Chimera

He began to stuff his page of notes into his uniform pocket and then snapped off a salute which was returned crisply by the two senior commanders. The men began piling outside the trailer and started walking towards the line of parked Arjun tanks. An LCH returned from the north along the valley and flared for landing near the 199HU landing pads. Kulkarni looked at the parked helicopters showing black stains near their engine exhausts and near the gun turrets from endless missions. His gunner was standing outside on the chassis near the driver’s hatch.

“Pretty scary, sir. These men here have been fighting for years by the looks on their faces!” he said to Kulkarni.

“Their equipment is pretty worn out too,” Kulkarni added as he climbed up the chassis and stepped on the turret. His gunner slid into his hatch. Kulkarni switched on his comms:

“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements. We are now at the FEBA. All units on red-con status!” He lowered his mouthpiece and turned to face his loader:

“Load sabot!”

As the loader got to action handling the huge tank round in his hands, Kulkarni checked his commander sights and verified the night-vision systems as all of his tanks reported their status. He keyed the comms again:

“Rhino-One to all elements: expect enemy heavy armor! Watch for friendlies as we approach the FEBA. Engage and destroy all enemy tanks you see. Keep an eye out for the T-99s. It’s dangerous and do not underestimate its night-fighting capability. We are better trained and equipped. This may not be Rajasthan, but this is still our Arjun tank and this is still the 43RD Armored Regiment! Move out!”

The line of tanks rumbled forwarded with a jerk, rolling over the loose gravel as they headed into the open terrain beyond Saser…

Brigadier Adesara was standing with Sudarshan as two AXE utility vehicles rolled up to take them back to their respective posts. Sudarshan looked at Adesara:

“About damn time!”

“Indeed! Break through to that commie M-S-R, Sudarshan. It’s time we retook the initiative out here,” Adesara ordered and walked away.

NORTH OF PARU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0150 HRS

Fernandez chewed out his last cigar about the same time as the officers inside his command trailer finished punching in the coordinates for the three launchers. The latter were already deployed outside on their hydraulic stabilizers into the wet, snow-covered mud of the valley with their launchers pointed north at a high elevation. The DIGICORA metrological radar vehicle crew had already evaluated weather information and adjusted the launchers. The 214mm rockets were loaded with fragmentation-warheads and loaded in the tubes.

The launch control officer looked over his shoulder at Fernandez once he was ready to launch. Fernandez smiled around the cigar in his mouth:

“Hit it, boy!”

Three seconds later the hills around Paru town reverberated with a low swishing noise and the Bhutanese citizens of the town looked to the north to see successive streaks of yellow light rising from the ground and disappearing into the night sky…

THE WANG-CHU BRIDGE

NORTH OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0155 HRS

The thunder from the explosions reverberated through the valley and the ridges northwest of the bridge disappeared under a carpet of dust, smoke and brief flashes of light. The mountain of smoke descended into the valley and covered the village…

“Oh shit! That was fucking lovely!” Vikram exclaimed.

Pathanya peered through the IMFS optics and spoke into his radio:

“Good effect on target, Hotel-Six! Preliminary assessment suggests massive enemy K-I-A on ridge west of winchester-charlie! Hold second salvo. Will advise. Over.”

“Roger. Standing by,” the link chimed out.

“All right boys,” Pathanya said as he lowered his IMFS and glanced at the settling cloud of dust in the valley, “no time to relax. That strike was good, but now the enemy will spread out and maneuver. He knows that he has run into some Indian defenses. Expect flanking moves and keep…”

“Incoming fire!” Ravi shouted as a field artillery round slammed into the hillside just below their positions, followed by the screeching howl of more rounds.

“Shit! Get to cover and spread out!” Pathanya shouted as he quickly grabbed his comms set and SATCOM equipment and prepared to get into a rocky defilade position he had identified for just this kind of situation.

The Chinese artillery rounds were slamming into the hillside east of the bridge, and the Chinese company commander was walking his fire up the slope, expecting his opponents to be occupying the hill. His artillery barrage was composed of high-explosive rounds and spread over the area of the hillside. It was obvious that they knew where Spear-One was.

They have eyes above us. Probably unmanned drones!

Pathanya thought as the gravel from explosions fell over him.

“Spear, this is warlord-central! What’s the hell is going on?!” the radio squawked amidst the roar of explosions and shrapnel flying overhead.