Shannon flipped the weapons board to yellow hot, the initial stage to launching a RocShasta, which because of its solium based warhead, was treated in the same reverence as a nuclear warhead. She waited for the codes from Predator to cycle up the solium/alumarium mixture, which would make the solium highly unstable, and thus, incredibly powerful, as powerful as a 30 megaton nuclear type weapon. That was an amazing amount of explosive power for a missile not much larger than a modern day Earth Exocet missile. The board signaled that it was red hot and she pressed the firing stud. The missile dropped from the launch rail and then its engine built thrust and the scramjet pushed the missile forward at mach 5 and out of her sight.
Shannon immediately turned the Fantan away from the target. The blast would be immense; a satellite launch vehicle would be large, and full of fuel. The ASAT missile was actually over kill, but it was the only type of ASAT she had available. The RocShasta was actually more of an anti-starship design, but was modified, in the mod delta for anti-satellite use. The warhead was reduced in size by half and the fuel load was reduced by 75% since it was launched by an aircraft not a ground-based launcher. The effect was that four of the mod delta variety could be produced for the cost of one mod alpha.
She saw the glow behind her of the satellite detonating, and smiled. She had her first kill. Not bad for a girl that was being spoken of in only the worst ways. Shannon grinned, as she turned to head for a refuel craft. She wasn’t sure why she had just shot down a satellite, but it didn’t matter to her. Surely the CAG would explain it all to her after she landed.
|
