Firestorm : Destroyermen (9781101544556) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1 - “Western” (Indian) Ocean

  CHAPTER 2 - Aboard USNRS (United States Naval Reserve Ship) Salissa (CV-1) ...

  CHAPTER 3 - Off New Scotland, southeast of the New Britain Isles, in the ...

  CHAPTER 4 - Maa-ni-la Fil-pin Lands

  CHAPTER 5 - Grik Madagascar

  CHAPTER 6 - Task Force Garrett—Ceylon

  CHAPTER 7 - Adar’s Great Hall Baalkpan December 25, 1943

  CHAPTER 8 - Mid Pacific

  CHAPTER 9 - Ceylon

  CHAPTER 10 - TF Maaka-Kakja

  CHAPTER 11 - Southeast Coast of Africa

  CHAPTER 12 - USS Walker December 30, 1943

  CHAPTER 13 - Kaufman Field Baalkpan

  CHAPTER 14 - New Ireland

  CHAPTER 15 - USS Maaka-Kakja Southwest of New Wales

  CHAPTER 16 - USS Walker

  CHAPTER 17 - Grik East Africa Primary Industrial Site

  CHAPTER 18 - New Ireland

  CHAPTER 19 - Central Highlands Grik Ceylon

  CHAPTER 20 - New Dublin

  CHAPTER 21 - Off “Monterey” Bay

  CHAPTER 22 - Above Ceylon January 17, 1944

  CHAPTER 23 - Scapa Flow New Scotland Empire of the New Britain Isles

  EPILOGUE

  THE DESTROYERMEN SERIES

  Into the Storm

  Crusade

  Maelstrom

  Distant Thunders

  Rising Tides

  ROC

  Published by New American Library, a division of

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  First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, October 2011

  Copyright © Taylor Anderson, 2011 All rights reserved

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

  Anderson, Taylor.

  Firestorm/Taylor Anderson.

  p. cm.—(Destroyermen; 6)

  ISBN : 978-1-101-54455-6

  1. Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3601.N5475F57 2011

  813’.6—dc22 2011020485

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

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  TO: MOSBY. I THINK SHE WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED

  THE TACTICS.

  FOR: THE FAMILIES OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE

  UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. ONLY THE SACRIFICE

  OF THOSE WHO SERVE CAN BE COMPARED TO THAT OF

  THOSE WHO WAIT AND WORRY FOR THEM.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Again, I wish to thank my friend and agent, Russell Galen, as well as Ginjer Buchanan and all the fine folks at Roc. I’m sure they’d all occasionally like to “get me by the neck and choke me” (as someone once famously said) out of frustration, but distance has thus far preserved me. I appreciate their patience and support.

  Kate Baker still cheerfully maintains my Web site by means of benign mystical powers I cannot comprehend. As of this writing, she’s been honored with a Hugo nomination. Hopefully, by the time this volume is released, she’ll be Hugo winner Kate Baker! She’s a great dame!

  Lt. Colonel Dave Leedom, USAFR, continues trying to help me “Keep ’em Flying,” and his assistance in this respect (and others) has been particularly helpful this time around. Sorry I missed your change of command, brother, but somebody had to tape your favorite cartoons!

  In the past, I’ve tried to recognize the contributions made by the many great fans of this series, some posted on the Web site, others sent to me directly, but, like the list of “usual suspects,” this list has now grown to the point that space no longer allows them all to be named here. That’s a great shame, because they deserve recognition. Check out the Web site and you’ll see what I mean. Many are active-duty or veteran servicemen and -women—from numerous countries—and their input and service is hugely appreciated.

  Special exceptions to this remain: Rebecca, Jennifer, Christine, Nancy, Dennis, Jim, Mark, Syd, Mika, Walter, Michael, Erik, Lynn, Chris, Cliff, Debbie, Dex, Gene, Jeff, Don, Lauren, Pete, Robin & Linda, Paul, Ron, Stacey, Darla, Tom, Carey, Brent, Brad, and Gordon. Some of these represent multiple people with the same names, but all continue to inspire just by being who they are—even Jim . . . in strange, amusing ways. Finally, I must again thank my family. They have to put up with me every day—and really could choke me if they wanted to.

