The Wolf of the Deep Sea

  Longitude 46°15′E, south of the equator, western part of the Somali Basin.

  Under the interaction of the Somali cold current and tropical monsoon along the coast of Africa, this sea area is windy and wavy all year round, making it one of the most unpredictable places in terms of weather changes. Before the popularization of meteorological radar, many ships would rather increase their journey to bypass this sea area. However, the strong winds and huge waves on the surface pose almost no threat to submarines that operate more than 200 meters below the surface. For an attack nuclear submarine that doesn't need to surface until all food in the pantry is consumed, it will have even less impact.

  Inside the command center of submarine "Gun Uzhai" with hull number 409, Major Hua Jianfeng stared intently at the telegram in his hand, frozen for a full five minutes. Next to him, several officers wearing khaki short-sleeved shirts also stared intently at the major captain, as if waiting for the captain's orders.

  More than a month ago, Hua Jianfeng led more than 100 officers and soldiers to set sail from Yulin Military Port on the "Gun Octopus" number.

  According to the pre-arranged combat patrol plan, after entering the South China Sea, "Gun Octopus" searched for suspicious targets in the waters near Zhongjian Island, Nansha Islands and Wan'an Beach, intimidated two old conventional submarines from Vietnam and Indonesia, and then headed to the Malacca Strait to rendezvous with a long-distance cargo ship that came to coordinate.

  After sailing under the belly of a cargo ship for two days and one night, the "Gun Octopus" entered the Andaman Sea and encountered an Indian Navy P-8I anti-submarine patrol aircraft that had just been purchased from the United States. They conducted a three-day simulated combat exercise, proving the quiet performance of the "Gun Octopus", and also collected characteristic signals from sonobuoys.

  On the fifteenth day after leaving Hong Kong, "Gun Octopus" arrived in the outer sea of Kochi Port at the southern tip of India and began to collect passing ships, mainly various Indian Navy ships, especially the characteristic noise of conventional submarines deployed in this area. This time, the number one target of "Gun Octopus" was that Indian Navy's newly acquired "Squid"-class conventional submarine.

  To strengthen its naval capabilities and achieve control over the Indian Ocean, the Indian Navy has purchased six Scorpene-class submarines from France in two batches. The first submarine built by French company DCNS arrived in India two months ago and is currently docked at Cochin Port. Once the Rambilli submarine base in the Bay of Bengal is completed, all three Scorpenes will move to their new home.

  Collecting noise from potential enemy submarines is a major task for any submarine force in peacetime.

  Being assigned to carry out this task is enough to illustrate the personal ability of Huajianfeng, a 33-year-old major who has been in the army for 15 years and served on submarines for 11 years, and has been the captain of the submarine for three years.

  Hard work pays off for those who are diligent, after nine days and nights of waiting, the target finally appeared.

  In the next three days, "Gun Octopus" not only tightly bit the Indian conventional submarine that went out to sea for training, recorded its characteristic noise, completed simulated attack training, but also followed it up to periscope depth on the third night, taking advantage of the opportunity for the other side to charge its batteries, using a micro-light camera installed on the photonic periscope to take several precious photos. Throughout the operation, the Indian submarine did not discover the "Gun Octopus" that was right next to it.

  Just as they were taking aerial photographs, "Octopus" received a telegram from a military communications satellite.

  The telegram was repeatedly transmitted until the "Gun Octopus" received the telegram and sent a reply, at which point it would be terminated. This must have been an extremely important telegram, otherwise they wouldn't use precious military communication satellites to repeatedly send telegrams towards the sea area where the "Gun Octopus" was operating.

  After receiving the telegram, "Gunboat" left the Indian submarine and turned southwest.

  Out of range of Indian Navy maritime patrol aircraft, the "Octopus" released a communication buoy after reaching relatively safe waters and then sailed southwest at 29 knots for 53 hours to reach the patrol area specified in the telegram.

  It's been five days already.

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

  The USS Houston is the 26th Los Angeles-class attack submarine, with the hull number SSN-713. Built in the early 1980s, it has been in service for over twenty years and will be decommissioned in a few years. Following the outbreak of the Afghan War and Iraq War, the Houston was deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility, homeported at Diego Garcia, conducting three surge deployments per year.

  During the three years that Huajianfeng was in command of the "Gun Octopus", it had encountered the "Houston" several times, and had already recorded the latter's characteristic noise. The "Houston", however, had never truly caught up with the "Gun Octopus", only detecting its presence a few times, and each time escaping at high speed, two sections above the maximum speed of the "Gun Octopus".

  Old friends meet by chance, and naturally go up to greet each other.

