50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 271 It's Above Our Heads
After two hours of hard work, the five of them finally got to eat fresh cabbage and pork dumplings.

Big Liu ate heartily while complaining, "This foreign food is really awful. They don't even sell vinegar. You guys who live abroad all year round are pitiful."

"You're right. Putting everything else aside, when it comes to food, foreigners really have it tough. It's incomparable to food in China."

Sun Zhiwei deeply agreed with the big guy's words. When our ancestors were studying the eight major cuisines, those people in the West were still eating raw meat and drinking blood.

"For thousands of years, China has always been the world's leading power. It has only fallen behind in modern times, but we are working hard to catch up."

"In our lifetime, we will surely see our motherland become strong again. Everything we do now is contributing to its future development."

While eating dumplings, Sun Zhiwei fed the others chicken soup, and the effect was quite good. After the five of them finished all the dumplings, they started looking for a place to sleep.

Sun Zhiwei was still worried, so he slept on the cot in the command room, and would get up from time to time to check the sonar and radar.

Twelve hours later, after everyone woke up, took showers, cleaned themselves, and ate a beef meal, everyone regained their energy and began to return to their posts.

The Memphis continued eastward.

After three days at sea, the Memphis began to approach the Kerguelen radar station.

For safety reasons, the Memphis submerged to a depth of 400 meters, reduced its speed to 15 knots, and slowly passed through the area.

Fortunately, the incident was resolved without incident. The Memphis was not discovered and passed safely more than 500 kilometers north of the Kerguelen Islands.

Once out of the radar station's detection range, the submarine accelerated again.

On the 15th day after departure, the Memphis reached the Tasman Sea, where it rested for another day before turning north.

From here onwards, there are already shipping lanes for merchant ships nearby.

Every now and then a ship would pass overhead; these were merchant ships traveling between New Zealand and Australia.

After discussing it with the others, Sun Zhiwei decided to dive another 100 meters to a depth of 500 meters before proceeding.

The maximum diving depth of the Los Angeles-class H submarine is 550 meters, and 500 meters is still within the acceptable range.

At this depth, only a few submarines can currently reach it, which ensures their safety to the greatest extent.

To reduce noise, the speed was reduced to 15 knots once again as the ship headed north into the Tasman Sea.

The Memphis, like an assassin, lies in ambush in the deep sea, advancing step by step toward its target.

As the submarine passed through the Solomon Islands, a warship was passing through the same strait.

However, this was an ordinary warship, without sonar installed. The two ships passed each other at the same location without the other side noticing.

Sun Zhiwei could already see the warship's flag through the space; it was a Bald Eagle warship carrying out its routine patrol mission.

These warships weren't targeting submarines, but pirates.

The tens of thousands of islands in Southeast Asia have become fertile ground for piracy, and the region has been a hotbed of piracy since ancient times.

The Bald Eagles consider this area their sphere of influence and naturally take responsibility for combating local pirates. Therefore, warships frequently patrol this area.

In fact, the effectiveness of such patrols is generally limited.

Most of the pirates used small speedboats, which were fast and few in number. They also liked to hide and move around, so large warships were of no use here.

In the 21st century, the number of pirates in this region has not decreased, but has instead grown stronger.

In 2017, a pirate leader named Abu led his pirates to capture Malawi, a county town with a population of 18, and engaged in a four-month-long gun battle with the local government and army.

This demonstrates the rampant piracy in the area. Sun Zhiwei ignored the patrolling warships and continued along the predetermined route, heading west-northwest of the Solomon Islands.

Having entered the territory of the Bald Eagles, the Memphis sailed with even greater caution, finally entering the Sulu Sea on the 20th day after its departure.

As they turned from the Solomon Islands into the Sulu Sea, they encountered several patrol vessels along the way, making it impossible for Sun Zhiwei and his companions to rest for long periods.

Because they reduced their speed, it took them nine days to complete this section of the journey.

Sun Zhiwei noticed that everyone was exhausted, so he decided to rest at Suluhai for three days.

Otherwise, he was afraid that everyone would not be able to persevere through the most difficult part later on.

Once everyone had recovered, they set off again. This time, they timed it perfectly; the Memphis would pass through the Barabács Strait in the early morning.

Although it was already late at night, there were still many merchant ships sailing through the strait.

Sun Zhiwei directed the "Memphis" to follow a 10,000-ton cargo ship, synchronizing the submarine's speed with the cargo ship, and slowly passing through the strait.

Just as they were about to pass, Bald Dahai urgently reported: Sonar detected a submarine approaching from the front.

Sun Zhiwei immediately ran to the sonar station: "What's the distance?"

"130 kilometers, it suddenly turns into the channel from behind the island to the east."

"East. Determine the enemy's depth."

"The enemy is diving to a depth of 250 meters, while ours is at 350 meters. We haven't been detected yet, what should we do?"

"Dive to 520."

No one is refuting Sun Zhiwei's words now; once they enter command mode, there can only be one voice.

The Memphis quickly opened its water tanks, and a large amount of seawater rushed into the two water chambers. Soon, they descended to a depth of 520 meters and began to hover.

This was close to the submarine's maximum depth, and Sun Zhiwei could almost hear the submarine's hull struggling.

"parking."

Dongzi immediately shut down the engine, and the cabin fell silent. No one spoke, except for the passive radar receiving an echo every few seconds.

The submarine ahead was gradually approaching them, 120, 110, 100.

Just as they reached a distance of 100 kilometers, a sound wave struck the USS Memphis from the direction of the other ship.

This is the other party's active sonar detecting, at a low frequency, with only one signal appearing every now and then.

The Los Angeles-class submarines have excellent stealth capabilities; the coating on their hulls effectively scatters sonar echoes.

According to the other party's sonar, the "Memphis" was just a big fish that was five or six meters long.

When the two sides approached within 10 kilometers, the other side's active sonar did not actively illuminate the direction of the "Memphis". Instead, it turned the sonar direction to both sides.

This is likely the other side probing the width of the strait in order to pass through safely.

The Memphis remained motionless, waiting quietly.

"It's right above us," the big guy whispered.

Everyone involuntarily looked up at the metal hull above them, where the sound of a propeller was being transmitted into the submarine through the water, echoing in the empty cabin.

(End of this chapter)