Chapter 820: : Season 2 Book 21 Shadow of War 2 - 6-1 Volatile

January 21, 2024, 17:30

At sea, (Combat Information Center [CIC] of the Republic of Korea’s Taejong the Great [DDG-996]) 120 kilometers from the east end of Katsuura, Chiba prefecture, Japan

The day the Pacific Fleet went into naval training, the combined fleet of the Republic of Korea that had been on standby at sea nearby since the day before began to move little by little, according to the counter operation as planned.

The combined fleet was as enormous as the size of the Pacific Fleet. The six Hocula Destroyers of the 7th Task Flotilla that were responsible for anti-submarine operations and the frontal defense began forming a line, keeping a distance of 300 meters from each other.

As the latest destroyer model, these destroyers were able to form an iron wall of defense that was able to neutralize around 300 anti-warship missiles at once.

While the destroyers of the 7th Task Flotilla were defending the front, Chungmugong Lee Sun-shin-class Hocula cruisers were flanking the combined fleet—the Cha Ri-suk (CG-1105) and the Kang Woo-gyu (CG-1106). They were slowly putting distance between them and the centerline of the combined fleet so that they could protect the sides as well as conduct attack operations. The six destroyers of the 3rd Carrier Strike Group of the 3rd fleet responsible for defending the back slowed down, putting distance between the centerline of the combined fleet as well.

While the latest-model destroyers and cruisers formed a defense line around the combined fleet, at the center was a diamond formation, formed from six destroyers of the 2nd Carrier Strike Group of the 2nd Fleet, nine frigates of the 2nd Frigate Flotilla, and three multipurpose amphibious assault ships of the 56th Amphibious Flotilla at the center.

The destroyers and the frigates of the 2nd Fleet were to be the second line of defense against air attacks and to provide support for any attack operations.

The combined fleet that had been moving according to the counter operation planned was in a perfect formation in under 30 minutes.

“Admiral! We’ve received a report that all of the subordinate flotillas have gotten into their places in the formation,” reported Operations Commander Hong Seung-tae of the 2nd Fleet Command group to Admiral Kim Lee-won, after gathering all of the reports that had come in. He had been watching the operation status from the CIC of Taejong the Great (DDG-996) instead of the flagship of the 2nd Fleet, the Eulji Mundeok (DDG-1013).

“Mm, faster than expected.” At Operations Commander Hong Seung-tae’s report, Admiral Kim Lee-won checked the time on his watch and smiled, looking contented.

“It seems like they’ve been trained very well.”

“It seems so. This isn’t training done at the fleet levels. There have been warships brought in from other fleets, yet they’re working very well together.”

“Admiral! Will you be ordering for TCS mode to be enabled?”

“Yes, go ahead. From now onward, tell all warships that have TCS mode to enable it until further orders.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There won’t be anything to do for a while. Maybe I’ll go to the captain’s office and play a game of chess with Captain Yoo!” said Admiral Kim Lee-won, fixing his hat on straight and getting up from his seat.

“Admiral, you still want to play when you always lose?”

“Since when do I always lose? I won once yesterday!” Admiral Kim Lee-won’s eyes opened wide as if he was a child.

“Haha, I see.”

“Heh, heh, you don’t seem to believe me! If you don’t believe me, you can come with me to watch for yourself.”

“No, Admiral! What do you mean I don’t believe you? I believe.”

“No. Follow me!”

“Have a good time. I’ll be here a bit longer to keep an eye on the situation.”

“I’m going to have to win today for sure because of you! Just you see.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be waiting for your victory.”

Just a few moments after Admiral Kim Lee-won left the CIC, Operations Commander Hong Seung-tae opened up the communications network and relayed orders.

“This is the 2nd Fleet’s Operations Commander. From this point on, the speed of all warships should be fixed at the sailing speed of 3 knots, keeping the formation. All warships that have TCS should enable it and keep it enabled until further orders. Over!”

