Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 251: For Your Majesty (66)

Dragon Raja 5

If one “Swordfish” cannot destroy Leviathan’s hard scales, it doesn’t matter, there are still enough spare ammunition in the torpedo library.

This was undoubtedly the best opportunity. Leviathan, which was severely damaged by the snake group, cannot even release the extremely cold word spirit, and their equipment was one of the most advanced nuclear submarines in the world.

After a brilliant salvo, they could return to Rome on the Nautilus, a triumph to be remembered… But Caesar remained silent.

A vague thought lingered in his mind: destroying Leviathan wouldn’t solve the problems in the Arctic Circle. The problems there were far more serious than Leviathan itself. That mysterious island, that mysterious employer, the body and heart of the god—all would become eternal mysteries with the fall of Leviathan. Furthermore, Leviathan didn’t seem to be the ruthless and terrifying creature he’d imagined. If it weren’t for its whale pod, it wouldn’t have been reduced to the brink of life and death.

“With our mobility, is there any chance of evasion?” Caesar asked.

“Report the target speed!” The captain stared into Caesar’s eyes and asked without turning his head.

“The speed has increased to 35 knots!”

“Our maximum stealth speed is 32 knots. We can’t shake that guy off just by speed,” the captain said, turning around and ordering, “Dive at full speed and release jamming mines!”

“Release interference mines! Diving speed has reached its limit! Depth 450 meters! Continue diving!”

The two rows of holes on the side of the Nautilus simultaneously discharged high-pressure gas, pushing out a group of spherical interference mines. When the white airflow spread out around the Nautilus, it was like the hem of a ballet skirt.

The induced mines floated steadily at a certain depth with the help of rotating blades, while the Nautilus continued to dive. Twenty seconds later, the induced mines exploded collectively, and the ballet skirts turned into flaming skirts, and the entire sea area was illuminated in a fiery red.

The shock wave shook the Nautilus, which was far away from the core of the explosion. The hull shook violently, and everything in the command cabin was shaking, but the captain still stood steadily with his hands behind his back, like a general looking at the continuous artillery fire from afar.

Jamming mines are usually used to interfere with guided torpedoes launched by opponents. In the high temperature, shock waves and light curtain generated by them, submarines can escape into the deep sea at high speed.

The sonar screen was bright white. When the jamming mine exploded, even the Nautilus’s own sonar system was interfered with.

But before the jammer exploded, the sonar screen showed the high-speed “medium-sized target” rushing into the center of the explosion.

The Nautilus shut down its engines and glided silently through the water. This elegant captain, likely a veteran of more than one submarine hunt, remained calm and experienced. Submarine warfare was like a sniper fight; the most important factor was who locked onto the enemy’s position first and fired first.

In the deep sea below 50 meters, sunlight cannot penetrate at all, and it is a pitch-black world. Both traditional short-wave radar and advanced laser radar are useless. Sonar is the most effective detection equipment. It can be said that submarines rely entirely on hearing to move, and the same is true for deep-sea animals. Therefore, submarines will not tremble at high speeds like fighter jets. They will hide at a certain depth, reduce the sound waves they emit to the weakest, and wait for the enemy to show their feet first. When the jamming mines exploded, the hearing of both sides was blocked within a few seconds. The Nautilus took this opportunity to glide into the deep sea in silence again.

The command cabin suddenly became dead silent, and all the sailors pursed their lips tightly. Just as Finger was about to speak, Jude Mai covered his mouth. This was also the rule on the submarine. When sailing in silence, everyone was silent, and only communicated with eye contact and gestures. The submarine itself was a hollow metal shell, an excellent conductor of sound. The same was true for seawater. The extremely subtle sound in the submarine would be amplified hundreds of times in the seawater. In a sense, whales and submarines are similar. They are huge, have keen hearing, and even have similar speeds. The captain’s experience in submarine hunting happened to be useful.

The jamming mines were certainly far less powerful than the swordfish torpedoes, so they wouldn’t kill Leviathan. But what about a severely injured Leviathan? No one could be sure whether Leviathan was alive or dead, let alone its location.

The Nautilus turned off its active sonar and only used passive sonar to scan the surroundings. The detection effect would be much worse. If the Leviathan also glided slowly in a similar way, they would only be able to detect each other when the shock waves of the sea water pushed out by both sides touched each other.

Calculating the time, nearly an hour has passed since the snakes attacked Leviathan. If Leviathan and the giant snake had not evolved gill-like structures to breathe underwater, then no matter who won, they would have surfaced.

If the winner quickly surfaces, the Nautilus will surely spot them, and then they will be safe.

Jiude Mai glanced at Finger beside her. Finger was holding the handrails that were everywhere on the submarine, standing like a marble sculpture, but his face was flushed.

He responded to Jude Mai with a pitiful look and wrote on Jude Mai’s palm, “I dare not move, but I want to go to the toilet.”

“It’s okay to stay here. I don’t mind, and I don’t think the captain will mind either.” Jude Mai replied.

“Cruise at minimum thrust, right rudder, and dive at a constant speed.” The captain put on the microphone and issued new orders in a low voice.

The Nautilus opened its watertight compartments to suck in seawater, then sank deeper into the sea with tiny bubbles.

The sonar screen displayed a scan of the seafloor. The depth was less than 1,000 meters, dotted with small mountain ranges. The Nautilus’s maximum diving depth was 800 meters, but military submarines were typically capable of diving deeper than stated in their manuals. 1,000 meters was likely the true limit. The captain was directing the submarine to cruise close to the seafloor, using the complex terrain for concealment. This was done with extreme caution, as impacting the seabed would cause damage, sometimes burying the entire submarine in the depths. But judging by the sailors’ composure, such maneuvers were commonplace for the Nautilus.

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