by Dale Brown
been sunk, and the PLAN's getting ready to deep-six the
other."
"Too bad," Cowen replied with obvious disinterest in his
voice. "I'll pass the word along. Any of our guys in the area?"
"Just that Thunder Pig," Allen replied derisively, smiling
when Terrill Samson turned toward him when he heard Allen's
name for the Megafortress.
"Just make sure Headbanger doesn't pop off any of his
flying wet dreams until we get a look at the situation."
"Too late, sir," Allen said. "Headbanger's already
launched-without permission. A couple decoy cruise missiles
that suckered a bunch of PLAN anti-ship cruise missiles pretty
good .
"Dammit, Crusher knew he'd do that," Admiral Cowen
swore across the secure satellite hookup. "Crusher" was Ad-
miral George Balboa's call sign-and it fit his personality and
management style too, both he and Allen knew. "Recall that
contraption. Get it on the ground. Elliott is history!"
"Aye, sir," Allen responded. To the TAO, he shouted, "Is-
sue recall instructions to Headbanger. Disengage and RTB,
right now."
Samson hit a button on his communications panel. "Excuse
me, Wran gler. This is Buster-"
"You give Elliott the order to launch those missiles?"
Cowen snapped.
"No, sir," Samson replied. "Headbanger reacted to protect
the Taiwanese frigate when the PLAN launched an anti-ship
missile and gun barrage. One Taiwanese warship's been sunk,
and the other is in imminent danger. We need permission to
launch anti-radar and anti-missile weapons and, if necessary,
attack the PLAN guided-missile boats with attack cruise mis-
siles."
"Denied," Cowen said immediately. "Terminate the mis-
sion, recall all aircraft, and get them on the ground immedi-
ately."
"Sir, the captain of the Taiwanese frigate, Captain Sung,
reports that the PLAN carrier battle group is carrying nuclear
land attack and anti-ship missiles," Samson said. "We should
stop the task force from-"
FATAL TER RAI N 143
"What do you mean, the captain of the Taiwanese frigate
reports?" Cowen exploded. "You mean, you're in contact
with the Taiwanese vessels? How-T'
"The skipper of the lead Taiwanese frigate contacted Head-
banger," Samson said. "I don't know how-there must've
been a security breakdown."
"Or else Elliott gave them the UHF synchronizer codes!"
Cowen retorted. "I'll bet he's the damned security breakdown!
This mission is supposed to be secret, General! That was your
damn idea, from the beginning-it was supposed to be secret
even from the ROC. I want those planes recalled and that
bastard Elliott.. . " he stopped, realizing he was breaking
communications security, which made him even madder,
. . put on house arrest!"
"Sir, if Headbanger is recalled, that second Taiwanese frig-
ate will be a sitting duck," Samson argued. "At least authorize
Headbanger to release their defensive weapons-the remaining
Wolverines and the Tacit Rainbow cruise missiles. These
weapons will stay in the area protecting the frigate while they
withdraw."
"I'm giving you a direct order, Buster-recall Headbanger
now!" Cowen shouted. "They are not to release any weapons
except to protect themselves while they clear the area and re-
cover. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly clear, sir,'-' Admiral Allen, who had been listen-
ing in, replied. "I'll see to it myself immediately." And the
line went dead. Allen hung up the phone, then said, "TAO,
issue a recall order to the bomber force, and have the order
authenticated-by Elliott personally. The mission is termi-
nated, and he's on report."
ABOARD THE EB-52 MEGAFORTRESS
THAT SAME TIME
"Terminated?" Elliott retorted. "They can't do this to us
now!" He keyed the mike on the secure satellite link: "Hey,
Earthmover, tell the squids to go to hell! We're going to cover
that frigate's withdrawal!"
"Negative, Headbanger," Admiral Allen replied. "This is
Trident, and it's a direct order from Wrangler. Your orders are
144 DALE BROWN
to terminate and withdraw. You are authorized to expend
weapons only to defend yourself as you withdraw and RTB.
Time now, zero-three-two-two-four-eight, authentication
tango. Do you copy?"
"Hey, Billy, authenticate this:,fuck you!" Elliott shot back
angrily, and he switched the secure satellite transceiver off his
comm panel. "I knew they'd do this," he said hotly. "First
chance they got, they recalled us."
"We've done everything we could," Nancy Cheshire said.
"If we try to defend that Taiwanese frigate any more, we risk
getting sucked closer and closer in toward that Chinese fleet-
and that might not be as bad as the ass-kicking we'd get by
CINCPAC or Balboa once we got back home. You got a head-
ing to the refueling anchor point, Patrick?"
"Heading indicator is good back to the air refueling anchor
point," McLanahan said, calling up the coordinates on his
computer and entering them into his navigation system.
