Chimera

When the RISAT-2 satellite was smashed in orbit above the 823RD Brigade launchers, the loss in video-feed at the SFC had been partial, unlike in Bangalore. The nearest Heron had been diverted on orders from Air-Marshal Iyer and had arrived on station, far-south of the battery and outside the range of its medium-range SAMs in order to maintain long, oblique visual angles for its EO systems. That way, it stayed out of harm’s way while still able to monitor activities at the southernmost battery of the Brigade. The Chinese had no knowledge of this bird and so when they began rolling out the DF-21C launchers from their camouflaged locations for pre-launch preparations, they had no intelligence that Iyer and his staff at the SFC had a clear view of the Chinese intentions…

OPERATIONS CENTER

STRATEGIC FORCES COMMAND

INDIA

DAY 15 + 0520 HRS

“Oh my god! Are you serious?” the Prime-Minister’s voice came over the conference view on the wall.

“I wish I wasn’t!” Iyer replied urgently. “It’s clear as day, sir! We can see them preparing the launchers. The nettings are gone and the vehicles are preparing to move to their launch positions!”

“What targets are we expecting them to aim for?” Chakri asked as he joined the conversation. “I mean, we are talking about their DF-21s, right?”

“We are.” Iyer agreed. “The ‘C’ models to be exact. From where they are between Korla and Golmud, they can hit any target within an arc of fifteen-hundred kilometers. To give you an idea, we are talking about all states from Ladakh, down to Delhi, Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Assam and most other eastern states. But we don’t see any activity at their DF-31 sites. The 31s are what they would need in order to hit our southern cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and so on.”

“So it’s possible they are going for a battlefield use at this time? Not our cities?” the PM asked, his voice cracking under the fear.

“It is possible,” Iyer said. “But they can hit Delhi, as I mentioned earlier!”

“Iyer, are we talking nuclear warheads here?” Chakri asked. “I want to be clear on this!” Just then the NSA and other military officials joined the video feed and the screen split into smaller sections to accommodate them.

“Yes sir,” Iyer continued as Vice-Admiral Valhotra coordinated with the other officers in the operations center. “We are almost certain that their DF-21Cs are nuclear-tipped. Their short-range missiles are not. Many of these units were hit and destroyed on the ground by our air-force strikes once we established control of the skies over southern Tibet. Beijing pulled the surviving launchers to the north where we can’t touch them. But it also means that unless we start driving deep into Tibet, those shorter-range missiles are not our primary concern at this point. The DF-21s, however, are very much the weapon of choice for Beijing right now.”

“Oh my god!” the PM added as he rubbed his eyes.

“Why are they doing this?” Ravoof asked, completely lost on Chinese intentions. “We just initiated conversations with Beijing to negotiate an end to the war! Where did this threat suddenly come from?”

“I will tell you where it came from,” Chakri sighed. “One of their Divisions in the Chumbi valley just surrendered to us! The other one there isn’t far behind. And General Potgam and his Joint-Force-Bhutan just killed the Highland Division headquarters in northern Bhutan.”

“So this whole thing is a loss-of-face issue for Beijing?” the PM asked.

“It would very much be in their character,” Chakri replied.

“So what the hell do we do now?” Ravoof asked as he absorbed the severity of the situation.

“Air-Marshal Iyer? Our options?” Chakri asked the SFC commander.

OVER NORTHERN TIBET

DAY 15 + 0600 HRS

“Come on! Hurry!”

The operators watching the feed from the Heron’s electro-optical pod could hear their hearts beating in their chests as they watched the infra-red view of a DF-21C missile launcher elevating its deadly cannisterized cargo. Their view showed white-coloration regions near the engine and the hydraulic pumps of the launcher as they glowed hot in the IR spectrum. Other sections of the vehicle were lighter shades of gray and the freezing grounds nearby were dark gray or black.

The top cover of the large-diameter tube opened up. The UAV operators saw the crews clearing out. The body language of the Chinese crews around that launcher suggested they knew they had time.

They didn’t.

The Heron’s EO screen showed a small black cone swipe across the screen and slam into the ground a few dozen meters away from the vehicle. The screen flared white and the post-processing software at the Heron’s flight-control center adjusted coloration to show a white ball of flame expanding over that location and lifting off the ground as it disappeared. It left behind a small mushroom-shaped cloud expanding over that location even as the destroyed launcher vehicle rolled on the smoke-filled terrain shedding large chunks of its body…

“Kaboom!” the EO operator shouted.