“Thank you for that, Director Chao. Colonel Hsu, how long until they reach the strait?” Han asked.
“Forty-eight hours at standard cruise,” Hsu replied. “Twenty-four if they push hard to join the existing ships already on station.”
“Then we have one day to prepare.” Han turned to Jodi. “Can your machines handle a full fleet?”
She met his gaze steadily. “Admiral, during the Russo-Ukraine war, a single well-trained, well-equipped drone unit would routinely blunt entire battalion and brigade-sized attacks. In contrast, you have four hundred and seventeen SMEs working alongside your sailors and marines with the most advanced AI-controlled naval platforms ever built. Yes, I think we can handle them.”
“We’d better, for all of our sakes,” replied Admiral Han before adding. “Ms. Mack, I’d like you to remain here as my liaison. I want to make sure I can call upon your TSG expertise, should this go kinetic.”
“When, not if?”
Han’s smile held no humor. “April fifteenth is tomorrow. Beijing set this deadline. They’ll keep it.” He addressed his staff. “Alert all commands. Set condition two throughout the fleet. Inform the President — the autonomous guard is active.”
As officers scrambled to implement orders, Jodi found herself alone with the holographic display. Four hundred seventeen icons pulsed with patient menace. Each represented an angel of death, held in check by silicon synapses and the human wisdom of when to unleash them.
Elena’s voice crackled through her earpiece. “Aquarium, this is Shark Two. Coastal wolves report unusual activity. Multiple fast boats departing Xiamen harbor.”
Jodi brought up the video feeds from a trio of maritime sentry towers on Kinmen Island, giving her a view of the harbors around Xiamen used by the PLA Navy. Sure enough, they showed multiple Houbei-class missile boats and a pair of corvettes putting to sea. “That’s a good copy, Shark Two. Aquarium is tracking the situation. Maintain position.”
Mick joined the channel from Penghu Station. “Aquarium, Shark One is detecting an increase in submarine activity around Dongsha Atoll and the approaches to the Penghu Islands. Seekers-5 and 7 have identified five Yuan-class conventional submarines, two heading toward Dongsha, the other three toward Penghu,” Mick reported.
He paused a second before he continued. “Aquarium, Seekers-4 and 6 also detected four Yuan-class submarines and two Shang III-class nuclear-powered attack subs en route to the Luzon Strait. Be advised, these are likely trying to break out into the Pacific or get around to Taiwan’s east coast. How copy?”
“Good copy, Shark One,” Jodi murmured. “I guess tomorrow we’ll find out if they plan to enforce this new inspection by force.”
Jodi watched as the tactical picture unfolded around Taiwan. She thought of Sun Tzu’s ancient wisdom: “All warfare is deception.” In terms of deception, she felt they had delivered masterfully in this regard. They’d hidden their unmanned autonomous killer ships, disguised among fishing boats and oyster farms. They’d mined the paths approaching the shores of Taiwan with thousands of smart mines anchored to the ocean floor, all connected via an undersea mesh net that would allow the AI to coordinate their surface and subsurface attacks faster than any human could.
When Jodi expanded the tactical picture from Taiwan to the strategic view of the Pacific, however, it didn’t make sense. The deployments of PLA Navy ships from the East and South Sea Fleets were commensurate with the actions leading up to tomorrow. What puzzled her was everything else. In theory, the PLA Navy should have been deploying all its vessels to support this new customs regime, especially in the East and South China Seas, where it was likely to encounter resistance. Instead, this past week, they’d watched as large swaths of the North Sea Fleet sortied out of the Yellow Sea, past South Korea and into the Sea of Japan.
A few days later, this force of PLA warships had linked up with the Russian Pacific Fleet at the Vladivostok Naval Base, supposedly part of the Pacific EDEP exercise scheduled to start in May. Then, to everyone’s surprise, a dozen PLA Navy conventional and nuclear-powered submarines had made an unannounced port call at the Russian Kamchatka Submarine Base in Rybachiy. Jodi knew the TSG contract was specific to Taiwan. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Taiwan wasn’t the main event. Something else was up… something big. She just didn’t know what it was yet.
Chapter Thirty-Three:
Amber Watch
The thermal feed ghosted across the display, revealing faint flickers of heat behind a hedgerow — too angular, too deliberate. Torres leaned over Marrick’s shoulder, eyes narrowed beneath his helmet. “That’s not deer.”
The tanks sat cold beneath camouflage netting, their engines silent, hulls sunk into hardened berms carved into the Polish countryside. No headlights. No idling turbines. No chatter. The M5 Ripsaws stood motionless in sentry mode — running on battery power, their turrets slowly scanning sectors like wolves in the grass.
“Probably wild boar,” Marrick murmured, adjusting the drone’s thermal settings. “But I’ll tag it for monitoring.”
Torres straightened, his joints protesting after hours of stillness. Around them, Alpha Company held the line — fourteen M1E3 Abrams and their robotic wingmen scattered across three kilometers of forest and farmland: silent, watching… waiting.
This wasn’t training anymore.
“I’m walking the line,” Torres said quietly. “Keep me posted on any changes.”
Marrick nodded, eyes never leaving his screens. The warrant officer had grown thin these past weeks, living on energy drinks and determination. The burden of managing both manned and unmanned assets was telling.
Torres stepped out of the command vehicle into the Polish night. The air hung warm and still, unseasonably mild for April. Low fog drifted between pine breaks, muffling sound and blurring the tree line.
Perfect weather for infiltration, he thought.
He moved without night vision, letting his eyes adjust naturally. After twenty minutes, the darkness revealed its secrets — the bulk of camouflaged tanks, the geometric shadows of fighting positions, the faint glow of red-filtered lights where crews maintained their vigil.
At Alpha-22, he found Burke on watch, thermal sight slowly traversing their sector.
“All quiet?” he asked.
“Quiet as a crypt, Sarge.” Burke didn’t look away from his sight. “Munoz is catching some shut-eye. Kid was wound tighter than a spring.”
“He’s not the only one.” Torres climbed onto the hull, settling beside the loader’s hatch. “You good?”
“Been better. Coffee’s cold, can’t smoke on watch, I’m out of Zyn, and my back’s killing me.” Burke finally glanced over. “But yeah, other than that, I’m good. You?”
Torres chuckled, but didn’t answer immediately. A few kilometers to their front, the forest ended at abandoned farmland. Beyond that, somewhere in the darkness, lay Belarus. And beyond that… a lot of people with guns and armored vehicles.
“My sister called yesterday,” he said finally. “Said our parents are scared. News is talking about Taiwan, about Russian and Chinese ships massing in the Sea of Japan. She asked if I’m in danger.”