Captain Trammell’s pulse quickened as the threat profile came through — an onslaught of inbound Chinese missiles, each a flying stick of death. At the top of the list was the YJ-21, a hypersonic antiship ballistic missile developed to punch through even the most advanced AEGIS defenses. Capable of reaching terminal speeds above Mach 10, it was designed to kill or cripple capital ships with a combination of kinetic impact and deep-penetration warhead detonation. Alongside it were salvos of YJ-18s, China’s primary sea-skimming cruise missile, notorious for its subsonic approach and terminal sprint at Mach 3. It was the classic saturation tactic naval warfighters had feared for years — a multivector, multispeed assault aimed at overwhelming layered defenses through sheer volume and complexity. The OPFOR wasn’t just probing; they were trying to break the shield.
“Whoa, that’s a hell of a barrage. How is GIDEON responding?” Trammell asked Meilof.
“GIDEON’s initiated full battle group defense,” Meilof replied, eyes locked on her console. “All three Stormwatchers have fanned into intercept arcs — SM-6s are already in flight, prioritizing YJ-21s by predicted impact vector. Secondaries are tracking the cruise wave; SeaRAMs and lasers are holding fire for leakers in the sprint phase. Sidewinder turrets are on standby, slaved to shared targeting data. GIDEON’s adjusting posture every second — this is a live fire net, not a picket line.”
Trammell watched in fascination as the Stormwatchers transformed their scattered formation into something he’d only seen once in a simulation. Instead of each ship creating its own defensive bubble, they merged their sensor pictures and weapons employment zones into a single integrated defense. The lead Stormwatcher’s radar painted targets while the trailing units remained silent, their missiles guided by their sister ship’s data while their ship kept its radars off, preventing them from being quickly identified.
The holographic battle space flared with dozens of red arcs, all converging on the task group in staggered waves. Twenty-four YJ-18s came in low, sea-skimming just above the wave tops. Behind them, thirty-six more broke over the horizon in a second volley. Higher still, twelve YJ-21s screamed in from the stratosphere, their trajectories sharp and fast — maneuvering ballistic arcs with hypersonic velocity profiles.
“Splash twenty-two,” Senior Chief Thompson exclaimed excitedly. “Two leakers from the first wave — heading straight for Stormwatcher-2 and Stormwatcher-3!”
The Stormwatcher-class unmanned surface vessels (USVs) shifted formation instantly. The GIDEON-AI had already predicted the surviving missile paths, retasking additional interceptors before Thompson had finished speaking.
Trammell watched on the display as the SeaRAMs roared virtually to life, digital missile tracks reaching out for the incoming sea-skimmers still bearing down on them. Intermixed with the missiles were precision laser bursts from the vessel’s cobalt beam turrets, which zapped targets as they crisscrossed the simulated sky. The last two YJ-18s blinked out seconds later, the defenses holding.
“Heads up, here comes the second wave. They’re entering Stormwatcher-2 and Stormwatcher-3 laser envelope now,” announced Meilof as calmly as one could with dozens of incoming missiles. She continued, “Thirty-six YJ-18s inbound. Hang on, it looks like GIDEON is overclocking its targeting cycles. It’s moving to rotate Sidewinder packs for full quadrant saturation.”
Trammell could barely keep up with what was happening but saw that the holographic board continued to grow denser with activity. Blue and gold icons on the ocean’s surface representing friendly assets were swarming into defensive alignments. The trio of Stormwatchers layered their beams and missiles like a living wall. The ACVs fired missiles in pairs, some tripled, others stacked at different altitudes to hedge against evasive programming.
“Eh, there are too many,” Meilof muttered from the BMC-R pit. “They’re coming in too fast to react to them all.”
“Hang on, intercepts are happening… nine down… fourteen… twenty-two,” Senior Chief Thompson announced excitedly. “Splash thirty-one — ah crap,” he reported grimly before adding, “We’ve got five leakers from the second volley zeroing in on Doomhammer-1, Zealot-2.”
Trammell watched three simulated impact icons blossom in red against the 524-foot-long Doomhammer-class unmanned surface vessel arsenal ship. The Huntington Ingalls Industries ship wasn’t out of action yet, but a third of her ninety-six VLS cells were down. The two other hits against Zealot-2 blotted her from the board, a simulated kill against one of Trammell’s patrol-boat-sized counterdrone vessels.
“Ballistic missiles inbound!” Thompson exclaimed as the digital representations of the YJ-21s came diving in.
