CHAPTER 311: CHAPTER 7: EXECUTION

Thirty-six hours after the fire started, the US Navy spokesperson announced gravely: the fire on the ’Ford’ has completely spiraled out of control, and Norfolk Naval Base is undergoing an emergency evacuation.

This is the world’s largest naval base, with fourteen piers and eleven hangars. The base houses a naval station, an amphibious base, and two naval air stations.

It can accommodate more than a hundred and twenty ships, and handle three to four hundred thousand aircraft sorties. Its repair shipyard alone is the largest of the US Military.

Should an explosion occur, the loss isn’t just the ’Ford,’ worth billions of US Dollars, but the base itself, with investments exceeding a hundred billion US Dollars, which would be a severe blow to US Navy power.

To prevent the ’Ford’ from threatening the entire base, Admiral Alvin made a ’brilliant’ decision—to blast the hull, create several large holes, and directly flood the fire with seawater in hopes of controlling the blaze.

At the same time, over a dozen powerful tugboats roared, and thick cables were pulled taut.

They severed the thick anchor chains tying the aircraft carrier to the pier, attempting to drag the behemoth away from the shore to distant open waters for handling, to confine the disaster to the smallest area possible.

Yet harsh reality proved that the blasting of the hull side was a blunder of epic proportions.

The explosion tore through the sturdy steel plates, leaving several ghastly wounds on the hull, like opening huge "ventilation windows" and "chimneys."

Massive amounts of air rushed into the hull’s interior, as if infusing the rampaging flames with new energy.

Before the firefighting foam could cover the source of the blaze, the flames inside, already roaring, expanded abruptly in mere seconds, as if fanned by a fierce wind.

The flames ravenously licked everything around them, releasing massive heat, as the rushing air currents moved with a deafening whoosh.

At this moment, a large number of media helicopters and private yachts gathered around Norfolk Harbor, drawing global attention to this supercarrier.

Millions of viewers, through live broadcasts, witnessed an unbelievable disastrous scene—at 3:25 p.m., the high temperature finally ignited the thousands of tons of JP-5 aviation fuel stored inside the ’Ford.’

In an instant, the ’Ford,’ which was billowing thick smoke, was consumed by a massive orange-red fireball, like an angry sun bursting open on the sea.

The immense, hundred-thousand-ton hull emitted an earth-shattering roar, as a visible supersonic shockwave radiated from the explosion center, spreading rapidly across the calm sea as a distinct circular ripple.

Giant waves stirred the sea, while rescue ships surrounding the carrier jolted violently, emitting teeth-gritting creaking noises.

People in the distance first saw the blinding flash and rapidly swelling fireball, followed closely by the thunderous explosion sound, akin to heaven and earth shattering, that made their eardrums buzz.

The ’Ford’ had barely been dragged a hundred meters from the pier when the blast’s shockwave charged directly towards it, like an unbridled stallion.

The scorching air rushed like an invisible wall, instantly toppling hundreds of rescue personnel and vehicles to the ground, scattering them like fragile props.

Fire pump trucks, weighing tens of tons, were lifted by the shockwave, drawing twisted arcs in the air, before crashing heavily at a distance, turning into piles of mangled scrap metal.

As for the unfortunate rescue personnel, under the dual forces of high pressure and heat, their bodies were torn apart in an instant, becoming a blur of blood mist, disappearing without a trace.

The helicopter pilots circling in the sky desperately throttled up in attempts to escape this zone of death, but unfortunately, it was already too late.

The tremendous heat released by the aviation fuel inside the carrier breaches the heavy armor protection of the ammunition depot. Thousands of tons of ammunition stored in the core area were fully detonated, producing an even more terrifying series of explosive sounds.

First came the flashover, followed by a more violent explosion!

The hundred-thousand-ton steel behemoth was forcibly lifted from the sea surface as if by an invisible giant hand.

Great flames rushed out like a volcanic eruption, forming an even larger mushroom cloud, while stronger shockwaves swept outwards like a roaring tsunami.

The ’Ford’s hull was torn asunder in the violent explosion, raining countless fragments skyward, before they fell like a torrential downpour into the sea, splashing sky-high waves.

Buildings and ships within a several-kilometer radius shuddered in heart-palpitating tremors, as all doors and windows were torn apart by the shockwave, emitting crackling explosion sounds.

Thick black smoke columns surged into the sky like a dragon breaking free of constraints, rapidly spreading and blocking out the sun.

Personnel within the base ran around like headless flies, with screams of panic and yells of despair intertwining, composing an apocalyptic scene.

Even the helicopters frantically escaping in the sky were not spared.

The violent airflow battered their bodies, and their fragile rotors twisted and deformed under the furious air currents, producing an unsettling metal tearing sound.

One after another, the helicopters were struck like flies swatted midair, making a muffled "pah" noise, then losing control, plummeting towards the ground or sea, leaving black dots of wreckage.

The largest base of the US Navy turned into a hell on earth.