Fire on Water
By: Robert J. Morris
(Main character: Jack Morrison)
It was a cool, fall, October morning, the crisp, cold, Atlantic air biting at my skin. The sound of waves hitting the bow of the ship echoed, overcoming every other sound, the nauseous smell of rocket fuel and smoke filled the air. All of the men were focused, we were all waiting for that one word that would spark so much activity among the ship, that single word that would cause so much death and yet so little thought.
It was the summer of 2016, and fear among the world's population was at its highest since the Cold War. Disagreements in the United Nations on control of certain parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans had caused countries to pick sides. Many of the smaller countries declared neutrality, while the larger countries became involved, funny, North Korea bowed out first thing. Though the biggest problem lied on the Russians; when the lines were drawn, the United States and Russia ended up standing on different ground. The current POTUS was nationally declared one of the dumbest yet; he had automatically declared war against Russia, with surprisingly large support from the American citizens.
At the time I was living on a naval base in Virginia. I was born and raised in Richmond Virginia in 1989, we lived in a small two story town house near the coast, so naturally one would be exposed to ships now and then, but something about them was mesmerizing to me. I pursued a career in maritime, and shipping. This education led me to make the decision to join the Navy. Within weeks of joining I was considered one of the best in my group, and I continued to rise up through the ranks, gaining respect and experience. I eventually was assigned to be the 2nd in command on a new destroyer that was to be commissioned.
October, 10th, 2016
It was three o'clock in the morning and I had received a call from my captain stating that we were to be conducting firing exercises with a carrier group composed of US and Royal Navy forces that morning and I needed to report to the dock early. As I was having a short breakfast, I had decided to turn on the TV to see what I could for the short five minutes that I would still be in my room. All over the news was just talk about war possibly being declared at the United Nations, I hadn't really cared for politics, and I only watched sometimes to laugh at stupid things they would say. After eating, I casually glanced at my watch, and my eyes widened "Shit, I'm going to be late!" I shut off the TV and rushed out the door. I at the time owned a black Chevy Camaro. I got to the parking lot and ran to my car; I grabbed my keys and struggled to hurry. Then I dropped my keys "Dammit, why me?" I picked them up and unlocked my car and jumped in. I arrived at the dock twenty minutes later still in a mad dash. I parked the car, got out, locked it, and ran as fast as I could to the ship. I reached the boarding dock reluctantly on time.
In the dock stood the ship that I would be serving, the USS Zumwalt, named after the Naval General Zumwalt, was the first of her class of destroyers, and by far the largest and most heavily armed class of destroyer there was. I stood in awe looking at this ship, when I heard "She's a beauty ain't she?" I nodded "Yeah she is" I turned around to see the captain, I quickly saluted "Good morning Captain Douglas" "Put your hand down, there isn't anyone around" I put down my hand and said "Yes sir, so how much firepower is this thing packing?" "You looked at the specs you were given last week right?" I scratched the back of my head "Eh, I forgot to, sorry" The captain smiled and said "It's fine, follow me onboard, I'll give you a brief tour" I nodded and followed him up the boarding ramp.
As he led me through the innards of the ship, he was saying "This ship is considered a Multi-mission destroyer, mainly used for land attack, but she could blow anything out of the water" He rapped his fist on the wall of the ship and said "The plating is about 10 feet thick steel plating, she is un-touchable" I smirked "That's what they all say, until an armor-piercing round, or missile lands a hit" "Yeah, but I got faith in her" He then led me to the stern of the ship. "This thing isn't just made for armor; [points at the missile cells] see those there?" "They are VLS cells sir" "You are exactly right, this ship has eighty of them, capable of firing Tomahawks, Evolved Sea Sparrows, and Anti-submarine missiles. Not only that but this ship can launch helicopters and UAV's from our flight deck" "Wow, this thing is a single ship fleet" Captain Douglas then took me to the bridge. Douglas looked at the clock and said "Well look at the time. It's time, the crew should be here soon, and then it will be time to take this girl for a test run" I smiled and said "Looking forward to it sir" He patted me on the back and said "Start her up will ya" I nodded "Yes sir!" "Good man" he said and he walked out to greet the men. I pressed the power start, and watched as the entire bridge lit up with electronics. The beeping, and buzzing noises of radar and sonar echoed throughout the room.