  As usual, the "Gun Octopus" took advantage of its superior stealth capabilities and spent several hours sneaking up behind the "Houston". After matching speeds with the opponent, the sonar operator on board the "Gun Octopus" opened the digital recorder and began recording the noise emitted by the "Houston". The collected audio signals would be handed over to professional agencies in the intelligence department for comprehensive analysis after the "Gun Octopus" returned to base, in order to determine the status of the "Houston" and whether it had undergone major renovations.

  If there were no other tasks, this silent stalking would continue until one side's ice-stored beer was about to run out and had to return. For the crew on a nuclear submarine, that often meant half a month, a month, or even two months. It was at this critical moment that the "Octopus" received a telegram from an ultra-long-wave radio station.

  Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio stations are specialized for emergency communication with submarines, especially those that do not surface during a mission. Generally, messages are sent to strategic nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines and not attack submarines. When the captain of a strategic nuclear submarine receives such a message, it usually means that the homeland has been hit by an enemy's nuclear strike or its security is seriously threatened, requiring a strategic counterattack against the enemy or raising the level of strategic alertness. If the former, the strategic nuclear submarine will immediately launch the carried submarine-launched strategic ballistic missiles to destroy the enemy within twenty minutes; if the latter, the strategic nuclear submarine must quickly enter combat readiness and prepare for missile launches at any time.

  This telegram was specifically sent to the attack nuclear submarine "Octopus".

  After a long sigh, Huajian Feng handed the telegram to the deputy captain Lejiacheng on the side, then asked Sheng Nachang: "Is the 'Houston' still ahead of us and how far is it from us?"

  "Dead ahead, less than thirty chains." A chain is a unit of length in nautical terminology, equal to one-tenth of a nautical mile, approximately 185 meters.

  "Slowing down to four knots, preparing to surface. We should also change shifts!"

  "Lao Hua, Captain!" Le Jia stepped forward two steps, shaking the telegram in front of Hua Jianfeng. "Relying on this telegram, we're going to surface and voluntarily expose our identity? For three years, the 'Houston' has known that we've been active in the Indian Ocean and has always wanted to figure out our identity. Now surfacing isn't equivalent to turning ourselves in?"

  The telegram contained only a brief message, with an approximate coordinate, a time frame, and the order to surface and await a special forces unit. At this point, the "Octopus" was just in the location mentioned in the telegram, and was approaching the deadline for surfacing. Most importantly, the telegram was signed by the General Staff.

  "This is a direct order from the General Staff, we have no room for choice." Hua Jianfeng didn't explain much to his deputy, "Issue the combat readiness order, if 'Houston' dares to come and cause trouble, we'll give it some color to see."

  "Old China..."

  "Execute the order!" Hua Jianfeng took out the captain's dignity and didn't give his deputy a chance to argue.

  Hua Jianfeng knew that in the sea area where enemy ships were active, floating on the surface of the sea, even just the action of surfacing, was enough to expose the submarine's trajectory. Because, for a submarine to float on the surface of the sea, it had to use compressed air to blow out the seawater in the ballast tank, producing a huge noise. For submarines that took concealment as their "protective charm", exposing their trajectory was equivalent to jumping into the net. If the "Houston" recorded the characteristic noise of the "Gun Octopus", then no matter where the "Gun Octopus" went to perform its mission, no matter how quiet it was, as long as it encountered an American submarine, it would be intercepted by the advanced sonar equipment on the American submarine, which would capture the weak noise emitted by the "Gun Octopus". After comparing with the characteristic noise data in the database, it could discover the "Gun Octopus" in time, and even secretly track the "Gun Octopus".

  However, Hua Jianfeng had no room for choice.

  The order was issued directly by the General Staff, using a strategic communication channel, indicating that this task is extremely important, and even if it means sacrificing "Gun Octopus" it would be worthwhile.

  As a soldier, Hua Jianfeng must unconditionally obey orders, even if it means sacrificing his life.

  Deng Lejia stood at the position of the deputy captain, giving the order to empty the ballast tank. At this time, Hua Jianfeng walked to the side of Sheng Nazhao and looked over at him.

  "Always under surveillance, 'Houston' didn't turn around, wait... no good..."

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

  "Houston is accelerating... no, it's also rising, following us up."

  " Surfacing? Does the captain of the Houston want to know what we look like?! " Hua Jianfeng's eyebrows jumped slightly, "Continue monitoring, report any unusual situation immediately."

  Sonar Long didn't hesitate and immediately pressed several buttons on the sonar operation panel.

  The General called over the armorer, and gave orders to preset the torpedo's firing data. However, he didn't rush to give the order to flood the torpedo tubes on the submarine, because the "Houston" was in front, and the "Gun Octopus" was behind - if things really came down to it, the "Gun Octopus" would definitely have the upper hand.

  At this time, the command center lit up with red lights, and "Gun Octopus" entered combat state.