Kirov Saga: Armageddon (Kirov Series) (34 page)

Part X

Armageddon

“And
starward drifts the stricken world,
Lone in unalterable gloom
Dead, with a universe for tomb,
Dark, and to vaster darkness whirled.”

―
George Sterling: The Thirst of Satan

Chapter 28

Vice
Admiral Dewa sat stolidly in the life boat, shame burning the back
of his neck as he watched his flagship burn. For the last hour his line of four
cruisers had run southwest, slowly angling toward their adversary, but taking a
fearful pounding. He perceived that the Russian ship was trying to steer for
the southern tip of Iki Island, which gave him heart at the outset.

They will run afoul of our minefields there, he thought, but the
damage his ships were taking from the lethal accuracy of the enemy guns was
mounting rapidly. At one point he was thrown to the hard metal deck by a direct
hit on the conning tower of
Kasagi
. The armor there saved his life, and
those of his bridge crew, but the smoke and fire of battle obscured all and he
found himself senseless for a time.

“Admiral!” a voice came as he was roused from his stupor. “
Chitose
has sunk, and we are burning badly. Our aft stack has been blown clean away and
we have fallen off the line. You must transfer your flag, sir.”

“What?
Chitose
has sunk?”

“And we will follow her in a matter of minutes. Come sir, we have
a boat rigged on the port side of the ship. The fires are not as bad there.”

And now Dewa stared in horror at the scene before him, watching
Kasagi
,
keel over to starboard, her hull riddled by enemy fire.
Chitose
was
gone, but cruisers
Otawa
and
Nitaka
were still bravely firing at
the enemy, though he could see their effort was futile. The range had barely
closed to 12,000 meters, and the enemy had targeted and destroyed the 8 inch
guns on his cruisers, picking his ships apart with those deadly small caliber
rounds that seemed to have tremendous penetrating power. None of his four
destroyers could get anywhere near the Russian ship without being riddled with
fire, and one endured a barrage of what looked to be very small rockets dancing
over the sea with wispy white tails. They smashed into the destroyer, killing
men all over the exposed weather decks and igniting the torpedo tubes there.
Asagiri
died a miserable death.
Murasame
and
Shirakumo
were both burning
fiercely.

The Russians had once called his brave division the “Greyhounds,”
as they would dog the old Russian ships, appearing suddenly out of the mist and
then racing off, sometimes to lead the unwary enemy into a trap or a hidden
minefield. His cruisers would dance about the Russian battleships, but not this
time, not against this new monster. How could it move so fast? His entire
division had been shattered in a single hour, and the enemy was unscathed! The
Greyhounds were gone.

“It seems there will be no place to transfer my flag,” Dewa said
sullenly.

“
Nitaka
has seen our signal, Admiral. She has broken off
and is heading our way.”

“So I will climb aboard her burning decks?”

“At least she is seaworthy, sir.”

“Yes, and my shame will be that I must order her to withdraw the
instant we arrive there. We are no match for this Russian dreadnaught. Now I
know what Kamimura suffered.”

“Sir, we can try and rendezvous with Vice Admiral Kataoka’s battle
line there to the northwest. They are very close, and Admiral Togo’s ships are
right behind them.”

Dewa followed the man’s arm where he pointed. There was Kataoka,
steaming in the ponderous hulk of the old battleship
Chinyen
, a line of
five armored cruisers and four destroyers in his wake.

*
* *

When
Admiral Togo got the news of Dewa’s fate he showed not the slightest
flicker of emotion. Circumstances had conspired to place Dewa’s force in the
vanguard. His most impetuous leader was therefore too eager to prove himself
and avenge the shortcomings of Kamimura in the north. Unfortunately, the lesson
learned was a hard one, and now Dewa was dragging himself up from his lifeboat
onto one of Kataoka’s armored cruisers after transferring from the damaged
Nitaka
.
He had nothing left to command. It was karma.

Now the fleet had finally been united when Togo brought his
division up at the best speed he could muster. Out on the weather bridge he
could see the smoke and fire of battle ahead, Dewa’s last cruiser,
Otowa
burning and dead in the water, one of her stacks sheared off at the top, and
another broken and collapsed on itself like a crumpled stove pipe hat. Farther
ahead he could see the silhouette of the enemy ship, a sinister threat at the
edge of the sea.

By all Gods and Kami, he thought, where have you come from? The
long raked bow of the ship seemed completely empty. He could see no big gun
turrets, and only noted the last wink of what looked to be secondary batteries
firing from the mounting shadow of the dreadnaught’s superstructure. He saw the
white splashes as the rounds struck very near
Otawa’s
listing hull, and
then there was a lull in the action.

The Admiral knew without asking that the range was still far
beyond the capability of his own main guns. The Japanese had purchased 44 Armstrong
Whitworth 12-inch naval guns from Great Britain, and
Mikasa’s
forward
turret held two of them, with two more aft. They were now designated as
"Type 41" in honor of the 41st year of the reign of Emperor Meiji. An
early version of this weapon had served well against the Russians here in 1905,
but
Mikasa
had been re-gunned in 1908 with an improved, better rifled
version that could elevate 18 degrees to fire at a maximum range of just under
15,000 meters.

 “Sir,” said the Lieutenant of Arms. “We can finally fire!”

Togo looked at the man, his face a mask of calm. Patience, he
thought.

“Sir, shall I give the order?”

“We will wait,” said Togo, seeing the obvious frustration on his
Lieutenant’s face. The officers had all seen the punishment Dewa’s division had
taken, he thought, and they were now eager to join the fray. Yet firing now
would only waste ammunition, even if it might bolster the spirits of my ship
and crew.

