Riding the Red Horse Read Free Page A

said, less gruffly than he might have.
    “That Red formation…” she said. “It looks odd to me. The collection of transports around the missile cruiser carrying the flag makes sense. But the escorts are deployed farther out than I'd expect. And farther from each other than I'd expect. Most of them are hull-down from the flag, sir.”
    “Analysis, Commander?” he ordered.
    “It doesn't look like poor stationkeeping to me, sir. See how regular the escort ring is? And they're all Luyang IIIs, the newest class. This is doctrine,” she said. “This is planning!”
    “Planning for what, Commander?”
    “I wish I knew, sir,” she said. “Whatever it is, it's something we don't understand. And we don't have a solid weapons inventory for Luyang IIIs yet. Some of what we have is guesswork.”
    Which is another piece of my worries,
he thought. But he said only “What do we know?”
    She scratched her nose. “Um. Much like the upgraded
Luyang II
-class. Six HQ-12 anti-air missiles, that's an upgrade of the -9. Eight YJ85 anti-ship missiles. 100mm main gun. They replaced the Gatlings on the Luyang II with a laser point defense a lot like the LaWS on our
Zumwalt
-class boats.”
    “Output?”
    “The received wisdom is that it's about 70kw, maybe two miles of range." Her eyes and posture added an implied commentary
…Don't lean on that too heavily.
    “That's not impressive,” Hatton commented.
    “No sir,” she said. “And to round it off, torpedo tubes. Phased-array radar nearly as good as ours.”
    A notion stirred in the back of Admiral Hatton's brain. There was something about that weapons mix...but before he could complete the thought, his personal communicator chimed. Hauling the Navy-modified smartphone out of a pocket, he thumbed ACCEPT and replied. “Yes?”
    But no human responded. Instead the icon for a flash-priority incoming from CDRUSPACOM glowed on the screen. Hatton's eyebrows went up as he thumbed the icon. “STAND BY” glowed on the screen, before being replaced by the image of Hatton's commanding officer. And Admiral Campitelli did not look like a happy man as he returned Hatton's salute.
    “Shit flows downstream, Admiral Hatton,” he began. “Are you ready to engage the invasion fleet? Because I've got orders to push you.”
    “My ships and men are ready to fight, sir,” Hatton replied. “But I don't like the smell of things, Admiral. Either the Chinese Navy has developed a case of galloping incompetence, or they're not scared of us. I do not think they're incompetent, and would very much like to know why they're not scared."
    “Yeah,” Campitelli said. “Me, too. You're not the only one who can read a threat board. And sending their carriers to cover
Alaska
?”
    “Oh, I have that part figured, sir,” Hatton said. “Sitting on the great-circle route from Elmendorf takes our other wing of F-22s out of play. To get here they'd have to engage those carriers or fly wide around them. Either way, the extra fuel expenditure would draw their useful time on target down to about zip before they bingo.”
    “So, they want Raptors off the board, but they're not scared of the F-35s,” Campitelli said. “Do you have any idea why?”
    “Nossir," Hatton replied. “I'd like to gather more intelligence before I go in. Since you rang, I'm guessing I'm not going to have that luxury.”
    “Ask me for anything but time, Augie," said Campitelli. “Washington has gone nuts. The President's civilian advisers thought the Reds would fold quietly if we waved a big enough stick at them. Now they're panicking - even they can figure out that as of now, the Chinese government has gone too far to back down without massive loss of face.”
    “Lovely,” Hatton said. “And we can't temporize without losing face, either.”
    “Nope,” Campitelli agreed. “You know our treaty obligations. Our credibility as an ally is at stake here; if we don't step up, half a dozen Asian nations are going to figure they'll