Chapter 6: Farce of Friendly Fire
1096 Words
The radar on the Tefu did not detect any warships or aircraft, meaning the incoming missiles were launched at least 350 kilometers away.
At such a long distance, it made sense they were using the LRASM.
If there were only one or two missiles, Zhou Lin wouldn’t have been worried. After all, the Tefu was equipped with RIM-162, RIM-116, and MK15 20mm CIWS, none of which were to be underestimated.
Under Zhou Lin's control, the first to launch were twelve RIM-162 Sea Sparrows. As medium-range anti-missile missiles, the Sea Sparrows had incredible maneuverability. With the Tefu’s powerful combat system, the first batch of twelve Sea Sparrows were launched and sped toward the targets!
At the same time, the RIM-116, acting as the second line of defense, stood ready. Once the LRASM entered range, whether the Sea Sparrows succeeded or not, the RIM-116 was eager to join the fray!
Finally, the CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) was activated, aiming at the LRASM. If the Sea Sparrows or the RIM-116 failed, the CIWS would be Zhou Lin and the Tefu’s last hope!
On the sea, less than ten kilometers from the Tefu, dozens of missiles, moving too fast for the naked eye to follow, began to chase each other!
Zhou Lin silently observed. He expected that with thirty-six anti-missile missiles, if not all the LRASMs were intercepted, at least most of them would be. Then, the CIWS would deal with whatever was left. He could accept losing just one or two missiles.
But what Zhou Lin never expected was that, despite the Sea Sparrows and RIM-116 having already closed in on the LRASMs, both missiles changed course at the last second and narrowly missed their targets!
"D*mn! What’s going on? Is there a backdoor?" Zhou Lin's heart sank. With no time to launch a second wave, was the CIWS his only hope?
Just then, the CIWS controlled by the Tefu’s fire control system began to adjust. As Zhou Lin waited for the "fireworks show," he was dumbfounded by the scene that unfolded before him!
The CIWS gun barrels seemed to be dancing?
It was as if two invisible hands were manipulating the barrels—one directing them toward the incoming missiles, while the other immediately twisted the barrels to veer away from them. This continual back-and-forth made the barrels look as if they were dancing.
“Sea Sparrows” and “RIM-116” betrayed their mission, and now the CIWS was performing a dance... Zhou Lin had no idea what kind of bad luck he had stumbled into. The LRASM did not give him a chance to ponder, and in his nearly desperate gaze, the LRASM gracefully passed within a hundred meters of the Tefu’s hull.
"Finished!" Zhou Lin thought.
Even the Tefu couldn’t survive a full barrage of LRASMs. Particularly with explosions near the waterline, once the hull was punctured, the resulting flooding alone could cause the carrier to lose balance or even be torn apart!
As the missiles approached, Zhou Lin closed his eyes in resignation.
Five seconds... ten seconds... fifteen seconds...
"D*mn!"
Zhou Lin suddenly opened his eyes, only to see twelve LRASMs rising like "lotus flowers" from the sea, soaring straight into the sky, barely grazing the Tefu’s hull!
"D*mn!" Zhou Lin couldn’t believe his eyes.
"...How could I forget, those are our own missiles!" Zhou Lin smacked his forehead and laughed.
In order to prevent friendly fire, military systems of the same country would communicate through response codes. Apparently, the Americans had forgotten to modify the response codes, so the missiles failed to target the Tefu. At the last moment, the missiles, recognizing the friendly code, abandoned their attack.
Zhou Lin slapped his chest with relief, then urged the Tefu to speed up. He didn’t continue south but turned northwest. While it seemed like he was heading farther from home, there was a reason for it.
At 12:45 AM on June 30, the long-anticipated volcanic eruption on the island nation finally began.
Perhaps because it had been dormant for too long, the volcano erupted with a massive force, spewing millions of tons of ash and toxic gases in just one second. In less than ten minutes, the volcanic eruption had altered the entire atmospheric environment over the island nation.
The ash and gases spread rapidly, and within half an hour, surrounding countries and regions had issued their highest-level alerts.
After the failure of the first round of attacks on the Tefu, the Americans took some time to realize it was a big blunder. They ordered their stealth bombers to land at the nearest military base, where the LRASM’s response code was manually modified, and they prepared to launch another attack on the Tefu.
But just as the pilots were about to start their engines, they received a domestic emergency order—volcanic eruption, mission postponed.
The ash from the volcanic eruption, which contained high concentrations of metals, disrupted all electromagnetic detection methods in its spread. The dense volcanic clouds also rendered optical satellite surveillance useless.
"As expected!" Zhou Lin thought as he watched the Tefu’s radar system issue a warning.
The failure of long-range detection meant that no other country or force could observe the Tefu. Zhou Lin turned off all the lights aboard the Tefu, and the entire area plunged into darkness.
"There's probably no other ships around," Zhou Lin confirmed. He then suited up in his diving gear, launched an unmanned submersible, and dove into the water, guiding the submersible toward the distance.
As the Tefu stood silently on the surface of the sea, Zhou Lin did not feel afraid, for this was his mountain.
"Tefu, vanish!" Zhou Lin waved his right arm. While he didn’t need to make the gesture, he did it for dramatic effect!
The massive Tefu instantly disappeared from the surface, leaving behind a vast depression in the water. In the next second, water surged into the depression, sending waves crashing up. By then, Zhou Lin had already dived deep into the water, speeding eastward.
With the volcanic eruption causing electromagnetic interference, the Tefu’s disappearance went unnoticed. Zhou Lin had achieved his goal. He did it!
As he approached the coastline, Zhou Lin abandoned the submersible and discarded his diving gear when he was near shore. While the equipment was valuable, it couldn’t be allowed to be seen by others.
At 4:00 AM, soaking wet, Zhou Lin stood on a beach in Qing City, Summer Country. With no one around, he hurriedly changed into a set of fresh clothes taken from the Tefu and smiled like a child.
- Writer
