Free The Rods and the Axe - eARC by Tom Kratman

with the cylinders were some equally large egg-shaped containers on wheeled cradles. The observer could have made out the rolling mines, as well as the splashes, but probably would have missed the reserve naval officer recording the grid where any given mine was released and the white cord that actually armed the mine, or, rather, began its timed arming sequence, once it was underwater and the Thetis reasonably out of the way. The cords were reused, once they’d pulled the safety out of the mines and been hauled in.
    Recording the mine was possibly an exercise in near futility, since they almost never came to rest in a perfectly predictable way. Moreover, the Balboans were also dumping over the side some wedge-shaped gliding mines that could be guaranteed not to come to rest too very near the ship’s path. Indeed, those gliders would end up roughly twice the distance from the ship as the depth of the water. The gliders were also on a long arming delay, a full week, to ensure that the job would be complete before they went active.
    That said, it wasn’t completely random; the ship’s sonar scanned ahead and the mine chosen for dropping was selected based on the depth and nature of the spot ahead. Enough ready mines were held on deck to allow the crews to efficiently select the one to be used.
    To add confusion to anyone trying to clear the mines, a mechanical device tossed false mines—mere flat plates—to port and starboard, even as a crane heaved some simulacra over the side.
    The mines were of several types. Most of these were Volgan though Balboa had been able to get a small number of more sophisticated mines, some of which it had copied in slightly larger numbers. There was also a respectably large number of somewhat inferior Valdivian-made copies of an Anglo-Tuscan mine. The original was a device of great discretion and power. Even the copy was rather capable.
    The most common mine laid was a fairly simple cylinder, filled with some six hundred kilograms of tritonal, and set off by magnetic signature, acoustic signature, or by water displacement. The mines weren’t sophisticated enough to permit any combination of targeting parameters; the crews had to pick a fuse for one method and attach it just before rolling it down the ramp.
    Less common were several versions of Volgan rising mines. These were generally placed deeper and, on receipt of sufficient signature, would begin to rise to the surface. This allowed the mines to be placed on the bottom, where they were hard to detect, hence hard to clear, and move closer to a target upon detection. That they were especially effective against submarines was an additional benefit.
    Least common of the Volgan mines was the type once known on Old Earth as CAPTORs. In essence these were torpedoes, mated to sensor suites, that selected targets based on certain criteria and engaged them as if the mine were a submarine. The major difference between the Volgan torpedo mines and those of the Tauran Union and Federated States was that the Volgan versions could not self-emplace from a distance as some of the others’ could. Neither was really ideal for use against surface ships, being small with small warheads. They were best used against subs.
    The Balboans were not being terribly sophisticated about all this. Instead, they were just putting down a lot of mines, enough mines to ensure that no channel could be cleared through them quickly. Still, since the Isla Real , Isla San Juan, Isla Santa Paloma, Punta Gorgona, Isla Tatalao, and the town of Chimaneca contained extensive direct and indirect fire capability, to say nothing of fixed torpedo launchers for some of them, clearing a path was likely to prove prohibitively costly until at least the main island was cleared. Then, too, the mix of mine types and the mix in their fusing made the mine barrage somewhat self-defending.
    Nor was the intent to simply seal off the northern approaches to the Transitway. Balboa’s life blood was