"Hey, we can't bug out of here now," Elliott said angrily,
as he connected the autopilot to the navigation computers and
monitored the turn to the east. "We haven't done squat, and
we're about to watch the PLAN sink a Taiwanese frigate and
kill hundreds more sailors. Doesn't that mean anything to you
guys?"
"Sir, we were given an order to withdraw," Cheshire said.
"I know you don't like it, but we've got to follow those or-
ders." She hesitated for a moment, then added, "Don't we?"
"Patrick, you're the mission commander-it's up to you,"
Elliott said. "But you know as well as I do that if Allen or
Balboa had their fingers on the triggers, they'd shoot."
"Maybe, maybe not-that's not our problem," McLanahan
said. "We were ordered to withdraw, so we withdraw. We'll
follow orders." The interphone got very quiet. He called up a
repeater of Emil Vikram's large threat display, superimposing
it over his God's-eye view so he could map out exactly which
ships were transmitting. "Emitter, I see that carrier, the north-
ern destroyer, and those seven northern patrol boats all hitting
us with target-tracking radar. We're under attack."
"Why, you sly devil," Cheshire said, turning and grinning
at her OSO over her shoulder.
"I believe you're right, Muck," Elliott said. "The PLAN
is attacking us!"
"The signal thresholds are too low," Vikrarn said, still con-
FATAL TERRAI N 145
fused. "Call up my sigma-echo screen and look for yourselves.
They can't possibly have a lock."
"I say we're an item of interest, and we're allowed to use
all weapons to defend ourselves," McLanahan said emphati-
cally. "We need to shut down those radars. Stand by for bomb
bay missile launch, crew, twelve Rainbows." McLanahan des-
ignated the targets for the
anti-radar cruise missiles: the carrier,
the northern destroyer, and four of the seven guided-missile
patrol boats that were transmitting anti-ship missile-targeting
radar energy. "Doors coming open, crew." He hit the com-
mand button and spoke: "Launch commit Rainbow missiles."
WARNING, LAUNCH COMMIT TWELVE BOMB BAY TACIT
RAINBOW missiLEs, the computer reported, then entered a
launch hold.
"Launch," McLanahan commanded. The launch hold was
cleared, and the crew felt the rumble of the fibersteel bomb
doors retracting inside the bomb bay; a few seconds later, the
noise was gone. "All Tacit Rainbows away," McLanahan re-
ported.
As they dropped clear of the bomb bay, the AGM- 1 36 Tacit
Rainbow cruise missiles, each about six feet long, a little more
than a foot in diameter, and weighing less than a thousand
pounds, deployed short stubby wings and horizontal and ver-
tical stabilizers and descended toward the sea. As they got
closer to the surface, they activated their turbojet engines, in-
creasing their speed to over 300 miles an hour, and leveled
off at 500 feet above the sea. One missile's engine failed to
light off despite dozens of automatic relights, and it glided for
another nine - miles before hitting the ocean and breaking into
pieces. Another missile, performing its automatic self-test, de-
termined that its navigational and sensor accuracy was not
within its standards; it performed a systems reset, still found
itt systems faulty, then automatically performed a suicide dive
straight down into the rock-hard sea.
One by one, the missiles took up five-mile-long figure-eight
orbits at its assigned patrol point, took a GPS satellite fix to
nail down its navigational accuracy, and activated its passive
electronic sensors. The frequency and pulse rate of every sig-
nal received was instantly compared to signatures in their com-
puter memories, and if it matched, the missile immediately
began homing in on the signal. Each missile would then in-
146 DALE BROWN
stantly report back to McLanahan by datalink that it was
locked on.
"All surviving Rainbows tracking," McLanahan reported.
"I'm sending a couple back into their orbits." Several Rain-
bows had locked onto the same radar, so McLanahan had to
divert a couple of them back into patrol racetracks so he didn't
waste any missiles. "Looking good, guys."
ABOARD THE CHINESE CARRIER MAO ZEDONG
"Interceptor Group One ready for launch, sir," the officer of
the deck reported.
"Very well," Admiral Yi responded. "Have Interceptor
One establish a high combat patrol at the last known-"
Just then, they heard a loud booom! roll across the sea. Yi
ran over to the port rail and saw a cloud of smoke coming
from the destroyer Kang. "Something hit the Kang! " the look-
out shouted. Seconds later, another loud explosion rang out,
and Yi watched in horror as a piece of the Mao's Kilo-band
fire-control radar for the SA-N-9 antiaircraft missile system
crashed to the deck just aft of the bridge. Seconds later, an-
other loud explosion rattled the ship. "Smoke coming from
the Kang! Looks like he took a missile hit!"
"Never mind the Kang! Get me a damage report on my
ship! "
The phone from Engineering rang just then, and the OOD
took the damage report: "Kilo- and Ku-band fire-control radar
array and X-band targeting radar for the Granit missiles hit,
sir," the officer of the deck reported. "No casualties, no in-
juries. The flight deck is clear."
