Chapter 204: An Unexpected Misfire Again

In the Indian Ocean north of the Seychelles.

Captain Nunara of the Vishaka was observing the ocean surface with a telescope; he had led a frigate fleet here for a while now.

The salvage ship had not been able to precisely locate the position of the Kozhin, as the waters here reached depths of several hundreds of meters.

If they moved a bit further north, the depth would quickly increase to over 3500 meters.

The reason being that this area of the Seychelles is exactly on a huge underwater mountain range, but past this region, the depth reaches the average levels of the Indian Ocean swiftly.

Even so, there are still trenches here and there, with depths reaching or even surpassing the average of 3800 meters.

Thus, if the wreckage of the Kozhin fell into those trenches, it would essentially be impossible to salvage.

Nunara, while observing the surface, was actually more concerned about the movement of that American salvage ship a distance away; he was quite puzzled when the Burke-class Aegis ship suddenly left two days prior.

However, around four o’clock in the morning, those two fast-approaching aerial targets had him in cold sweats.

Fortunately, he managed to command the fleet in time, launching several anti-air missiles and accurately shooting down the two targets.

Before setting sail, the naval staff headquarters had ordered that they were not to launch anti-ship missiles lightly, but anti-air missiles were always allowed.

It was a defensive operation; one can’t just let other’s missiles hit one’s own warship and stand by idly.

The only problem was that after dawn, he saw the American salvage ship heading towards the location where those targets were shot down, which made Nunara a bit unsettled.

He left two frigates to continue operations with their salvage ship and led three destroyers and a frigate to slowly follow the American salvage ship.

Those two targets showed up on their radar similarly to incoming missiles, with subsonic speeds.

At the time, they were 80 kilometers away from the fleet and were taken down by his first round of anti-air missiles.

Nunara dared to launch the anti-air missiles because there were no international air routes passing through here, so civilian aircraft were absolutely impossible to appear.

But on the west side, that aircraft carrier group and the frigate from the Tanga Federation were conducting so-called anti-piracy drills – one had to guard against that.

He believed that this time, he certainly would not misfire.

After all, it was self-defense; even if there was a misfire of some missile, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

After daylight, the naval staff headquarters sent a communique commending his resolute defense actions, giving him some peace of mind.

But the fact that the American salvage ship was now rushing over there still left him feeling uneasy.

After all, with the radar on the salvage ship, it’s impossible to know the position where those incoming missiles had been shot down by him.

Yet, why is its course so precisely direct now?

By noon, Nunara was even more nervous.

The American salvage ship was circling in that area of the sea, evidently looking for the location where the missiles landed in the water.

That was not what made him anxious.

What unsettled him was that at noon, two American B52 bombers started circling over his fleet.

He used the international communication channel to ask the American planes to leave, but the two bombers only retreated a kilometer or two at most.

They still circled in large loops, seemingly enveloping the entire Asan country fleet as if ready to bomb at any moment.

Nunara immediately reported this to his naval headquarters.

The naval staff headquarters ordered him straight away to abandon tracking the American salvage ship, to return to the original position, and he was reminded not to engage in any conflict with the US fleet.

Clearly, the naval staff headquarters determined that it was his tracking of the American salvage ship that had drawn the bombers.

When he withdrew crestfallen to his original spot, the two B52 bombers indeed flew away.

Nunara was fuming with anger, was there no justice left?

It’s such a vast Indian Ocean, why can the US salvage ship go there, but not the Asan country fleet?

Of course, as a mere destroyer captain, he was unaware of the higher-ups’ strategies.

At this moment, it was a critical preparatory stage; if they antagonized the Americans, wouldn’t all the plans be ruined?

Until night fell, American planes, one wave after another, flew over Nunara’s fleet – there were anti-submarine patrol aircraft, bombers, electronic reconnaissance aircraft.

Considering their long-range capabilities, Nunara understood that these planes must all be coming from the US base at Diego Garcia.

