Chimera

An excited voice spoke up from warlord-central. None of the men in Spear had any such energy left. They also got to see up close and personal the nasty effects of these strikes and it was not pretty. Maybe it looked cleaner on the Searcher-II optics. No explosions to hear, no pressure waves rippling through the body and no screaming cries of help from wounded Chinese soldiers to be heard.

It did seem fun when you removed these elements…

Vikram knew that Pathanya was also listening in. But neither man had anything to add right then. The radio conversation continued regardless:

“Yeah, roger that! What’s the assessment on the barrage? I can’t see anything through that dust cloud we raised!”

“Switch back to thermal?”

“Uh… negative on thermal. Too much I-R scatter. Stick to visual and hold off on second barrage until we have a clear target. Let the boots on the ground out there confirm what we are seeing up here.”

That was Vikram’s cue.

He tried hard to make out anything through the haze, but it was not possible. However, one thing was confirmed: the leading Chinese infantry company had been massacred out of the clear blue sky…

“This is Spear-Two. Fire-mission successful and good effect on target. Impossible to verify specifics but the leading wave of soldiers took heavy losses. Over,” Vikram said finally.

He fully expected to hear: “Yeah, no shit, genius!”

“Roger, Spear-Two. Warlord-central copies all. Hotel-Six, what’s the E-T-A on the second fire mission?” the voice from Haa-Dzong said.

Guess General Potgam must be standing around…

“Two minutes! Send targets!”

“Roger. Second target is the battalion headquarters half-click north of grid baker-quebec-on…”

Vikram lowered his headset and looked around, seeing Sarvanan and Tarun quietly manning their posts. To the north the haze began to clear.

This is proving too easy. What are we missing?

He changed frequencies and pulled up intra-team comms to Pathanya.

“Spear-One, this is — Two. Do you copy?” he spoke quietly.

“Go,” Pathanya’s voice came through.

“Boss, this is proving too easy. Why are they not advancing under artillery cover? They are not even suppressing Hotel-Six,” Vikram said.

“Is that a problem, Vik? You make it sound like it’s a bad thing!”

“Negative, boss. I am just saying that the Chinese will not take this kind of mauling lightly. Thing is, I can’t figure out what they can do. For sure they are bringing in heavy mortars to support their assault on Thimpu, but that’s point artillery. Where are their long-range guns? Their rocket systems?”

“Maybe we took all of them out. I know we took out three of their direct support gun batteries yesterday, so maybe they haven’t had time to replace them yet,” Pathanya speculated.

“Then why make this kind of suicidal advance now? Why not wait it out until they can provide suppressive arty?”

“Maybe they are on a timetable for something.” Pathanya offered.

“Perhaps.”

“Or maybe,” Pathanya continued, “they know this is their only window for capturing Thimpu before our boys arrive and turn this place into a fortress. Look, I have enough things to worry about here. Let’s leave the speculation to warlord and his commanders. Stay sharp and keep your eyes peeled!”

As Pathanya chimed out, Vikram remained lost in thought.

He was pulled out of it when the first flashes of light appeared further north and the Chinese battalion lost its headquarters to murderous fire from Hotel-Six rockets. Twenty near-simultaneous flashes destroyed the Chinese ability to control the momentum to Thimpu. While they sorted it out, they gave Colonel Misra the time he desperately needed to deploy into the Bhutanese capital.

ABOVE SOUTHERN TIBET

DAY 7 + 1345 HRS

The three flights of J-8IIs from the PLAAF 37TH Fighter Division lit afterburners and accelerated away from their H-6U tankers. As the sunlight glinted from their cockpits, the pilots of the nine J-8IIs could see the three Su-30MKKs from the 33RD Fighter Division flying a few thousand feet above their tankers on BARCAP duty…

The J-8II squadron-commander realized that these Flankers were not going to provide support to his pilots today. Not after their murderous losses in the last seven days. The remaining Chinese Su-27/30s in theater were now being pooled from various depleted squadrons and tasked with defensive missions.

What that meant for the less-prestigious mud-movers like the J-8II and J-7 units was not something the squadron-commander wanted to dwell on today. As they left the tankers and their precious escorts behind, the J-8IIs switched off afterburners, spread into a loose formation and headed south.