Holy Ground by Evan Currie

Author:Evan Currie [Currie, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

DDH-181 Hyuga, JSDF Destroyer

Captain Ichiga held on as a missile slipped through the defense network and slammed into the bow of the Hyuga, tearing her armor up and leaving a gaping hole and twisted metal where her name had been painted just a moment earlier.

“Get teams up there to put that fire out,” He ordered.

The Hyuga’s cannon was firing fast, each shot blending into the next as they poured the five inch rounds down range into the advancing Bloc destroyer they were tangling with. He could see the rounds connecting, tearing up the ship in turn as the Hyuga continued to be the shield of the fleet as she had been designed to be.

“Captain, we’re taking on water from the bow!”

“Run the pumps!”

“They’re not going to be able to keep it out, we’re pushing too deep into the waves!”

Ichiga swore, they couldn’t stop now, there were too many holes in the defense net already. Those enemy destroyers had to go down, as many as possible. He gritted his teeth, checking the munitions supplies, and then their course before he made the call.

“All ahead flank.”

“Captain! We’ll drive her right under…”

“Then drive her under,” He ordered. “Just empty the magazines before we go down.”

His XO swallowed, but nodded, “Aye skipper. Ahead flank!”

The Hyuga surged forward, driving into the waves, and firing everything she had as the engines screamed. Water was pumped out by the thousands of gallons, but it was driven in by far more than that. The cannon never let up, however, and the last of the vertical launch magazines were flushed, putting everything they had into the air and water.

Nothing but cannon munitions and power for the laser were left, so that was what they kept on firing.

The alarms were screaming, damage from all quarters, such that he almost missed the warning of the next wave of cruise missiles.

Three slipped through this time, slamming into the Hyuga from fore to aft along the port side, rocking her over heavily and breaking the ship in half. Ichiga felt the deck heavy under him and start to slip under, the gun finally quieting.

In the distance he saw the Destroyer they’d been targeting on fire and settling lower in the water, going down fast, and he bared his teeth in a bloody grin.

The Hyuga had three kills to her name before they dragged her down.

*****

USS Makin Island

“The Hyuga is out! Men are hitting the water sir.”

“Get boats out to them,” Liam ordered.

“We don’t have any in that area. We’ve got them pulling men out of the water in sector three, Sir.”

“Damn it.”

The fighting was going about as well as could be expected, he supposed, but since he’d expected to die, that wasn’t much of a good thing. The enemy might have leapfrogged them in the skies, and that was a bitch and a half to deal with, but on the sea, they weren’t nearly so formidable.

The fighting had favored the American and JSDF forces in terms of kills, but the problem was that the IndoChina backed Bloc forces just had too much in the way of numbers.

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