Area Denial (Maelstrom Rising Book 7) Read online

  TURNING THE TABLES

  The PLAN marines—if these guys were maritime militia, they’d definitely gotten some upgrades in gear and equipment—were spread out unevenly over the hillside, shining IR lasers and IR floodlights through the jungle, clearly depending on the illumination to aid their NVGs. Those NVGs were relatively flat, and as Hank stalked his prey, he saw that it appeared to be worn on a head mount, under the helmet. That had to be uncomfortable.

  He glanced right and left. The section was forming an L-shape, following the skirmish line as it moved. The Mk 48s were at the top, on the short leg. Every man was moving pretty well, and while it was next to impossible to move silently in the jungle at night, the Triarii’s NVGs were good enough that they were doing a lot better job of it than the Chinese.

  It wasn’t even fair. But war isn’t about “fair.” And the Triarii hadn’t started this war.

  Hank lifted his rifle, put the red dot on the base of the PLAN marine’s skull, twenty feet in front of him, and fired.

  AREA DENIAL

  MAELSTROM RISING BOOK 7

  Peter Nealen

  This is a work of fiction. Characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Some real locations are used fictitiously, others are entirely fictional. This book is not autobiographical. It is not a true story presented as fiction. It is more exciting than anything 99% of real gunfighters ever experience.

  Copyright 2021 Peter Nealen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, to include, but not exclusive to, audio or visual recordings of any description without permission from the author.

  Maelstrom Rising is a trademark of Peter Nealen. All rights reserved.

  Printed in the United States of America

  http://americanpraetorians.com

  Prologue

  Lines of Demarcation Stiffen Within the United States

  Following the fighting in south Texas, internecine clashes between domestic groups and even states themselves within the United States have seemingly intensified. While rioting has broken out anew in multiple cities, protesting the activities of the right-wing militia known as “The Triarii,” as well as the Texas state government’s cooperation with them, federal authorities have begun intensive investigations into the actions of the Texas governor, as well as what appears to be full-scale war preparations on the part of the Triarii.

  Support or opposition for the investigation has fallen out along largely state and partisan lines, though several of the Middle American states that have opposed it have large urban populations that have protested their state governments’ stance on the matter. The current—and continuing—disruption of power grids and supply chains has become yet another source of friction, contributing to the spreading chaos. Rumors abound of federal task forces preparing to move into the dissident states, while militias and even state National Guard units are being mobilized to respond.

  The rumors about open armed clashes between Triarii and People’s Revolutionary Action in several “border states” have yet to be confirmed.

  A hard split appears to be happening within the United States, and only time will tell what the future holds.

  Our Government’s Schizophrenia Gets Worse

  As my readers will know, I’ve been chronicling the cognitive dissonance which has characterized the US government and its policies for years. Conflicting narratives and special interests have been tearing our country apart while the fat cats line their pockets and laugh at us. But now we seem to have reached a new level of insanity.

  A lot of people didn’t notice, due to the disaster that wiped out more than half of our power grid while terrorist attacks paralyzed our supply chains—probably the worst such disaster since 2020—but we entered a new war last year. How much it had to do with the power grid and the terror attacks I don’t know. There are secrets on top of secrets here, and reliable open-source information is hard to come by, especially since the Internet took a hit along with the power grid. But while to many of us, absorbed with our own problems, the fighting in Europe might be just one more footnote in a world gone to crap, the fact is that the US Army and US Navy have been fighting over there since this started.

  But they’re not the only ones. The so-called “right-wing militia” called the Triarii—an organization that can arguably be said to be doing what the US government doesn’t want to—has also been engaged over there. In fact, reliable sources have told me that they were issued a Letter of Marque and Reprisal—the first such in over a hundred fifty years.

  That’s right. The Triarii are fighting under contract for the United States government in Europe. At the same time, that same government is trying to destroy them for holding the line in Texas. Those of us who live outside of the Beltway—or Portland, or California, or New York—know all too well what’s been going on down on the border. And the Triarii stepped up and did what had to be done to stop it. But that can’t be borne by the pols, so now there’s an “investigation.”

  Are they heroes or villains? There’s a debate to be had there, but the nutcases in DC seem to want to say “Both” at the same time.

  Europe Descends Further Into Chaos

  Following the attack that killed most of the New European Council at their inauguration ceremony in Strasbourg, the security situation has only worsened, as confusion rules. While the United States insists that the survivors of the New European Council are the only legitimate governmental body to decide the course of Europe’s future, the American State Department seems to be the only voice that thinks so. Paris and Berlin continue to waffle, Czechia has openly declared all connections to the former European Union null and void, and the breakaway republic of Nouvelle Gallia, which now controls nearly a quarter of southern France, has declared the European experiment officially dead.

  Meanwhile, as the remaining units of the European Defense Corps tighten their control over the Chemnitz region, where they have held their ground since the lightning offensive that took down the European Defense Council, violence has continued to spread across Europe, as numerous groups have seized upon the chaos to attack their own enemies or attempt to seize power in numerous cities and regions. The extent of outside influence has yet to be determined, but sources insist that Russian provocateurs—who have already fueled chaos on the border with Poland—are already active in Germany and France.

