Continued from : Part 1

The Damage crews were rapidly putting out fires aboard Rentz, but Captain Wood of the Kitty Hawk had other more pressing issues to attend to.

“Find out where those Intel messaging bursts are emanating from and sink it. What about the trawlers amongst the Tankers? Task Berkley to investigate.”

“Incoming Targets Airborne” broke over the Captain

‘Designation Fighter Escort – Bogey 1 – Floggers. Detecting new signature for avionic/broad spectrum comms and arrays. Logging data N008E pulse radar detected. Floggers confirmed.’

‘Electronic signature identified Designation Bogey 2. Class F, Fitter. Avionics & Nav system Ident Romb-K, Detecting Laser Ranging. Designation upgraded to M3 Fitter. -Stand off Capable. Alert launch range in 3 minute and 45 seconds.

Bogey 3 Designation Backfire, accelerating. Time to launch 3 minutes..scratch that, new estimate 2 minutes and 25. Guy is hauling ass. STAND OFF attack imminent.

Active ping. Handing off to Air Command.’

In the CAC….’ Vectoring CAP Bravo and Charlie to intercept. We got solid copy on signatures. Intercept in one minute and 40 seconds. – PUNCH IT.  Weapons free, Weapons free. ‘

The F-14’s roared across the sky blazing afterburners and coming from two different vectors. They came on hot looking to evade combat with the Migs they popped chaff and blew by the Mig escorts. Their mission was to splash the missile laden stand off assets.

The bogeys quickly turned away and aborted at the sight of two squadrons of F14’s bearing down on them.
“Bravo & Charlie – give chase send them home with memory. Run option Tailwind – EXECUTE, EXECUTE.”

“Roger Confirmed – All Charlies and Bravos – Acquire targets of opportunity and pursue!”

Captain Wood listened into the resulting air skirmish with satisfaction. However he had a larger problem. At least 2 subs were stalking him, and somewhere there was an intel real-time relay. He checked in with USS Berkeley ‘Get me Rob on the line.’ he asked in his usual taciturn but firm voice.

Cue: #1 song of 1985 – Careless Whisper – Wham!

“Reighley here, what can I do for you Captain Wood?”

Rob any luck with you and the ‘bright penny’ [Berkely’s nickname] finding that Intel ship? We got lucky the first time round, I’m not sure we can be so lucky again. We have already lost a lot of good men on Rentz. Hail those ships. If you don’t get a satisfactory response in a timely manner, you take them out. We are at war now, gloves are off, Battle Group Bravo is depending upon you Rob, no more book work or study, do your job.”

“Roger that. Aye Aye sir out”

Captain Reighley’s hand gripped the comm phone hard. It was the only way he could stop the shaking, fear, it was fear. Shit, He is right I have been a book worm. But damn it I studied for just this moment. He cleared his throat, took in a deep breath. ” Get me targeting solutions for the two tankers and that trawler pronto. Comms – ping all three, order a heave to for inspection, lets see who follows command and who breaks for it. ”

Exactly seven minutes later, all traffic in a 50 nautical mile radius was stationary. The trawler had responded with a thickly accented Lebanese Captain threatening to sue the Americans. ‘Tell them we are sending a helo to board and to change heading towards us. Full speed ahead to gun range. Prep a bracket of two missiles. Lets flush them out with target acquisition ping. Go full spectrum.”

As the helo took off, the trawler turned away from the Berkley. Without hesitation he roared ” FIRE.” Six seconds later the trawler ceased to exist and the encrypted data transmissions also stopped. “Inform Captain Wood we got the sucker. Lets re join Battle Group Bravo, we are sitting ducks out here.”

Berkley had barely started to come about when – “Contact, missile launch, incoming. Counter measures engaging. The Control center rocked as the explosion shattered bullet proof glass, and tore gouges in the steel framing. Lights flickered.

‘No HIT, repeat No hit! Premature detonation. Relaying targeting data to fire control and BG Bravo.’

Skulking under water the USS Parche sees or rather ‘hears’ the attack go down and tags the location. ‘Ok gentlemen time to earn our keep. Engage ASW modules and put a missile up its ass too lets put this sub out of business.’

USS Parche tracks both torpedo and missile strikes and monitors the horrific secondaries. – Sub sunk.

Game Detail:

AGI Attack:

Berkley rolls to detect earning a det 1 with a 19. [slow target and Det 0 mod ]

K-87 attempts to Intercept. They do and fire missiles. Missile Def roll-11. Reducing attack by 1 from 4 to 3. Attack reduced to 3 col. Atk roll is a 15 -5 for toughness and det level. Miss.

Berkley attack on the AGI ship is 2 hits. AGI ship missile Defence is rated C they roll a 10 = ne. The attack goes in on 6 column, -2 DRM for Det level. Roll an 18 drops to 16 = sunk [2 hits]

The Parche seeks to detect the now Det level 1 K-87. They do and its rating pop to Det level 2.

USS parche rolls an 18 on missile atk 2 col. With just a minus 4. 1 hit. I believe we then do ASW for each side. To cut a long story short Parch hits and K-87 misses.

.

As reports flood in Captain Wood puts a call through to Diego Garcia and Djibouti . In heavy contact. Executing BG Bravo plan Out of Touch [cue Hall & Oates ] Suggest you initiate Plan We Built This City [cue the band Starship ]

French ships make haste to engage Strogiy but have no luck damaging the ship.

On the Kitty Hawk flight deck EA6 squadrons replete with ECM packages launch planning to attack Aden’s ADA network. While a squadron of A7E’s attack Soviet ship Strogiy in a stand off attack. As the A7E pilots RTB they see smoke pouring from hits on the Russkie frigate. The A7E’s take some damage from incessant flak.

Despite the highly co ordinate efforts the AA from Strogiy tags some of the ECM elements headed for Aden. This reduces the effectiveness of their attack but they still manage to knock out the ADA network enough to allow the next two phases.

B-52 bombers fly along the narrow gulf at maximum altitude until the approach Aden and the Soviet assets.

As bombs fall the base shudders from the onslaught. Despite the bombing run, no damage is reported or observed.

Coming right behind them, c 130’s disgorge supplies and a Battalion of Rangers to secure the damaged base. They para drop safely.

The C130 divert to Djibouti to refuel with a full Bn of Rangers still aboard. There next target is Amara.

Game play note. For the rest of TF14, can they sail out of the LOC and sail right back to ‘clear ‘ Detections? That would be a neato trick.