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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, July 13, 2024

The Storm Rages

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Admiral Zhang knew that his ship was in trouble. Though they had been running at top speed, the great typhoon overtook them. The storm had torn the masts away, they had no communications, no radar, no sensors but their eyes, they were cut off from the outside world.

The wind howled like some tormented being from the underworld. Though the Party maintained that there was nothing beyond this life, Zhang remembered the tales his great-grandmother had told. Tales of Di Yu¹, of dragons, and the spirits roaming the nightmares of his youth. He was a Party member, he had denounced the old woman when he was yet a boy. She had been taken away, never to be seen again.

Now this, was this her spirit, come to seek its revenge? The sea and the sky tore at his mighty ship but he felt some confidence, this vessel was the finest his nation could provide. She was powerful, she outrivaled her American competitors. Her nuclear reactors had driven her effortlessly through the waves, until now.

The helmsmen were struggling to keep Fujian running with the pounding waves, but the winds were churning the sea to an insane, frothing cauldron. It was hard to tell which way the wind was coming from. Zhang knew that it would shift eventually, but when?

Then somewhere, well aft of the bridge and deep below decks, something gave way, the big ship shuddered, then seemed to recover. Then one of the helmsmen screamed -

"Admiral! The helm is not responding!"

A giant wave pushed the stern aside as if it was a child's toy. Fujian began to roll as she presented her beam to the oncoming seas.

Zhang felt the ship shudder, he watched in horror as the inclinometer began to move. As it passed 25° he began speaking quietly to himself. A nearby lookout thought he heard the old man talking as if to someone, his grandmother?

The roll continued.


USS Tang (SSN 805) was deep enough that the raging seas above caused her little distress, but the crew noticed that the boat was moving far more than normal. STS3 MacIver was on watch in sonar, she had mostly surface noise on her waterfall display, the audio in her headsets was noisy, lots of wave action. Then she heard something metallic, some distance off.

"Petty Officer DeVries, I've got something weird on sonar. Something not natural, it sounds like metal snapping."

DeVries plugged in his headsets and listened, "Damn, I swear that's a ship going down. As she goes deeper, bulkheads collapse, machinery starts breaking loose."

Pausing he looked through the message traffic and the logs from the previous watch. "Damn."

"Conn, Sonar. I think that Chinese carrier is sinking."

The Captain of USS Tang, Commander Liam O'Riley, thought for a second, then gave the necessary commands to take the boat deep and go to flank speed.

"Set your course to 075, I want to get away from this damn storm. XO, get a message ready for USPACFLT - 'Chinese carrier believed to have foundered in the storm. Break up noises detected on sonar. No other ships in the area. Please advise.' We'll get that out as soon as we can get to periscope depth and raise the mast. No way we can do that now."

The Chief of the Boat, Command Master Chief David Rounds, looked at the captain, "God help them, Sir. No way anyone's going to rescue those poor bastards. Not in this storm."

"I know COB, I know."


LCDR Josh Higgins tapped on the President's door, then leaned in, "Sir, the Joint Chiefs are assembled in the briefing room, Rear Admiral Choe is present as well."

"Thanks, Josh. You've got the slide deck, right?"

"Yes Sir."

"You go ahead and start the briefing, I'll be along shortly. There's someone I need to talk to first."

"Yes Sir."

President Nakagawa left his office, meeting Bill Aspinall in the hallway.

"Sir, my men have all received their Secret Service credentials, officially, we're your personal security detail now."

Nakagawa shook his head, "I suppose we have to keep the bureaucrats happy. For now."

"Johansen is conscious. He seems lucid, but he looks nervous as hell."

"I'll bet he is."


Johansen was fidgeting, the nurse had just been in, changed his dressing, checked his IV and his vitals, then left without a word. He was still shackled to the gurney. He couldn't blame them, he'd been playing fast and loose over the past few weeks. It was hard to tell whose side he was on.

Which was intentional.

He looked up as two people came into the room, Aspinall and Nakagawa. Nakagawa spoke.

"How are you feeling, Ephraim. Sorry about the leg."

Johansen shrugged, "Sometimes you get the bear ..."

"But a drunk driver? Seems too random to be believed."

"What are you saying, John?"

Aspinall started to speak, Nakagawa waved him off.

"Nothing, not suggesting that it was convenient or deliberate. But it took you off the board at a bad time. If things had been slightly different, your absence may have ruined everything."


