Chimera

The only thing standing between that and the Chinese missiles was the IAF’s integrated Air-Defense-Ground-Environment-system or ADGES, which was now swinging into action. Surface-to-air missile launchers were now adjusting azimuth towards the likely ingress areas for the Chinese cruise-missiles. Tracking and guidance radars were coming online from Ladakh to Arunachal-Pradesh. Soon enough, they were primed and ready as they looked towards the Himalayan peaks to the north for the threat to pop up into view.

Above New-Delhi, a single Phalcon AWACS continued to climb above the clouds to reach its patrol height while the airborne radar went active. On the ground at Agra, another Phalcon flight-crew from the No. 50 Squadron spooled up the engines of their aircraft for immediate departure. At Kalaikunda airbase far to the east, another No. 50 Squadron Phalcon detachment also took up position at the end of the runway for immediate departure while one indigenous CABS AEW aircraft from the newly organized No. 51 Squadron took to the air in front of them…

HILLS NORTH OF WALONG

ARUNACHAL PRADESH

INDIA

DAY 1 + 0030 HRS

“Awfully quiet,” Colonel Malik said. The peace and serenity in the hills was momentarily broken as two Dhruv helicopters flew overhead and disappeared into the darkness of the valley to the south.

“Yes sir, it is,” Krishnan said as he lowered his binoculars after scanning the peaks to the north. No activity there…

Krishnan looked at his palm and moved his fingers to maintain circulation in the freezing cold weather.

He remembered the day two months ago when he had ambushed the Chinese squad not too far from where he was now. With the warning order having come through a few minutes before, he wondered if today was the day the Chinese would come after his blood. He wondered whether his actions had precipitated the flow of history in any way similar to the way the Chinese ambush of the Indian policemen near Kongka-La in Ladakh, 1959. That event laid the path for a war three years later. Now he wondered if the same was happening again…

The last two months had been filled with vitriolic conversations between Beijing and New-Delhi in light of several border air and ground skirmishes. Tibet was still burning under the armed revolts that Beijing was convinced were being launched from India with tacit support. Krishnan and his men could not tell whether this was true or not. Not that they cared if it was true. Posted to this region, they had seen firsthand the suffering of the Tibetan people under Beijing’s oppressive rule. They had heard the firsthand reports of torture and genocide being perpetrated in and around Lhasa as the PLA attempted to regain control.

And now the Indian military had been put on full alert in the last half hour…

This is exactly what makes their silence so scary.

More so than their guns, as a matter of fact. What the hell are they thinking?”

Krishnan collected his thoughts and turned to his CO:

“Sir, what do you think is going on?” Malik grunted.

“Whatever it is Krishnan, we can be sure of one thing: we won’t like it. All I know is that Division HQ is scrambling to find out what’s going on with New-Delhi. Somebody must know what’s going on, but we sure as hell don’t. I was told by our air-force liaison that they are withdrawing our UAV support for right now because that squadron has to be relocated immediately. That sounds downright ominous to me. Division commander thinks so as well. This is why I want you to cover all the approaches to Walong. If the Chinese move a muscle, I want to know it. In the meantime I will try and figure out what on earth is happening,” Malik said as he wore his gloves back on.

Colonel Malik commanded a reinforced Battalion within the 2ND Mountain Division (MD), responsible for the defense of Walong. It was a large sector, but the 2ND MD was a large force with lot of independent firepower under its direct command.

It had taken a humiliating defeat fifty years ago at the hands of the Chinese during the cold winter of 1962-63 to hammer home the lesson on the need for flexible defense and dedicated Mountain Divisions. Napoleon had once asked his commanders if his army units spread evenly along the border were meant for defending against smugglers, for that was exactly what the result was. A military force however large, if dissipated along the border, ceases to be a coherent force. This was especially true in mountainous terrain of the Himalayas.