46°15′ east longitude, south of the equator, in the western part of the Somali Sea Basin......

The interaction between the cold Somali current and the tropical monsoon that flows north along the coastline of the African continent makes the sea area one of the most unpredictable weather changes in the world. Before weather radar became widespread, many ships preferred to increase their range and bypass the area. However, the strong winds and huge waves on the sea surface pose almost no threat to a submarine sailing more than 200 meters below the surface of the sea, and even less on an attack nuclear submarine that does not need to surface until the food in the freezer is eaten up.

In the command center of the submarine "Gun Squid" with the number 409, Major Hua Jianfeng stared intently at the telegram in his hand and stayed for five minutes. Beside him, several officers in khaki short-sleeved shirts looked intently at the captain of the major, as if waiting for the captain to give an order.

More than a month ago, Hua Jianfeng led more than 100 officers and men to leave the Yulin Military Port aboard the "Gun Squid."

According to the combat readiness patrol plan that had been drawn up long ago, after entering the South China Sea, the "Gun Squid" searched for suspicious targets in the waters near Zhongjian Island, Spratly Island, and Wan'an Bank, intimidated two dilapidated conventional submarines of Vietnam and Indonesia, and then went to the Strait of Malacca to rendezvous with an ocean-going freighter that had come to cooperate.

After two days and one night under the belly of a freighter, the "Gun Squid" entered the Andaman Sea and encountered a P-8I anti-submarine patrol plane that the Indian Naval Air Force had just purchased from the United States.

Fifteen days after its departure, the Gun Squid arrived off the coast of Cochin Harbor at the southern tip of India and began to collect the characteristic noises of passing ships, mainly ships of the Indian Navy, especially the Indian Navy's conventional submarines deployed there. This time, the number one target of the "Gun Squid" is the "Squid" class conventional submarine that the Indian Navy has just acquired.

In order to strengthen the naval armament and achieve the goal of controlling the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy purchased six "Squid" class submarines from France in two batches, and the first boat, built by the French company D, arrived in India two months ago and was stationed in the port of Cochin. When the Rambilli submarine base in the Bay of Bengal is completed, the first three Scorpio-class submarines will go to their new lair.

Collecting the noise of the new submarines of an imaginary hostile country is the main task of any naval submarine force in peacetime.

Being able to be sent to carry out this mission is enough to show the personal ability of Major Hua Jianfeng, who is only thirty-three years old, but has already joined the army for fifteen years, served on submarines for eleven years, and served as the captain for three years.

The hard work paid off, and after nine days and nine nights of waiting, the goal finally appeared.

In the next three days. The "Gun Squid" not only tightly bit the Indian conventional submarine that went to sea for training. Recorded the characteristic noise of the opposing site. Completed simulated attack training. It was still on the third day and night. Follow the other party up to periscope depth. Take advantage of the opportunity for the other party to charge the battery. A few precious photographs were taken with a low-light camera mounted on a photoelectric periscope. throughout the operation. None of the Indian submarines spotted the Gun Squid, which was close at hand.

Just when I floated to the photo spot. The "Gun Squid" received a telegram from a military communications satellite.

The telegram is repeatedly beaten. Until the "Gun Squid" received a telegram. And after sending a return call. will be terminated. In order to ensure that the "Gun Squid" was able to receive this telegram. This must have been a telegram of great importance. Otherwise, the precious military communications satellite would not have been used to repeatedly send telegrams to the sea area where the "Gun Squid" was infested.

After receiving the telegram. "Gun Squid" left the Indian submarine. Turn to the southwest.

Leave the ground cruising range of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the Indian Naval Aviation. After arriving at the relative safety of the sea. The "Gun Squid" released a communication buoy. He then sailed southwest for fifty-three hours at twenty-nine knots. Arrived at the patrol area specified in the telegram.

That was five days ago.

For five days, the "Gun Squid" maintained a quiet speed of four knots, quietly waiting for new orders. As a result, before waiting for a new order, an old friend came: the USS Houston attack nuclear submarine of the US Navy.

"Houston" is the twenty-sixth attack nuclear submarine of the "Los Angeles" class, numbered SSN713, built in the early eighties of the last century, has been in service for more than twenty years, and will be decommissioned in a few years. After the outbreak of the "Afghanistan War" and the "Iraq War", the "Houston" was transferred to the Central Theater of the United States, based on Diego Garcia, and carried out combat readiness patrol missions three times a year.

In the three years that Hua Jianfeng served as captain, the "Gun Squid" and the "Houston" encountered several times unexpectedly, and the characteristic noise of the "Houston" had already been recorded. The Houston never actually caught the Squid, only a few times was aware of the Squid's presence, and escaped with its top speed of two knots.

When old friends meet by chance, they naturally have to go up to say hello.

