Chimera

This aircraft was one of the last pair of KJ-2000s in the PLAAF that had survived the two weeks of war with the IAF. Both sides had taken hits to their airborne-radar force. The Indians had lost a CABS AEW and all of its crew over northern Bhutan less than two days before. Most of its eastern aerostats were down as well.

On the Chinese side, the 26TH Air Division had paid a heavy price. At the start of the war this Division controlled the special-mission support aircraft for the PLAAF and as such had been in the IAF cross-hairs right from the start. The Division had lost a Tu-154 electronic-warfare aircraft north of Arunachal-Pradesh early in the war, but its KJ-2000s and KJ-200s had been luckier until a week ago.

The Lieutenant-Colonel brought his aircraft into a large radius turn and aligned himself with the runway just as the escorting pair of J-11s broke formation and climbed back into the cloud cover above.

As the aircraft altitude reduced and the experienced Lieutenant-Colonel gingerly adjusted the approach, the screen from the cockpit glass suddenly disappeared in a brilliant flash of light. Both men instantly brought their arms up to cover their eyes as the light dissipated somewhat and revealed a small yellow ball of flame rising above the ground north of them.

“What was that!?” the co-pilot shouted as he leaned through the right side of the cockpit glass to see the fire ball going up inside a mushroom shaped smoke cloud…

“It was a nuclear detonation! We just lost Uxxaktal airbase!” the Lieutenant-Colonel shouted. “We need to get out of here! Now!”

He immediately pushed his right hand on the throttle controls all the way forward. The whine from the engines outside instantly increased and the aircraft shuddered. The engines were soon groaning at maximum throttle settings. He pushed the radio frequency on the comms for Korla.

“Tower! We just lost Uxxaktal to a nuclear detonation! It must be the… Korla tower?” he said and then checked his frequencies. They had been correct the first time, but he had set them wrong in his urgency. He corrected that back again:

“Korla tower, this is…” he began to speak as their front view disappeared in another flash of white light. This time the light was over Korla and much brighter than before.

He and his co-pilot pulled the control sticks back even as they shielded their eyes using their shoulders and shouted in pain. The aircraft pulled up immediately and the fuselage strained and groaned under the intense stress.

By the time the flash of light subsided, they were already at a very high pitch-up attitude, which for an aircraft the size of an Il-76, was extremely stressful. Both pilots realized this and instantly pushed the sticks back and the aircraft began leveling out, climbing above the ball of pure yellow fire now taking shape over the airbase. Of course, they had been heading straight for it and the pressure waves expand in three-dimensional space…

It hit the aircraft a few moments later just as they pulled level.

The sudden bang instantly eliminated all aircraft controls and the engine whine died as the aircraft began diving. The pressure wave had ripped three of the four engines right off their pylons under the wings along with most of the control surfaces. They were close enough to the explosion that they saw the floor of smoke and dust that had enveloped the ground in a circular pattern around the detonation point. The ground now completely filled the view from the cockpit as they both attempted to pull level with whatever controls they had left.

They managed to do that and the aircraft pulled level just as it passed into the smoke floor on the ground and made a belly landing on the frozen paddy fields a few kilometers south of the runway. The aircraft broke into several pieces and flipped and rolled into the muddy waters. There was only a small fire, given that they had been very low on fuel at arrival to Korla.

But there was no question of survivors from such a violent crash and as the center fuselage barrel of the KJ-2000 covered in slushy mud rolled to a halt next to a demolished farmhouse, a massive black smoke-filled cloud was rising through the large hole in the gray cloud cover above created by the nuclear detonation…

BARSHONG

NORTHERN BHUTAN

DAY 15 + 1320 HRS

“No… no!” Vikram said as he ran over.

He landed on the ground next to Pathanya, who was laying on his back, covered in dust and his body covered in bruises. He was bleeding out of the corner of his mouth as a trail of blood rolled down his cheeks. His leg was crushed under a rock that had landed on it.

“Look at me, boss! Sir! Look. At. Me!” he shouted as he moved Pathanya’s head over with his hands.

Pathanya’s eyes moved slightly as he coughed up some more blood trying to speak.

Okay… he’s alive. For now!