"The ship was ordered to reduce its speed to 12 knots, and the whole ship once again carefully inspected the damage. After thinking about it, Colonel Charles said: "Report the situation of this ship to the 'Mastin', and let Lieutenant Commander Brown lead the 'Mastin' as the lead ship, and the ship as the rearguard." Well, at the same time, inform the fleet command about the formation, and the formation will pass through the Taiwan Strait according to the original plan. ”

"Yes, Colonel!" the communications staff officer on the side began to inform the parties according to Colonel Charlie's orders.

At this time, the deputy captain spoke: "Colonel, CNN's reporter Miss wants to interview you, and she wants to ask about the formation. ”

Colonel Charlie turned his head to look at Miss and the photographer who were waiting at the door of the command cabin, he frowned and said, "I'm not free now, you go and send him away." "Colonel Charlie complained about the command of the American Pacific Fleet, which sent reporters on warships, and made a military operation like entertainment, and he didn't know who came up with the bad idea. Well, now that there was an impact, we have to find a way to hide it.

After Colonel Charlie's order was delivered, the American Navy formation moved quickly, and it had to be admitted that the American Navy, as the most powerful Navy in Blue Star, was indeed second to none in terms of execution. Only half an hour after the impact, the Benford, although it is not yet clear what it struck, has recovered from its initial tension. The "Mastin" replaced the "Benford" as the lead ship and led the formation to sail, and the whole formation quickly returned to normal in an orderly manner, but the cruising speed was reduced from the original 20 knots to 12 knots.

………………………………………………………………

The American naval formation on the surface of the sea has calmed down, but the perpetrators on the bottom of the sea do not want to let them go easily.

Ye Hao is here, the seabed put the large pieces of smashed boiler into the space, and the other fragments are not taken care of, and it is normal for some scrap iron on the seabed to be there, as long as there is a lack of integral parts, even if the United States comes to salvage it, it is not afraid.

Li Tie, who turned into a dolphin, jumped out of the sea, and Ye Hao, who was hiding in the dolphin's body, looked at the American Navy formation that was gradually moving away on the sea.

"Somehow must be found to slow down the speed of the formation. Ye Hao was thinking about a way in his mind.

The current speed of the American Navy formation is 12 knots per hour, while the maximum speed of the underwater thruster purchased by Ye Hao is only 10 knots. Ye Hao prepared a big meal for the American Navy formation, and the previous impact with the boiler and the "Benford" was just a pre-dinner snack.

Fortunately, as a black technology in the 23rd century, the biometal robot Li Tie has the ability to amphibious in the sea, land, air and space. He has a strong ability to sprint short distances in the sea, with a top speed of more than 50 knots, which Ye Hao later learned. If he had known that Li Tie had such a strong ability, Ye Hao would not have needed to buy an underwater thruster.

Ye Hao ordered Li Tie to follow the American Navy formation closely. An hour later, Li Tie made a big circle and came to the front of the American Navy formation again.

At this time, the "Benford" had been determined to be damaged after a careful inspection, and there were no accidents on the warship except for the heavy damage to the bow. Therefore, Colonel Charlie did not take any other measures than to order to maintain the speed of the formation at 12 knots. At this time, he was in the command cabin of the "Benford" for an interview with CNN reporter. Colonel Charlie did not tell about the previous crash, he simply covered up the past under the pretext of the exercise.

At two o'clock in the morning, just as Colonel Charlie was talking about the threat of China's rise and the relevance of the United States' Asia-Pacific policy in front of the camera, a dolphin with a body length of more than two meters jumped out of the sea in front of the USS Mastin, the lead ship of the American Navy.

When the "Benford" passed, the dolphin stuck to the bottom of the "Benford", and after a period of wriggling, the dolphin disappeared, only a less obvious bulge on the bottom of the "Benford".

This bulge is Li Tie, the biometal robot that envelops Ye Hao.

Sticking to the bottom of the "Benford", Li Tie did not give up his action, under the command of Ye Hao, he slowly squirmed to the stern of the "Benford", directly above the propeller on the left, and on the "Benford", the American Navy knew nothing about it.