He raised his field glasses, studying the ship more closely. The
Russians did not have this ship in 1905. This is something entirely new. It is
bigger than anything I have ever seen afloat, faster than the wind, and fierce
as the biting sting of a typhoon. The enemy was now at his maximum range, and
running for Iki Island. Why this ship runs to the shallows near Iki is a
mystery to me. If he keeps on that way perhaps I can catch this spider is my
own web there. The minefields at the southern end of the island will soon force
him to slow his pace, and then we will close to a better range.

Kataoka leads with the ponderous
Chinyen
, and those two armored
cruisers just behind her,
Matsushima
and
Hashidate
. They have
that heavy gun forward, and so to fire they must turn and present their bow to
the enemy. The turret is so heavy that if it attempts to rotate and fire from
broadside they will surely capsize in these rising seas. It should never have
been mounted on a ship of that size.

He looked at the gathering clouds, the warning of a storm clearly
evident as the winds began to whip the seas higher. The Gods themselves bellow
with anger in the sea and sky. So be it. We will stay on this heading and when
the enemy reaches Iki Island they will soon find my barnacled friends in the
sea and be forced to reduce speed. Then we will close and I will give the order
to turn.

His gaze shifted farther east where he saw smoke on the wind. That
must be Admiral Uyru escorting in the American Great White Fleet. He has
signaled that Admiral Sperry will support us. If this is true they come to our
aid at a most opportune time. Hopefully we will all share tea in the Imperial
Gardens when this is over, but that is for another day.

Togo smiled inwardly. While this enemy ship threads its way
through my minefield I will close the range protected by those islets southwest
of Iki Island. Then, when he blunders into the thicket of my floating thorns, I
will be there with over twenty ships, and we will charge boldly in from the
west like a mighty lance of steel and skewer this monster! His only recourse
would be to turn on a heading of 130 and run for deeper water, yet if he does
that the British will engage, and the American Great White Fleet soon after.
Hopefully that will not be necessary and I will end the battle long before he
escapes my trap.

No, he thought. This is not about hope any longer. This Russian
Captain has maneuvered foolishly to place himself within my grasp, and now my
mailed fist will close and crush him. I could not have planned it better!

*
* *

Oronshima
Island was a tiny speck in a region of the Sea of Japan known as
the Genkai Sea. The island was endowed with many shrines and offerings to the
Shinto kami, the spirits of the Gods who would take shape in natural forms. As
a stepping stone in the sea between Japan and the Asian mainland, the island
was also a way station for that sea faring nation, and prayers were offered
there for the safety of all sea going souls.

The stories about the place dated back centuries. It was said that
Amaterasu, the Shinto Goddess of the sun, was suspicious that another deity was
envious of her land there, and so she suggested a trial by ordeal to test the
intention and honesty of the god. She took his sword, broke it into three
pieces and swallowed them, exhaling a thick fog that then spawned three Kami
spirits now inhabiting the islands. So it was that a test of loyalty came to be
associated with the ancestral rituals of the region, and now another sword
would be unsheathed to test the loyalty and intentions of Captain Vladimir Karpov
and his ship of fallen angels.

Kazan
had obtained a bearing on
Kirov
and was now approaching
the lee of that island, ready to fire the last warning shot across Karpov’s
bow, a single P-900 cruise missile. Admiral Volsky insisted that it be
programmed to self destruct once it came within visual range of the target, if
it managed to survive to even get that close, and he would announce it in
warning. But first he needed to explain what was happening to the bridge crew
of
Kazan
.

“Gentlemen,” he began heavily, “we have a difficult situation
here. As you know, we believed
Kirov
was lost, but that turns out not to
be the case. Our mission was to find her and bring her safely home. Your Mister
Chernov here has sharp ears, and we have now located the ship. Fortunately for
all of us, Moscow has been trying to negotiate an armistice to end this
conflict before it gets out of hand. Though I have ordered
Kirov
to
break off and return to Vladivostok, the Captain there refuses to comply with
that direct order. That is why we are here, and now we must take stronger
measures to convince this Captain. I could simply threaten to fire, but the
sight of a missile will speak volumes,” he said. “We are going to fire a
warning shot and see if it will put some sense into this man and give us the
hope we can end this war before the
real
missiles fly. I do not have to
tell you what that will mean…”

He let that sink in, waiting as he looked from one man to another.
“So you may receive some difficult orders here, but I expect every man to do
his job. Captain Gromyko has been fully briefed and knows what we must do.
Follow his orders faithfully, and without fear or hesitation.”

“It would be good if we could fire now, sir,” said Gromyko. “He is
running southeast toward Iki Island and will soon place that land mass between
our position and his. I would fire now and then move quickly off this bearing
at high speed. We’ll round that little island ahead, then swing southwest toward
that long line of surface contacts. Their noise will mask our position well. In
fact, we could get right beneath them and I doubt
Kirov
could hear us,
or find us there, no matter how good their sonar man is.”

The range to target was only 45 kilometers, so they knew they were
taking a risk that
Kirov
could return fire now with her long range
Vodopad
missile torpedo system. Yet Gromyko was told to stand ready to launch a full
missile barrage should that happen, another fifteen P-900s that would mass on
the target in reprisal. One of those missiles would carry a nuclear warhead,
and both
Veter
system 20 kiloton warheads would also be fired. They
would take no chances that
Kirov
would survive. The question on
everyone’s mind was hinging on Karpov’s response. What would he do?

“Spin up missiles one through sixteen on the P-900 system,” said
Gromyko.