It penetrated the upper deck, killing five men in and near a stairwell and then exploded, the force ripping the overhead deck apart and sending a blast of metal fragments, smoke and fire up into the air in a broiling column. It was a dangerous place to be struck, as the underdeck magazines for two of the ship’s three 152mm batteries were only two bulkheads away, and the outermost barrier had been badly buckled. Kirov’s designers had provided 100mm armor plating around all munitions storage areas, and there was no immediate threat of secondary explosion. Fortunately, the attack had come from the other side of the ship and the angle of descent on the bomb actually saw it driving outward towards the exterior hull, and not inward, so most of the damage was in access corridors and the stair well area, though a fire started that could pose a real danger if not rapidly contained. On the bridge they felt the ship shake with the explosion, and the Admiral’s eyes darkened with misgiving. Fedorov was quickly to the comm link to get initial damage reports and Karpov was activating the aft Tin Man HD video display to get a good view of the exterior damage.
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