Sky Masters

by Dale Brown

  appeared north and south of the B-2. "Air-search radars from those

  patrol boats!" McLanahan shouted. He looked on in horror as the

  southernmost radar dome engulfed them, then changed from yellow to red.

  "Target-acquisition radar got us, bearing one-six-three, range eleven

  miles. No missile-tracking radars yet, but he might be radioing our

  position to his big sister out there. Henry, take us down to two

  hundred feet, and let's hope these bozos can't lock onto us "New radar

  contact aircraft, bearing from destroyer Zunyi, two-zero-zero, range

  seventy-four kilometers, speed nine-three-zero kilometers per hour,

  altitude six hundred meters." Curse it! the skipper of the destroyer

  Feylin thought furiously. An aircraft somehow managed to sneak past

  their gauntlets. "Order all patrol boats to begin air search

  immediately..."

  "Sir, target number one turning north, appears to be disengaging . . .

  altitude of target one increasing to twenty-four thousand meters, speed

  increasing to eight hundred." "Activate DRBR-51 missile-tracking radars.

  Do not let the U-2 get away."

  "Sir, patrol boat 124 reports radar contact on air target." The

  technicians at the vertical-plot board on the bridge of the destroyer

  Feylin drew in the location of the contact-it was between two patrol

  boats, heading northwest, near the Indonesian archipelago called Nenusa.

  "Sir! Destroyer Zhangyhum reports radar contact north of his position,

  intermittent contact, low altitude. He suspects an American stealth

  aircraft." That was it! Stealth aircraft, probably stealth bombers

  launched from Guam. Obviously they were on reconnaissance runs, because

  if they were carrying antiship missiles they would have sunk a

  half-dozen vessels by now. So... a U-2 and a stealth bomber . "Alert

  all task force vessels, inbound stealth bombers, suspect at least two

  inbound toward Davao Gulf. No weapons fired at outer gauntlet vessels,

  but suspect an attack against inner defenses. Warn all patrol aircraft

  to search the area north and northwest of Nenusa Archipelago for

  low-altitude bombers. "Sir! Destroyer Zhangyhum reports engaging with

  HQ-91 missiles... they may have hit the U-2. Dispatching a frigate and

  patrol boat to investigate."

  "One down, " the destroyer commander said with a quiet smile-"two more

  to go. . "Mayday, Mayday, Kelly is hit, heading east, no- The radio

  transmission from the U-2 went dead. "Fuck, " was all Cobb could say.

  "Patrick, let's get out of here."

  "Few more seconds and we should get all the ships near Davao Gulf, "

  McLanahan replied. They had flown over a hundred miles farther west

  than they had planned, within thirty miles of the mouth of Davao Gulf

  itself. The closer they got to Mindanao, the more ships they

  saw-ranging in size from huge destroyers, frigates, and amphibious

  assault craft, to small liaison and patrol craft-even a return that the

  UPD-9 pod classified as a submarine periscope could be seen. One more

  radar sweep, two minutes, and they had all the data they needed. As

  Cobb began a turn south to head toward the relative safety of the radar

  clutter around the Nenusa and Talaud islands, the Super Multi Function

  Display seemed to light up like an old-style switchboard, with radar

  domes popping up everywhere. It was as if every vessel with a

  transmitter had flipped it on. "Christ almighty... Charlieband search

  radar at our twelve o'clock... another one at our two o'clock... now

  I've got X-band fire-control radars at our ten o'clock position. You're

  going to have to take us right over Talaud Island, Henry. We're

  surrounded."

  "Fuck, " Cobb muttered. On this trip, that seemed to be the veteran

  pilot's favorite reply. "Fifty miles to Talaud, " McLanahan said. With

  the reconnaissance pods stowed, the radar dome belonging to the vessel

  to the northeast no longer reached them, but they could still watch it

  as it changed modes. It had changed from target acquisition mode, to air

  search, and now back to rapid-scan air search, which was displayed as a

  yellow-striped dome now. "Fast PRF scan on that Charlie-band radar, "

  McLanahan reported. "They might be vectoring a fighter in. "Fuck..." The

  miles seemed to crawl by. More ships had their search radars on to the

  west, well inside Indonesian waters but still broadcasting Chinese radar

  signals. A few vessels even activated fire-control radars-Patrick

  guessed they might have been mistakenly fired on by their own fighter!

  "Twenty miles. Nenusa Archipelago is on the left, Talaud is right of-"

  Suddenly a yellow radar dome appeared right in front of the B-2 icon on

  the SMFD. The dome instantly turned red, and the two crewmen could see

  gunfire popping on the horizon directly in front of them. "Break right!"

  Patrick shouted as he hammered the "Chaff" button for the left ejector

  racks; the electronic countermeasures jammers activated automatically.

  "Descend!" Cobb threw the big bomber into a 45-degree bank turn, letting

  the sudden loss of lift over the wings pull the nose down. He rolled

  wings-level at one hundred feet above the sea-just one wingspan above

  the dark waters below. Patrick could see tracers lashing out into the

  darkness, firing at the chaff blob that he had just released. "Where

  the hell did he come from?"