An hour later, Captain Douglas walked back in with five other crew men that would be operating the radar and communications systems in the bridge. The captain pointed at me and said to the men "This man here is First Lieutenant Jack Morrison; he is the man you will answer to when you aren't speaking directly to me, Got it?" they saluted "Yes sir" "Good, now get to your stations we are leaving right now" He gave me a cocky grin and said "Let's go" I then picked up the intercom and said "Welcome aboard the USS Zumwalt, now if you all would be so kind as to take your positions and give me a check on the systems, we will be leaving" I turned off the intercom and looked at the crew on the bridge and asked for a run through of the systems "Radar and Sonar systems check, communications working, targeting systems check, VLS systems working, Phalanx CIWS check" I nodded "Good, now call in port, tell them we are underway" the communications officer said "They have already given us clearance, sir" "Good… Captain Douglas" The Captain then said "Full speed ahead, set course for coordinates for 36.77,-74.25, we are to join up with a carrier group off of the ridge, good luck men".
Several hours passed by, when I was making my rounds through the ship. I was in the radar room when I noticed an officer shaking in his seat. I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump; I said to him "Why are you nervous? It's just firing exercises, it's not like we are going to war" He coughed and said "It's just this is my first time actually serving on a naval attack vessel sir" I smiled and said "What's your name officer?" He regained his posture and said "Officer James Wilkes, sir" I nodded and said "Strong name, now live up to it, this ship is like a body, it needs every organ functioning to survive, now that means you need to be strong, can you do that?" "Yes sir" "Good answer; now give me a radar report" He looked at the screen and said "We are closing in on the carrier force sir" I nodded and walked away headed top deck.
I got topside and grabbed the binoculars, as I observed the fleet, within my point of view I was able to identify several of the ships, these ships included the light carrier HMS Illustrious, the "Supercarrier" USS Gerald R. Ford, a pair of two Ticonderoga-class destroyers, and two Arleigh-Burke class cruisers. But something struck me as odd about the fleet, there were more attack ships then there were supposed to be. I picked up the phone to the bridge and asked "Were we told that there were going to be this many attack ships?" Captain Douglas paused for a second and said "I'm as surprised as you, but I don't think we should be worrying, now I need you on the bridge" "Yes sir, I will be up right now"
I walked up to the bridge and picked up the radio and radioed in the Gerald R. Ford "This is First lieutenant Morrison of the destroyer USS Zumwalt, requesting confirmation to proceed" a couple of seconds went by "Yes, Zumwalt, you will be leading the attack force in the front of the fleet" I heard them say attack force, when Captain Douglas picked up the radio and said "This is the captain of the Zumwalt, but did you just say 'attack force'?" "Yes I did" "I thought we were conducting firing exercises, over" a longer pause than last time "This is the Fleet Admiral speaking, you said you were informed that we were conducting exercises, correct?" "Yes, we were informed that we would be doing exercises off the ridge" "Well this morning, I'm sorry to say, but the United States had declared war on Russia" "You have to be kidding me, and even if you weren't, why would we be at war with Russia?" as there was a pause, I looked at the communications officer and said "Do a quick fact check on what he is talking about" "Yes sir" that's when the carrier responded "This is true information, and the reason for this is territory in the Atlantic Ocean, our orders have changed from firing exercises to red alert. We are heading to the Northern Atlantic with British forces on search and destroy" Then the communications officer looked at me and nodded "It's concrete" I rubbed my temples and picked up the intercom and said "This is your second in command speaking, our orders have changed, we are no longer set on training exercises, we are on red alert, the US has declared war on the Russians, and we are on search and destroy set for the North Atlantic, I'm sorry for the crap news, but we are officially at war" I slammed the intercom down and said "Permission to speak freely captain" "Granted" "This is asinine" "I agree but orders are orders, take a breather" I nodded and left the room.
I was on the deck arms crossed on the railing of the ship looking over the rest of the fleet, even though we were at war, the sight of ships still had an appearance of majesty. As I stood staring at the sea an officer walked up behind me and stood next to me and asked "Is the world ever really at peace?" I shook my head "No it isn't" The man grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket "Want one" "No, I'm not really a smoker" He grabbed one out for himself and said "Suit yourself" as he was lighting it I said "So you agree too that this is bullshit" He laughed a little, puffed out some smoke and said "I think war in general is stupid, but something about war excites me, I don't like it, but if it is to protect, I will go with it" I chuckled a little bit "Well, I guess there's no going back to Norfolk now" "Nope" We shared a few laughs, until I heard over the intercom "First lieutenant, we need you in the radar room" I dashed back into the ship and climbed down the steps.
