CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

Ainsley nodded slowly. “How far are we from Macaw?”
“Sixty miles, Admiral,” Richards noted.
“Get a hold of Roberts, and tell her to do a full sweep of that seamount. I want it
cleared before we get there. I don‟t know how long those Macs are going to be busy, but I‟d
prefer not to give them too much leeway.”
“Rapiers, this is Warseer. Be advised. Drop to the deck and increase speed to target.
Sanitize the area of any contacts and continue patrol until Actual arrives. ETA is forty five
minutes.”
Roberts obediently pushed the fighter down to the seabed, the eleven other
members following her down as they approached the seamount known as Macaw Bank. The
giant submarine structure loomed on her sonar like a black pillar, blocking out everything
beyond. The sea floor was a sheered rift valley, falling and rising like sweeping hills, the
Raptors ducking over and around them as they tried to mask and interfere with their
approach, denying whatever passive guidance locks might have been tracking on their
positions.
Behind her, Sarah Cunningham smiled a little as she settled in to a rhythm with the
seafloor below her, finding every hill and ravine both quickly and precisely as she pressed
her fighter closer and closer to the embankments, feeling the floor beneath her feet shudder
slightly as the huge amount of turbulence beneath her wings kicked off the seabed and
enveloped the Raptor. Rounding the next turn, something glinted in the shallower waters
above her, and her head shot up to see the shadow pass. It had almost looked like...
“Two Birds to Lead,” she called in. “I‟ve got a possible tally-ho on a bandit at eleveno‟clock
high, bearing three one five.”
...Roberts checked the bearing, both eyeballed and on sonars, but saw nothing. “You
sure about that, Two Birds?”
Cunningham strained to make out the shape again, but saw nothing. “Negative, can‟t
confirm. Request permission to pursue?”
Roberts hesitated for a long moment, and then swore. This wasn‟t something she
could take a chance on. “Granted, Eight. Nine, cover her.”
Obligingly, the two Raptors on the end of the formation peeled off and howled
towards the surface, Cunningham‟s eyes darting through the shadows faster than her fighter
could keep up. Her sonars continued to return nothing more than the black shadow of the
seamount ahead, which had started to cast a long, cold shadow through the water as the
sun sank lower on the horizon. The glare being kicked off the surface was painful, and her
eyes watered as she squinted to make out shapes through the gloom just beneath the
surface. Something sharp glinted ahead of her again, and quickly disappeared once more...
but her sonars continued to lie.
“This is not good,” she whispered inwardly.
“Two Birds this is Warseer. I have negative contacts. Area seems clear.”
Cunningham thought for a minute as the waves above her head continued to fly
passed. She looked again at the shadow on her sensors, and kicked the fighter over to close
with it. “Warseer, do you have any coverage on the back side of that seamount?”
“Negative, Two Birds. Macaw Bank is too shallow – we‟re completely blind northside.”
“Damn it,” she muttered again. “Request permission to make a high speed pass.”
Roberts looked up at the shadow of Cunningham and Rogers‟ fighters above her
head, and then looked forward to the looming seamount on her sensors, still several miles
off. “Do it.”
Cunningham didn‟t need to be told twice as she threw her throttles forward, and was
pressed back hard in her seat, chasing the shadow in to the rising mountain. Her sonars
continued to return little more than the haze of the distant fog, and her finger slowly came to
cover her guns as the fighter began to move in to the dark-side of the bank.
“Covering your six o‟clock, Two-Birds,” Rogers reported flatly.
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