  PROLOGUE

  ALLIED SITREP, DEC 19 1943

  X

  FROM: CMDR S RIGGS (ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF) LOCATION: BAALKPAN X FOR COTGA (CHAIRMAN OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE) ADAR

  X

  TO: ALL STATIONS SPC

  X

  CAPTAIN M P REDDY CINCAAF (COMMANDER IN CHIEF ALL ALLIED FORCES) CINCEAST COMM FLEET 2 LOCATION: EMPIRE OF NEW BRITAIN ISLES

  X

  HER EXCELLENCY SAAN-KAKJA HIGH CHIEF FIL-PIN LANDS X COLONEL T SHINYA LOCATION: MAA-NI-LA

  X

  HIS EXCELLENCY ADMIRAL KEJE-FRIS-AR CINCWEST COMM FLEET 1

  X

  GENERAL P ALDEN X LOCATION: ANDAMAN ISLAND

  X

  HIS EXCELLENCY ADMIRAL SOR-LOMAAK COMM TF “OILCAN,” X LOCATION: EASTERN SEA

  X

  EYES ONLY DISTRIBUTE AT DISCRETION

  X

  BAALKPAN: SALVAGED STEAMER SANTA CATALINA ARRIVED SAFELY UNDER POWER X MAJORITY CARGO OFF-LOAD
ED X WILL ENTER DRY DOCK FOR REMAINDER CARGO REMOVAL X SEAPLANE CARRIER ARRACCA (CV-3) WILL DEPART IN COMPANY NEW BATTLE GROUP AND TROOPSHIPS X AIR WING WORKING-UP EN ROUTE ANDAMAN X ALLIED COUNCIL CONDITIONALLY ACCEPTS MEMBERSHIP RESPITE ISLAND AND EMPIRE NEW BRITAIN ISLES INTO GRAND ALLIANCE X AWAIT REPRESENTATIVES XXX

  MAA-NI-LA: CAPITAL FIL-PIN LANDS ESCAPED SERIOUS DAMAGE FROM TIDAL WAVE CAUSED BY ERUPTION TALAUD ISLAND X OTHER FIL-PIN LANDS HOMES SUFFERED GRAVELY X PAGA-DAAN ALMOST WIPED OUT X RESCUE EFFORT INVOLVING LAND AND NAVAL FORCES CONTINUES X WILL DELAY DEPLOYMENT SOME ELEMENTS X TF (TASK FORCE) MAKAA-KAKJA (CV-4) AND BATTLE GROUP READY TO DEPLOY X RELUCTANTLY CONCUR NECESSITY TO SEND IT EAST TO AID CAPTAIN REDDY AND IMPERIALS X COLONEL SHINYA CAN DEPLOY DIVISION IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS X WHERE SEND? X SUBMARINE S-19 PASSENGERS AND CREW—INCLUDING SEVENTY-ONE (71) EX-TAGRANESI (LAWRENCE PEOPLE) SAFE IN MAA-NI-LA X WHERE SEND? X NAVY OILER RETURNED FROM RESPITE ISLAND WITH FIRST LOAD HUMAN FEMALES X WHERE SEND? XXX

  EMPIRE OF NEW BRITAIN ISLES: COMPANY COLLABORATION WITH FORCES “HOLY DOMINION” QUASHED ON ALL ISLANDS EXCEPT NEW IRELAND X DOMINION/REBEL FORCES STRONGLY POSITIONED THERE X NOT KNOWN IF WORD OF HOSTILITIES HAS REACHED DOMINION PROPER BUT PRISONERS SAY HOSTILITIES LONG EXPECTED X FOUNDERS’ DAY CELEBRATION JAN 5 1944 IS DATE AFTER WHICH THINGS WILL “AUTOMATICALLY HAPPEN” X GOVERNOR-EMPEROR AND COMMODORE JENKS SUSPECT MOVE AGAINST CONTINENTAL IMPERIAL HOLDINGS AT LEAST X REPAIRS USS WALKER ALMOST COMPLETE X WALKER AND SIMMS REMAIN ONLY US NAVY ELEMENTS IN THEATER X ANTICIPATE ARRIVAL TF “OILCAN” SO CAN COMMENCE OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS X HOPE ECONOMIC ADVICE HELPFUL X NEED MORE MARINES XXX

