SSN

    A BSY-1 operator reported the relevant target data to the captain.

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two," Mack said, his voice cool and steady.

    "Match sonar bearings and shoot, tubes one and two, aye," the fire control coordinator repeated the command.

    The Mk 48s were launched from the weapons control console and were ejected from their tubes. Their Otto fuel engines came to life, powering their pump jets.

    "Tubes one and two fired electrically," said the combat systems officer at the weapons control console.

    As soon as the torpedoes entered the water, the Chinese submarine began to turn. Mack guessed that they were going to try a ninety-degree turn away from the Mk 48s, but the seeker heads on the ADCAPs were doing what they had been designed to do: hunt down an enemy submarine. They stayed with the Han as it twisted and turned.

    "Both torpedoes have acquired Master I," reported the combat systems officer. Both Mk 48s had found the enemy submarine with their own sonars and no longer needed to be guided by Cheyenne's fire-control system via their guidance wires.

    "Cut the wires, shut the outer doors, and reload tubes one and two," ordered Captain Mackey.

    "Conn, sonar, two explosions, bearing 162." A cheer erupted in the control room, but Captain Bartholomew Mackey did not join in. The sailors were celebrating the fact that Cheyenne had just achieved her first blood, but Mack knew that more than that had just happened.

    War with mainland China was now a fact of life. A short time later, Mack secured from battle stations and ordered Cheyenne to proceed to periscope depth.

    Using SSIXS (Submarine Satellite Information Exchange System), Mack communicated their actions to the higher-ups in the Department of Defense and the Navy. As Mack had suspected, message traffic indicated that their encounter had not been an isolated incident and Cheyenne soon learned that what seemed like an all-out war had been started by China in an attempt to assert its position in the new world order.

    Cheyenne'1 s orders were again confirmed and she was to remain on course, sprinting and drifting until arriving at Pearl Harbor so that she could resupply and join other American units in the South China Sea. There was one important change in her orders, however: she was now allowed to attack any Chinese naval vessel she encountered so long as her trip to Pearl would not be overly delayed.

    The remainder of the trip to Pearl was a tense one. Every moment that passed increased the likelihood that they would once again face combat. Running at four hundred feet toward the submarine safety lanes southwest of the Big Island of Hawaii, the OOD brought the submarine shallow to copy over the floating wire any news that might have occurred since their last venture toward the surface. The news was not good.

    Two Spruance class destroyers, the USS Fletcher (DD 992) and the USS John Young (DD 973), were operating in conjunction with the Coast Guard cutter Midgett (WHEC 726). One of the SH-60 Seahawks from Fletcher had dropped a line of sonobuoys about 150 miles south of Honolulu and detected a possible sonar contact. All vessels had been told of the friendly submarine traffic in the area, but the contact the Fletcher''s Seahawk detected did not match any of the sonar profiles of the submarines expected to be operating nearby.

    Another Seahawk from John Young was en route to the area. Its orders were to assist in determining what type of contact the sonobouys were tracking.

    Cheyenne went to periscope depth. Word came to them over the periscope communications antenna, on the "Navy Red" encrypted circuit from one of the helicopters, that there was a possible enemy submarine operating in the area, which turned out to be forty-two nautical miles north of Cheyenne's current location. The message also indicated that Cheyenne's assistance would be greatly appreciated. Mack acknowledged the pilot's request, and then ordered Cheyenne to return to operational depth and proceed toward the reported datum.

    Forty-seven minutes later Cheyenne's towed-array sonar detected the sonar contact. They were still out of range and could not tell much about the contact. They knew only that it might be a submarine, and that, if it was a submarine, it was attempting to be as quiet as possible. The sonar supervisor designated this new contact as Cheyenne's Master 2.

    On the surface, the two U.S. destroyers and the Coast Guard cutter were hunting the sonar contact. The surface ships were attempting to keep their distance from the contact, wary of a possible torpedo attack. The Seahawks did not have to worry about that, and at 1340, moments after the surface ships had confirmed that the contact was indeed another Chinese nuclear submarine, Cheyenne heard the sounds of two Mk 50 torpedoes entering the water.

    "Conn, sonar, torpedoes in the water… Mk 50s, bearing 017. The Seahawks just dropped weapons on the submarine contact, Master 2."