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“Captain to the bridge, captain to the bridge,” was the call over the 1MC ship’s address system.
Danny rushed onto the bridge. “Report,” he barked as his feet cleared the hatchway on the bridge.
“Captain,” Chief York said, motioning him over to the CIC room where the radar equipment was being monitored.
“Three small vessels have left the coast line right here,” he said pointed out the spot. “Two of them are coming at us and the other one looks like it’s making a run for it.”
Danny grabbed the microphone of the radio. “This is the United States registered ship, the Sea Eagle change your course at once. I say again, this is the United States registered ship, the Sea Eagle change your course at once of face attack,”
“Captain, the two approaching vessels have widened their distance from each other but have not changed course. With our attack on the fortress I believe this is a counter attack aimed at us.”
“What is the distance between us and them and what is the distance to the third boat?” Danny asked.
“The distance to the two attacking boats is 27 miles and closing. The distance to the third boat is 38 miles and separating fast.”
While the Sea Eagle was only twenty miles off of the coast the attack was coming from down the coast line. That was the reason for the added distance between them.
Danny hit the Battle Stations Alarm. “General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battle stations. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. This is not a drill, this is not a drill. General quarters, general quarters all hands man your battle stations.”
Danny had followed the advice Rick had given him before he’d gone into Cuba about training the men on the ship. Everyone knew where they were supposed to be and what they were responsible for in the event of an attack.
“Chief York, activate the missile defense system, go hot,” Danny ordered the chief.
Instantly the missile pod pivoted towards the approaching threat. “You are cleared to engage, fire at will, fire at will,” Danny screamed excitedly.
The new missile defense system was supersonic, capable of launching a missile at Mach 3, approximately 2,200 miles per hour.
“Launch one,” the chief ordered the tech working the missile station. Overhead they could hear the whoosh as the missile left the ship. In seconds the first target was destroyed. They could hear the horrific explosion of the powerful warhead clearly from the ship as the sound echoed.
The second boat tried to turn away and run for it. “Launch two,” the chief commanded. A second whooshed out of the missile pod heading down range to its target. A second explosion shook the air around them.
“Launch the Sea Demon, launch the Sea Demon,” Danny ordered over the 1MC. Red Dog and one of his men were assigned to the Sea Demon as their battle station.
“Captain, do we have a target?” Red Dog asked over the radio from the Sea Demon.
“Target is a gunboat, range 40 miles heading east along the coast. They are running for help Red Dog. Destroy them before they can call in more help.”
“Roger that Sea Eagle we are going hot and turning and burning,” Red Dog said as he pushed the powerful cigarette boat’s throttles to the stops.
Danny could see that the two 20mm cannons had been activated and were locked into their firing position as the Sea Demon shot away from the Sea Eagle.
Capable of speeds greater than 120 miles an hour it was traveling almost four times the speed of their target. The Sea Demon could travel two miles a minute and were closing fast on their intended target.
The fleeing gunboat could clearly see their attacker as it approached. The twenty foot rooster tail that the Sea Demon threw up was visible for miles. “Man the machine guns,” screamed the gunboat’s captain “fire at will.” He’d already witnessed the destruction of the other two boats and was under no disillusion about the fate his enemy had in store for him.
Red Dog and his handpicked man had put many hours into getting used to the power of the Sea Demon. They’d had gunnery practice and traveled many miles and many hours in all sorts of sea conditions so they’d know how the vessel handled in all types of weather. In other words they trained and when they thought they knew the cigarette boat they trained some more. It was coming in handy now when they needed it.
“Range one mile and closing fast,” shouted the man that was stationed by his side.
“Stand by to engage the enemy,” Red Dog shouted back over the sound of the wind and the whine of the four 300 horse powered outboards motors.
The gunboat started lacing the water in front of them with machine gun fire. The Sea Demon was still out of their range. But the same couldn’t be said about the gunboat.
“Stand by to fire the 20mm cannon,” Red Dog shouted. The cannon could be fired from the pilot’s seat or a remote switch could be thrown so that a copilot had the fire control. Red Dog had discovered it worked better to have the copilot fire the cannons. It took all of his concentration to pilot the boat at these speeds.
“Let her have it,” Red Dog screamed crouched down behind the protective windshield.
The Sea Demon shuddered from the recoil of the two rapid fire cannons. The back of the gunboat was shredded by the first barrage.
“I’m coming back around,” Red Dog said as he spun the wheel of the boat just before they came into the range of the machine guns.
“Wow, those cannons shredded them all to hell!” the man shouted excitedly. It was the first time they’d fired on a target that showed the destructive capabilities of the cannons. All of their other times they tested the guns were on an empty sea.
“I’m lining up for a second run at them, stand by to fire on them again,” Red Dog yelled, leveling out the speeding boat.
The boom, boom, boom, boom of the cannon once again shook the cigarette boat. Debris was flying high into the air from the now defenseless, drifting gunboat. There was a sudden explosion from the Cuban boat as the fuel tanks and ammunition stores were hit.
Red Dog slowed to seventy miles an hour and circled the vessel looking for survivors. The debris field was big, but nothing larger than a sheet of plywood was left of the boat. They could see bodies floating but none of them were alive.
“Sea Eagle this is the Sea Demon, target has been destroyed. I repeat target has been destroyed,” Red Dog reported in.
“Roger that Sea Demon, that’s a job well done come on home,” Danny congratulated the men.
Danny called me to report the attack on the Sea Eagle.
“No damage was done to the ship?” I asked. “The missile defense system worked the way it was supposed to work?”
“We didn’t get a scratch on us Rick and the missiles worked to perfection. You picked the right men to head CIC and the security force. They did a hell of a job today.”
“They must have had another way of communicating with the boathouse we didn’t know about. I better send in a team to see what they had. I have to make sure that’s the only place they could call.”
“I think the third boat was running for help. Otherwise it would have joined in on the attack on us,” Danny reasoned.
“I hope you’re right because if you’re not right we’re all in trouble.”