Shen rushed to the sonar station. The display showed contacts moving in perfect synchronization — too fast for conventional submarines, too organized to be torpedoes. Then it came to him… they could be unmanned underwater drones racing toward the ships of his squadron. The track closest to one of his ships was the frigate Qinzhou.
“That track right there” — Shen pointed to it — “what’s the range to the Qinzhou?”
“It’s, um, it looks like it’s passing directly beneath—”
The sound of the blast reverberated through the CIC. The shockwave of the blast buffeted the Zunyi, despite the two-kilometer distance between them and the Qinzhou. In that moment, Shen knew that no matter what happened next, he’d just lost whatever control of the situation he’d thought he had. His squadron was under attack, and he had no idea how it had happened or who had fired the first shots.
Chapter Thirty-Six:
First Blood
The emergency klaxon shattered the predawn quiet of the Joint Operations Center, its piercing wail cutting through the low hum of electronics and hushed conversations. Major General Yen Jiachun’s coffee mug froze halfway to his lips as the main display wall erupted in cascading alerts.
“We’re receiving an emergency transmission on VHF channel sixteen!” Captain Hsu Lichung’s fingers flew across his console. “It’s a Filipino merchant vessel — three-five nautical miles west of Magong Harbor.”
The speakers crackled to life with heavily accented English. “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is Motor Vessel Kalayaan Spirit, Philippine registry. We are requesting immediate assistance. We have Chinese warships attempting to board us. My God, they’re firing warning shots at us! We need help! We are in Taiwan territorial waters! We are requesting immediate assistance. Can anyone hear us?”
General Yen set his mug down with deliberate calm, though his pulse quickened. They had known this was a possibility. Still, they had somehow hoped it wouldn’t come to this. Now that it had, they had to deal with it.
“This is unacceptable!” Yen exclaimed. “In our own territorial waters at that. Get me a visual of the situation, if it’s available. Let’s get it on main screen,” Yen ordered, whipping the JOC into action. “All stations — Navy and Air Force, give me a tactical picture of what we’re looking at, now!”
The Joint Operations Center, manned by officers and senior NCOs from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and now TSG, moved with practiced efficiency. Monitors populated quickly with real-time data from Manta One, their Zephyr S pseudosatellite, maintaining its silent watch from its perch at seventy thousand feet over southern Taiwan. The infrared feed painted the Taiwan Strait in ghostly whites and grays, each heat signature tagged and tracked by the AI-assisted targeting system. It identified eleven PLA Navy vessels, denoting them as angry red diamonds, arranged in a loose crescent around a single blue square — the Kalayaan Spirit.
More data concerning the situation continued to flow into the JOC from a P-3 Orion, which had just completed its third pass of the area since coming on station two hours ago. Seconds later, a live video appeared on a monitor; the feed had been piped in from one of their Teng Yun UAVs, circling above Magong Naval Base.
“Get a confirmation of that PLA surface composition. I want to know what we’re dealing with,” Yen directed, focusing his operators’ attention.
The naval liaison officer, Commander Qiu Shaozheng, stared intently at his monitor before speaking. “I’ve got it. We’re looking at one Type 055 destroyer, designated Zunyi. Two Type 052D guided-missile destroyers. Four Type 054A frigates.” He paused, double-checking his screen. “Four Type 056A corvettes. Plus… damn, twelve maritime militia trawlers on top of it… and they’re moving in closer, possibly going to attempt to board them.”
“Unbelievable. They really think they can just violate our territorial waters like this.” Yen’s voice carried the shock of the moment and the weight of the reality that this was really happening. A total of twenty-three foreign military vessels had entered their territorial waters in pursuit of a single merchant ship.
“What’s the air picture looking like?”
Major Ke Jianhao, the Air Defense Coordinator, spoke up from his station. “We are tracking six J-10s inbound from the northwest, bearing three-two-zero. Currently ninety miles out, on intercept vector for our P-3 and our fighters on combat air patrol over Penghu,” he calmly replied before his brow furrowed. “Um, we’re also getting intermittent returns from the Patriot’s phased array tracking radar at Penghu Airport. It’s probably a stealth contact — maybe J-20s, but they’re ghosts for right now. We can’t get a confirmation yet.”
The J-20s were China’s fifth-generation stealth fighter, a counter to the American F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning IIs. Until they engaged another fighter, dropping their stealth profiles to fire their missiles, they were phantoms.
Another burst transmission on the emergency frequency aired over the radio. “Chinese Navy vessel. This is Kalayaan Spirit. We are a civilian bulk food carrier in Taiwan waters. We will not submit to your boarding request or—”
A new voice cut in, speaking accented but clear English. “Motor Vessel Kalayaan Spirit, this is People’s Liberation Army Navy vessel Zunyi. Under provisions of the Drug Enforcement Act of China 2033, you will stop your vessel immediately and prepare to be boarded for customs inspection. Any attempt to ignore these instructions or proceed to your destination will be considered a hostile act and treated accordingly.”
Jodi Mack looked up from her station, clearly shocked by the brazenness of the command. In the days leading to this event, Admiral Han had personally requested to have a TSG liaison embedded in the JOC. Her expertise in the autonomous systems with which TSG had augmented the Navy and Marines had made her the go-to advisor.
Jodi seemed to shake off the surprise of the situation. Her fingers danced across her workstation as she correlated data feeds from the numerous sensors surrounding Penghu. “General, we have vessels in the area,” she called out. “They are already responding.”
She cast her screen to one of the monitors on the wall. “Sir, Shark One at Magong confirms we have the frigate Chen De and the corvettes Wan Chiang and Fu Chiang on patrol nearby. They’re redirecting now to converge on the merchant’s position.”
“Time to intercept?”
Commander Qiu checked his plot. “Eight minutes for Wan Chiang; she’s closest. Chen De is twelve minutes out. The Fu Chiang is bringing up the rear at fifteen.”
The math wasn’t on their side. The PLA boarding teams could be on that merchant in five minutes and at least one of the fishing trawlers was already practically on top of them.
“Sir!” Master Sergeant Lin Meiqing half-stood at her console. “We’re detecting an electromagnetic spike from the PLA formation. They are going active with their fire-control radars.”
The Kalayaan Spirit’s captain came back on the radio, fear bleeding through the static. “To anyone who can hear this, we are a civilian vessel in Taiwan waters! Chinese Navy ships are attempting to board us. This is an act of piracy! We are requesting help immediately!”