  More and more municipalities are turning to private security forces, as the US Army appears to be vastly overextended. So far, the largest such contractor also doubles as a humanitarian aid distributor, One-World Holistic Security Concepts, based out of Shanghai.

  Open Fighting Between Iranian and Turkish Forces

  As the Turkish Army continues to clash with Peshmerga fighters in the mountains above Soran, a new offensive has crossed into Iranian territory near Urmia, claiming that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga against the Turks. So far, Tehran has issued no statement.

  This marks a new high in Turkey’s drive for regional dominance, following their proxy actions in eastern Greece, Crete, and Syria over the last year, and open advances into northern Syria, resulting in the seizure of Manbij and a renewed siege of Aleppo. Furthermore, reports of activity by Turkish special forces have started to come out of places in Eastern Europe and Africa.

  Turkey is on the march, as the power axes of the last century begin to shift.

  Iranian-Saudi War Heats Up

  The Iranian forces that have been sitting in the UAE for the last six months have begun to move again. Surprisingly, instead of drivi
ng directly west to attack Riyadh, they have turned north, paralleling the Qatari border and driving on the Al-Ahsa Oasis. Shelling and air attacks began at midnight yesterday, and Iranian forces appear to have cut the oasis off from reinforcement from both Qatar and the Saudi military.

  At almost at the same time, a renewed offensive against Saudi-allied forces in South Yemen kicked off with a series of drone strikes and suicide bombings that nearly decapitated the Popular Force Committees that have sworn allegiance to the late President Hadi’s former chief of security, Ezdeen Samei. Samei himself escaped unscathed, but this latest setback to the Arab coalition that has been engaged in continuous warfare with the Houthis and their Iranian supporters could be enough to break the coalition unless the Saudis can rally renewed support.

  Given the situation in Saudi Arabia itself, this seems unlikely.

  Exhaustion? Or Merely the Eye of the Storm?

  At first glance, it looks like the wars that have wracked our world for the last year might have come to a pause. Violence in the Middle East continues apace, but that has continued nearly nonstop for decades, now. The proxy war between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims has been going on for a very long time (decades to centuries, depending on who you ask), and is unlikely to end anytime soon. But the major clashes in Europe seem to be at an impasse, as the European Defense Council has been taken from power, and while rumors abound that the majority of their military forces have refused to surrender, Europe has been relatively quiet now for over a month.

  Questions have been raised about the losses of extremely expensive, high-technology weapons systems over the last year of on-again, off-again combat. While none of the combatants have released numbers, analysts say that the United States and the former European Union states now have less than half of the high-technology assets—be it aircraft, armored vehicles, or missiles—remaining that they possessed at the beginning of the conflict. And in most cases, there are no resources or even facilities to replace those losses.

  With the United States embroiled in internal strife, rampant crime, and still desperately trying to recover from the power grid disaster of last year, the likelihood that the battered American forces will be able to do much more than hold some of the ground they’ve taken seems slim. Nation building in a severely divided Europe will be a difficult mission, especially given the other players involved, who have not expended nearly the resources that the US, Germany, and France already have…

  China’s Influence Grows

  Despite backing off along the Line of Actual Control with India, China stands poised to take the place it has long desired—that of the world’s sole superpower and economic and cultural hegemon. With a growing domination of the ports and sea lanes—though primarily through economic rather than military means—China’s is the only economy that has so far not succumbed to the devastating blows of the last year. And Beijing is already maneuvering to cement that dominance. With most of the rest of the world distracted or wounded by war, terrorism, economic collapse, and ecological devastation, the Age of China may well be at hand.

  Chapter 1

  “Contact, starboard side, five miles and closing at fifteen knots!” The warning crackled over the intercom speaker in berthing.

  Hank Foss rolled out of his rack, grabbing for his gear and his rifle. He’d been halfway expecting this alert for days now.

  Shrugging into his chest rig, he slung the modified M5E1 in front of him as he climbed up out of the berthing, clattering up the metal-grated ladderwell along the starboard side before turning through a narrow hatchway and into the modified command center that they’d built out of about half the galley.

  Space aboard the Jacqueline Q was at a premium, as large as she was. The Triarii command center consisted of three laptops on a table, with charts, maps, and printed imagery tacked up on the bulkheads. Right then, Cole Spencer, Hank’s second in command and his closest friend, was studying the laptop that showed their current drone overwatch feed.

  “What have we got?” Hank was tall and spare of frame, with a lean, hatchet face and black hair starting to show some gray at the temples. Having retired from the Marine Corps as a Gunnery Sergeant before joining the Triarii, he was surprised there wasn’t a lot more gray. Especially after the last couple of years.

