Mike Maden - Drone Command

SANJI HARA Vice Admiral, JMSDF

DR. NITOBE IKEDA Director, NEDO

HIROSHI ITO Prime Minister of Japan

KOBAYASHI Yakuza boss

HIROSHI ONIZUKA Captain of the submarine Sword Dragon

OSHIRO Yakuza underboss

KATSU TANAKA Parliamentary Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, LDP member of the House of Representatives (Nagasaki Prefecture)

GENERAL CHEN ZULIN Vice Chairman, Central Military Commission

ADMIRAL DENG ZILONG Fleet Commander, PLAN South Sea Fleet

FENG YONGBO Vice Chairman, Central Military Commission

FENG JIANLI Son of Feng Yongbo

ADMIRAL JI DONGSHENG Fleet Commander, PLAN East Sea Fleet

HUANG YONG Minister of State Security

PANG BO Ambassador to Japan

SUN QUAN General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the Peoples Republic of China, Chairman of the Central Military Commission

DR. WENG LITONG Head, GAD Expert Working Group (robotic weapon systems)

DR. T. J. ASHLEY Pearce Systems associate

HENRY DAVIS Ambassador to Japan

DR. WILLIAM (WILL) ELLIOTT National Security Research Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Ex-CIA, friend of Troys dad

JIM GARZA National Security Advisor

STELLA KANG Pearce Systems associate

DAVID LANE President of the United States

IAN MCTAVISH Pearce Systems associate

MARGARET MYERS Former President of the United States

GENERAL GORDON ONSTOT Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

TROY PEARCE CEO, Pearce Systems

MIKE PIA Director of National Intelligence

BREN SHAFER Secretary of Defense

GABY WHEELER Secretary of State

DR. KENJI YAMADA University of Hawaii faculty, Pearce Systems associate

AUGUST MANN Pearce Systems director of nuclear facility deconstruction (Germany)

DR. LINH PHAM VAST drone researcher (Vietnam)

TAMAR STERN Former Pearce Systems security associate, Mossad agent (Israel)

4GW Fourth-generation Warfare

A2AD Anti-Access/Area Denial

AAV Autonomous Aerial Vehicle

ACTUV Antisubmarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel

ADPS Automated Dynamic Positioning System

ASAT Antisatellite

ASV Autonomous Surface Vehicle

ASW Antisubmarine Warfare

AUV Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

AWACS Airborne Warning and Control System

CAP Combat Air Patrol

CIC Combat Information Center

CMC Central Military Commission

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DNI Director of National Intelligence

EMP Electromagnetic Pulse

FIC First Island Chain

GAD General Armament Department (A PRC/PLA version of DARPA)

GWOT Global War on Terrorism

HGV Hypersonic Glide Vehicle

HPM High-powered Microwave

HUMINT Human Intelligence (spies)

ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

JPALS Joint Precision Approach and Landing System

LDP Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

LRAD Long-range Acoustic Device

MAD Mutual Assured Destruction

MIRV Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle

MOD Minister of Defense (Japan)

MSS Ministry of State Security (PRC)

NEDO New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization

NKP New Komeito Party (Japan)

SAC Second Artillery Corps (PRC)

SLBM Sub-Launched Ballistic Missile

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

TAD Threat Assessment Display

TEPCO Tokyo Electric Power Company

TNF Technical Nuclear Forensics

TTO Tactical Technology Office (DARPA, USA)

UCAV Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle

UCLASS Unmanned Carrier-launched Surveillance and Strike Vehicle

UFP Upward Falling Payload

USV Unmanned Surface Vehicle

UUV Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

VAST Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

VPA Vietnam Peoples Army

VTC Video Teleconference

While many of the drone and related systems described in this novel are currently deployed, others are based on patent filings, prototypes, and research proposals. In some cases I modified or simplified their performance characteristics for the sake of the story. However, Im confident that some variants of what Ive imagined could soon be a reality.

The bloodred flag with the five golden stars snapped in the crisp morning breeze. The national flag of the Peoples Republic of China was one of three held high by the naval honor guard, along with the flags of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the East Sea Fleet commander, Admiral Ji Dongsheng.

Two hundred Chinese PLAN officers and sailors stood at rigid attention on the fantail of the seventy-five-hundred-ton guided-missile destroyer Kunming, its ASW helicopter stowed away in the hangar for the occasion. The ships skilled helmsman fought to stay in place as the vessel rose and fell in the long swells.

Admiral Jis commanding voice cut through the buffeting wind. The handpicked crew stood proudly before him at rigid attention in their starched white uniforms and broad Soviet-style caps. The admirals thick neck, powerful jaw, and broad nose had earned him the nickname Bulldog behind his muscular back. A shrouded object stood just behind him.

A thousand years ago our ancestors crossed the oceans of the world. We are not becoming a new navy, as the Westerners believe; we are the worlds oldest and greatest navy, reclaiming our lost heritage, reclaiming our lost territories, reclaiming the vast resources of our waters from the thieving hands that stole it. We are the guardians of the blue soil of our homeland and will defend it with our blood and our honor.

Today is a great day. Today we lay claim to that which was always rightfully ours. Someday you will tell your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren that you were here this day, on this ship beneath our glorious flag, taking another step in the long march toward our rightful destiny, our rightful place under heaven.

The admiral paused for effect, surveying the proud young faces before him. He twisted around and whipped off the linen shroud behind him. An engraved white-marble stele gleamed in the bright sun, thick and rectangular like a giant headstone. Admiral Ji nodded to four muscled sailors. They marched forward in lockstep and lifted the heavy stone off the fantail and heaved it into the rolling blue water in a geysering splash.