The roles of the hunter and the hunted seemed to have switched.
The Burke-class destroyer forcefully drew a U-shaped circle on the surface of the sea. The other frigate was even faster and pulled away from the destroyer in a few minutes.
To prevent the radio detection radar from finding their tracks, they even implemented the highest level of radio silence.
Fleet Commander Lassiter ignored the violent jolts of the hull as he fled. He quickly tore a blank piece of paper from the equipment maintenance register and wrote something on it with a pencil.
His mood was as turbulent as the command room on the sea.
He could easily calculate the speed and position of the ship.
The target was 64 nautical miles behind them.
They were now retreating at 32 knots, while the target ship was chasing at 130 knots.
There was no need to calculate how long it would take for the target ship to catch up to them.
He only needed to do a simple calculation. If the target ship went straight ahead, it would reach their current position within 30 minutes.
What could he do in 30 minutes?
Thirty minutes was enough for the destroyer and the frigate to run in two different directions.
They ran 16 nautical miles.
Lassiter quickly recalled the information about the influence of the Earth's curvature on sea level vision.
Under the influence of the curvature of the earth, if the weather was good, the Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, which had a draft of nearly eight meters and the height of the antenna on the top of the control tower and a drop of twenty meters from the sea level, could be seen by observers from a distance of twelve nautical miles above the deck.
If the distance was 20 nautical miles, an observer standing on high ground could use binoculars to see the radar antenna at the top of the destroyer.
Based on the satellite image, the height of the target ship's top building was about 30 meters.
If an observer stood on the top of the target ship and used a nautical telescope to observe …
Even elementary school students knew that the shortest distance between the two was in a straight line. Fleet Commander Lassiter could only order the two warships to run in different directions in a straight line, trying to run as far as possible in the shortest time possible.
But after some calculations, Lassiter realized that no matter which direction they ran in …
The target ship could catch up within half an hour and easily lock onto the two warships through visual observation.
When the staff officer saw the numbers Lassiter wrote on the paper, he instantly understood the seriousness of the matter. "Sir …"
"They might not be able to find us … right?" Racite's face was pale as he comforted himself. "From the previous exchange of fire, the target ship is equipped with electromagnetic wave shielding and high-power electromagnetic interference equipment."
"But it doesn't have any long-range firepower. Strictly speaking … it's still a civilian ship."
"We're now in radio silence. The target ship is sixty nautical miles away. It's impossible for them to accurately lock onto our position."
"There's … a high probability that they're running in the wrong direction."
Lassiter's words weren't without reason. The target ship was still 60 nautical miles away. At this distance, whether it was the shipboard radar or the optical observation equipment with high resolution enough to observe the craters of the moon, they would all be limited by the curvature of the earth.
Since the target ship could not obtain the exact coordinates now, it was very likely that it would deviate from the direction of the chase.
As long as the other party's course deviated by ten degrees, the observer would not be able to find any targets from the sea.
At this thought, Lassiter could not help but pray that the other party would deviate from their course.
"Sir …" The staff officer hesitantly touched Lassiter's shoulder. When Lassiter opened his eyes, the staff officer pointed at the observation window on the outer wall.
Following the direction the staff officer was pointing, Lassiter saw the fiery red sky at dusk.
Lassiter was somewhat puzzled.
The staff officer whispered, "Sir, do you still remember the missiles we fired?"
At this moment, Lassiter's expression changed drastically. He ignored his status and rushed out of the command room to the spiral staircase.
Standing there, he could see the entire sky.
Then, he saw the sky behind the destroyer. There was a huge cloud pillar that looked like gold and powder.
This cloud pillar traversed the entire sky, and the closer it was to the end, the more obvious it became. He could even see that the cloud pillar was actually made up of many tiny, snake-like threads.
This was the trail of smoke from the missile's engine after it was fired.
The smoke contained large amounts of liquid and gas waste, as well as tiny particles from the combustion of solid fuel.
If it was a clear afternoon, the smoke would appear pure white. But it was dusk now, and the rays of the setting sun had dyed it into an exceptionally obvious golden cloud pillar.
In windless weather, the trajectory of a missile could remain for hours after it was fired, much less the trail of smoke left behind by more than a hundred missiles.
As long as the crew of the target ship wasn't blind, they would definitely notice the golden cloud pillar in the sky. Naturally, they would be guided by the cloud pillar and accurately find the target like a radar.
Originally, Lassiter had imagined the missiles to be a deadly net.
Now, it seemed that this' net 'was indeed deadly, but it was his life that was at stake.
Why dusk?
Why did he only have half an hour to escape?
At this moment, Lassiter wished that Lady Luck would give him another hour to hold out until night fell.
…
A few minutes later, a shrill alarm sounded in all the cabins of the destroyer.
There were seven short alarms and one long alarms. When the crew members at their posts heard the alarm, it was as though they had heard a cry from the abyss.
This was because this was the highest level of danger warning.
This was the abandonment alarm.
After hearing the alarm, everyone had to immediately abandon their work and rush to the deck to board a lifeboat to evacuate the mothership within five minutes.
Five minutes meant that the crew members had no time to pack up their belongings, nor were they allowed to take any personal items that took up space.
At this moment, everyone had questions in their minds, but no one wasted time raising them.
Orders were paramount, and they could only grit their teeth and rush to the deck.
When they reached the deck, they didn't discover any signs of an enemy attack.
The destroyer relied on oil as its power source, not nuclear power that could be completely scrapped if an accident happened. Besides, the destroyer was in good condition, so why abandon the ship?
"This isn't a drill. Everyone, immediately carry out the emergency evacuation according to the predetermined procedures."
"This isn't a drill …"
The destroyer was in the midst of an emergency deceleration as lifeboats were released into the sea by cranes. The cabins were filled with confused crew members who had 'am I dreaming' expressions.
On the other side of the destroyer, the frigate was carrying out the same emergency evacuation order.
Dozens of minutes later, more than twenty lifeboats carrying all the crew members were floating on the sea.
Then, these lifeboats scattered like flowers in the sky, spreading out into the surrounding waters.
The lifeboats were equipped with high-speed motors. Although they only had a range of a few hundred nautical miles, they could reach a speed of nearly forty knots.
In addition, with the size of the lifeboats, as long as they were a few dozen nautical miles away, they would be able to completely disappear from the sight of the target ship.
In a situation where it was impossible to bring the destroyer and escape the demonic hands of the target ship, this was the only way Fleet Commander Lassiter could think of to save himself.
They had already used up all their missiles, and the first frigate didn't even have time to send out a distress signal before it was completely destroyed.
Lassiter, who didn't want to die prematurely, would rather completely destroy his future than take another look at the 'black behemoth'.
Of course ~
If he didn't do anything and left a destroyer and a frigate here, he would definitely lose his future and his life.
Therefore, he ordered people to install a timed self-destruct device in the ammunition depot. Half an hour later, when the target ship arrived, they would see two fiery clouds rising high above the sea.
In fact, using a remote self-destruct device to activate the moment the target ship came into contact with the destroyer was the best plan.
But Lassiter didn't dare to gamble on whether the electromagnetic interference device on the target ship would still work.
To be absolutely safe, the timing device could only work on a mechanical principle.
"Run. Run as far as you can." After Lassiter, who was curled up in the cabin, said this to the staff officer, he buried his head deep into his life jacket and no longer looked at the sea outside.
I'm finished.
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