Fleet Commander Lassiter stood beside the sonar monitor and shouted in bewilderment, "Has it … sunk yet?"
He was also wearing a monitoring headset.
But a few minutes ago, the only sound that came from the headset was the sound of a violent explosion. These sound waves were like waves crashing into Lassiter's eardrums and brain.
Now, Lassiter felt as though someone had set off a string of firecrackers in his head. His eardrums were throbbing, and he had to shout to feel his volume.
The sonar monitor didn't answer the question, but made a shushing gesture.
He was listening to the subsequent movements in the water.
The series of violent explosions a few minutes ago might have sounded like a series of random sound waves in the ears of others.
But to his ears, these sound waves slowly turned into a three-dimensional "picture."
First, various types of missiles whizzed past the sonar buoy. The sound of the air vibrating at supersonic speeds was transmitted into the water, followed by the impact of the missiles entering terminal acceleration.
Using the sonar analysis system, he could even find the abnormal sound of the target ship crashing before the missiles exploded.
He didn't know what caused the target ship to crash, but he could analyze that the target ship had suffered three to five missile attacks.
Logically speaking, even if it was a ten-thousand-ton warship, under the circumstances of two anti-ship missiles hitting its belly, even if it didn't sink, it would be completely scrapped. If a cruise missile was added to the attack, it would definitely be sent into the sea.
When the sound waves from the missile explosion slowly faded, the sonar monitor didn't hear the unique roar of the target ship's engine.
But …
He also didn't hear the sound of the target ship sinking.
When a ship of ten thousand tons or more sank, it would definitely produce a very obvious sound wave on the surface of the sea.
For example, when the ship sank, the ship's metal would be affected by its own gravity, producing a rhythmic sound of distortion, and the sound of dense bubbles rising when it sank.
After waiting for two minutes, the sonar monitor still didn't hear any of these sounds.
At this moment, the sound of the huge waves caused by the missile explosion and the sound waves reflected back and forth at the bottom of the sea had completely disappeared.
The surface of the sea had calmed down, allowing the sonar monitor to more clearly capture the movements of the target ship.
"Sir, we haven't heard the sound of the target sinking."
"So I speculate that the target ship should be in a scrapped state. Our missile destroyed its main power system, and now it's just a piece of scrap metal floating on the sea."
Fleet Commander Lassiter rubbed his ears and asked him to repeat himself.
After listening to the voice attendant's report, Lassiter resisted the buzzing in his ears and picked up the earpiece again.
Moments later, Lassiter put down his earpiece and said loudly to everyone in the command room, "Very good. Our objective for this operation is to capture that mysterious' whale '."
"Although there were many accidents during the mission, and we also lost people that we couldn't accept."
"But we accomplished our goal in the end."
"We paralyzed the target ship in that area. It didn't sink, and the technology on it is still there."
"Now, full speed ahead to the location of the target. All non-core personnel wear life jackets and take the lifeboats. Salvage all the parts of the target ship that can be salvaged in that sea area."
"Yes, sir!"
…
For a distance of 70 nautical miles, it would take two hours and eleven minutes for the destroyer and the frigate to travel at full speed.
At the same time, Lassiter also sent all the data of this operation back to the Fifth Fleet headquarters. Two comprehensive supply ships and a salvage and rescue ship were urgently moving toward this location.
This was a race of speed, and this operation couldn't be exposed no matter what. They had to clean up all traces before the outside world could react.
However, just as the destroyer and the other frigate moved at full speed for 20 nautical miles, more than 40 minutes had passed.
The sonar monitor who had been monitoring the target's voice suddenly stood up.
The next moment, the sonar system began to sound an alarm, indicating that there was an abnormal sound source in the target sea area.
"Sir … Sir." At this moment, the sonar monitor's face was like he had seen a ghost. He said incoherently, "The target is alive. It's alive."
The Humpback Whale moved again.
When it was violently attacked by the shockwave, the heavily protected nuclear reactor in the middle of the cabin also entered emergency protection mode.
The primary cooling water circulating in the pipeline quickly activated the forced cooling program.
The ultra-supercritical unit shut down and entered pressure relief protection mode. The ship's power was completely lost.
These operations couldn't be forcibly terminated by the cockpit control system because there was no room for carelessness when it came to the safety of the nuclear reactor.
Even the monsters couldn't guarantee that the reactor wouldn't be affected if the impact on the Humpback Whale exceeded the preset safety threshold.
This was especially true for the primary cooling water responsible for heating.
The primary cooling water was in direct contact with the reactor core. It was highly radioactive and highly corrosive.
Therefore, in order to firmly control the radioactive elements within a safe range, the primary cooling water didn't have any contact with the secondary cooling water used to power the generator.
They only circulate in the sealed ultra-high pressure pipes. If the working medium water of the second circuit is heated, the valve of the heat exchanger will be opened, allowing the water of the first circuit to circulate in multiple fine hollow alloy pipes, and the heat will be transferred out through the alloy pipes.
Then, in the case of a violent impact or vibration, the reactor would quickly cut off the heat exchanger valve and forcibly cool the primary cooling water to ensure that the reactor's internal temperature never exceeded the safety threshold.
In order to restart the reactor, maintenance personnel had to enter the reactor room to confirm that there were no leaks and that all the pipeline structures were normal. Finally, the protective mode could be manually removed.
The Master Metal Experts took half an hour to reactivate the reactor. Dozens of minutes later, the secondary cooling water was reheated to a supercritical state and drove the generator to work again.
When the two electromagnetic engines with a total power of 200,000 kilowatt-hours were activated, the nearby sonar buoy immediately captured the abnormal sound signal.
This change caught them off guard. For a moment, the fleet commander, Lassiter, didn't know whether to continue forward or to let the three warships on the other side of Madagascar turn back to see if there was an opportunity to fire missiles at the target ship on the west side of Madagascar.
Commander Lassiter believed that since the target ship could be reactivated, they must turn around and flee.
With the speed of the other party, even the ship-borne helicopters couldn't catch up. Therefore, it was destined to be futile.
Then, the sonar found that the target ship increased its speed to 130 knots in a few minutes.
They didn't turn around and flee.
They rushed towards the fleet.
Are they crazy?
"Damn it."
Looking at the high-speed sound source on the sonar screen, Commander Lassiter roared at the crowd, "Inform the bridge to immediately turn 180 degrees and evacuate at full speed."
"There's another frigate. Send the signal and tell them to evacuate at full speed at 90 degrees."
"Damn it. Implement radio silence. Don't let them find us."
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