Page 144 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest
“One hundred percent.”
“Set a course for heading oh-one-oh. Flank speed.”
“Aye, sir. Engaging engines.”
“Comms, notify the crew to brace.”
The supercavitating zone created by his high-tech propulsion system would drive theBaktunto sixty knots, nearly double theFuzhou’s top-rated speed. The Chinese could never catch him, and surely Peng had orders not to destroy theBaktunafter the Americans were annihilated.
“Helm, why aren’t we underway? Engage!”
Stokes turned to his man, who was furiously punching switches on his board.
“Engines don’t respond.”
Stokes charged over. “What’s happening?”
“No idea. We’re dead in the water.”
?
Aboard theFuzhou
The Chinese Eagle Strike hypersonic missile vaulted out of its vertical launch tube with a loud hiss of high-pressure nitrogen in a white cloud of condensed vapor. Two seconds above the deck, the engines fired up and the missile began its fiery climb to space altitude, where it would transition to glide phase, then race back to its target at over Mach 10. Its sophisticated guidance and maneuvering system ensured a fatal strike against the bulky American cargo ship despite theOregon’s unbelievable rate of speed.
“Captain,Baktunweapons spinning up. Radar target lock!”
“Why are they attacking the Americans?” Zhao demanded.
“They’re not. They’re targeting us.”
?
Aboard theBaktun
Captain Stokes stood in theBaktun’s combat information center, his clear gray eyes fixed on the monitor. TheFuzhoufilled his screen, its bridge and hull suddenly painted with dozens of targeting reticles. At only five hundred yards distance, the Chinese Type 055 destroyer was a sitting duck.
Suddenly, the entirety of theBaktun’s lethal arsenal unleashed with deafening fury.
TheBaktun’s 30-millimeter GAU-8 Avenger Gatling gun opened up first, spitting fire and lead in a deafening roar, unleashing seventy armor-piercing rounds per second. The storm of tungsten projectiles shredded theFuzhou’s bridge instantly, obliterating radar antennas, sensors, and communication arrays, and tearing through armored glass and steel bulkheads like wet rice paper.
Simultaneously, theBaktun’s two big naval auto cannons joined the fury, smashing theFuzhou’s thin-hulled superstructure in relentless, pinpoint volleys of explosive fragmentation shells.
?
Aboard theFuzhou
Captain Zhao barely registered theBaktun’s first muzzle flashes before a blinding storm of destruction erupted around her. The bridge vanished instantly in an explosion of glass, fire, and twisted metal. Zhao and her crew were torn apart in the maelstrom before realizing the battle had even begun.
Belowdecks, sailors screamed in horror and confusion as explosive shells punched effortlessly through the hull, detonating deep within the vessel’s core. Internal bulkheads collapsed under the blasts as fire surged through passageways, filling compartments with choking black smoke and suffocating darkness.
Miraculously, a dying weapons officer deep in the combat center managed to smash his mangled hand against a firing button. This single act of dying vengeance unleashed a short burst of 130-millimeter cannon blasts before he was torn apart by an explosive shell slicing through the armored bulkhead.
Below the waterline, theFuzhoushuddered violently as dozens of swarming mini torpedoes found their marks. Several simultaneous detonations ripped massive breaches through the ship’s hull, flooding the engine room and other critical compartments almost instantly. The few surviving sailors scrambled for ladders and escape hatches as seawater surged into their dying ship.
Chaos reigned as theBaktun’s Gatling guns continued raking the upper decks, chainsawing bodies in their wake, slicking the steel beneath their feet in gore. Secondary explosions hurtled sailors against the bulkheads like rag dolls, splattering crimson brushstrokes on the buckling walls.
Within seconds, theFuzhou’s comms, propulsion, and fire-control systems were completely obliterated.
