371 The Hunt for All the Octobers

Moments after Aron’s address, Eden went on full alert. War had been declared on them, and forces were gathering on each side.

……

The first to take the stage were Eden’s newly printed and crewed submarines.

The brand-new fleet of submarines had been ordered to patrol a 500-kilometer radius around Eden and sink any vessel that encroached on that arbitrary exclusion zone, which would soon be filled with Edenian fleets. It was time to finally build the reaction fleets, and the atomic printers at Poseidon HQ were working overtime producing Hugin class aircraft carriers, Odin-class battleships, and Thor cruisers in various configurations, along with a whole host of Heimdall-class destroyers, Njord-class frigates, and Sigyn-class tenders.

“Captain, signal bearing 018 relative, distance 3 kilometers. Closing at 6 knots,” the sonar operator on the EV-616 Sigurd Hart reported.

“IFF returns invalid, captain,” the comms officer added.