Chimera

The Hangzhu and the Ningbo as well as all other Chinese warships also opened up with their close-in weapons and filled the skies with a barrage of bullets, knocking out three Brahmos missiles in that desperate melee before the final eight missiles crisscrossed through the Chinese fleet and broke through to their targets…

A series of thunderous explosions ripped through the calm seas and eight orange-yellow fireballs rose to the skies in quick succession, visible for kilometers around. By the time the noise dissipated away, seven columns of black smoke were rising.

The Lanzhou had been ripped into two by successive impact from two Brahmos missiles near the same location on the hull. Its bow listed to port and the ship sank quickly below the roiled waters.

The Haikou was dead in the water, its superstructure gutted from bow to stern and fires raging as sailors jumped overboard. The Hangzhu was still moving while its crew attempted to control the fires raging aft. The Ningbo was already listing heavily and its hull was far below the waterline.

Behind the line of gutted and sinking major warships, two other fleet support ships were also gone and a massive thunderclap announced the death of the fleet’s resupply tanker as it exploded into pieces…

To the northwest, the Satpura wasn’t in much better shape.

Four of the incoming six Moskits had been engaged and destroyed by the ship. One more fell to close-in guns moments before the last Moskit had ripped through the hull. The Satpura was utterly decimated.

The surviving Indian sailors were jumping overboard from the burning hull just as Sea-King helicopters from the other ships of the group began arriving over the horizon.

Within the hour the bow of the Satpura slipped below the waters of the ocean and sank, taking with it the bodies of most of its crew.

JUNWEI-KONGJUN

BEIJING

DAY 11 + 1700 HRS

“I don’t care if you cannot raise them! Get some people on the ground down there if you have to!” Feng slammed the phone down.

He stood there, his arm quivering with rage as his palm tried to crush the phone. He turned around to see Chen walk into the center, returning the salutes from several mid-grade staff officers. The General’s orderly took his uniform overcoat and peak-cap and left the room.

Chen walked over.

“What’s the situation at Golmud?” he asked just as Feng released the phone from his death-grip and took a deep breath.

“Not good,” he replied after a few seconds. “We cannot raise anybody over there on the comms. No radio, no telephone. The local army garrison commander witnessed the attack from long-range and called his command to report sighting nuclear detonation mushroom clouds over Golmud! General Yongju from the C-M-C called up to confirm this and I told them there was no such event recorded at our end.”

“Conventional unitary warheads?” Chen asked.

“Have to be,” Feng replied. “That garrison commander saw mushroom clouds for sure, just that they weren’t nuclear detonations. I told the General to get me in touch with that garrison commander at Golmud. I just got off the phone with him.”

Chen nodded and both men walked out of the conference room into the main center. It was lined with rows of communications gear and map displays on the walls. The room was occupied with more than two dozen air-force officers as they controlled the large scale PLAAF operations. Right now, the center was filled with the cacophony of an air-force headquarters in chaos attempting to regain control of a fast deteriorating war.

Normally Feng and Chen would be at their Chengdu-Lanzhou unified MRAF center, controlling a curious mix of tactical and strategic operations that such large regional commands entailed. For now, however, Wencang had asked them to operate from here now that the war had stopped being tactical. Feng regretted his loss of tactical control of the units in theater. But he also understood that he was needed here now.

Of course, it helps now that the strategic and tactical aspects are one and the same… He thought, looking at the large wall display of Tibet.

“What’s the tactical situation out there?” Chen asked. “Who has operational airborne control?”

“That’s what I am trying to find out right now. 26TH Division headquarters say that they have lost all contact with their detachment at Golmud,” Feng noted as he crossed his arms.

“That’s not surprising, is it?” Chen said dryly.