I entered the radar room, when an officer said "We are tracking something on the sonar, information says it's a cruiser, but this fleet doesn't have any cruisers that small" I walked over to his screen and watched as the red blip blinked every scan, moving slightly every couple times "Run more scans, I want to make sure before we do anything" "Yes sir" I picked up the radio and said "Douglas radar thinks it has something" "Yeah, we know, we can see it through the binoculars" I looked at the officer and said "Alert the fleet" He nodded. Then Wilkes stood up and said "Information identifies it as a Slava-class cruiser… wait, sir they have lock on the" I looked at the screen and said "The ammunition ship" I turned back to the radio and said "Captain the cruiser has lock on the ammunition supply ship!" "Shit, I will alert the ship, arm the Phalanx" "Yes sir" I turned on the intercom, "All crew to your battle stations! Arm the anti-missile defenses and load missile cells one through ten, protect the fleet" then I heard "Sir, they have launched three SS-N-12 Sandboxes" "Blow them out of the sky!" "We can't, the CIWS is still starting up!" The captain radioed me and said "I couldn't get in touch with them, the cruiser is jamming us" then I heard a series of explosions partially feeling the concussion. "Bring up topside view on screen, now!" they brought up the screen, the ammunition ship had exploded. I was staring at the screen as I dropped the intercom. I picked back up the intercom and asked "Are the missile cells armed?" "Yes sir, VLS modules one through five are armed" I yelled over the intercom "Release hell!" "Got it!" throughout the ship we heard the roar of the sparrow missile launching. I looked back at the screen; I watched as it got closer saying "It's going, keep going" then the missile exploded as two AK-630 guns on the cruiser shot it out of the sky. "Dammit!" "Sir, we have two more ships on the radar" I picked up the intercom and radioed in the captain asking "What happened?!" "The Illustrious and one of our Ticonderoga are gone they were right next to the supply ship when it exploded, and we spot two Kirov class battle cruisers joining up with the Slava. The Gerald R. Ford is turning back and The USS Mitscher is putting UAVs in the air as we speak". I yelled and then ran up to the bridge.
I got to the bridge, and Captain Douglas said "All we have to use left are three cruisers and a destroyer." I looked out the window at the main battery and asked "Is the AGS ready, if so, we need that cruiser gone!" then I heard "They took out our UAVs sir" the captain said "Damn, call in the rest of our cruisers, tell them we are going to do an all-out attack" I nodded and picked up the radio "Load cells six through ten, and arm the mark one ten…" "Sir! The Gerald R. Ford is under attack!" "Continue with arming the weapons!"
It took an entire hour and within that time we had lost another Arleigh-Burke cruiser. Then I received the word "Weapons hot sir" The captain nodded, I then yelled "BLOW THEM OUT OF THE WATER!" missile after missile, each of our ships launched at the battle cruisers. They started to shoot down the missiles, until one got through and blew a hole in one of the battle cruiser's hull. Right when we made that hull I said "Put a round in 'em" The AGS then locked onto the opening in the Kirov class's hull and launched a 155 caliber shell. But right before it hit the ship, the Slava went in front of the battle cruiser and taking the hit. The round hit the cruiser's ammunition room causing the front half of the cruiser to explode rising it out of the water slightly. But as the cruiser sank, it was revealed that the two Kirov classes had their artillery locked on to us. When we noticed, Captain Douglas started to say "Evasive maneuvers!" But I knew it was too late. One of the armor piercing rounds hit the hull as we started to turn. I yelled "Hold on!" I grabbed on to the thing nearest to me as the shell exploded. After the concussion was gone I opened my eyes to see smoke coming up from the bow of the ship.
Everyone in the bridge was fine, and the captain only had minor glass cuts, I picked up the intercom and asked "Damage report!" "We lost part of our bow but we can live" I had a sigh of relief, but then I changed to the Mitscher's frequency and asked "This is the USS Zumwalt, Do you read?" [Static] "This is the Zumwalt do you read me, over!" "We read, our ship is immobile and our weapons capabilities are gone, we are listing, requesting rescue over" "Right away, gather as many survivors as you can into a raft, we will pick you up" "Thank you, we will be ready right…[loud explosion]" The magazine of the USS Mitscher had exploded. "Shit!" I yelled.
Captain Douglas suddenly collapsed to the ground, I ran over to see what was wrong. He had a shard of glass in his femoral artery and he was losing blood fast. A couple of the officers rushed him to the hangar and put him on a chopper. I was standing there frozen, just watching as the situation broke down around me. I was spacing, when I started to hear "Lieutenant!" I snapped out of it and said "What?" "We are waiting for orders, you are the second in command, and you are now captain" I looked at the officer and said "Load all eighty of the missile cells, if we run out of sparrows, use anti-sub missiles, I want it done yesterday and tell Officer Wilkes that he is the new second in command, retreat for now, but we will try again at dawn." That night was a very long one, we became even more outnumbered the two Kirov classes were joined by the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov but all that changed the next morning.
