“Captain, did you catch that?”

“Yes, LT, I need you to get up to CIC now.”

***********

Captain Robacher put the phone back into the cradle

His face went blank; His mind went into overdrive as he tried to call out to INOPACOM HQ in Hawaii.

The line was dead.

He looked to his comms specialist one terminal down and frowned.

Captain, we are blind and deaf. I can’t raise anyone on secure SATCOM…

The captain fell back into his chair and swore.

*************

M/V Patriot South China Sea 0605

“Cortez..?! Captain??”

“Fuck!”

Lights began flashing on the console indicating they had lost connection to control and the remote operations center overseeing the convoy.

Jackson picked up the bridge phone and dialed his ETO.

“Javier, I need you on the bridge now!”

Javier was the vessel’s techie, the Electronic Technician.

Since the ‘pilot program’ was introduced as a way to meet the manning shortages of the global sea services in the west and as a way to cut down on labor in the rest of the world, only a small cadre of sailors were aboard even the largest ships.6

8000 meters ahead of the Patriot, ASV 2-1, the AAW ship was in the middle of its normal patrol pattern, actively scanning the horizon with its camera and radar for any threats.

The radar and FLIR onboard the ASV were monitoring the approaching missile but had yet to receive a classification on the system.

Since the loss of the connection in the minutes prior, the machine had no authorization to engage the rapidly approaching targets. In order to engage, weapons release authority had to be granted by the control station either at Guam or from an AWACs or P-8 flying overhead, and since there was no aircraft near, or connection with the operators, the ASV just took its course waiting for the connection to be reestablished. The system was in a loop waiting for direction when the first anti-ship missile struck the superstructure.

*************

Javier barreled onto the bridge, “What’s up, J?”

His eyes immediately tracked to the smoking heap of the escort drone on the horizon.

“Woah what the fuck did we get into, J?!”

“Get on the VHF and see if you can raise the other ships in the formation.”

“M/V Eagle M/V Eagle this is M/V Patriot.”

“M/V Eagle M/V Eagle this is M/V Patriot.”

Radio crackles with static.

“M/V Patriot this is M/V Eagle, what’s going on.”

“Eagle, we just lost connection to ROC, and we have missiles inbound. We need to override the safety on the CIWS, before they get too close, over.”

“Patriot understood we will start on that… it may take a few minutes to ….”

A massive explosion rips across the water interrupting the radio exchange.

Javier and Jackson rushed out to the bridge wing. Just about 6000 meters to their aft port quarter, an explosion had rocked the Eagle.

“J, get to the CIWS panel and clear the locks!”

“Aye, chief!” Javier said as he jogged off the bridge.

“Eagle, come in eagle!”

“What the fuck was that…

“Eagle Come in!”

Javier made a dash for the CIWS panel in the stateroom turned ops center a few decks below

*************

0615 MV Eagle 

Bernal grabbed his head. His ears were ringing, a moment ago he was on the radio with the Patriot, walking up to the bridge. Then black.

He looked up. The superstructure was in tatters. It was pealed back like a can and in flames.

Bernal was covered in blood and water. He glanced over towards the rising sun. The Convoy had less than 30 minutes before it would be completely light. He knew that the Eagle had less. Just as he rolled over and passed out from the pain, secondary explosions ripped open the deck of the Eagle as the magazines bound for Japan detonated.

*************

0620, M/V Patriot

He raised the radio one more time but was knocked off his feet when another detonation ripped across the Eagle.

“Fuck, that must’ve been the cargo cooking off.”

Just as Jackson returned to the bridge one of the missiles veered off course.

“… thank God,” Jackson said crossing himself

He moved up to the bridge window to face over the carnage. As he set his hands on the panel, he saw dark silhouettes vectoring down towards the ASV.

“Oh no, not the last escort!”

“Why aren’t they shooting at the missiles!?! Fucking useless Navy! Leaving the merchies to die while you sit in a fucking cubicle.”

The dark mass came down straight on top of the escort and detonated. The flash skipped across the water into the bridge, followed by the shockwave.

“Jackson, the CIWS is hot!”