As usual, the Gun Squid took advantage of its greater quietness and spent several hours sneaking around behind the Houston's butt. After sailing at equal speed with the other side, the sonar chief on the "Gun Squid" turned on the digital tape recorder and began to record the noise made by the "Houston". The audio signals collected will be handed over to the intelligence services upon its return to base, where they will be thoroughly analyzed to determine the status of the Houston and whether extensive improvements have been made.

If there are no other missions, this silent tracking will continue until one party is about to run out of cold beer and has to return home. For the officers and men on the nuclear submarine, that often means half a month, a month, or even two months. It was also at this juncture that the "Gun Squid" received a telegram from the ultra-longwave radio.

Ultra-longwave radios are dedicated to emergency communication with submarines, especially nuclear submarines that will not surface during the mission. In general, telegrams are sent to strategic nuclear submarines, and not to attack nuclear submarines. When the captain of a strategic nuclear submarine receives such a telegram, it often means that the mainland has been subjected to a nuclear attack by an enemy country, or that the security of the homeland is seriously threatened, and it is necessary to strategically return fire to the enemy country or raise the level of strategic alert. In the case of the former, the strategic nuclear submarine will immediately launch the submarine-launched strategic ballistic missile it carries, destroying the enemy country within twenty minutes; If the latter is the case, the strategic nuclear submarine must quickly enter combat readiness and be ready to launch missiles at any time.

It's just that this telegram was sent specifically to the "Gun Squid" attacking nuclear submarine.

After a long sigh, Hua Jianfeng handed the telegram to the deputy captain next to him, Captain Le Jiacheng, and then asked the sonar chief: "Is the 'Houston' still ahead, how far away is it?" ”

"Straight ahead, less than thirty chains." "Chain" is a unit of length in nautical terms, and a chain is equal to one-tenth of a nautical mile, about one hundred and eighty-five meters.

"Slow down to four knots and prepare to surface. It's time for us to change our breath! ”

"Lao Hua-Captain!" Le Jiacheng stepped over in two steps and shook the message a few times in front of Hua Jianfeng, "With this telegram, we will surface the sea and take the initiative to expose our identities?" For three years, the 'Houston' has always known that we are operating in the Indian Ocean and has always wanted to find out who we are. ”

The content of the telegram was very brief, with only an approximate coordinates, a time period, and the surface of the sea to meet the order of a certain special forces. At this time, the "Gun Squid" happened to be at the location mentioned in the telegram, and it was almost the limit of the time to float. The most important thing is that the telegram was written by the General Staff.

"This is an order given directly by the General Staff, and we have no choice." Hua Jianfeng didn't explain much to his deputy, "Give a combat readiness order, if the 'Houston' dares to come and ask for trouble, we will give it some color." ”

"Lao Hua ......"

"Execute the order!" Hua Jianfeng took out the majesty of the captain and did not give the deputy a chance to argue.

Hua Jianfeng didn't know that floating on the surface of the sea area where enemy ships were active, even just the act of floating up was enough to expose the submarine's whereabouts. Because, if the submarine wants to surface the sea, it has to use compressed air to blow out the seawater in the ballast water tank, which produces a huge noise. For submarines that regard concealment as a "talisman", revealing their whereabouts is tantamount to throwing themselves into the net. If the "Houston" had recorded the characteristic noise of the "Gun Squid" in this way, no matter what sea area the "Gun Squid" went on a mission in the future, no matter how quiet it was, as long as it encountered a US submarine, it would have been intercepted by the advanced sonar equipment on the US submarine. After comparing it with the characteristic noise data in the database, it is possible to detect the "Gun Squid" in time, and even secretly track the "Gun Squid".

However, Hua Jianfeng had no choice.

The fact that the order was given directly by the General Staff, using a strategic communication channel, showed that the task was very important, even at the expense of the "Gun Squid" for this.

As a soldier, Hua Jianfeng must unconditionally obey orders, even if he will die because of it.

When Le Jiacheng stood in the position of the deputy captain and gave the order to empty the ballast tank, Hua Jianfeng walked to the side of the sonar chief and looked at the sonar chief.

"All the time under surveillance, the 'Houston' didn't turn, etc...... Not good......"

"What's going on?" Hua Jianfeng's expression suddenly became nervous.

"The Houston is accelerating, no...... No, it's also floating, floating with us. ”

"Floating? Could it be that the captain of the Houston wants to know what we look like!? Hua Jianfeng's brows jumped slightly, "Continue to monitor, and report any abnormal situation immediately." ”

The sonar chief did not hesitate and immediately pressed a few buttons on the sonar console.

Hua Jianfeng called the commander of the armor over and gave an order to load the firing data for the torpedo in advance. It's just that he didn't rush to order the submarine's torpedo tubes to be filled with water, because the "Houston" was in front and the "Gun Squid" was behind.

At this time, a red light lit up in the command center, and the "Gun Squid" entered a combat state