  ANDAMAN: PORT FACILITIES INCLUDING FLOATING DRY DOCK AND AIRSTRIP NEAR COMPLETE X TF GARRETT REMAINS ON BLOCKADE DUTY X ALL OTHER ALLIED FORCES INCLUDING I AND III AND IV CORPS—FIRST FLEET COMPOSED OF SALISSA (CV-1) AND HUMFRA-DAR (CV-2) BATTLE GROUPS AND TRANSPORTS READY TO COMMENCE OFFENSIVE OPS CEYLON IN MOST RESPECTS X THANKS FOR SENDING CMDR LETTS TO SORT OUT MESS! X HIS PLANE ARRIVED SAFELY YESTERDAY XXX

  MESSAGE ENDS XXX

  CHAPTER 1

  “Western” (Indian) Ocean

  Commander Greg Garrett, former gunnery officer of the old Asiatic Fleet “four-stacker” destroyer USS Walker (DD-163), now captain of the sailing frigate USS Donaghey, leaned on the starboard quarterdeck rail, staring through his binoculars. The colors of the sea and sky had proclaimed their independence from each other and a yellow-red smear splashed the eastern horizon. The boisterous sea was becoming a tumultuous, toothy, pink-tinged purple. The Lemurian lookout, high in the maintop, had sighted dawn-spangled sails to the northeast with her keen eyes, but Garrett still saw nothing. As he searched, the sun darted tentative beams over the distant, hazy line of the continent.

  “What have we, sur?” asked Lieutenant Saaran-Gaani, joining Greg beside the rail. Saaran was Donaghey’s exec, her “salig maa-stir,” in the Lemurian vernacular. He’d replaced Muraak-Saanga, who’d been recently appointed to command the new USS Tassat when Garrett declined the honor in favor of remaining with Donaghey. Saaran was a bona fide “Sky Priest,” of a southern denomination, so he filled the “sailing master” role without suffering any of the religious resentment that sometimes plagued laymen in his post. More and more Sky Priests joined the Navy these days, surely out of patriotism, but also possibly to help secure their relevance in these strange, transitional times.

  Garrett didn’t care about that. Saaran was a fantastic navigator, as were most of his order, but like Adar—the “highest-ranking” Sky Priest Greg knew—Saaran was a fanatic for “the cause.” Greg lowered his binoculars and looked at him. The oversize, dark amber eyes gazing back were common among Lemurians, but the fine, almost perfectly symmetrical coat of brown and white fur was unusual. Lemurians could be almost any color and were often striped, blotched, or even brindled, but not many had so much white. Greg shrugged mentally. Sky Priests were often odd in a number of ways. In Saaran’s case, it might even be his “southern” lineage. He was one of the few ’Cats from the Great South Island, the land humans remembered as Australia, who’d joined “the Grand Alliance” so far. He even talked funny. Word was, some “land Homes” of north and west “Australia,” culturally similar to Baalkpan and Maa-ni-la, were forming regiments and might apply for full membership in the Alliance. Garrett hoped they would. This war was a fight for all Lemurians to make—all people of whatever race or species.

  Regardless of where he was from, Saaran was an aggressive, eager student of naval warfare, and Garrett felt lucky to have him. He scratched the dark hair poking from under his hat with his left hand, while still holding the binoculars with his right.

  “Sails,” Garrett replied. “Plural. No count yet. Lookout caught ’em in the northeast, probably sailing in column. I can’t see squat from here.”

  “Ah,” Saaran said, smiling. “The predawn ‘GQ’ strikes again!”

  Garrett smiled too. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d snapped up a Grik ship simply by being on their toes at that critical time of day.

  “Maybe. I hope so. It’s been a little boring out here lately.”

