March 10. Chinese Empire, headquarters of the Central Intelligence Analysis Center.

The facility was located in a heavily restricted core region, a top-level classified installation dedicated to strategic intelligence processing. Inside, the lighting remained constant. The atmosphere was tightly controlled, with every workstation operating under sustained focus.

For several days, sonar readings and visual recordings from the Eastern Mediterranean region had been continuously transmitted here. Ever since the report of an "underwater unmanned vehicle destroyed by a laser-like attack," the dataset had been elevated to the highest priority for verification.

Analyst teams had been working in uninterrupted cycles. Raw sonar streams were reprocessed repeatedly through multiple independent systems. Every frame of footage, every waveform pattern, and every timestamp sequence was subjected to cross-verification.

The sonar returns remained unusually stable. The seabed structure was rendered with high clarity, showing wreckage outlines and dispersed fragments with consistent signal continuity. No irregular jumps or temporal distortions were detected.

The video recordings, despite extremely poor lighting conditions, still preserved a coherent progression of events. The moment of a high-energy beam striking the target was visible, without signs of editing artifacts or data manipulation.

Multiple validation layers were applied simultaneously. Source consistency checks, timestamp alignment, optical flow stability analysis, and anomaly-detection models all returned converging results. The final assessment indicated that the data was internally consistent and showed no evidence of fabrication or post-processing interference.

At the same time, field investigation teams submitted their final reports.

Personnel on-site had conducted a complete behavioral audit of all relevant individuals. Movement logs were reconstructed down to minute-level detail. No irregularities were found. The hardware systems were independently inspected, and no signs of tampering or corruption were detected.

Finally, the recovered wreckage of the unmanned underwater vehicle provided decisive confirmation. The structural damage pattern matched the signature of a high-energy directed-energy impact with high precision.

The conclusion became unavoidable.

An underwater laser-class weapon had been confirmed to exist.

Immediately afterward, the intelligence center escalated its operational status and activated overseas intelligence collection channels for further tracking and source identification.

At the same time, a separate urgent report arrived from Cyprus.

It described the loss of a newly acquired submarine in the Suez Strait. The report explicitly referenced "laser involvement."

The head of the intelligence division, Xuxin Xian, reviewed the document without interruption. His attention remained fixed as he read through every line.

Certain keywords stood out sharply: Trident, naked woman, laser.

The structure of the report was fragmented, but its implications aligned closely with the phenomenon they had been investigating.

Submarine. High-energy underwater strike. Unknown origin.

He reread the relevant section.

Underwater laser.

The same category of event.

Meanwhile, Cyprus had already entered a state of confusion.

The submarine had only recently been delivered. In practical terms, it had barely completed initial operational integration. The procurement cost alone had been substantial, involving not only the vessel itself but also training programs, maintenance contracts, and long-term logistical arrangements with the Chinese supplier.

Now it was gone.

The vessel, referred to as the "Deep Sea Explorer," had disappeared shortly after deployment.

Initial reactions within the Cypriot administration ranged from disbelief to repeated verification of whether the report was real. Only after confirming the timeline did they accept the situation as factual.

The loss was total. No communication. No partial recovery.

The official naval report, however, left no room for dismissal.

At approximately 700 meters depth, the submarine had been struck and destroyed.

Witness accounts, though inconsistent, described an impossible scenario: a "bare woman holding a trident underwater," and a "laser emitted from a submerged source." The system failure occurred within seconds.

The phrasing sounded irrational even in formal briefings.

Yet after eliminating all conventional explanations, only one remained.

Something real had occurred, even if it did not fit established frameworks.

Under normal circumstances, Cyprus would have paused operations to reassess its limited deep-sea capability. With the submarine lost, there was little capacity for immediate follow-up investigation.

However, external pressure arrived quickly.

From the Chinese Empire's side, the response emphasized urgency rather than caution, as a ceremonial procession of the Imperial Family was coming tomorrow, alongside the upcoming elections of senators down to provincial electoral levels. The strategic significance of the Suez Strait was repeatedly highlighted trade between the Middle Empires and the Chinese Empire. The implication was direct: withdrawal was not acceptable.

The expectation was that Cyprus would continue operations despite uncertainty, as it tried to balance itself between its neighbors and its distant ally.

Reluctantly, preparations resumed.

The Chinese Empire did not deploy submarines this time. The risk profile had changed significantly.

Instead, a small group of modified survey vessels was dispatched. Their hulls were reinforced with lightweight, heat-resistant ceramic alloy plating, designed to improve survivability against potential high-energy laser exposure by delaying thermal penetration and structural failure.

The concept was not full protection, but controlled resistance under brief exposure.

Alongside them, technical advisors and intelligence personnel were integrated into the mission.

The joint task force proceeded quietly toward the Suez Strait.

By midday, several ordinary-looking survey vessels were already on station. Their exterior appearance remained civilian, but their operational configuration was clearly non-standard.

Below them lay more than 700 meters of dark water.

At that depth, darkness was absolute. Pressure conditions made direct human exploration impossible without specialized systems. Somewhere in that environment rested the wreckage of the submarine, along with the onboard data recorder that had become the primary objective.

A newly developed unmanned deep-sea vehicle was deployed.

It descended steadily, its hull cutting through increasing pressure layers. The navigation system maintained stability despite complex seabed terrain. High-frequency sonar pulses continuously mapped the surroundings with precise resolution.

Inside the surface control room, operators monitored the incoming data streams in complete silence.

The display gradually formed a three-dimensional reconstruction of the seabed.

Then the target appeared.

The submarine lay motionless on the ocean floor.

It was no longer an operational vessel. The hull had been severely compromised, marked by multiple clean perforations. The edges of these openings were smooth and thermally deformed, consistent with extreme localized energy exposure.

Seawater flowed freely through the breaches, carrying debris in and out of the internal compartments.

Cables drifted weightlessly. Metal fragments and scattered personal equipment remained frozen in place, exposed to the surrounding ocean.

The damage pattern indicated a concentrated high-energy strike delivered in an extremely short time window.

No one in the control room spoke. The retrieval sequence began immediately.

The unmanned vehicle extended its mechanical arm, guided by sonar positioning data. It moved toward the command section of the wreck.

In the dim illumination, the black box was located.

After a brief stabilization phase, the mechanical arm secured it with controlled force. The extraction was executed slowly to avoid damaging the device.

For a brief moment, all motion on the display appeared to slow, as if the environment itself resisted change.

The black box was lifted free from the wreckage and carried upward.

In the control room, Xuxin Xian observed the live feed without expression.

The physical evidence already confirmed the presence of a directed-energy system. The remaining unknowns were its origin, mechanism, and operational constraints.

If the recorder data could be fully recovered, it would reconstruct the final sequence: system status, external attack signature, and the exact collapse moment.

That information would define the next operational phase.

He continued to watch the image of the deep-sea wreckage and the retrieved recorder as it ascended.

After a long pause, he issued instructions to prioritize full forensic extraction of the black box data and initiate parallel analysis of any anomalous electromagnetic activity recorded during the final seconds of the submarine's operation.

The display remained fixed on the deep ocean.

The wreckage stayed motionless in the darkness, unchanged and unresolved.