0909 hours, 26 fen* T«c*21fi
Batman knew almost at once dial be was never going to catch the cruise missile. Drag had slowed it to subsonic velocity immediately after launch, but its solid fuel motor slammed it past the sound barrier as it homed on die Aegis cruiser’s radar. The pursuing F-14 had been moving at barely 300 knots as it went into its dive, and die missile was now four miles ahead. Batman could no longer see it, save as a targeting square painted by his plane’s AWG-9 radar on his HUD.
Malibu continued trying to raise the cruiser. “Vicksburg! e have a missile launch, bearing one-eight-three degrees,
ling on your position. Do you copy?” ! Batman watched the hollow square settle across the Vicks-‘s silhouette on the horizon, a raging frustration and dessness burning in his throat and eyes.
I hours, 26 March Vtcksburg
it gave off no radar emissions of its own, the Martel tiradar missile was not immediately spotted or recognized. ksburg’s communications department recorded Malibu’s le warning, but seconds were lost because an inexperi-radio watchstander took Malibu’s report bearing—183 and thought he meant a bearing of 183 degrees from ship. lie alerted the men handling tactical to the wrong part of the
south of the Vicksburg instead of north. t the same moment, Vicksburg’s computer registered the ;et approaching the cruiser at Mach 1, but the warning was yed several crucial seconds by higher levels of electronic , a priority system established to deal with each target in order of its perceived threat to the ship. It failed because there were too many threats. Machines and s alike were swamped at the moment with targets of _ kind, in every part of the sky. By the time another human I fierator noted the alert-flagged blip racing in from the north, it already too late. Even if everything and everyone aboard Aegis cruiser had reacted perfectly, it would have been too
£ More seconds were lost when the human operator turned his ition to a second blip lagging miles behind the first. The system’s computers had registered that target’s IFF and it as a friendly aircraft; for a fatigue-blurred moment, !• sailor working the console thought that the blip it was »g must be friendly too, a missile launched at some other The electronic displays in Vicksburg’s CIC were enough video games that it was sometimes possible to lose track of those moving points of light actually represented.
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A human error , . .
Hie Martd strode Vicksburg close to the angle between her deck and the forward deckhouse tower, smashing through the deck plating and light armor on her starboard quarter. The warhead was triggered by a proximity fuze, but some minor fault delayed that triggering for the tenth of a second it took for the missile to literally tunnel into the ship’s electronic entrails. Over three hundred pounds of high explosives detonated within a few yards of Vicksburg’s CIC.
Admiral Vaughn did not feel die Mast One moment he was standing in front of the primary battle board, watching, beginning to hope that possibly, just possibly the Indian aircraft were starling to turn away.
Then he was flying through air suddenly and unaccountably filled with whirling fragments of glass and plastic, bits of wire, pieces “of bodies, whole sections of die overhead and bulkhead plating and insulation. He slammed into an instrument console, rolled across it, and dropped to die deck. The console gave way an instant later, smashing down on top of him.
Already unconscious, he was unaware of that final blow.
Ztt
“Oh . . . my . . . God . . .”
Batman watched the mushroom cloud of Mack smoke shot with flame rise above the stricken command cruiser. He banked left but kept his eyes on the ship as Ihey passed her to starboard, still under way but slower now. wallowing in the heavy seas as flame broke from the smashed-in bole on her forward deckhouse.
“Batman . . .” Malibu’s voice was subdued, almost stricken, over die ICS. “Batman, check your fuel.”
He glanced at the fuel gauge. They had about fourteen bandied pounds. They’d burned a tot on a long patrol, most of h in fuel-bunting ACM.