Chimera

“Sir, all I know is that the Chinese have launched missiles against us. The Air-Force detected the attack and is tracking them now. We have been ordered to evacuate you and other members of government and military to Palam airport from where you will take off on board an Air-Force airborne command aircraft and stay there until the threat is neutralized,” the SPG team-leader responded calmly. They were trained to be calm in exactly these kinds of situations. Both men then looked up as the distinctive three-engine noise of the AW-101 helicopter from the Air-Force HQ Communications Squadron appeared from behind the residence. The grassy field around the small concrete helipad was now being crushed against the downwash of the helicopter blades…

The PM suddenly realized the severity of it all. But it hit him more as a shock than anger:

“My god! But why are they attacking? We have done nothing but been friendly with them. I…” he continued almost to himself.

The SPG team-leader watched in silence as his country’s leader was floundering in front of his eyes even as the country was faced with the threat of nuclear annihilation. He read the newspapers too, and knew that if there was one member in this government that should be saved at all costs tonight, it should be Chakri. The panicking man he saw standing in front of him was clearly in no position to take on China…

“Are they launching nuclear weapons?” the PM asked him, not realizing that the SPG team-leader was not privy to those details beyond what his immediate orders were. The latter man realized that panic had gripped the man in his charge. He forced himself to remain calm.

“We don’t know, sir. That’s why it is extremely important to get you out of here, right now.”

“How much time do we have before the warheads hit Delhi?” the PM continued. Before he could get a response, the AW-101 helicopter was on the ground and the doors had been opened. He pushed the Prime-Minister along and ran over to the open doors of the helicopter. The PM and his family were bundled aboard and the SPG group got in behind them, leaving a contingent around the perimeter to maintain security of the residence. As the air-force sergeant closed the door of the helicopter, the pilot of the helicopter looked back and saw the crucial people on board. He nodded and spoke into his comms mouthpiece as the helicopter lifted off the ground and headed towards Palam airport, gathering speed quickly. The SPG team-leader looked at his watch and nodded. They had just enough time to get the PM out.

Probably… he corrected himself.

THE INDIAN NORTH-EAST

DAY 1 + 0025 HRS

The Chinese had achieved initiative, but had lost surprise. When the Indian Aerospace Command had detected the launches, everybody in that command down from AVM Malhotra knew just how lucky it had been for them to have detected the launches in time. Had they not re-adjusted that satellite’s orbit just a few hours before, they would have completely missed the Chinese launches until after it was too late. The Chinese had timed the launches to correspond to the black-out period of the Indian satellite coverage along orbit paths that they had been using for the last two months. But they hadn’t counted on a change to that path within hours of their planned attack.

So luck had sided with the Indians on that one. But the missiles were still flying their way south…

The klaxons were sounding off on all Indian airbases in the Eastern, Central and Western Air-Commands of the Indian Air-Force. The Chinese cruise-missile tally had been done by the various ISR systems. The final number of detected launches was a staggering one-hundred-seventy-five, including both the Long-Sword missiles and the YJ-62s. The expended Long-Sword TEL vehicles were dispersing already, having no reloads to fire. However the YJ-62 TEL vehicles were moving for a second reload…

For the IAF, the threat was different than the Army. The Chinese cruise-missiles had been launched far to the north of the border with India and this meant that even with the Long-Swords in the mix, chances of hitting southern Indian airbases was low. But preserving aircraft was not the whole picture. An air-force is measured as a system including infrastructure, weapons, aircraft, personnel and morale rather than just aircraft alone. If the northern airbases were lost, the ability of the IAF to preserve aerial density over the battlefield would dissipate down to the level of the PLAAF over Tibet, and that was bad news.