Immediately after Operations Commander Hong Seung-tae had given the order, the warships that were equipped with TCS (transparent concealment system) enabled TCS mode. One by one, they disappeared, each leaving behind a twisted afterimage.

The first warship to be equipped with TCS (transparent concealment system) was the 1st Hocula destroyer, the Gwang-hae (DDG-1001). All of the warships were equipped with TCS as one of the requirements. In addition, all of the warships partially destroyed during the 1st Northeast Asian War that were repaired and upgraded had also been equipped with TCS.

There were only 12 warships that could be seen with the naked eye out of the dozens of warships that were sailing 120 kilometers from the east end of Katsuura. The ships that could be seen were the Ganghwado-class multipurpose amphibious assault ships, the Ganghwado (LHD-5111) and the Yeonpyeongdo (LHD-5113), as well as three destroyers and seven frigates from the 2nd Fleet.

The rest of the warships—all 18 of them—had enabled TCS (transparent concealment system) mode and had disappeared. The only thing that could be seen was the white foam that the ship’s tail created as they sailed. But this trail disappeared very quickly into the waves of the sea. In a blink of an eye, the combined fleet that was originally 30 warships big had shrunk to only 12 ships.

The reason that the combined fleet had decided to hide its power, about 400 kilometers away from the Pacific Fleet, was not just that they didn’t want to be detected by the U.S. reconnaissance force. The biggest reason was to make the Pacific Fleet underestimate the power of the combined fleet so that they would misjudge the situation.

If the combined fleet had wanted to solve things peacefully with the Pacific Fleet, they would have shown off the power of the fleet so that they would back off. But this was not the case. The combined fleet knew that the battle with the Pacific Fleet was unavoidable.

* * *

January 21, 2024, 18:00

The B2 Bunker (the Digital Information Center of the Intelligence Headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Namju

Namgoong-won, who had barely gotten permission from Lee Hye-jin, showed up at the Digital Information Center of the Intelligence Headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the B2 Bunker early in the morning.

The Digital Information Center was a department similar to that of the National Intelligence Service in the Army. It collected, organized, and analyzed the 1st class military information of other countries, as well as the military information of the Republic of Korea.

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Also, the Digital Information Center had cutting edge equipment, comparable to that of the National Intelligence Service’s cybersecurity department. In the space that was around 50 acres, there were about 100 commissioned and noncommissioned officers all moving busily around to fulfill the tasks assigned to each of them.

As soon as Namgoong-won arrived at the center, he was guided around the center by the Deputy Center Director, Colonel Kim Tae-suk. He then exchanged greetings with the project team attempting to hack into NASA and went straight into the meeting he was there for.

The morning’s meeting was specially arranged for Namgoong-won, who was attending the meeting for the first time. The meeting was generally about the reasons why the prior hacking methods had failed, in the form of reports. When Namgoong-won saw that the hacking attempts had failed even when using new technologies he hadn’t heard about during the meeting, he couldn’t help but be surprised that the attempts failed.

For two hours, the morning meeting continued on the same topic. The afternoon meeting was on finding a new hacking method that hadn’t been attempted before. But it was safe to say that the hacking methods that were talked about during the morning meeting were all that was available.

This also meant that the project team had tried every hacking method there was to attempt. Thus, the afternoon meeting only took up time, with no further developments in the project.

Nine years ago, when the NASA server had been hacked by Namgoong-won, NASA had invested an astronomical amount of money to build a perfect security system for their server.

First, the NASA main server was placed in a vacuum 100 meters underground. This was a place unreachable by anyone in person unless they were an unmanned robot. In addition to that, there were three layers of magnetic field shields installed around the main server so that nothing could hack it from the outside, using wireless communication. These defenses weren’t penetrable by any sort of high-frequency communication device.

There was, as a result, only one way to hack into it. It was for someone to penetrate the main server of NASA in person. But this method was impossible in the current situation as well.

In other words, there was no way to penetrate the NASA server, as well as the internal server network from the outside, wireless or not. Because of this, the meeting that had been going on for five hours became more tiresome as time passed.

