Chimera

“Indeed. The war will get over soon enough, if the rumblings from Beijing are to be believed. But if they are indeed true,” Chen tossed the glossy images back on the table, “then the fourteen fighters we lost today to take out this base would be waste of resources, all things considered.”

Feng felt a shiver rise up his spine as he grasped what Chen meant.

“Meaning what, exactly?” he asked to verify what he had concluded.

Chen let out a derisive laugh.

“Oh come now, Feng!” he said after several seconds. “You and I can both see the writing on the wall even if Jinping and Wencang have not! We are close to losing the air war, if we haven’t done so already. We are throwing second line J-8IIs into the fight to replace combat losses in J-10s and J-11s. And they are getting massacred, as is to be expected. These stand-off missile strikes are the only effective weapons at the moment that are delivering results. But how long will it be before the Indians mop up the final S-300 batteries in southern Tibet? Twenty-four hours? Forty-eight? Then they will come after our stand-off bombers, tankers and special mission aircraft over northern Tibet. There is no stopping that. We can delay it using innovative tactics as you are doing. But they will adapt, as we would in their situation. And once that happens we would have lost the strategic initiative.”

“You mean we would have lost?” Feng asked hesitantly.

He understood the realities only too well. But one could never be sure when talking about such things. Chen walked over to the digital map of Tibet showing PLA dispositions that he was charged to protect.

“Is it really that hard to believe, Feng?” Chen asked with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think will happen to our ground offensive once you and I are no longer able to push enough forces into the air to protect our land-forces? Do you know the bloodbath that is taking place in Ladakh right now? Of course you do. We all do. Despite what NCNA puts out every hour. Give it another day or two and both sides will be running out of men and ammunition to throw at each other over there. The only land offensive going well is the one through Bhutan. But it’s too insignificant in the grander scheme of things. What is Bhutan but a minor rump state in the mountains? We promised the CMC and the Chairman that we could bring India to its knees within days. Those days have now passed!”

Chen walked back to the table and picked up his peak-cap and also his personal sidearm which he put into his uniform holster. Feng got ready to escort the General out. As Chen put his cap on and opened the door of the conference room, the light glistened off the medals on the chest.

“But have no fear, Feng. Regardless of how tenacious the Indians are in their pursuit to defeat us in this war, they will never defeat us. We will not let that happen. Ever!”

DAY 8

THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 8 + 0100 HRS

“Wake up you lazy bozos! Time to get up!”

Pathanya jokingly kicked Ravi and then Vikram as they lay on the floor of the room in their sleeping bags. Ravi jerked awake immediately and went for the rifle by his side before realizing where he was. Vikram simply mumbled something and turned over to his side fully aware of the friendly tone in Pathanya’s voice. He hoped the Captain would simply go away. But it was not to be. Pathanya kicked him again, slightly harder this time.

“Get up! We got to go. Move!”

Ravi, Sarvanan, Tarun and the others were already up and sitting inside their sleeping bags by this time. The room was still dark, the town having lost electricity following the Chinese attacks on Bhutan. They could all see their cold breaths in front of their faces as they spoke.

Vik fumbled about and forced himself to get up. Pathanya could easily sympathize with his men. Spear team had been on the frontlines of the ground war in Bhutan for four days now.

Colonel Misra had relieved Pathanya of the task of defending Thimpu and the arrival of the 11TH Para-SF Battalion into the city had effectively secured it from the PLA. This had allowed Pathanya to finally give his men sleep, real food, time to rearm and also to refocus. And they had taken the better half of a day doing just that.

But vacation time was now over…

The war was not waiting around for them. Thimpu and eastern Bhutan had been secured over the past day and the PLA Highland Division had been forced to pull back into northern Bhutan where they were now squarely on the defensive, holding on to large chunks of land already captured during their initial assault. Now Potgam was planning his own counteroffensive as more and more army units began entering Bhutan to beef up his forces. And while Dhillon was already coordinating with IV Corps to free eastern Bhutan from two brigades of the PLA Highland Division, Potgam had the single responsibility for recapturing Bhutanese territory north of Thimpu from the third brigade of the Chinese Division.