Biometal robots belong to the black technology of the 23rd century, and with the existing detection technology, it is impossible to find Li Tie and Ye Hao attached to the stern.

Coming directly above the propeller of the "Benford", the body of the biometal robot Li Tie, who was originally leaning over the stern of the ship, slowly unfolded and broke away from the hull.

If someone is close to the stern of the ship at this time, then the "Benford" will be seen, and a huge shadow gradually protrudes directly above the propeller, as if a huge net is enveloping the propeller on the left side of the "Benford". Immediately afterwards, the shadow suddenly contracted and once again clung to the hull of the Benford. However, as the shadow shrank, the web transformed into an entity and quickly fell, soon entangled with the propeller on the left side of the Benford.

The bio-metal robot Li Tie slid quickly into the sea along the hull of the "Benford", and his body shook and changed into a dolphin again, disappearing under the surface of the sea.

………………………………………………………………

Less than a minute after Li Tie and Ye Hao left, the hull of the "Benford" that was moving shook, the speed of the voyage dropped rapidly, and there was a "click" sound from the propeller on the left side.

Colonel Charlie, who hurriedly ended the interview, soon received definite news: the left propeller was entangled in fishing nets, the propeller shaft was badly damaged, the left propeller had lost its propulsion effect and had to be returned to the shipyard for overhaul, and the right propeller was able to work normally, but the speed of the "Benford" had a huge impact after the loss of one propeller, and it could only be kept sailing below ten knots.

Charlie, who received the report, couldn't help but burst into a foul mouth: "What the fuck is going on?" Colonel Charlie never thought that a voyage mission would encounter such unbelievable trouble. First it was hit by an unknown object, and then it was entangled in a fishing net and the propeller was damaged, causing damage to one side of the propeller. If it weren't for the fact that the radar obviously did not have other ships approaching during the formation sailing, and that such a strange encounter could not have been man-made, Colonel Charlie would have almost believed that this was a counterattack by the Chinese side to the United States' "freedom of navigation" operation.

"Colonel, I have briefed the Fleet Command and the Mastin, Lieutenant Commander Brown inquired if assistance was needed?" the communications staff reported.

Colonel Charlie frowned and thought for a while: "Not for the time being, if the 'Benford' is towed by the 'Mastin', it can speed up the trip, but this 'freedom of navigation' mission will become a joke." I will not allow the honor of the American Navy to be buried in my hands. Lieutenant Colonel Brown was ordered to reduce the speed of the 'Mastin' to 8 knots and keep the formation intact. ”

"Yes! The communications staff officer turned and left to convey Colonel Charlie's order.

The deputy captain standing beside Colonel Charlie spoke: "Colonel, the attention of this mission is extremely high, with the current speed of the formation at 8 knots, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the situation of our formation is not normal, and it is impossible for us to hide it from the eyes of the whole world." ”

"Alas......" Colonel Charlie sighed: "Concealment is a moment, as long as there is no definite evidence from the outside world, it is impossible to determine the specific situation of the formation by speculation alone." ”

"That's all there is to it now. ”

"When can we leave the Taiwan Strait?"

The deputy captain raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then silently calculated in his heart: "At the current speed, we will leave the Taiwan Strait four hours later than expected, that is, before eight o'clock this morning." ”

"Alright then, tell Lieutenant Commander Brown that we will hold an anti-piracy exercise at ten o'clock this morning, when the USS Mastin' will be used as a search ship to search the nearby waters, and the USS Benford will slow down as a command ship and wait for the results of the search for the USS Mastin. After Colonel Charlie finished speaking, he said to the communications staff officer: "Ask the fleet command about the next destination of this formation." ”

Ten minutes later.

The re-staff officer came to Colonel Charlie and said, "Colonel, the command ordered us to go to the Okinawa base. ”

Colonel Charlie breathed a sigh of relief, at least so far, the fleet command did not dispute his own disposition, and his future was saved.

Ye Hao didn't think so, Colonel Charlie was obviously too optimistic, and this "freedom of navigation" mission would become a nightmare for Colonel Charlie's life.