"Yeah. But it didn't. No one expected both governors to defy DC. My job was to rile things up, muddy the waters. I heard that the militia ambush failed miserably."

"Yes, a retired Marine had a change of heart and blew the ambush. Only one soldier was killed. The militia was slaughtered, nearly to a man. Too bad the Marine was hit, he bled out. I would have liked to have met the man."

Johansen looked at the ceiling, "I didn't know that part. Gunny Beardsley was a good man, a patriot of sorts. I think you would have liked him."

Nakagawa nodded, then turned to Aspinall, "Bill, can you excuse us?"

"Sir?"

"What we have to talk about, you can't hear."

Aspinall looked doubtful but nodded, "I'll be just outside, Mr. President." He emphasized the title, hoping that Johansen would get the hint.


"So how do you know about Incandescent Fury?" Nakagawa asked in a low, dangerous voice.

"What?"

"Hakunetsu no ikari." Nakagawa hissed at the man on the gurney.

Johansen's puzzled look went away. "Ah, my translation said that meant 'white hot fury.' But incandescent fits as well. All we knew was the phrase, we saw it in one document that someone in Congress was threatening to leak to the press. As it was in Japanese, we assumed it had something to do with the Pacific. We assumed it was a Japanese operation of some sort, probably directed at the PRC."

"You keep saying 'we,' who else knew about this?"

"The Deputy Director of the CIA and myself, that's it. To tell you the truth, I thought those State cops were going to kill me, when Choe and Chapman showed up, I said those words to Choe. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. I figured it might keep me alive a bit longer."

"Well, it worked. Now what are we supposed to do with you? Were you working with the Silver Dozen? The Secretaries of State or Defense? Did you have anything to do with the death of that State trooper, Corporal Campos? Captain Jackson wants your ass bad for that, real bad."

"No Sir, we weren't working with those assholes, any of them. Deputy Director had some intel from a source in the FBI that something was afoot. He didn't know who he could trust, so he got me assigned to Homeland, I could work legally in the United States that way. I would share any intel I had with the Deputy Director and could take action myself, if needed. It was needed. Everything I did had the blessing of the Deputy Director. Have you talked to him?"

"Oh, we'll talk to him, as soon as we can find him. He's flown the coop."

"He's at his grandmother's vacation home in the Poconos."

"What? Seriously?"

"Yes Sir, no one knows about it, was never in any government file. A good place to lay low. The property is registered to a guy who lives in Albany. He doesn't know about it either. The Deputy Director handled everything, through me."

"Why you, Ephraim?"

"We go back a long ways, me and the Deputy Director. I saved his life in Afghanistan."

"Afghanistan, we don't ..." The President stopped, then nodded.

"Not officially, Sir. We were not officially involved there. We had sources in the Taliban, we needed to keep those active. It's proved useful over the years."

"I'll bet. Okay, we'll talk again, for now we're keeping you here, in custody. You're a slippery fish, Ephraim, we can't afford to have you 'out there,' not yet anyway."

"I'm not going anywhere, Sir. Not with one leg."

Nakagawa nodded, before he could say anything, LCDR Higgins was at the door.

"Sir, we've got a situation in the Pacific, you need to come to the briefing room, now Sir."

"Right."

Nakagawa got up, wondering, "Now what?" He was in for a nasty surprise.




¹ 地獄 - Literally "earth prison," the underworld where the dead go to be punished and renewed for reincarnation.

54 comments:

  1. Is this the first aircraft carrier ever sunk in a storm?

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    1. There were carriers damaged in "Halsey's Typhoon," but none were lost.

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    2. MONTEREY had a hanger deck fire after two planes snapped their tie downs.

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  2. There was a nasty typhoon that clobbered our Pacific fleet in 1945, but nothing as big as a WW2 carrier went down.

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    1. Nope, but many planes were lost from the carriers involved.

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  3. Ma Nature 1, tinker toys 0.
    Love the story Sarge!

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    1. One big concern if this ever happened in real life. A Carrier breaks up at sea with all reactors hot? The amount of damage that the contents of those reactors will produce will be Enormous on a scale mankind has never seen before.

      MSG Grumpy

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    2. No, it won't if the Chinese were diligent in stealing our reactor designs. As soon as the ship loses power the reactor will SCRAM (full emergency shutdown) and the primary plant piping for a pressurized water reactor is some of the most robust on the ship. The core won't melt down or burn.

      The hull may break up but the primary plant is unlikely to, it will end up on the bottom with the reactor vessel and core intact.

