“Yes, we must. It is time for Generals to confer over maps, and we have much to plan and do here. The fate of your nation, and the outcome of the war is now in our hands. General Kinlan’s brigade represents a powerful new addition to the British order of battle here, and a shocking new threat and rude surprise for General Rommel and his Afrika Korps. Yet know this… With every round your troops fire, your power diminishes. This brigade is a force that must devour itself every time it is used. Yes, some of the munitions you expend might be duplicated in this world, but most will remain beyond the capabilities of any industry here to replicate. Look there, general O’Connor. The map on that screen, and the equipment that displays it, could not be designed or duplicated by the combined knowhow and resources of your entire nation, even if we were to give you detailed blueprints of how it was made! There are materials and processes in this equipment that will not be understood or mastered for decades, just like the armor on those tanks you visited earlier. Understand? Well then you must also understand this… Take a hammer and put it through that screen, and that equipment is gone-permanently-and it is irreplaceable. So when you plan your war, realize that some of your vehicles will be lost, and worse, that men here will die, as they have already died aboard my ship. This is the nature of war, and we are but a torch in the wind here, bright, powerful, but doomed to expire one day, as all men must.”
“In the beginning, a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only flickering light… Later, coals, deep burning and unquenchable.”
Admiral Cunningham had heard it all, and he had gone through the same shock and disbelief that O’Connor had, but in the end, had been treated with the same cure. After the initial briefing, if it could be called that, Admiral Tovey suggested that they all adjourn, and then take a launch over to the new ship come to meet with them here, Argos Fire. It would give Cunningham that same experience Tovey had when he first boarded Kirov, the hollow verse of T. S. Eliot rolling through his mind and the coffee-spoon normalcy of his life being stirred away forever that day. The evenings, mornings, and afternoons would never be the same for him now, nor would they ever be the same for Cunningham.
They crossed to board the sleek white destroyer, a most unusual ship, with odd angles and a superstructure that blended seamlessly into the hull. Its tall superstructure was crowned by a large white dome.
“This is a warship?”
Tovey had much the same reaction when first seeing Kirov. At least the lines of that ship had that sharp and menacing aspect, the long foredeck and the rising steel battlements behind it, that spoke of power and danger on the sea. Yet those lines had been deliberately smoothed and softened in the refit Fairchild had applied to Argos Fire. It was necessary to have Captain MacRae deploy all the guns, which were retracted below deck when not in use. Even so, Cunningham did not seem all that impressed.
“What do you people do when it comes to a fight?” he said, trying to add an edge of humor to soften his obvious deprecation. “Pardon my remark, but do you simply use harsh words? Those two deck guns of yours are good for a light destroyer, but we’ll generally give them at least four or five. Your ship would match the displacement of most of our heavy cruisers to my eye. Take our own HMS York by way of an example. She has six good 8-inch guns on a little over 10,000 long tons full load, and here you sit with no more than a two guns that looks to be a 5-incher.”
“This gun replaced your own 4.5 QF Mark V in the 1960s. It was actually a 55 caliber barrel at that time, the Mark VI version firing ordinance that had been used by a 105mm artillery gun. We call it a Third Generation Maritime Fire Support Weapon. It can fire 25 rounds per minute, out to a range of 27,000 meters with our latest munitions.”
“Yes? Well with all due respect, I’ll put my money on our HMS York if the two of you tangle.”
“Well sir, we aren’t really designed to be a ship killer, though we do have other means than our deck guns. I was told you witnessed the rocket defense the Russian ship put up when it arrived at Suez.”
“That I did, and it was quite impressive.”
