SSN

    The Chinese captain had put his submarine in a very bad position. The Chinese leaders, wanting to demonstrate their power to the Americans, had given Han 402 orders to attack American submarines and surface ships operating in the area. The 402's captain was following his orders faithfully… but he didn't believe those orders included suicide. And he knew all too well that attacking a Los Angeles class submarine was tantamount to suicide. If he could manage to get in close enough to attack Cheyenne, he would do so. If not, he would follow his orders and launch at whatever range he felt he could without getting himself killed, and then he would dive deep and hunt for American merchant ships.

    When the active "pings" revealed Cheyenne's location, the Chinese captain realized that he had given away their location much too far away to effectively attack the Americans. With their own location revealed, closing with Cheyenne would put the Han at serious risk, which meant that his only real choice was either to simply turn and run or to first shoot at the Americans and then turn and run. The first option appealed to him the most, but the second option was what his orders demanded.

    The Han captain gave the command to release a single torpedo and then began turning to his right. His only plan was to make a turn to the east and get away from the now-angry American submarine.

    Mack thought about that torpedo in the water and what it meant. The Han had fired upon him witfiout provocation, which meant that China had decided to escalate. They would be starting hostilities at any moment, and all submarines would by now have been tasked by the Chinese navy to sink any American warships, merchant ships, or submarines as they exited their home ports.

    All around the world, wherever Chinese vessels came in contact with American ships, there would be bloodshed. Some of them would get lucky. Some would win, and some would lose. But this particular Chinese captain had gotten unlucky when he decided to attack Cheyenne rather than a defenseless merchant vessel. And it was too late to change his mind. Mack immediately saw what the Han was doing. It was turning and running-in the direction of San Diego, which could only mean one thing. China was at war with the United States.

    "Conn, sonar, the Chinese torpedo just settled dead in the water," the sonar supervisor reported. "Based on run time, it didn't even make it 6,000 yards."

    Mack nodded. The Chinese had had their turn. Now it was Cheyenne's.

    The Los Angeles class attack submarine began to pick up speed rapidly, rushing to get behind the Han. The Chinese submarine was running from them in an attempt to escape the American submarine and return to a safe haven, hiding somewhere off the West Coast, but Cheyenne wasn't about to allow that.

    The Han's top speed was twenty-five knots; Cheyenne was doing thirty-one knots, and the range to Master 1 closed rapidly. Both commanding officers knew it would only be a matter of time before the Americans were within firing range.

    Aboard the Han, the Chinese captain's options were limited once again. He could continue to run, prolonging things for a short while longer, or he could turn and fight.

    His orders were clear, and so was his choice. At his command, his submarine came around in another slow turn and bore down on Cheyenne.

    It was a noble gesture, but a futile one. The Han captain was racing to get within torpedo range, knowing that the effective range of the American Mk 48 ADCAP was more than double that of his Chinese SET-53.

    "Conn, sonar, two torpedoes in the water, more SET-538, bearing 165."

    The fire control coordinator reported the range to Master I as 18,000 yards.

    Mack wasn't worried. Clearly, the Chinese had done this out of desperation. They wanted to go down fighting, and their only hope was to get lucky-and a torpedo in the water was a chance to get lucky; a torpedo unlaunched was nothing.

    Cheyenne had closed to within striking range, but Mack didn't give the orders to shoot yet. There were still two chances for the Chinese to get lucky, if those SET-53s really had a range of 20,000 yards. Captain Mackey once again gave the orders to prepare for a possible torpedo hit, and also to take evasive action by launching two ADC (Acoustic Device Countermeasure) Mk 2 decoys.

    The decoys, which were launched out of what were in effect mini-torpedo tubes, accomplished exactly what they were intended to do and decoyed the torpedoes in a direction other than that of Cheyenne. The Chinese torpedoes ran out the length of their course without hitting anything solid. Their momentum spent, they settled to the ocean floor, taking Han 402's hopes with them.

    Though Mack had trained nearly his entire career for firing on an enemy submarine, he had never really expected it to happen. But Mack, like the others aboard Cheyenne, was a professional. He was calm as he gave the command, "Firing point procedures, Master J, tubes one and two."