  "Fuck..." The terrain-following computer began to command a climb to

  clear the tall, spirelike mountains ahead, and the two crewmen could

  start to see the island on the forward-looking infrared scanner. The

  largest island in the Talaud archipelago, Karakelong Island, was a lush

  green island with gently rolling hills through the middle, but the

  central hills were studded with two tall rock spires, one that towered

  seven hundred feet above the forest and the other that rose an

  incredible twelve hundred feet above the ridge. The tracers swung

  farther to the west as the chaff blob cleared and the Chinese patrol

  boat reacquired the B-2. "Can't go too much farther west, " Patrick

  said. "There's another group of ships just forty miles west of this

  island."

  "They were waiting for someone to try to sneak in over these hills, "

  Cobb said. "They knew we'd try it, even though these islands are in

  Indonesia. That means "Shit. That means we don't want to fly over

  these islands...!" As if someone on Karakelong Island heard him, just

  then on the infrared scanner they could see a sharp flare of light, and

  a missile arced skyward, then heeled over and headed straight for them.

  "I see it!" Cobb cried out. "Stand by on flares right!" They had a

  little room to try a hard break, so Cobb began pushing and pulling the

  control stick, beginning a fifty-toone-hundred-foot vertical

  oscillation. The closer the missile got, the more they could see it

  mimicking that oscillation. As soon as the motor on the missile winked

  out, Cobb yelled, 'Now!" then threw the B-2 into a hard turn to the

  left. Simultaneously, Patrick pumped out flares from the right ejector,

  keeping his finger on the button. The missile passed directly over the

  cockpit, missing the Black Knight by just a
few scant yards. Luckily,

  there was no explosion-either the missile failed to fuze or was still

  locked on the flare decoys. "Altitude!" Patrick shouted. "Climb!" The

  bomber had entered initial buffet to a stall in the steep turn and had

  lost precious altitude-the radar altimeter, which measured exact

  distance below the bomber's belly, was faulted because the distance was

  less than fifty feet. Cobb rolled wings-level, let the airspeed build

  up, then gently pulled back on the sidestick controller, careful not to

  throw the bomber into a full stall by pulling back too fast. "Screw

  this, " Cobb muttered. As soon as he had his airspeed back, he pulled

  back on the controller, starting a steep climb. "I'm getting out of

  here." The Super Multi Function Display was alive with radar domes-one

  was right ahead of them, a Sea Eagle search radar was highlighting them

  from the right, and far to the north another Sea Eagle radar was about

  to envelop them. "Descend, Henry, we've got radars all around us. "Let

  'em try to get us, " Cobb said. Tracers lit up the sky ahead of them as

  they drove through the red-colored radar dome ahead of them. Cobb kept

  the bomber climbing at full military power-the nose was higher than

  Patrick could ever remember it as Cobb traded every knot of available

  airspeed for altitude. He made a few hard turns, no more than 20

  degrees at a time. Antiaircraft artillery shells began exploding all

  around them, and several were close enough to pummel the B-2. "Airspeed,

  Henry!" Patrick shouted. "Watch the stall . . . !" But Cobb held

  the nose up, kept the airspeed right on the edge of initial buffet to

  stall, and kept the climb going. Moments later, Patrick noticed that

  the shells were exploding well below them. As he looked down, he could

  see a blanket of fireworks below them as tracers and exploding shells

  lit up the night sky. Cobb began to decrease his climb rate at twenty

  thousand feet, but he kept the throttle in full military power and kept

  climbing at five thousand feet per minute until they passed forty

  thousand feet. The destroyer to the south of them tried one missile

  launch on them, but the B-2's jammers and laser countermeasures system

  reported that the missile never approached within lethal range. As they

  climbed, the red radar dome shrunk until it was a tiny inverted teacup

  well behind them. Patrick looked over at his aircraft commander. Cobb

  had returned to his typical flying position-oxygen mask on, hands on

  stick and throttles, staring straight ahead, unmoving as a rock. Patrick

  turned the cockpit lights up a bit so he could do a careful cockpit

  check to investigate for damage-except for a few popped circuit

  breakers, he found nothing. As he swept his tiny red-lens flashlight

  across his partner, he could see that the only evidence there was that

  Henry Cobb had just saved their butts from crashing in a huge fireball

  in the Philippine Sea was a tiny trickle of sweat dripping from the edge

  of his oxygen mask. But save them he did. "Cabin check complete, "

  Patrick reported. Then: "Thanks, Henry." The only acknowledgment he got

  was two clicks on the interphone button. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY

  ADVISOR, THE WHITE HOUSE FRIDAY, 7 OCTOBER 1994, 1005 HOURS LOCAL "We

  had better start talking about a peaceful settlement to all this, Mr.