Thank the stars, Yimurmured to himself Yi had never be-
fore been in combat-he had been based ashore during the
Philippine and Vietnamese naval conflicts-and the speed of
the attack, combined with the sudden realization that this big
high-tech steel ship was vulnerable and they were very far
from friendly shores, was beginning to invade his conscious-
ness, replacing pure, abject fear with all other thoughts about-
his crew and his ship. "Very well." He slammed that phone
down and picked up the one to his Combat Information Center.
"Combat, bridge. Status report."
FATAL T ER RAI N 147
"SA-N-9 antiaircraft system is down to optronic guidance
only," the combat officer responded. "Granit targeting system
is degraded. We can tie it to the India- or Sierra-band navi-
gation radars for target acquisition-as long as the target does
not go outside the missile's sixty-degree seeker cone, it will
track by itself."
Yi had to consciously straighten his shoulders and force
himself to think to keep from panicking. "Very well. I want
a full damage-control report, weapons stations first. Switch to
backup fire-control sensors."
"Lookouts report missiles inbound!" the quartermaster
shouted suddenly. "Small missiles, one hundred meters above
the water, slow speed, numerous missiles! Should we en-
gageT I
Yi felt his knees buckle and his heart pound in his chest.
Enough, dammit, enough! "Signal the formation, secure all
fire-control radars, now!" Yi shouted frantically. "Shut them
down now! Order the entire battle group to switch to manual
or optronic fire control." His instructions were carried out just
in time, for a few seconds later Yi saw a small cruise missile
streak overhead with a tiny whistling sound. It was performing
a wide oval pattern about two hundred meters above the ship.
"My God," he muttered as another missile whistled past, or-
biting a bit lower and in the opposite direction-it felt as if
they were large irritating mosquitoes buzzing just out of reach.
"Use the AK-630s and shoot those damn things down, damn
you-but do not use fire-control radars!"
"What should we do, sir?" the officer of the deck asked.
"The Kang and Changsha cannot attack without using their
radars. "
"Be silent, damn you," Yi shouted. "Have Missile Attack
Squadron One move forward in the group and attack the Na-
tionalist frigate using optronic sensors. That should keep it
busy so it cannot launch any more missiles against us, and
maybe we will get lucky and destroy it. I want every ship in
this fleet to go on the attack and destroy that rebel frigate
immediately!
Those small missiles must have been launched by a sub-
marine or stealth aircraft, Admiral Yi thought. His long-range
radars were not the best, bat if there were any normal aircraft
within a hundred kilometers or any subs within five kilometers,
they would have detected them. That means that Taiwan was
148 DALE BROWN
getting assistance-and with weapons that sophisticated, that
assistance had to be from the United States.
"Any word from Beijing?" Yi asked.
"Beijing advises that a message is being relayed through
the Army Air Force and Navy to provide support so that we
may have some coverage in case Taiwan launches attack air-
; craft. "
Yi swore again, then said, "I want whatever air support the
PLA can provide out to support us immediately," Admiral Yi
shouted. "Is that clear? Patrol aircraft, helicopters, gliders, I
do not care! Tell Beijing in the strongest possible way to get
us some air support! What about our fighters?"
"Interceptor One is ready to launch, sir." Yi looked out
toward the flight deck. They had modified the takeoff positions
on the carrier to allow up to three fighters to take off nearly
simultaneously: the first fighter started at the holdback position
farthest to port on the 195-meter launch point; another waited
at the number two holdback launch position on the 210-meter
spot at the port fantail; and a third fighter was being steered
into position at the number three launch position at the star-
board fantail position. The first' Su-33 ran its engines up to full
afterburner power, the steel wheel chocks retracted into the
deck, and the fighter accelerated down the flight deck, then up
onto the "ski jump" and into the sky. Once the first fighter
cleared the bow, the second fighter began its takeoff run. The
first fighter disappeared from view for a few moments as its
momentum carried it down, but seconds later it could be seen
gracefully arcing through the sky. Ten seconds later, the sec-
ond Sukhoi-33 was airborne, chasing its leader.
"Get Interceptor Two up on deck and ready to go as soon
as Interceptor One finds that American bomber," Yi ordered.
"Find that American stealth bomber!"
ABOARD THE EB-52 MEGAFORTRESS
THAT SAME TIME
The NIRTSat radar satellite reconnaissance system used six
low-orbiting satellites, with as many as three taking high-
resolution "snapshots" of the desired target area
simulataneously, then combining them electronically into a
FATAL T ER RAI N 149
three-dimensional picture. But taking and processing these
high-tech snapshots took time, sometimes as iong as two
minutes. McLanahan's supercockpit display system could pre-
dict the movement of ships and aircraft based on their previous
position, heading, and speed, but in the heat of battle, two