  “Three boats.” Spencer didn’t look up as he watched the video feed. He’d started shaving his head to simplify hygiene since they’d boarded the Jacqueline Q in Port Arthur. The overhead lights gleamed off his ebony scalp and the furrows in his brow as he watched the screen. “They look like local fishing boats, but I think we both know better.”

  Hank stepped around to look over his assistant section leader’s shoulder. The drone feed was a bit pixelated, but still a lot clearer than it might have been even five years before. The tech had gotten better and cheaper, fast. It was easy to pick out the three white boats, each probably forty feet long, bouncing across the waves, spread out into a loose wedge formation. They were tiny compared to the Jacqueline Q’s massive four-hundred-seventy-foot length, but each one carried at least ten to fifteen shooters. He could see the weapons clearly; they weren’t exactly hiding them. Several RPGs were mixed in with the rifles and machineguns. If the Jacqueline Q had been the simple fishing trawler that she appeared to be, they’d be in trouble.

  “I don’t know what you mean. Little fishing boats like that always have that kind of firepower aboard. Makes the fishing easier.” His eyes narrowed. “They’re awfully far out for boats that size.” Hank was already thinking ahead. He was fairly sure of the resolution if the pirates tried to take the Jacqueline Q, but if the small attack boats were this far out in the Timor Sea, then they wouldn’t be out on their own. “Did you wake up Chan?”

  Spencer nodded. “He’s already getting his boys into the hold, ready to play.”

  Hank turned toward the ladderwell aft. “I’ll go talk to the captain.” He ducked to fit through the hatch. “I don’t think he was quite ready for things to get this froggy, this fast.”

  “I don’t think so, either, but after the drone footage from the other day…” Spencer let the sentence trail off.

  “Yeah.” Hank didn’t have to comment. They’d both watched as pirates had surrounded and boarded a Malaysian-flagged container ship barely fifty nautical miles off the Australian coast. It had been too far away for them to do anything but watch, and their mission wasn’t here, anyway. But the message had been clear enough.

  It still bugged him a little as he mounted the ladderwell toward the bridge, as hard as he was trying to keep his emotions locked away. Can’t save everybody. He’d told himself that many times since they’d watched the attack.

  He’d told himself that a lot over the months since Texas. The months since Arturo’s death. He still wasn’t sure he believed it.

  He forced the thought—and the memories that went with it—away as he got to the bridge. Not the place, not the time.

  Michael Chan, commanding the other Triarii infantry section aboard the Jacqueline Q, was coming up at the same time, geared up and armed, his helmet under his arm. “What’s up?”

  Hank paused at the hatch. “Looks like pirates. I’m heading up to brief the Skipper.”

  Chan nodded briefly. “Is Cole still on watch?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll get everybody to action stations.” Chan turned and headed back down toward the hold. He wasn’t a man of many words, and his ego wasn’t so large that he had to be in the middle of planning. He accepted that Hank had a grasp on the situation, and so he was going to get things moving and get the rest of the brief when it came. Chan was the sort of man who’d rather be ready for action first, then find out the specifics later.

  The bridge wasn’t crowded or especially busy. Captain Reggie Smythe didn’t like a lot of noise and fury on his bridge. He had originally been a fishing trawler captain, which was why he’d taken the Jacqueline Q out after her extensive refit in Port Arthur. And given that the Jacqueline Q o
nly had an operational crew of about six, with the other sixty-eight men aboard being Triarii infantry, there was no reason to have a lot of people on the bridge.

  Smythe was at the control station, while Vern Satoshi was bent over the chart table. They both looked up, Satoshi’s eyes widening as he saw that Hank was geared up and armed, wearing a plate carrier with four 7.62 mags in the placard on the front plate, two more on his belt, his modified M5E1 hanging from its sling in front of him, his helmet dangling from his off hand.

  “What’s up, Hank?” Smythe wasn’t easily rattled, though there was a nervous look in his eyes as he took in the Triarii infantry section leader’s gear and weapon. “Another drill? You know we’ve got a good week before we hit Palawan.”

  Hank shook his head as he moved to the radar station. “Not a drill. What are you picking up to the north?”

  Smythe tilted his head as he flipped through the windows on his tablet. He had every readout and station on the ship linked to that one device. The originals were all still there, but Smythe could monitor them all from wherever he was aboard. His forehead furrowed. “Looks like three small craft coming our way. Awfully far out for fishing vessels that size.”

  “It is. Which was the first clue.” Hank had a tablet of his own under his arm, which he had linked to Spencer’s station. He brought up the drone imagery. The little unmanned plane was banking to circle around, the camera still trained on the three boats. He zoomed in; the weapons were even more obvious now. “We’ve got pirates.”

  Satoshi’s eyes got even wider, and he turned pale. Smythe seemed to take it in stride, though. “Been a lot of reports about pirates getting bolder out here. Even stories about an attack within sight of Darwin, though the Aussies took care of that pretty quick.” He frowned at the imagery on Hank’s tablet. “I wasn’t expecting them to come after a fishing trawler, though.”