[Armageddon's Song 02] • 'Advance to Contact' (Armageddon's Song)

Washington DC, Taipei, NATOs North Cape naval picket, and two carrier combat groups have been destroyed by nuclear weapons. NATO is on the back foot and her potential allies are thinning out as China shows no hesitation in leveling entire cities

Major Constantine Bedonavich and Svetlana Vorsoff* are our spies with a conscience and now they are in from the cold, but someone will go to any lengths to exact a revenge. Perhaps baiting the Bear in his lair is their only hope of survival.

The NATO army in Europe, with the battered but defiant Coldstream Guards and US 82nd are holding the line.

Vital supplies are enroute from America but the determination of those in the convoys and escorts is matched by those charged with sinking them.

NATO needs to level the playing field, and then tilt it in their favour.

Who better to engineer the destruction of China's ICBMs than Major Dewar and his Royal Marines.

Who better to find and sink the 'Chinese Boomer' than the US Los Angeles and Sea Wolf class hunter killers, with a little help from HMS Hood, of course.

The second novel in the Armageddon's Song series again takes you up close and personal with the infantryman walking point, the pilot in the dog fight and those who ultimately command the armies.

*Contains some sexual content

The battalion had laagered-up for the night, listening patrols, recce patrols and two fighting patrols laying ambushes had gone out just after last light. The rest of the battalion was dug in, the infantry in a protective ring about the armour and APCs.

Lt Col Pat Reed was curled up in his green maggot when a signaler crunched through the snow to his shell scrape, summoning him to the mobile CP. His teeth were chattering as he pushed through the blackouts and into the APCs interior, squinting against the light over the communications gear.

“Bollocks…it’s as cold as a tarts heart out there!”

The adjutant had the duty watch keepers seat, he moved aside for the CO and handed him a signal’s pad, re-seating himself in the shadows and earning a grumble from an off-duty signaller who was sleeping there.

The CO stole the adjutants coffee without any word of apology, sipping at the hot brew and making a face, as he read the decoded BATCO message. “Who the bloody hell are ‘Address Group, Quebec Kilo’ when they’re at home, Timothy?” and handed back the mug. He next stole the duty signalers, took a tentative sip and again screwed up his face.

“I do wish you children would forget all that health crap, and start taking sugar in your tea and coffee.”

The adjutant gave his boss a moment and then answered the question. “They are forces under direct control of SACUER, sir. In this case its ‘Twenty Two’, or at least the G Squadron part of it…their Sunray should be coming through the perimeter shortly, I sent Sarn’t Higgins from Defence Platoon to guide him through.” ‘Twenty Two’ or ‘The Regiment’, being the names the SAS are often referred to as.

“Oh Christ…no doubt we’ll be reading about ourselves in some book after the war, in unflattering terms that bear no relation whatsoever to reality, and entitled ‘How the war was won by me…and everyone else was a wanker’.”

Watch out for the third part of the Armageddon's Song series, 'Fight Through' will be available during Autumn 2013