[Fiction] WarGame

[Typhoon]

This story takes place in 2009, in the Artic Ocean just north of Asia; these are some of the deepest waters in the world, and it was primarily used by Soviet subs during the Cold war as a route to get under the Artic ice pack where they would be within range of most of their would –be targets, and where attack subs would hunt them.

At 70 meters down Ex-Captain William Vaughn had made himself at home, he was watching a pod of Narwhals, a breed of whale that had a tusk that grew from it’s head and formed a sort of long unicorn’s horn, they were believed by the ancient Norse to be magical and to sea one at sea was a good omen.

,,

The water here was literally ice cold, but extreme temperatures no longer bothered William, as he had erupted the year before and never looked back, He could hear the whale song and it was quite possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

William now referred to himself as ‘Typhoon’ and he was a Nova. It was still quite new to him that he found comfort in waters that by all rights should be killing him now, he did not find the waters depriving to the senses, He could hear the engine of a vessel miles away, he could see wavelengths of energy traveling through the waters, The Narwhal pod seemed to glow with heat, he could almost reach out and touch them.

His reverie was broken suddenly by a new sound, a familiar sound, the sound of a torpedo launch, it was slightly different hearing it through the water, but it was unmistakable. He quickly ascertained that he was about twenty kilometers southwest from a naval combat, Typhoon moved to intercept.

,,

He got about four kilometers away form the skirmish and quickly identified three boats involved in the conflict, there was an ultra-quiet American Seawolf class attack sub which was staying a ways to the north and west of the combat, a quick but comparatively louder Russian Alfa class attack sub which was directly engaging a behemoth of a submarine, the 170m Akula or Typhoon class ballistic missile sub, this was the largest submarine ever built and to Typhoon’s knowledge the entire class was decommissioned seven years prior.

It should not be at sea.

Beyond that why were two Russians fighting it out while a US sub was standing by and watching? Ty decided to find out. He decreased his density to zero and swam to the Seawolf; he read the registry number off the side of the hull, ‘21’. He contacted the Seawolf via radio. “Typhoon to Seawolf. Typhoon to Seawolf. Over.” The reply wasn’t long in coming. “Typhoon? Vaughn, is that you? Over.” Ty recognized the voice. “Captain Morgan, good to hear from you, I wish these was better circumstances, but can you please tell me what the hell is going on? Over.”

,,

Captain Morgan sighed. “You never heard this from me, but, the Akula over there is under the command of one of your Nova buddies; it seems that one: Alexander Ivanovich is capable of intuitively controlling machines and reshaping them to his whims. He erupted a few years ago and promptly went insane, He had a naval background and reportedly often spoke of controlling military equipment. Moscow reports that he threatens independent missile launch, they are not bothering to explain how he came in contact with an armed decommissioned ballistic submarine. Over.”

Typhoon never had the chance to respond as the sound of a nearby explosive decompression attacked his senses.

He turned in time to see the now shattered Alfa sinking deeper into darkness; Typhoon could still hear the screams of the crew as the Alfa disappeared.

Captain Morgan did not hesitate; despite the fact that it technically broke the rules of warfare he opened fire on the Akula which simply dropped its counter-measures and seemingly ‘sidestepped’ the oncoming torpedo like it was no problem!

No submarine, especially the large, bulky Akula could ever hope to pull off such a maneuver.

The Akula arched slightly, turned and fired two torps streaked unerringly toward the Seawolf apparently the torpedoes had been pre-armed in the torpedo tubes, a practice that Captain Vaughn would never have approved.

,,

At this range of about 3000 meters the Seawolf could not possibly out-maneuver both torps. Typhoon swam with all his speed and solidified as he slammed his fist into the side of the torpedo, knocking it off course.

He instinctively put some distance between himself and the damaged torp just before it detonated.

He looked for the other torpedo as it passed the Seawolf by about twenty meters to her starboard but it soon started circling looking for a target. It was at this moment that the sound of a titanium hull twisting and crunching reached Typhoon's enhanced ears, The Alfa had reached crush depth, Enraged, Typhoon decided he didn’t have time to fuck around with torpedoes.

He went zero density again and swam straight for the Akula, betting on the fact that the Nova would still be dependant on the sonar of his boat, when Typhoon was a zero density sonar waves passed thru him, He was effectively invisible to sonar.

He solidified right next to the forward torpedo tubes of the large boat and began pushing against the doors of the tubes with his large hands; He increased his density to his maximum (at this point he was too close to the sub for it's sonar to detect him) and he jammed the doors closed.

He then phased again and passed thru the hull of the largest submarine ever built. He entered into the missile bay which looked a great deal like a technological forest, with ‘trees’ that could level entire countries. His Russian was rusty but he was able to read the readouts on the silos and found that the Akula was indeed armed! He could try to disarm the missiles but he’d more than likely accidentally blow one up. Typhoon swore mentally to himself, and moved on passing thru a nearby wall.

After finding the boat basically empty he eventually found his was to the bridge and there sitting in the captains chair was a man not in a Russian naval uniform who Typhoon could only assume was Alexander Ivanovich, who was quite surprised to see a seven foot tall titanium man walking onto ‘his’ Bridge. The Akula lurched and turned in response to the man’s mental commands. He swore in Russian. “Bastard! What are you doing on my ship?” Typhoon tried to his best Darth Vader impression in Russian, “I am Typhoon, disarm your weapons and return to port or I will destroy you.”

Based on what Ty could hear coming from the headset at the sonar station, it seemed that the Seawolf was attempting to hit the surface to avoid that torpedo that has apparently tracked back onto her. Alexander howled “I do not fear the likes of you, I have the ultimate power here, now, leave or I will destroy that toy boat out there, I have been toying with them thus far.” As he spoke those words he pointed his finger toward weapons control. Typhoon lunged for Alexander. Alexander simply triggered two more torpedoes to fire, two lights on the weapons control station went red, and then several lights started blinking and an alarm sounded.

The explosion ripped the forward section of the Akula apart from the inside, water flooded into the main torpedo bay, the missile bay and several control areas. Fire quickly spread and alarm klaxons sounded all over the boat. The Akula was already dead.

,,

On the Bridge, Alexander was thrown down by the force of the shockwave and was badly hurt; he had blood coming from a large gash about his right eye, and was visibly stunned, and at least a bruised rib from where he bounced off a console, Typhoon still stood there as nothing had occurred, but he couldn’t take any chances with a madman like this, He finally solidified and walked over to him. “I regret to inform you, that there is no way I can save you.” And with that Typhoon backhanded Alexander with his full strength.

Alexander Ivanovich could control machinery perfectly, but he had no defense for such an attack, Alexander was killed instantly.

Typhoon quickly left the Akula and protected the Seawolf from the last remaining torpedo, and then escorted the boat to port.

The US and Russian governments have never confirmed nor denied whether this story is true, but it is still told.