      This isn't really theory, we lost nuclear submarines Scorpion and Thresher in the 60s, later surveys of the debris fields didn't show any elevated radioactivity levels.

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    3. Note that the sea pressure exceeds the normal working pressure on the primary side LONG before the debris hits the bottom. If the primary piping is broken during the fall down deep seawater will go into the core, there won't be a steam explosion.

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    4. MSG Grumpy, Rick T answered your question very well.

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  4. Your Muse has turned up the heat Sarge, hope no escorts detected that sub otherwise CCP-land will be screaming for blood about a deliberate act of war.

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    1. Had to fish your comment out of the spam filter. Blogger is being idiotic again.

      In that storm the escorts would be lucky to detect their own screws!

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  5. As one pot settles, another pot gets stirred. Love it! The domestic side seems to be becoming clearer, but the international situation is roiling more. Red China has suffered losses from gunfire, and now, through the actions of Mother Nature. But the leadership is unable to lose face by admitting that one of its Best and Most Powerful was felled by a storm, who will be blamed? Japan? The US? After all, we somehow had a submarine in the area where the carrier went down. Was it the work of the Great Satan....oh....wait.....that piece isn't yet on the board.....

    These posts make my morning. After my morning ablutions, morning prayers, and check of Weather Underground, I wait impatiently the seconds as this page loads.

    A loyal, confused, and satisfied customer.

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  6. POTUS, speaking to a close subordinate:
    ...Aspinall, "Bill, will you excuse us?"
    "can" sorta puts the POTUS in the subordinate position, sorta "beggin' the question" if y' git whut I mean.
    I think "will" in this situation assumes a positive answer, whereas "can" leaves it open: "No! I can't, sir. He's still too dangerous."
    you'd think I really live to pick lice

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    Replies
    1. Well, people don't really talk like that. And "can you" is rather bad grammar, suggesting "are you capable of." Only one unsure of his position would think of themselves in a "subordinate position" via their use of language.

      Not to mention that Nakagawa is of Japanese ancestry, he learned politeness as a child.

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    2. I will say that sometimes courtesy can be used as a manner of controlling emotion in a conversation as well. Sometimes the angrier I am, the more courteous I become.

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    3. Uh! I was sorta trying (unobtrusively) to explain why I was (uh) trying to explain a slight change in the verb in that sentence:
      Wow! didn't quite expect the fallout.

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    4. Wheels within wheels, my friend.

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  7. Your Muse has the story heating up Sarge, hope the carrier's escorts didn't detect that sub otherwise.......

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    1. Fished this one out too. I'll bet you were wondering what happened to your comment.

      Blogger done messed up.

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  8. I could not find anything indicating the PLAN Fujian has nuclear power. Everything I saw indicated conventional steam turbines (which don't much care if the water is heated by nuclear reactors or fossil fueled boilers). Nor did I see any indication of the number of boilers.
    South China Morning Post story states "China has claimed that its Fujian aircraft carrier is the world’s largest conventionally powered vessel – running on traditional fuel, instead of nuclear power."
    Recommend changing third paragraph "nuclear reactors' "steam turbines" in "Her nuclear reactors had driven her effortlessly through the waves, until now."
    John Blackshoe.

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    1. I expect their ship design followed our last practice with 8 boilers feeding 4 turbine sets and 4 screws. USS Kennedy (CV-67)'s boilers ran at 1,200 psi to get maximum fuel efficiency, but even 1,200 PSI isn't that high when you are sinking. At about 2,400 feet deep you are at balance. A boiler isn't designed to resist external pressure so the steam drums will eventually implode (not explode) on the way down.

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    2. JB - I decided to make her nuclear powered. Artistic license, if you will.

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    3. Rick - I made her nuclear powered, more prestige for the PRC, more saber rattling in the story.

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    4. Even if the ship survived the storm there was going to repercussions, the steel mills are only suppose to send tofu-dreg crap steel overseas, they should have only been sending full-spec product to the shipyard. Losing all her masts is a sign of crappy design and crappy product.

      Selection of the power plant is Author's privilege in the story's alternate universe.

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    5. Most definitely someone will be losing their job over this, probably more than that.

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  9. Unfortunate timing for the sinking of the Fujian. How much will the Chinese make of it? Blame the Americans? Quietly let the whole thing disappear now that it appears the major crisis has passed?

    And I do not like the Deputy Director just "out there" - loose ends and all.

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    Replies
    1. There are many loose ends in this tale. Just as you think you've got them all, another loosens.

