Chimera

“Roger that,” Pathanya replied. His voice was much clearer now. “The usual suspects are available. Hotel-Six is on standby and warlord-central has R-P-Vs overhead. They are probably watching the Chinese advance as well. They will direct fire. I have open comms with them. We are to observe both the Chinese and our own comms and report anything they miss. Do you copy?”

“Spear-Two copies all,” Vikram said and waved Sarvanan to get on the wall with the IMFS. He gestured with his fingers pointed above to indicate that friendly UAVs were overhead. He felt better knowing that, and he knew the other two men did as well…

“One more thing, Vik,” Pathanya continued. “I am at the royal palace with the rest of Spear. We are clearing the helipads here for imminent reinforcements from Paru. Strike what you can, and then fall back to the Palace. If necessary, we will hold them off here. Clear?”

“Crystal,” Vikram answered.

“Good. Spear-One out,” the line squawked off.

PARU AIRFIELD

EAST OF PARU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 1230 HRS

Colonel Misra stepped off the cargo ramp of the An-32 as the deafening roar of its propellers filled the air. He was met by Squadron-Leader Saxena on the tarmac behind the parked aircraft. Paratroopers who had flown in alongside Misra stepped off the ramp as well and moved towards their battalion rally-point on the open grassy fields covered with slight snow to the north of the runway.

That area was now being used as temporary helipads and Misra could see two army-aviation Dhruv helicopters parked on the grass. Saxena was wearing the standard disruptive pattern camo uniform of the air-force Garuds along with the boonie-hat. Misra on the other hand was kitted out in the standard Para winter-warfare uniform and had his face painted with white and brown slashes, similar to the rest of his men. He glanced at the young man and smiled as he returned the salute.

“Looks like the air-force isn’t getting left behind with its special forces as far as Bhutan goes!” Misra noted. The rivalry between the various branches of the special-forces was well known. Saxena smiled cruelly.

“Well somebody had to clear the airport for the army to land, sir!”

“I will let that slide for now because of this whole thing about a Chinese Division rampaging through Bhutan,” Misra noted and his smile disappeared as he looked at the devastation to the base.

“The PLAAF really did a number on this airport, didn’t they?”

“That they did, sir,” Saxena responded and recalled the attack he had barely escaped from…

“You boys did a hell of a job out here. We will not forget it,” Misra added, noticing the recent wounds on the younger man’s face.

“I appreciate the sentiment, sir.” Saxena said and then faced the Colonel. “When you get to Thimpu, please kill them all on behalf of my team members who died here.”

Misra nodded and both men walked away from the now empty An-32. As they walked, the airmen cleared the way for bringing in wounded soldiers to be evacuated and began to load them on board. The two officers walked over to a parked jeep and drove off to a half damaged admin office inside the terminal to coordinate the arrival of the 11TH Para-SF Battalion into Bhutan.

NORTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 1250 HRS

“R-P-V clearing A-O. Stand by.”

The radio squawked as a disembodied voice from the UAV flight-control center at the golf-course at Haa-Dzong reported to all on the net.

“Roger. Visual spectrum view backing out,” another voice said.

“Eyes opened and we are recording.”

“Roger.”

Vikram had keyed the net into his helmet mounted headset while he continued to observe through his binoculars. He was listening on the conversation between the UAV pilot and operators, warlord-central operations staff and Hotel-Six battery operations staff as everybody got into place.

The battalion of PLA soldiers was now less than two kilometers away. Sarvanan and Tarun had now discarded their tripod mounted optics and exchanged them with their rifles scopes. Tarun adjusted the optics on his Dragunov sniper rifle.

“Hotel-Six to warlord-central: I hope your birds are clear. We are lighting up the sky in fifteen seconds.” Fernandez said curtly and chimed off. Vikram tightened the grip around the binoculars and counted away the seconds.

Four… Three… Two…

“Incoming!” Sarvanan said as his head jerked up at the incoming howls of landing rockets.

The ground just beyond the outskirts shook as inverted cones of gravel and rocks flew dozens of feet into the air around the leading mass of Chinese soldiers moving tactically forward. The shockwaves took a few seconds to reach Vikram and the others at their post. The concrete floor under their feet rumbled and the snow on the roof shook itself loose. Two dozen large 214mm rockets had pummeled into the ground around the Chinese soldiers, leaving nothing more than a dust cloud in the valley…

Vikram’s radio burst to life:

“Kaboom! Good impact, Hotel-Six! Wasted those suckers!”