  Ambassador, " Secretary of State Dennis Danahall said, "or things will

  surely go out of control." The Deputy Charge d'affaires of the People's

  Republic of China's embassy, Tang Shou Dian, serenely folded his hands

  on his lap as he regarded the three American government officials before

  him: Secretary of State Danahall, National Security Advisor Kellogg, and

  the President's Chief of Staff, Paul Cesare, along with interpreters and

  confidential secretaries. The ambassador had brought an assistant and

  interpreter as well; because the ambassador's "assistant" was a known

  Chinese intelligence operative, Secret Service agents were posted

  outside the office and in the anteroom to Kellogg's office. "I would be

  pleased to promptly report any requests or proposals to my government,

  Mr. Danahall, " Tang said without his interpreter. The interpreter

  would bend forward and speak in Tang's assistant's ear as if she were

  translating for him, but everyone knew he spoke and understood English

  very well. "These are not proposals or requests, Mr. Ambassador, "

  Frank Kellogg said. "These are statements of policy. The United States

  will regard any further aggressive acts on the island of Mindanao as

  hostile acts against the United States, and we will respond accordingly

  to counter the threat, including the use of military force. That is the

  message we want to convey to your government. "That message was made

  very clear by your President's television announcement yesterday, " Tang

  said. "As we indicated in our response, the Teguina government has

  stated that Jose Samar has no authority to conduct foreign policy or

  dictate military terms anywhere in the Philippines, including Mindanao

  or the separate southern state. Therefore, Samar's words have no meaning

  and your position is illegal and completely without merit."

  "The Philippine constitution granted Samar's state the right of

  self-defense, " Danahall pointed out. "Samar is completely within his

  powers to delegate that responsibility."

  "That is a matter for the United Nations to decide, " Tang said. "They

  should be allowed to deliberate the matter. "We agree, ' Danahall said.

  "But the survival of the autonomous government of Jose Samar is in the

  best interest of the United States, and the position and strength of

  Chinese forces threaten their survival. Will the Chinese military agree

  to cease all hostile actions and pull its forces back until the matter

  of Mindanao sovereignty is decided?"

  "I think that would be an important consideration, " Tang said, "except

  for Jose Samar's rebel forces. President Teguina maintains, and my

  government agrees, that a cease-fire will only allow the rebels to

  consolidate their position and stage more and deadlier attacks on

  innocent citizens. We have tried to negotiate with Samar, with no

  success-we have even sent envoys to Guam to attempt to talk with Samar

  there. He will not speak with us. He ties our hands..."

  "Your military forces are much more powerful than his, " Kellogg

  observed. "You have nearly a hundred warships in the south Philippines

  alone; your forces outnumber his ten to one. It's reasonable to assume

  he's afraid of being crushed to death by the sheer size of your forces."

  "A cease-fire has to be made in the spirit of cooperation and fairness,

  " Tang said. "We will hold our present positions and stop all new troop

  additions if Samar agrees to withdraw his forces and come to the

  bargaining table." "You must withdraw your forces from the Philippines

  first..."

  "We are in the Philippines by invitation of the legitimate President, "

  Tang said calmly. "We need not deal with rebel leaders such as Samar,

  or for that matter with the American government. "Samar is also a member

  of the Philippine gov
ernment, " Danahall said pointedly. "I understand

  Samar has been brought up on charges of treason and corruption by the

  government, " Tang said. "He has been stripped of his authority until

  his trial-if he ever surrenders himself to justice . . "The United

  States does not recognize the Teguina government, because we have no

  evidence that President Arturo Mikaso is dead, " Cesare said. Tang

  shifted his interlaced hands slightly, as if gesturing that, yes, Mikaso

  was really dead. "Can you confirm Mikaso's present situation? Is he

  dead?"

  "I cannot confirm that, sir. . "If you cannot confirm it, we will not

  recognize Teguina's presidency, " Danahall said. "In which case the

  constitution is still valid and Samar has equal power and authority as

  Teguina "Samar appears to be fleeing from justice-he is acting like a

  common criminal, " Tang said. "He is hiding in the jungles, he refuses

  to speak with his own government, he is inciting the people to revolt.

  Stories I have heard say that he has the backing of several Islamic

  terrorist organizations to help him win the presidency by violence. How

  can the United States back such a man?" Those rumors about the terrorist

  groups, unfortunately, were true-several Moslem terrorist groups had

  pledged themselves to Samar to help him overthrow the Chinese, the

  Americans, and the Manila government. It was a major source of

  embarrassment for President Taylor right now. But Danahall replied,

  "Samar is understandably in fear for his life, especially with Chinese

  troops in Manila. He is not in hiding; he is en route to Guam under the

  protection of the U.S. government until this matter can be resolved. "I

  think the best option right now is for all foreign troops to get out of

  the Philippines and leave that government to itself. If we can have

  reasonable assurances that the will of the people is being done and that

  peace is being restored, then we will not object to any further Chinese

  incursions. But the United States regards the current level of Chinese

  military involvement as an invasion, and we are now in a position to

  stop it. Will the Chinese pull out of the Philippines?" Tang made a few