Orders.

Harinder and Eileen studied the orders then the attached technical data and personnel breakdowns. On paper, the SNMG was a pretty formidable fleet of six ships. They went through the ships one by one starting with the flagship USS forest Sherman DDG 98 followed by HMCS Halifax FFH 330, HNLMS De Zeven Provincien F802, FGS Erfurt FGS 262, FGS Spessart A1442 FS Latouche D646. Harinder noted that the six ships represented the Dutch, French, German, Canadian and USA navies. Eileen then went on to read the circumstances of the mission they had. The SNMG had gone radio silent since yesterday and should have been back in port yesterday for the change of command. Eileen look at Harinder and said" Captain there are some possibilities that we can consider. One the fleet was attacked in such a way and so quickly that they could not get a message off. Two, the whole fleet suddenly went rogue for reasons unknown. Third, they had radio issues.

Harinder looked up and said that the third option was pretty remote as it was unlikely that all six ships would have suffered radio issues. The only thing that could do that was an EMP pulse and that would require some kind of new weapon or a nuclear explosion. The latter would have been picked up by various sensors around the globe. Just then the telephone buzzed and Harinder picked it up, it was Cmdr Grator informing her that the Unison was at two hundred feet heading for the Greenland coast at twenty knots. Harinder hung up and invited Eileen to the control room and they left Harinder's cabin and headed up to the control room. When they got there Cmdr Grator handed Harinder a message that they had received prior to diving. She opened the message and read it. "From CNO to HMS Unison.. Search around the Greenland coast proved negative for SNMG. Unable to search further due to heavy fog will resume as soon as weather permits." She hand the message to Eileen and she read and sighed.

The warsaw pact would have a field day had they known that NATO had misplaced one of its fleets mused Harinder to herself. _"Control this is sonar we have a surface contact bearing red 090. Identified as either freighter or tanker." _Harinder looked at Cmdr Grator and said it might be a good idea to do target practice. Helen pressed a button and the battle station alarm sounded and the Unison came to life as hatches were closed and the submarine locked up. The weapons officer ordered two simulated torpedos loaded. The UNison closed on the target and Harinder had the attack periscope raised and the target came into view. She invited Eileen to look while the weapons officers checked the computer for the firing solution and fed it to the simulated torpedos and waited to launch them. The outer doors were opened and Harinder watched, when the light flashed green on the screen she nodded and the weapons officer fired. The simulated torpedos ran normally and the computer chalked up a hit-and-kill.

Eileen was impressed and Harinder offered her a tour of the Unison which Eileen accepted and followed Helen. Harinder looked once again at the last signal and then studied the chart. She called over the navigating officer and asked him to make a guess as to where to hide a six-ship fleet near Greenland. The navigator replied that assuming they were not sunk then there were very few places around the Greenland coast to hide one ship let alone six. He went on to say that if it was him her would choose the Norwegian Fjords there were many and some very deep ones. Harinder pondered this and when after an hour Eileen and Helen returned she discussed it with them. Eileen thought the suggestion had merit but skipping a search of Greenland was a big gamble. Harinder reminded Eileen that she was the mission commanding officer and she would have to make the decision to alter course and after weighing up her options she asked Harinder to alter course for Norway.