The meeting was held as a free discussion, and at first, it was very active with many people speaking up and discussing their ideas. But soon enough, the meeting room fell silent as no one spoke up.

Each person in the room had a face of deep distress. Some officers shook their heads repeatedly. The mental toll of this meeting was immense. Namgoong-won had been thinking deeply, while watching the state of the meeting room with his arms crossed. He needed a change of pace in his thoughts.

[‘What could it be? Anything outside connected to NASA’s main server…’]

Suddenly, there was a thought that flashed in Namgoong-won’s mind. [‘It’s a satellite.’]

NASA uses numerous types of satellites.

[‘Wouldn’t it be possible to get through to the main server of NASA through the communication network of the satellite?’]

When he had thought this much, Namgoong-won quietly raised his hand and spoke about the method he had just thought about.

Moments after Namgoong-won finished speaking, there was an exclamation of amazement, and even applause. Everyone complimented Namgoong-won with their thumbs up, saying that his idea was innovative. At this, Namgoong-won scratched the back of his head as if he was shy.

“This is an idea that we could never have thought up. You’re amazing,” said Deputy Center Director Colonel Kim Tae-suk as he got up from his chair while clapping and complimenting him.

“Haha! But there is one problem.”

Suddenly, the meeting room became silent.

“We need to hack the satellite to access the NASA server network through the satellite’s wireless communication network. Is there a way to do this? The satellites aren’t objects that are on the ground, but they’re up in the sky, outside of Earth’s atmosphere,” Namgoong-won’s voice got smaller as he spoke. He seemed sorry that there was a problem with the idea he had proposed.

“We won’t need to worry about that,” said an officer with a Lieutenant Colonel rank, smiling brightly. All eyes focused on him.

“Before I was assigned here, I was at the Intelligence Command of the Aerospace Force. There was a seminar about the extraction of data from enemy satellites. In other words, it was about attaching a piece of equipment that had the program to extract data from enemy satellites and using the data from that satellite as if it was one of ours. At the time, it was only a seminar about the concept, but I feel like it would be more than possible with current technologies. If we could attach a piece of equipment that had the hacking program to something like a weather satellite that NASA operates, with a low security system, couldn’t we get through to the main server of NASA that way?”

“When was that seminar held?” asked Colonel Kim Tae-suk urgently.

“Mm, it was around March, so 10 months ago.”

“10 months ago… Was that project ever further developed?”

“At the time, it was only a demonstrative seminar, and there wasn’t any special development in the project up until June, when I was transferred here. I’ll confirm this with my colleague.”

“Good, contact him now.”

“Yes, sir. Please wait for just a moment,” replied the officer, immediately getting up from his seat and going to the corner to make a call.

Meanwhile, Colonel Kim Tae-suk, who was a bit excited, asked Namgoong-won a question. “Would it be possible to get through to the main server of NASA if we could use that method?”

“Yes, it’s not impossible. The only thing is that it has to be a satellite connected to the main server… But any satellite connected to the main server of NASA probably has its own security system that would be able to detect attachments on the outside. I feel that it’ll be a hard task to figure out those satellites that are important to NASA but don’t have their own security system.”

Just then, the officer with a Lieutenant Colonel rank, who had finished his short call, added to the conversation as he sat down.

“That might not be difficult. At the time when the seminar was going on, I was able to see all the information about each satellite from every country. Among those, there was a list of satellites operated by NASA that didn’t have their own security system. I think we’ll just need to figure out the satellites that NASA thinks are important from that list of satellites.”

“I see. What about the information I asked about?”

“Ah! Apologies. I forgot for a moment because I was focused on answering Namgoong-won’s question. There is a prototype of it developed at the Parthenon research facility.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes, sir. It was developed as a pilot project after I was transferred here.”

“That’s good. Great!”

Colonel Kim Tae-suk smiled brightly as if a sore spot had been healed after years of pain.. He seemed to have been under a lot of pressure from the higher-ups regarding this case.

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