Before Javier could finish the angry snowman on the top of the bridge let rip its chain gun on an approaching missile.

The vampire detonated sending debris and a shockwave breaking the glass on the bridge.

Jackson moved to the cabinet and grabbed the EPIRB, and tossed it on its life ring over the side of the bridge wing into the sea below. Next, he got the iridium satellite phone in a last-ditch effort to get help.

He extended the antenna while Javier was shouting a mayday call into the VHF, hoping someone nearby could rescue what was left of this convoy.

He dialed the emergency number for INDOPACOM, the Navy’s Pacific Command.

…. …. …. Unable to reach the network

“There should be a full signal, and we have complete line of sight to the sky?!”

“Oh shit,” Jackson muttered, realizing that the loss of connection to the Captain must have been something to do with satellites if the phone was down too. His face grew paler as he realized the EPIRB was worthless, too.

Jackson moved through the scattered mess of the bridge to the stairs down into the superstructure.

The CIWS above them took down another two missiles before running out of ammo.

“We need to abandon ship. Get the ditch bags and the supplies into the lifeboat.”

Another explosions rocked the ship as something broke through the phalanx of defensive fire.

The two men tossed their survival gear ahead, climbed into the lifeboat and strapped in.

Jackson looked to Javier and nodded.

Javier hit the release and began praying.

The small craft fell away into the sea below, dolphining under the surface before shooting back up.

Jackson fired up the engine and motored away from the doomed ship as fast as he could. Just ahead, he could see three of the barges had been hit. Those must have been the explosions earlier thought the pair independently.

A buzzing noise washed over the lifeboat. Javier looked out the top of the craft for the source.

“What the hell, are those birds..?”

His eyes were stinging with sweat, tears, and blood. He was exhausted at the barrage of the last 30 minutes. He couldn’t make out much else than the shape and a concerning buzz.

Before Javier could say anything to Jackson, the swarm of birds dove at the last barge. At least 30 of the pelicans from hell dove at the drone barge on a suicide mission.

Just as it came together, it was too late. The barge split in half at the force of the initial explosion

The concussion rocked the craft and knocked the two unconscious. Behind the lifeboat, the Eagle and Patriot began their descent into the depths.

*************

South China Sea 0645

“Bring us alongside”

“Yes, sir.”

The helmsman maneuvered the small RHIB across the chop near the listing lifeboat. The squad leader brought the spotlight onto the open hatch. A man appeared.

“Oh thank god, you got our mayday!”

“We were attacked and we..”

“What ship were you aboard?” interrupted the bald clad figure.

“Uhh the M/V Patriot…” the Filipino man said quizzically.

“Where are the rest of you?” insisted the figure on the RHIB.

The first man dragged another up into the light

“Here, we are the last two… “

The squad leader nodded to the man to his left.

The man raised his weapon and sprayed the lifeboat with rifle fire. The RHIB moved closer, the man with the weapon jumped into the small craft.

“Toss them over and scuttle it, we have 10 minutes left.”

The squad leader looked down at the bodies in the water, silently. He grasped the blossom on his lapel and threw it into the sea.

*************

Three Years Later

Sino-American War Commission: 

The Investigation into the Conflict with the PRC Following the Seizure of Taiwan

Excerpt from Classified briefing report to Congress:

… In the days leading up to the start of hostilities with the People’s Republic of China, two RORO cargo ships, four drone barges, and two ASV convoy guards were lost to what is believed to be a coordinated missile and drone attack by PRC/PLAN forces. These cutting-edge drone ships had the top level of protection afforded to civilian merchant ships moving military cargo during peacetime. The ASV or Autonomous Surface Vessel is the product of the Sea Hunter Program to reach the 355 ship goal set earlier in the 2010s. Even with the advanced protection, all the vessels were lost. No survivors were recovered. The commission has no data or information on why or how they were lost other than a recording of the last few minutes before the ships lost connection with their remote operations drivers back in the continental United States. This recording depicts that the onboard defensive Close in Weapons system (CIWS) camera identified and vectored on an approaching volley of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM). The mate on deck at the time told the remote operations center driver of the approaching threat, and then the feed went dead.