Chimera

Pathanya grabbed the set lying in the dirt nearby and covered the speaker with his hands to be able to get his words across:

“This is Spear-One! We are taking suppression barrage east of winchester-charlie from enemy field arty! Enemy has eyes above us and attempting flanking maneuver under cover of barrage! Requesting priority counter-battery fire from Hotel-Six!”

“Say again, Spear-One! I don’t read! Comms is One-By-Five! Over!”

“Damn it!” Pathanya shouted over the explosions before he calmed down. But before he could speak again, General Potgam chimed in:

“Stand by, Spear-One!”

Pathanya heard the conversation now taking place:

“Hotel-Six, this is warlord. Can you suppress enemy tube arty fire on Spear-One?”

“Hotel-Six here to warlord: that’s a big negative. We have no country-battery eyes on winchester-charlie! We do not have W-L-R eyes on target. It has not been airlifted into Paru yet! We need visual eyes on red arty! Over,” Fernandez shouted back.

Pathanya was stuck amidst all this with his radio to his ears and his eyes squinting at every nearby explosion rocking the hillside…

“Oh shit! Ganesh is hit!” Vikram shouted from where he was, loud enough to be heard above the explosions.

“Medic!” Ganesh screamed in pain.

Pathanya dropped the comms set and ran out into the explosions towards Ganesh as Ravi did the same. They ran over the shredded tree trunks and the smoking craters before reaching a cluster of rocks where Ganesh had taken cover. He laid on the ground between the rocks now, his leg covered in blood and the rocks nearby stained with it. His moans of pain sent shivers down Pathanya’s spine as another explosion rocked the hillside and sent mounds of dirt flying all around them. Ravi, the team’s medic, slid into the rocks and got down to work.

“Easy there buddy! Hang on! Ravi is taking care of it,” Pathanya said as calmly as he could.

Ganesh could only reply with a suppressed moan. Pathanya looked over to Ravi who shook his head:

“We need to get him out! He’s got a deep shrapnel wound that I can’t see. I can’t do much for him other than killing the pain!”

“Do what you can! Stabilize him! I am going to go get some help,” Pathanya shouted as he got to his feet and ran across the ravaged hillside to his own position. He got there in time to see the radio speaker buried in gravel and foliage but still working…

“Warlord to Spear-One! Do you read?! I say again: do you read?!”

“This is Spear-One! I read you five-by-five! I am taking casualties over here! I need that damn enemy arty suppressed! Over!” Pathanya shouted as he slid on the gravel nearby.

“Roger that, Spear-One! Hold Five. Warlord has redirected R-P-V coverage north of winchester-charlie. We are getting eyes on the enemy guns now. Hotel-Six will suppress. Over”

Finally some good news!

Pathanya looked up but could only see the night sky. But above his head, one of the Nishant UAVs now under JFB command was attempting to do the seeker role in a hunter-killer mission along with Fernandez and his men at Paru. The UAV was equipped with thermal imaging and showed the glowing white balls of fire exploding on the hillside at the Wang-Chu Bridge and then further north the flashes of white emanating from enemy field guns. It didn’t take long for the latter location to be identified and calculated. Three Pinaka launchers quickly swiveled their launch tubes and adjusted for range, elevation, warhead and weather conditions and sent another streak of eighteen 214mm rockets into northern Bhutan…

At Haa-Dzong, Potgam was watching the battle unfold from the battlefield computers set up inside his operations center. The UAV feed was patched in to his screens from the flight-control trailer near the golf-course. Potgam watched in satisfaction as a carpet of small explosions lit up around the enemy guns. The gun flashes from that Chinese battery instantly stopped. He turned around to his operations staff and laughed.

“Good. Send my regards to Fernandez and his boys. Job well done. Now get Spear team some medevac support,” Potgam ordered.

THE WANG-CHU BRIDGE

NORTH OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0230 HRS

“Okay. Here’s the plan…” Pathanya said as he slung his rifle around his shoulders. The rest of the team had gathered up around him.

The hill they were on was still covered in smoke. The trees all over this side of the hill had been ripped and shredded by the Chinese guns. Pathanya and the others were choking from the smoke and dust, struggling to speak.