Black Seas (Iron Crucible Book 4) by T.K. Blackwood

Author:T.K. Blackwood [Blackwood, T.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chromatic Aberration Publishing
Published: 2023-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

24

Rabbit took a seat in the tiered seating of the pilot briefing room aboard USS Shiloh with more apprehension than normal. He wasn't just nervous because they were in wartime deployment, but also because of the sheer volume of pilots and crew gathering there. He'd heard rumors about a big operation on the horizon, but damn near the entire carrier wing was present in this briefing room.

Beside him, Gomez gave a low whistle. "Looks like a county fair."

Rabbit nodded absently. "Tell me about it." He looked around the room and identified everyone. Some of them were F-14 drivers like him. But there were also crews from A-6 Intruders, F-18 Hornets, even the crew of the carrier's E-C2 Hawkeye AWACS craft. Toward the back of the room, Rabbit saw Metcalf and some of the other Prowler pilots seated together chatting quietly amongst themselves.

Gomez elbowed him lightly in the ribs. "Think we've got a bead on the Russians?"

Rabbit shrugged. "I don't know why else Hendricks would drag us all out here. Whatever it is, it's big."

"Officer on deck!"

Rabbit, Gomez, and the other pilots shot to their feet as one.

"At ease, sit down." Captain Hendricks said as he strode down the center aisle to take his place at the podium at the far end. Hendricks was something of a legend among the pilots of Shiloh's air wing. He had flown an F-4 Phantom over Vietnam in more combat sorties than anyone cared to recount before moving up the chain and becoming the commander of Shiloh's air wing. In Rabbit's own words, Hendricks was "a certified badass." The wing commander gripped the sides of the small wooden lectern and looked over the assembled aviators. His expression was set and hard, but his eyes twinkled with a glimmer of excitement. "Gentlemen, I'm pleased as punch to tell you that the rumors are true. We found 'em."

"Holy shit," Gomez whispered. "I knew it."

"That's just step one," Rabbit returned, trying to sound cool, but feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety all the same.

Hendricks let a grim smile split his features. "A whole Soviet carrier group in the open and driving west." He picked up a remote and keyed on a projector, calling up a grainy image of a cluster of Soviet ships plying the waves. From the low angle, it was clear this was a photograph taken through a submarine's periscope.

Captain Hendricks waited for the chatter to die down before continuing. "No small nut to crack. One Ulyanovsk-class supercarrier, a Riga, a Kiev, a Kirov, and numerous escorts. Even without their air wing, that's a lot of anti-air firepower concentrated in one area." Hendricks paused. "And we're going to send it all to the bottom."

Someone hooted and others clapped.

Hendricks waited for the men to settle down a bit before he continued. "The plan is simple," he said, turning off the projector and trading it out for a dry erase board and marker. "Two strike packages—Shiloh group, Antietam group." Hendricks marked each in turn on the board. "Shiloh group will come in from the west and Antietam will follow on later from the south.

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