“What the hell do you mean by that?” Chinese General Chan with three stars on his shoulders shouted in to the phone. “That base is one of our biggest in the region. How could something like that happen without us knowing?”
His subordinate, a Brigadier under his direct command was on the other line. “I don't know sir. We just received a SOS from the base informing us that some unidentified people had overrun their defences and killed or imprisoned all of the defenders. Even the Base Commander is missing.”
“I don't care about who or how many are missing or dead, I just want to know who did this and punish them.” General Chan hissed with barely suppressed rage.
The Brigadier thought for a few seconds as he contemplated his reply. News of numerous major setbacks, one after the other was playing havoc with their carefully planned strategy. What had started out as a win-win game had turned in to a nightmare turning worse with each passing moment. “All that I can say at this stage is that whoever did this was very well equipped and trained. The whole mission reeks of a top class special operations team and a big one at that. The base with three hundred people was overrun within an hour with no causalities on their side. We should be really careful with this.”
This statement gave a pause to the furious rants of General Chan. Although the attackers had overrun the whole base but still had not assumed full control. They had come in like a surprise typhoon, destroyed everything in their path and then vanished. There were almost a dozen Chinese bases in the region, all of them much smaller and much easier targets. The fact that the attackers had chosen to attack that particular base while ignoring all the low hanging fruit was most worrying aspect of the situation. Not only had they good intelligence regarding the layout and defences of the base, its flawless execution also meant that they had prepared for it in advance. Not many countries had such kind of resources and skill at their disposal. Chan nervously chewed on his mustache as he considered all the points. “Are there any American or Russian assets in our seas? Anybody or anything suspicious enough?”
Relieved of the tension that had been gnawing on him during the pregnant pause, Brigadier replied immediately, “No sir.”
Chan snorted derisively, “You should say that you haven't been able to detect anything yet. Somebody just destroyed our base in our own backyard and we have no clue hours after it happened. Something is really screwed up.”
Poor Brigadier had no idea how to answer that, “We are trying our best to catch the miscreants. “
“These are no ordinary miscreants Brigadier. You probably don't have any idea what you are dealing with. “Shaking his head in mild irritation he asked, “Tell me something that you know. How are you searching for the attackers and our missing men?”
“We've pressed all of our remaining ships and aerial reconnaissance vehicles from Beihai and adjoining bases. But I believe we'll need more than that. If I may have your permission, can we call for reinforcements from Hangzhou? ”
“Are you really that stupid Comrade Haw? Do you really think that we can move our assets from that area with Japanese and Americans breathing down our necks? Those ships and planes stay where they are.”
Brigadier objected weakly, “But sir, it'll take us weeks to cover all that area with what we have it here.”
General Chang realised that the Brigadier was telling the truth. Pausing again for a while, he took some deep breaths and asked “What’s the location of our 3rd fleet?”
“They'll pass Malaysia in few hours.”
“Call them back and order them to help with hunting down the hostiles in Spartlys.”