diesel
will suck every breath of air out of the boat before the Diving Officer
realises his error. It had happened to the ‘The
Great Wall’ on a simple training
exercise with students from the academy a few years before. She had been a Ming
class, an ex-Soviet Romeo and someone probably ordered crash surface when they
realised what was happening but a fishing boat found it drifting ten days later
with all 70 students and crew dead from asphyxia.
Back to the Dai’s first time under fire, and the aircraft had been
doing a MAD sweep, its magnetic anomaly detector had picked up the distortion
in the earth’s magnetic field caused by the shallow running Dai’s metal hull
The executive officer had the watch and he had done it
by the numbers as if it were a drill, shutting down the diesels and engaging
the electric motor before diving.
Whichever nation’s aircraft it was, it had been known
that either there was no friendly boat was in the area or they just did not
care because they had immediately attacked with depth charges.
Luck had not deserted them entirely and the aircraft
had departed, either low on fuel or suffering some fault but it obviously
called for surface support because a half hour later a frigate, identified by
the sonar as either the Brazilian Liberal or the Constitucao, had lobbed depth charges at them from its 375mm ASW
mortar.
Sonar had first heard it thundering in at full speed
from ten miles away and Captain Li had the two obvious choices, fight or
flight. The first option was one he was
confident he would win, but it would alert all the navies in the region that a
submarine was in the area and that would hazard their mission. To run was not
an attractive bet as more surface vessels and aircraft would join the hunt
A good look at the chart though had given him a third
choice.
Captain Li settled the Dai into the mud close by
the wreck of the U598 , sunk seventy years before by US Liberator bombers,
and there they waited out the depth charging.
There was doubtless an interesting exchange between
aircraft commander and the ASW officer aboard the frigate as to the certainty
of the aircraft’s contact, but they endured two hours’ worth of attention and
twenty-three depth charges before the frigate departed. Fortunately, the
aircraft did not return.
Quite apart from the terrifying experience everyone
had endured, those extras bodies, the special forces troopers, had had a noticeably disagreeable effect on air quality. The carbon
dioxide levels had been bordering the red line.
Today Captain Jie Huaiqing, second in command of the Zhōngguó tèzhǒng bùduì , the Special Forces Company, squeezed inside and once
the steward had departed he sat upon the folding table’s stool. Both table and stool were spring loaded to fold up
against the bulkhead. A functional design but the stool could be challenging as
it would do so when not actually being sat on. It was another good reason why
alcohol was not allowed on board.
In the full knowledge that the ordinary sailor was in
reality a Lieutenant Commander in the Guójiā
Ānquánbù , the Ministry of State
Security’s naval division, the two officers exchanged formal pleasantries. On
the captain asking him how he was filling his time the army officer produced a
small book he had been reading from a map pocket. It was all about the life
cycle of the genus Dermochelys
coriacea, the Leatherback Sea Turtle,
and he continued with the enthusiasm normally associated with train spotters
rather than an officer in the Peoples Republics elite
forces .
Outside the cabin the state appointed spy moved away
back to his post in the small galley, satisfied that a regime toppling coup was
not in the process of being hatched.
Indeed no insurrection was being planned, but nobody
likes an eavesdropper so this game was played frequently.
“What news of the Tuan , Captain?”
The naval officer shook his head.
“None at all sadly, and I have sent a refueling
will suck every breath of air out of the boat before the Diving Officer
realises his error. It had happened to the ‘The
Great Wall’ on a simple training
exercise with students from the academy a few years before. She had been a Ming
class, an ex-Soviet Romeo and someone probably ordered crash surface when they
realised what was happening but a fishing boat found it drifting ten days later
with all 70 students and crew dead from asphyxia.
Back to the Dai’s first time under fire, and the aircraft had been
doing a MAD sweep, its magnetic anomaly detector had picked up the distortion
in the earth’s magnetic field caused by the shallow running Dai’s metal hull
The executive officer had the watch and he had done it
by the numbers as if it were a drill, shutting down the diesels and engaging
the electric motor before diving.
Whichever nation’s aircraft it was, it had been known
that either there was no friendly boat was in the area or they just did not
care because they had immediately attacked with depth charges.
Luck had not deserted them entirely and the aircraft
had departed, either low on fuel or suffering some fault but it obviously
called for surface support because a half hour later a frigate, identified by
the sonar as either the Brazilian Liberal or the Constitucao, had lobbed depth charges at them from its 375mm ASW
mortar.
Sonar had first heard it thundering in at full speed
from ten miles away and Captain Li had the two obvious choices, fight or
flight. The first option was one he was
confident he would win, but it would alert all the navies in the region that a
submarine was in the area and that would hazard their mission. To run was not
an attractive bet as more surface vessels and aircraft would join the hunt
A good look at the chart though had given him a third
choice.
Captain Li settled the Dai into the mud close by
the wreck of the U598 , sunk seventy years before by US Liberator bombers,
and there they waited out the depth charging.
There was doubtless an interesting exchange between
aircraft commander and the ASW officer aboard the frigate as to the certainty
of the aircraft’s contact, but they endured two hours’ worth of attention and
twenty-three depth charges before the frigate departed. Fortunately, the
aircraft did not return.
Quite apart from the terrifying experience everyone
had endured, those extras bodies, the special forces troopers, had had a noticeably disagreeable effect on air quality. The carbon
dioxide levels had been bordering the red line.
Today Captain Jie Huaiqing, second in command of the Zhōngguó tèzhǒng bùduì , the Special Forces Company, squeezed inside and once
the steward had departed he sat upon the folding table’s stool. Both table and stool were spring loaded to fold up
against the bulkhead. A functional design but the stool could be challenging as
it would do so when not actually being sat on. It was another good reason why
alcohol was not allowed on board.
In the full knowledge that the ordinary sailor was in
reality a Lieutenant Commander in the Guójiā
Ānquánbù , the Ministry of State
Security’s naval division, the two officers exchanged formal pleasantries. On
the captain asking him how he was filling his time the army officer produced a
small book he had been reading from a map pocket. It was all about the life
cycle of the genus Dermochelys
coriacea, the Leatherback Sea Turtle,
and he continued with the enthusiasm normally associated with train spotters
rather than an officer in the Peoples Republics elite
forces .
Outside the cabin the state appointed spy moved away
back to his post in the small galley, satisfied that a regime toppling coup was
not in the process of being hatched.
Indeed no insurrection was being planned, but nobody
likes an eavesdropper so this game was played frequently.
“What news of the Tuan , Captain?”
The naval officer shook his head.
“None at all sadly, and I have sent a refueling
Similar Books