As the vice captain said, there are too many smart people in Blue Star, and the "freedom of navigation" mission of the United States has received no less attention. The abnormal behavior of the American Navy formation obviously attracted the attention of many people, after all, the cruising speed of 8 knots was too low. However, with the help of CNN's platform, Colonel Charlie used anti-piracy exercises as an excuse to cover up the past.

Colonel Charlie did not care at the beginning, and actively cooperated with CNN's interview, CNN's reporters and photographers were not stupid, they felt the abnormal atmosphere on the warship, but as journalists in the mainstream media in the United States, the necessary political sensitivity was still there, and the reporter did not dwell on the "freedom of navigation" mission itself, but cooperated with Colonel Charlie to talk about the important task of maintaining global peace in the United States and the threat of China's rise.

So with the cooperation of the two intentionally or unintentionally, this interview achieved good results in the evening news broadcast at 20 p.m. EST on October 17. After all, the title of "Blue Star Policeman" is still very popular with the American people, and suppressing the rise of China is also in line with the current wishes of mainstream American society. It's just that the two would never have imagined that a day later in the same program they would be the witnesses of the accident and be remembered by the world as the background of the tragedy.

At 2 o'clock in the morning on October 18, 2018, Yanjing time, the left propeller of the destroyer "Benford" of the American Navy formation was damaged, and under the order of Colonel Charlie, the formation continued to sail at a speed of eight knots. The formation passed through the Taiwan Strait at around 8 a.m. on 18 October, and then continued to the U.S. naval base in Okinawa at a low speed under the pretext of anti-piracy exercises, the voyage is expected to take 48 hours, and the formation will arrive in Okinawa on the morning of 20 October.

At 20 o'clock in the evening of October 18, the American Navy formation passed safely through the waters of Diaoyu Island, and thus the formation left the sphere of influence of the Chinese Navy.

At 9 a.m. on October 19, 2018 (20 p.m. Eastern Time on October 18, 2018), the U.S. Navy was halfway through a day's voyage and was located about 180 nautical miles southwest of the Okinawa base.

Captain of the USS Benford, Captain Charlie, is being interviewed by CNN's correspondent Hayman. Since the show that aired last night was very good, I will connect directly to the CNN studio this evening and broadcast it live, and the whole process will be about five minutes.

At 20:10 p.m., the CNN evening news signal cut into the command room of the "Benford", Colonel Charlie and sat opposite each other, in front of the two was a camera, behind them was the porthole of the command cabin, due to the time difference, the position of the American Navy formation was exactly the time of October 19, plus the weather was good, the "Marstin" in front of the "Benford" could be clearly transmitted to the audience in front of the television through the lens of the camera.

"Mr. Colonel, yesterday you explained the rise of China and the correctness of the U.S. policy in the Asia-Pacific region on the program, and the response was good. Therefore, I would like to take the opportunity of this live broadcast today to listen to your opinions once again. Reporter asked.

Colonel Charlie organized his thoughts and opened his mouth to answer the reporter's question. In fact, Colonel Charlie's answer has long been memorized. What was broadcast yesterday on the CNN evening news was edited and of course allowed to be broadcast after being reviewed by the American government. In this live broadcast, the questions of reporter and the answers of Colonel Charlie were pre-designed, and of course the manuscript was provided by the press department of the Pacific Fleet Command, so the content of the answers was full of official American colors.

Facing the lens of the camera, Colonel Charlie said solemnly: "The Chinese government has always claimed that the South China Sea, including Taiwan, has been the territory of China since ancient times, but I must say that the South China Sea is the transportation throat connecting East Asia with Southeast Asia and South Asia, and all countries in the Blue Star enjoy the right of 'freedom of navigation', and the mission carried out by this formation through the Taiwan Strait is the embodiment of the right of 'freedom of navigation'." As a great country with a strategic presence in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States must stand up in time to correct this irresponsible value ...... of the Chinese government."

"Boom!"

A loud bang was heard, interrupting Colonel Charlie's "righteousness and strictness".