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    2. I trust that they will all be tied up nicely for the most part? I know we are far from the final installment, but so many final episodes of TV shows leave us wanting.

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    3. Hopefully it all comes together in the end.

      Unlike real life ...

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    4. @ Tuna
      Amazing how the writers can kill a good series (American and Brit) with the final installment
      and then there's the extra installment showing the actors explaining their characters ☻

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    5. I call that the "then he got hit by a bus ending..." It's a sign of a really bad story teller. I hope not to do that.

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  10. I enjoyed this installment.

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  11. Funny about the Fujian foundering in rough weather. There's been rumors that the PLAN's carriers don't ride rough seas well. This is due to every time a storm brews up, the carriers and their escorts scurry home.

    And, well, stability calculations and models are a must when dealing with even a vessel as large as a carrier. All planes should be in the hangar, or potentially tossed overboard to shift the center of gravity. To not do so begs to, well, founder and capsize and sink and death and...

    As to our PLAN admiral, he's probably lucky he and his staff are now dead. The CCP really doesn't like to be embarrassed. Having the PLAN sailors rescued by evil Americans, though, would have been just so much spicy fun.

    Good story, as usual. Can't wait to see what happens next. Would not be surprised if some of those CCP 'weather' satellites started targeting our military satellites, especially the GPS ones.

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    1. We'll see if this goes kinetic, or if cooler heads prevail.

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    2. The Fujian is the flagship and prestige vessel but all of her escorts and support ships got pounded too. I have to wonder how many ships in the flotilla will make it home intact vs. damaged by the storm. Losing an entire air wing of trained pilots is as big a loss operationally too, it takes a lot of time to train new carrier-qualified aviators.

      If we learned one thing in WWII is no ship of any size is safe without air cover, and a big flotilla needs ASW protection as well. China's plans for messing about in the China Sea just went to Davey Jones' Locker.

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    3. Very good, Rick. You remembered the escorts. Important ships.

      Losing that air wing is going to hurt.

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    4. Without the support ships a carrier group is a one-fight pony with limited endurance. You need a source of food, fuel for everybody not nuclear, ammunition, and repair parts. No supply ships? Planes will be grounded, guns will be silent, and sailors will be hungry if you stay out more than a month or so. Mastering UNREP evolutions is as big a part of being a Blue Water Navy as is aviators mastering Flight Deck landings and takeoffs.

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  12. Losing their flagship is a huge loss for an authoritarian culture so this could be a "Losing the Mandate of Heaven"-class event for the Party, especially if the staff that recommended staying out of the typhoon were overruled by Party political officers.

    Reading history it is interesting to me that the IJN protected Yamato until her death ride and Germany protected Bismarck and Tirpitz for as long as they could. Neither wanted to face the lose in status of a Flagship. What is even odder to me is that the USN sent every ship into battle, including the BBs and Fleet Carriers, there were no harbor queens during the war from what I have read.

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    1. Let me introduce you to "fleet in being" concept
      Sometimes, like Tirpitz, ships just by being threat are able to bind in place stronger enemy forces.
      Mere chance of Tirpitz attack has caused the dispersion and near complete destruction of convoy PQ-17
      Damn, I wish we had some better command at Royal Admiralty at the time, could have ended with USS Washington having 2 enemy BBs on her trophy rack (other one being Kirishima).

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    2. If you want to win a war, the gloves have to come off. No one stays home, everyone and every thing goes to war. Until the enemy quits or the enemy ceases to exist.

      The Japanese fleet was crippled at Midway, the battleships were meaningless from the time the first torpedo went into the water at Taranto (a lesson the Japanese learned well). Still the battleship admirals thought the BB was still a big deal. As for the Germans? Their surface fleet, though it had some fine ships, was no match for the Royal Navy. Hitler thought the battleship meant something, he was wrong.

      The carrier may be headed that way.

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  13. Remember how Russia reacted to Kursk sinking?
    CCP and PLAN will be 100 percent sure USN sank their precious CV.
    When it rains it pours....

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    1. They might think that, some of them will anyway, the stupider ones. The realists will know that it was their own hubris that caused the loss of Fujian. But who has the biggest say in the matter?

      We shall see.

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  14. I see what you did there...Kamikaze!!! (Divine Wind)--destroyed the Mongol invasion fleet.

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  15. Heads up, folks. Former president, and candidate for next one, Donald Trump just has been shot (minor wound) at rally. Life mimics your story? Stay safe, all.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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