Two Devourer-class deep-diving cruisers perfectly completed their debut, bringing an unprecedented disaster to the Country A Navy.
Because the sun rotates from west to east, while the Andaman Islands have already experienced dawn, it was still the middle of the night in Delhi City, which is over a thousand kilometers away from the Andaman Islands.
In a villa, the intense knocking on the door woke up Singh. Being elderly, his sleep was light, and any slight disturbance would wake him, let alone such intense knocking.
Singh got up feeling slightly disgruntled. He suffered from insomnia and had just managed to fall asleep when he was disturbed. Naturally, his tone wasn't pleasant.
Hurried footsteps approached. Singh, still in his pajamas, got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom to see the Cabinet Secretary Campos and the Minister of Defense Vipu pacing anxiously in the living room.
Seeing their pale and fearful expressions, Singh had a bad feeling.
"What's the matter? Why are you so urgently looking for me?"
Singh instructed the housemaid to bring tea and looked at the two men.
"Prime Minister, our Andaman Sea Air Base was attacked by the Jieke Group, and the losses are severe."
Cabinet Secretary Campos spoke with a dry voice, forcing himself to deliver the terrible news.
"What did you say, the Andaman Sea Air Base was attacked? When did this happen, and what are the damages now?"
Singh's body trembled as he fired off questions, breathing rapidly.
"Prime Minister, here is the list of vessel losses. As for the casualties, they are still being urgently counted, but it is estimated that the number of dead and injured may exceed ten thousand."
With a face full of sorrow, Campos handed a sheet of paper to Singh, not daring to read off the long list of ship names for fear that his own heart couldn't bear it.
Seeing Campos's expression, Singh seemed to understand. When he took the paper and saw the recorded data of the sunken and damaged ships, the losses exceeded his expectations, making him almost faint from a bout of hypoxia.
When he saw that the pride of Country A, the Vikramaditya Carrier, was also on the list of sunken ships, his heart spasmed. He collapsed while clutching his chest, unable to catch his breath.
Campos and Vipu hurriedly helped him, and the maid brought medicine and water for Singh to take. It took a while for his complexion to gradually recover.
"Vipu, what are you doing? How did the Andaman Sea Air Base, which we invested hundreds of billions in, get completely destroyed in one night by the Jieke Group? What kind of Defense Minister are you? Is this what you meant by our ability and confidence to resist the Jieke Group?"
After recovering, Singh, despite being urged by the maid to remain calm, roared at Vipu, like an angry lion. His shouts echoed throughout the villa, showing just how furious he was.
"I… The Andaman Sea Air Base was suddenly attacked by missiles, and the senior officers there were negligent. I have already ordered the punishment of all levels of officers at the Andaman Base, and they will each face a military tribunal for questioning."
Vipu hastened to defend himself. As a member of Country A's military, shifting the blame was an indispensable skill.
Moreover, Vipu felt wronged. He wasn't the one commanding the battle at the Andaman Base; he was only responsible for the strategic level. The failure was on those below him, not his strategy.
"Prime Minister, now is not the time to pursue responsibility. The Jieke Group struck us first, and they were certainly well-prepared this time. We must be cautious in defending against any further surprise attacks on our other military bases."
Campos reminded from the side, covering for Vipu, which earned a grateful look from him.
Singh took a deep breath and said, "You're right. The Jieke Group tends to take advantage of victories to strike again. Immediately raise the alert level of all our domestic bases, especially the navy bases. We cannot withstand another loss of warships. By the way, how did the Jieke Group attack our Andaman Base? Was it with warships or aircraft?"
Singh suddenly realized that he didn't know how the Jieke Group had launched the attack.
"Well… It's possible that it was anti-ship missiles launched from land."
Vipu's face stiffened as he hesitantly replied.
"What do you mean by 'possible'? I want an accurate answer."
Singh's anger surged again, and he looked at Vipu as if he wanted to devour him.
Vipu nervously waved his hand and said, "Prime Minister, the response from the Andaman Base indicated that they were attacked by a large number of anti-ship and cruise missiles. We are still investigating whether these missiles were launched from sea-based warships, from the Jieke Group's territory, or from aircraft hundreds of kilometers away. There is no definitive conclusion yet. However, I strongly suspect that these missiles were fired from sea-based warships because, before the attack on the Andaman Base, radar deployed on the island had captured strange signals on the sea surface. The radar operators initially thought it was some kind of surfacing whale and did not raise an alarm."
Vipu explained the information discovered during the post-incident investigation at the Andaman Base. They didn't dare confirm whether the signals were from warships but made a reasonable assumption since the attack was so sudden. Typically, launches from aircraft or land bases would have been detected from the Jieke Group's territory, which is 600-700 kilometers from the Andaman Islands.