It was a cool, fall, October morning, the crisp, cold, Atlantic air biting at my skin. The sound of waves hitting the bow of the ship echoed, overcoming every other sound, and the nauseous smell of rocket fuel and smoke filled the air. All of the men were focused, we were all waiting for that one word that would spark so much activity among the ship, that single word that would cause so much death and yet so little thought. I walked slowly towards the com and asked "Wikes did we get in contact with the HMS Queen Elizabeth?" "Yes we did, but they said they probably can't make it for a few hours" I looked down, "Tell the men that we are all alone" "Yes sir" I hung up the phone, and then called in the missile bay "Is the main course ready?" "The missiles are ready, and how would you like your meal, cold launched or hot launched?" "Hot, be ready for your orders" "Yes sir" I then walked to the bow of the ship waiting for things to happen.
The ship then came into position; I picked up my radio and said the word "FIRE!" Wilkes repeated it to the crew. One by one, all eighty of the missiles ignited in their cells propelling themselves into the air creating a stream of smoke as they approached the Russian fleet. Then both of the Zumwalt's two mark one tens fired shell upon shell upon them. I watched as the missiles approached their targets. They got closer and closer, and then the sea turned into a lightshow. They managed to take out several missiles but the rest got through and absolutely obliterated the destroyers. Smoke filled the sky as the Russian fleet went up in flames. We all started to celebrate until the smoke cleared. I grabbed the binoculars, and my smile faded into a frown. We managed to take out two cruisers and a destroyer, and seriously damaged the aircraft carrier, but the heavy missile destroyer Pyotr Veliky still remained intact.
I backed up slightly and grabbed my radio "Don't celebrate yet, the carrier is still floating, and the Pyotr Veliky is still completely intact. Wilkes replied "What do we do? We just wasted all of our ASROC and our Sea Sparrows, all we have left is our Advanced gun system" I thought for a second and said "Arm the Tomahawk missile" "But sir that will take us with them!" "I know, but it is all we can do, we are running low on fuel, and we can't spare any to run away now, arm the cruise missile I want it cold launched, get everyone you can on the next helicopter, if we are going to be taken down by these bastards, then they are coming with us" "Yes sir right away" I flipped the switch and turned the frequency to the whole ship "Crew of the USS Zumwalt I would like to thank you for your service, but within the next hour, I will be launching a Tomahawk at the center of their fleet, you all will be evacuated so you don't have to die with me, this is Captain Morrison signing out for the last time"
A half an hour later, the helicopters were loading the last of the crew members on board, readying to take off. I walked up to the bridge, finally accepting my death, I saw that Wilkes had stayed in the bridge. I walked up to him and said "What are you still doing here, you need to get on the helicopter!" "With all due respect sir, but I am staying. You told me to be strong and become a working part of the ship, a body can't work with just a brain, it needs a working heart too keep it alive" I nodded and radioed the helicopters "You are clear for take-off, I would advise you to get as far away as possible, as soon as possible" "Yes sir, we will, good luck sir". Wilkes then said to me "The Tomahawk is armed with the W80 and loaded in VLS 65 Jack" "Thank you, we will use the last of our fuel to get as far away as we can, and then we will launch the missile, we will try to avoid dying as much as possible, but if we need to, I am ready" Wilkes nodded and saluted, "Put your hand down, we are on equal ground" "Yes sir".
It was a couple minutes before I launched the missile, and I was dragging my hand across the halls of the Zumwalt saying my last good byes to this ship. I got back up to the bridge, and opened the case that covered the launch button. And as I was about to press it, I heard over the radio "This is the HMS Queen Elizabeth, Jack, You don't need the Tomahawk anymore" "Douglas?" Suddenly five Harriers fly by the ship at near supersonic speeds. I watched as they barraged the Pyotr Veliky with Harpoon missiles, one of them hit a critical point on the battle cruiser causing it to explode. "Douglas, is that you?" "Yes, Jack, the crew told me what you were about to do for them, and I think that was pretty damn brave of you, but I also think that was pretty damn stupid too. Just hang tight, we are going to tow you and Wilkes back to Norfolk" "Thanks captain" "No, you are the captain".
When we got back to Norfolk, I was awarded the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, and was awarded by the POTUS the Medal of Valor. After I was awarded, I was offered a huge jump in promotions, to become a fleet admiral, but I declined stating that I wanted to continue being Captain of the USS Zumwalt, they understood, and kept the option open if I ever changed my mind. Currently I am still serving aboard the USS Zumwalt, in the Baltic Sea, and winning. Wilkes chose to also keep his position on the USS Zumwalt and is still my first lieutenant. This is not the end of this war, but it will end at some point and when that happens I will be happy.