and it was the best submarine he ever had a chance to command. The Borei class was a strategic nuclear submarine and Yuri Dolgorukiy was the third submarine of the eight that were planned to be produced. There were some quirks with the new equipment but that was expected considering that this was a new and still unproven submarine.

  Just moments ago he took the order from the Americans to stay behind and to dive deeper. He also knew of the mysterious object that lay ahead. It was huge and it was obviously artificial. It was suspended not supported by anything on depth of eleven hundred feet. And it was standing in place. It was marvelous. But something in his gut told him that it wasn’t friendly.

  The young officers of his crew looked at him with concerned faces. He was about to give his next command when the young Asimov who was manning the sonar station threw down his headphones and yelled.

  “The enemy object is firing. The submarines are returning fire...”

  Just seconds later the shockwave from the three destroyed submarines reached them. The submarine lurched from the powerful hit but it wasn’t damaged. It was built to take those kinds of hits and stresses.

  “What the hell was that?”

  The communication officer handed him the last report without saying another word. When he looked at him his eyes filled with tears. He turned to Asimov.

  “What is your report?”

  The young technician looked at him and without hesitation answered.

  “All three submarines took direct hits and were destroyed. The enemy object was hit by eleven torpedoes and is showing intensive damage but is still operational.”

  Kamarov looked at the young officer and then turned to his XO. His face showed seriousness and anger.

  “Flood all tubes and take us to fifteen hundred feet. And send the Intel to the fleet on the surface. Tell them that we have a hostile object in deep water and inform them of the destruction of the Jimmy Carter, the Aurora and the Red October. Inform them of the enemy ships position and tell them that we are going deep and we will commence the attack and are awaiting further orders.”

  The submarine dived and turned toward its prey. Eight Bulava torpedoes were placed in the tubes as the submarine went to its maximum allowed depth.

  As the seconds passed the tension increased, and the same thing was happening on the surface.

  Kirkpatrick looked with disbelieving eyes at the report in his hands. He looked at the sonar images that the Jimmy Carter sent them of the mysterious object that was placed at twelve hundred feet depth. It was immediately obvious that it was artificial and the signals that it was emanating were strange to say the least.

  The coordinates showed that the target lay seven nautical miles in front of them.

  He picked up the telephone and immediately called Admiral Johnson on the bridge.

  When the admiral arrived he looked at the concerned face of his XO.

  “This better be good. What was so urgent that you couldn’t handle it without me?”

  Kirkpatrick looked at him and with a concerned face handed him the report from the submarine.

  “Sir I think that this warrants your attention.”

  Johnson studied the results and then looked at him.

  “Are the results confirmed? Did you ask for a second scan from the other submarines?”

  “They all gave the same results sir.”

  The admiral looked at the sea. It looked peaceful and calm. It was late afternoon and the sun moved slowly to the west. He loved the sunsets at sea. But he knew that today will be different.

  And something in his heart was telling him that a storm was approaching. Not a sea storm but a storm of another kind.

  He turned to his XO.

  “Tell the fleet to move with maximum speed towards those coordinates… and inform the Jimmy Carter that they should flank the object and wait for us.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Moments later the entire fleet headed towards the coordinates that the three submarines gave them.

  “We’ll be there in five minutes sir.”

  Johnson just nodded with his head and kept on watching towards the distant sunset.

  The fleet moved quickly and with a clear purpose. High above them in the clouds the six Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and six F/A-18 Hornets flew in formation. Thirty eight more plains waited on the carrier.

  “Sir the Jimmy Carter reports that they are making the flanking maneuver and trying to make contact. The Yuri Dogorukiy is staying in the back as a precaution. Commander Adams reports that so far the object hasn’t made any contact and is stationary.”

  “Just one more, one minute.”-those were the thoughts that went through his head as he heard the report from communications.

  The Admiral turned to Kirkpatrick. The young officer was calm. His dark blue eyes showed confidence.

  “Contact the Jimmy Carter and tell them…”

  He never got the chance to finish the sentence because three large underwater explosions happened at that exact moment. And just seconds’ later eleven more were heard as the torpedoes impacted on the alien ship.

  Three large gazers of water and parts exploded upwards on the places where the submarines meet their end. The shockwave hit the ships just seco
nds later.

  Johnson looked at the gazers.

  “What the hell…”- the words came from Kirkpatrick.

  Johnson looked at him and then turned to his communications and sonar operatives.

  “Give me a report.”

  Deep inside him he already knew the answer. A sheet of paper came out of the printer on the bridge. He never even bothered to look at it.

  The sonar operative looked at the admiral with a white face.

  “Sir the Yuri Dolgorukiy reports that the enemy ship fired and destroyed the rest of the submarine squadron. He further reports that the object was hit by at least eleven torpedoes and suffered minimal damage. The weapons that were fired are of unknown origin.”

  “Jesus Christ. What have we found?”

  Johnson turned to his shaken XO.

  “It’s not important what, what is important is how we deal with it. Launch all fighters and inform the fleet to go to red alert and battle formation. Send an immediate call to the HMS Vanguard and USS Missouri and their escorts to head this way.”

  The two most powerful ships and their escorts were searching a little further in the east. He now regretted for not calling them sooner but he knew that there was no way to predict that this was going to happen. Four more submarines were in that area as well.

  As the orders were given the ships started altering their course and all the guns were loaded with real ammunition. Everyone knew what was coming.

  “Inform the High Command of the latest developments and send a report to the navies of the surrounding countries. We might need their help.”

  In less than a minute the information went to all the navies of the region and also across the planet to the High Commands of Russia and USA.

  As the fleet on the surface was preparing for confrontation they had no idea that they are being monitored from three other ships in the sky above them. Two corvettes and one frigate were keeping a close eye on the human fleet and monitored its deployment and communications.

  And deep below as the ships were deploying the last submarine was quietly approaching from the depts.