  “Boring!” Saaran huffed. Donaghey and her sister, Tolson, under the command of Russ Chapelle, as well as the newly arrived Revenge, were blockading the western approaches to Ceylon and India. Besides the occasional enemy ship, these waters teemed with some of the most dangerous creatures in the known world. They were packed with an unprecedented (in their experience) density of ridiculously large and scary predators—some more than capable of destroying ships twice as large as theirs. The Navy had developed countermeasures that worked—when there was time to deploy them—but discovering the threat in the first place was the tricky part. Dangerous submarine creatures, like submarine boats, were difficult to detect and the “blockading squadron” was operating on one of the most nerve-racking stations imaginable.

  “Well, maybe not bored,” Greg allowed, “but there hasn’t been much ‘business’ since we clobbered that east-bound convoy a couple of weeks ago.” He shook his head. “As I said before, I think they’ve figured out that somebody out here is beating up the mailman!”

  Donaghey and Tolson had been making things rough on the Grik “mailman” for a while now, paired continuously since Tolson’s return from a special mission to Tjilatjap (Chill-Chaap) where Russ helped salvage an old freighter—and her impossibly valuable cargo. The two “first new construction” frigates were the last dedicated “sailors” in the Navy besides the dozens of prize “Indiamen” that had been “razeed” into swift, lightly armed corvettes, and they were commanded by the most experienced skippers. Not only were they independent of fuel requirements and able to remain on station longer, they were the fastest ships in the Navy—with the exception of the ship that brought the destroyermen to this “other” earth in the first place: USS Walker herself.

  Revenge had just arrived in theater. She was a new construction steam frigate of an entirely new—hopefully improved—design called the “Scott” Class. Named for the first Revenge, a captured Grik ship whose human-Lemurian crew fought to the last against staggering odds, she was bigger, faster, and more powerful than the first allied steamers. Her auxiliary sailing rig remained, but she was supposed to be almost as fast as Donaghey under steam alone. She had a good skipper too. Pruit Barry had been Walker’s assistant gunnery officer, and he’d commanded Tolson during the Battle of Baalkpan. Although he’d saved his ship, he’d been so sorely wounded that he was just now returning to action. Garrett was glad to have him back.

  “Deck there!” came the cry from the lookout above. ’Cats—Lemurians—had strange voices, Garrett reflected again, to carry so well even over such a brisk wind. “Sur-fass Taa-git now eight sails! Eight! Taa-git bearing seero fo fi, rel-aa-tive!”

  “Course?” Saaran bellowed in reply.

  “West-sou-west!”

  Saaran looked at Greg. “Perhaps business will pick up today!”

  “Yeah. Tell Clancy to get Tolson and Revenge on the horn. Maybe we can work it so we can sn
atch the whole bunch! We’ll keep our distance here to windward until we sort something out.”

  Over the next hour and a half, coded wireless messages clattered back and forth between Donaghey, Tolson, Revenge, and the distant Allied headquarters on Andaman Island. They had no proof the enemy even had receivers, but crystal sets were simple to make, and they had to assume they did. Therefore, all Allied transmissions were sent in five-letter code groups. The Japanese from the destroyed battle cruiser Amagi, which came through the same “Squall” as Walker and allied with the Grik, had been “reading their mail” from the start, and that memory still stung. Now, even before the plan of attack was finalized, Greg ordered Chapelle to bring Tolson north from the southernmost station, and she’d have to move quickly to reach position if they were to intercept the enemy short of the islands to the west. Not only was there a chance the Grik might scatter among the islands, allowing some to escape, but ocean denizens tended to congregate near the rich feeding grounds the islands provided. Revenge, with her steam power, cruised closest to shore, and Barry was told to bring her south. Before long, Tolson was seen flying north with a quartering wind, shouldering the sea aside. With the plan of attack taking shape as Garrett’s squadron assembled, Donaghey prepared to turn north herself. If everything went as Garrett hoped, it would be an exciting afternoon. Of course, Greg knew all about how fickle plans and hopes could be.

  “Sur-fass Taa-git, port bow, tree hunn-red yards!” warned the lookout. Garrett and Saaran crossed the deck. “Shaark!” came several cries.

  Garrett raised his glasses and stared at the fin cutting through the swells. “Jeez,” he said, “that’s not a shark! It’s a B-17 tail sticking out of the water!”

  “What’s a ‘bee-seven-teen’?” Saaran asked.