Chapter 281 Surrender
The air force AC-130U gunship, 'Spooky', was being built during the beacon of democracy. One costs a hundred and ninety million dollars. It was simply too expensive. They were only produced when the United States had a strong economy. Otherwise, they could not afford them, especially its maintenance fees.
This gunship has a special feature. It was unbeatable against a short-distance battleship! It was fast, enduring, powerful, easy to control, and accurate. It would be a disaster to the enemy!
The way to use the AC-130U was to stay and travel away from the shooting range of the enemy. It was equipped with a 105mm caliber howitzer with a firing range of five kilometers. Even though it would not be very accurate at such long distances, the enemy would not be able to hit the aircraft. It could fire as many shots as required until it hit the target; the enemy could not do anything but watch!
The worst thing was: it was so quick that you could never run away from it!
However, the people at the Nassau port did not realize it was a fighter aircraft. The captain of Bunker Hill told the operators of the Close-in Weapon system, "Get that transport aircraft down when it's in range."
The operators of the Phalanx Close-in Weapon system were retired soldiers from the Brotherhood of Steel. When they saw the transport aircraft stop outside the shooting range on the radar, they had a bad feeling.
Even though they could not directly see the AC-130U, they knew there was only one kind of aircraft that would travel away from the target in circle: a gunship. Once it was stable, it will start to attack.
The effective shooting range of the Phalanx Weapon Close-In system was only one thousand and eight hundred meters. Its maximum shooting range was five thousand meters. However, the AC-130U was more than five thousand meters away. Even if they had the best luck, they would not be able to hit the aircraft because the 20mm artillery shell simply could not travel that far!
"Sir, there's a situation here!"
"What's going on?"
"It's not a transport aircraft."
"What is it?"
"It's probably a gunship."
"A gunship?"
The Cuban Captain on the bridge started to panic when he heard what the operators said. He quickly went to the bullet-proof window and searched for the aircraft with a pair of binoculars.
Holy sh*t!
He saw a 25mm small-caliber gun, a 40mm medium-caliber gun, and finally the 105mm howitzer on the transport aircraft.
Oh f*cking hell! It really is a gunship. It's already on its attack route and is going to fire at us any time.
"Fire! Shoot it down before it could fire." The captain of Bunker Hill was terrified; he quickly made an order.
"Captain, we can't reach it, our 20mm system is even worse than their smallest 25mm equalizer. We can't fight that."
The captain was in a state of despair when he heard the operators.
We can't do anything about the aircraft. What should we do now? The captain had no idea what to do.
Before the Cubans on the Bunker Hill could do anything, the AC-130U started to fire! An artillery shell was launched and landed near the tank landing ship. It missed!
Hmm…, firing on the flight platform isn't a very good idea. It's alright, let's try again. When the hydraulic buffer was reset, the loader reloaded another high-explosive bomb. The gunman shouted, "Fire!", and another artillery shell was launched.
After two shots of the artillery shells, the people at the port quiet down. They were all stunned by the scene. The explosion caused water from the sea to splash onto the Bunker Hill and the ships in the fleet quickly moved away from the dock landing ship. The other Cubans who followed the fleet were astonished.
Meanwhile, Santos' fleet was departing but they stopped. The people at the port saw everything. They saw the transport aircraft show its horrible, sharp teeth as soon as it turned - it's firing!
The Cubans at the port were astonished when they saw more artillery shells coming. They were getting closer and closer, more and more accurate. Some of the Cubans already covered their heads with their hands and started to panic.
"What the hell is going on?"
"How could that transport aircraft fire?"
"Why don't the people on the ship shoot it down?"
"I have a bad feeling, I'm afraid today, the fleet is going to end up like it did the last time."
On the other hand, the Bahamians who were forced to come were excited. Previously they were hopeless; they were depressed. However, the moment they saw the transport aircraft became a gunship, they started to cheer.
"Oh God, that aircraft is firing! I see that aircraft firing at the fleet."
"Bad luck for the Cubans, hahaha, it's such a great day! They are being punished by God."
"I knew the Polarlys Legion wasn't dumb enough to send a transport aircraft, I knew it!"
Shooting from five thousand meters away was indeed a little too far, however, the Cubans on the Bunker Hill were frightened of every single artillery shell that could hit them. The captain on the bridge was panicking and commanded the patrol ships in the fleet to get rid of the gunship. However, the people on the patrol ships were not listening. They were running away from the landing ship.
Five artillery shells were launched and finally, one of them hit the Bunker Hill. Even though the artillery shell did not create huge damage, the people on the ship were terror-stricken by the huge vibration.
However, there were alerts coming from the radar and communication department. They reported that the devices on the ship that were exposed in the air were very important. They would be totally messed up if those devices were destroyed.
The captain of the Bunker Hill was like an ant on a hot pot. He searched all the weapons on the ship and none of them could hit the gunship that was five thousand meters away. The Phalanx Close-In Weapon system could not reach it, the 76mm main cannon could fire at such a long distance but it was a flying aircraft! There was no way the cannon could hit the aircraft.
What should we do? The captain had ran out of ideas. There was only one option left: return to the port and run for your life!
However, the Bunker Hill, at fourteen knots, was as slow as a snail, it could not run away from the AC-130U. It took quite a while for the port to be in their current location. It was going to take more time to get back because there were artillery shells coming at them. The people on the ship were under huge pressure.
Another six artillery shells launched and one of them hit the bridge on the ship. The bullet-proof, strong armor protected the commanders on the ship. However, the huge vibration and impact killed the captain's will to resist.
If the captain of the Cubans could cry, he would say, "This is a tank landing ship! I can't do anything with the gunship. I can't fight with it, I can't run from it. For the peace of humanity and my people, I give up!"
As a result, it only took twenty minutes from the AC-130U showing up to the people on the Bunker Hill surrendering. There were more than ten artillery shells launched but only two of them hit the ship. The tank landing ship was completely fine, none of the people on the ship died, but they surrendered!