Free Area 51: Excalibur-6 by Robert Doherty Page A

intruders—surface, subsurface, and air.
    His boat was one of six subs rapidly dispatched from

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    Pearl Harbor and set up in a loose semicircle between Hawaii and Easter Island to intercept the fleet.
    Satellite imagery had tracked the fleet and Porter knew that the other five subs were closing on this location, much like the German wolf packs had gathered in the North Atlantic during World War II.
    Porter turned the scope slightly, back to what appeared to be the flagship of the fleet. He knew from his recognition handbooks that the Viking was the largest man-made moving object on the planet. Even the supercarriers were dwarfed by the former oil tanker as it pounded its way through the waves.
    Porter's mission was to slow the convoy down to allow the other five submarines time to get in place. With three major targets coming into range, there was no question which one he would fire on. Despite the orders and explanations from higher headquarters, he was loath to fire on a Navy ship.
    The problem, as his executive officer/weapons specialist had pointed out to him, was that the Jahre Viking, besides being huge, was constructed in a manner that almost defied attack. Like all modern supertankers it was double-hulled to prevent oil spills, a feature that would also help defeat attack by torpedo.
    Additionally, its interior was composed of oiltight—which also meant watertight—holds. Even if he managed to breach the double hull, he would only be able to flood one compartment.
    Porter had passed the problem on to his crew, letting them war-game possible courses of action as they steamed to their present location. His executive officer had come with a suggestion that Porter felt was worth the attempt.
    There was the additional issue of a report that the ships might have the same sort of shield generator that surrounded and protected Easter Island. Porter clicked on a small button on the periscope handle, zooming in on the large tanker. He'd

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    seen photos of the opaque shield that surrounded Easter Island—obviously, if there was one here, it was clear. If there was one, Porter thought once more to himself.
    "XO, are we ready?"
    "Yes, sir."
    "Sending targeting information," Porter told him as he clicked another button and the top of the scope "lased" the Jahre Viking with a quick series of laser pulses that would give the targeting computer range, speed, and direction of the massive target. Porter knew missing was out of the question but the plan called for precise shooting.
    "We've got it," the XO reported. "Ready when you are, sir."
    Porter did a quick scan from side to side. To remain undetected, he had turned off sonar and the surface radar on the periscope. He wondered briefly how effectively the escort ships would react—he had conducted war game missions against his own Navy many times but had never thought he would be doing it for real. He knew the escort's antisubmarine capability and it was enough to cause a small trickle of sweat to go down his back.
    "Fire at will."
    Unlike the submarines of World War II, the tubes on the Norfolk were amidships and vertical. The reason—the MK-48 torpedoes they fired weren't line of sight, but guided either by wire or preprogrammed targeting. In this case, the XO had preprogrammed every MK-48 on board, all twenty-four.
    Four torpedoes rushed out of the tubes. As soon as they were gone, crewmen rushed to reload. As the MK-48s rushed toward the Jahre Viking, they moved on two tracks, two torpedoes each. The trail torpedo was two seconds behind the lead missile. The XO's idea had been to blow a hole in the outer hull with the first one, then follow it two seconds later

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    with another warhead to breach the inner hull. Right at a junction between two cells, flooding both. And subsequent volleys would do the same from stern to stern.
    "Tracking," the XO reported. "Twenty seconds."
    Porter looked through the periscope. He noted that the closest escort, a destroyer, was