Chimera

Pathanya pointed his arm towards the dilapidated Wang-Chu village west of the bridge. They had seen PLA soldiers taking positions in there, preparing to attack across the bridge and up the hill that Spear was on. Hotel-Six launchers were replenishing and were temporarily unavailable. All Pathanya could count on for the moment in terms of support was the Nishant UAV overhead and the inbound flight of two helicopters from Delta-Flight. One of those helicopters was a Lancer attack chopper.

Pathanya coughed under the smoke and then continued:

“Those houses there are occupied by the PLA. The bridge is wired to blow, but the frozen riverbed won’t stop the enemy infantry from rushing across. We can’t stay here anymore. We have to keep rolling back to Thimpu, harassing these guys all the way using Hotel-Six rocket arty. There is an inbound evac helicopter that will get Ganesh out. The problem is that they can’t land anywhere here on this slope. No place flat enough. So we have to advance south beyond that bend of road to the south where Delta birds will be waiting. Keep your eyes peeled and move silent. We are going back down that slope without waking up the reds. One false move and they are going to open up with everything they got. Understand?”

Pathanya looked around to see everybody nodding in silence. He removed the rifle sling, pulled up his rifle and headed out, slowly moving past the broken branches and tree trunks. The others did the same. Two of them slung Ganesh around their shoulders as they helped him descend the tricky slope…

At least the ice and snow melted away…

Pathanya thought as he realized why he wasn’t slipping on the same rocky terrain he had climbed up before. He watched the red-dot sight of his rifle through his night-vision goggles and observed the eerily silent windows of the houses across the bridge. He looked behind for a quick second to see others coming down the hill. All of them moved without a sound.

They were taking advantage of the confusion on the Chinese side following the rocket barrages fired by Hotel-Six to try and sneak away without getting into a bitter firefight.

Pathanya had descended right up till the road and the burnt out hulk of the RBA truck from before. He keyed his comms as he slid up next to the charred chassis of the truck:

“Delta-One, what’s your position, over?”

The reply came over the background noise of helicopter engines:

“Standing by south of winchester-charlie at three clicks! What’s your situation? Over,” the Major in command of the Lancer helicopter replied.

“Spear is attempting disengagement and withdrawal. All silent so far. E-T-A to primary L-Z is ten minutes. Out,” Pathanya reported and switched comms to his team again.

“Boss, I got optical reflections from that central two-floor building on my night optics,” Vikram said quietly. “It’s the only elevated position in the village. I think the reds have optics on us.”

Shit!

Pathanya pulled out the IMFS device from his backpack and went prone under the truck. He clicked the device on and put it to his eyes before keying his comms again:

“Which building are you talking about? I see a white one with a half destroyed roof.”

“Yeah. That’s the one. Second window from the right, second floor,” Vikram replied calmly.

“All right, I have it now. Two soldiers near the window with some sort of tripod mounted optics. He’s scanning the hillside above us. Probably hasn’t spotted us near the base of the hill because he is looking further up towards the top,” Pathanya said as he lowered the IMFS and looked around for options.

He realized the openness of the next few hundred meters down the road that they had to go. Enough cover to allow a fighting withdrawal by a larger force, but not by ten men of which three were combat-ineffective at the moment. He switched his comms back to Delta-Flight:

“You still there, Delta-One?”

“Roger. What’s taking you so long? We are going to be running on fumes here pretty soon if you boys don’t reach the L-Z!” the Major said as he watched the Dhruv helicopter hovering a few feet above the grassy terrain to his left.

“Delta-One, we have enemy optics conducting visual recon of the hillside and we are exposed. Over” Pathanya said. The Major looked to his co-pilot who nodded.

Goddamn it…

“Spear-One. Describe the structure occupied by the enemy O-P. Over,” the Major ordered.

“Delta-One, Enemy O-P is a two floor, white-coloration building with a damaged flat roof. Structure is in the center of the village and clearly visible when ingress is from the northeast,” Pathanya said, guessing what the Major had in mind.

“Roger. Delta-One is detaching evac flight and bypassing winchester-charlie from the east. Expect ingress from the northeast in five minutes. Delta-One out!” the Major said and looked over to his co-pilot:

“All right, my friend. You ready?”

“Ready as can be, sir!”