At this time, the US Navy’s carrier strike groups in the Indian Ocean were participating in operations in the Persian Gulf region and had not come this far; otherwise, he should have seen F18s overhead.

As members of the Asan country navy who always imagined the Indian Ocean as their inland sea, the sight inflamed their hearts almost beyond restraint.

Many ran to the deck to give the middle finger to the American planes overhead, making various mocking gestures towards the aircraft, venting their fury.

Nunara saw this and didn’t want to intervene; such matters were better left to the personal feelings of the officers and men, as it was advantageous for morale.

But not long after nightfall, a huge tremor suddenly ran through the whole ship; anyone not holding onto something fixed was knocked to the ground.

Nunara hadn’t even gotten up to check what had happened when he felt the entire warship seemingly start to tip up at the bow, higher and higher.

Everyone immediately slid towards the stern; some crashed heavily.

Nunara didn’t even have time to order a battle alert before he was thrown against the wall in the command room towards the stern, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

At that moment, he had only one thought – his warship had been struck in the tail by something and was taking on water heavily.

Otherwise, how could the bow tip up like that?

Seemingly confirming his thoughts, first came a loud explosion.

Then followed a grating sound of twisted steel, and the entire warship sank into the ocean at an alarming rate.

All this happened very quickly; before the rest of the fleet could react, the Vishaka had disappeared from the ocean surface.

All warships immediately sounded battle alerts, with various searchlights directed towards the former position of the Vishaka.

Yet, the sea surface there had already calmed, and although currents were still raging, there was no trace of the warship.

Most importantly, there were no survivors or debris of any kind.

A destroyer raised a substitute flag and lit up, with Captain Herinik calling out on the communication channel, “Now, the fleet is under the command of this ship. A submarine must have sunk the Vishaka. All ships, execute anti-submarine warfare procedures!”

Even at night, the destroyers’ anti-submarine helicopters immediately took to the air, dropping sonar buoys around the fleet.

“Captain, a large object is detected moving underwater! Bearing is…”

Inside the bridge command room, the sonar operator already shouted.

Herinik ordered steadily, “Command all ships to release depth charges at that position!”

The fleet was originally in a circular defensive formation, ready to rest in the evening. Since the Vishaka was originally in the center of the formation, the underwater object detected was north-central in position, but it hadn’t left the defensive formation yet.

Thus, the ships could easily launch depth charges at the specified location.

“Boom, boom, boom,” a series of muffled explosions sounded.

Herinik asked, “Has the underwater object been destroyed?”

The sonar operator shook his head, “Right now underwater sounds are extremely complex. I can’t make it out!”

Another captain’s voice came over the communication channel, “My ship has detected a huge underwater object speeding away to the north. Speed 30 knots!”

Herinik cursed under his breath, “Damn, it’s trying to escape! We’ll chase it down and destroy it!”

“Herinik, could this be an American nuclear submarine? If we sink it, could it trigger a war between our two countries?”

“Salruk, you coward! The Vishaka was just sunk by it!”

“I think there must be a reason for this. We should report it to staff headquarters first.”

“I am the fleet commander now. Follow my orders, and chase it down! We can ask staff headquarters whether to sink it.” Herinik restrained his inner fury as he spoke.

This Salruk surely envied his position as fleet commander and was intentionally trying to annoy him.

Herinik thought this angrily and then instructed the communications officer, “Immediately report our situation here to the naval staff headquarters and tell them we’re waiting for their orders!”

“Yes, Captain.”

At that moment, about 50 kilometers north of this sea area, 200 meters below sea level, a Virginia-class nuclear submarine was heading south.

“Sir, it seems there’s a large submarine coming in our direction from the south!”

The submarine commander Gilt was surprised; why would there suddenly be a large submarine encounter here? Could it be that a submarine was following under the Asan country fleet?

“Battle stations! Ready the torpedoes at the bow of the submarine.”