Chimera

Malik knew it all too well, and his first plan of action in any major conflict with China was to pull his Battalion task force back towards a common defensive line to the south, codenamed “Romeo”. Here he would ensure his force regained the coherency required to fight the Chinese. After that they would advance to some of the several choke points within the passes in the region depending on where the Chinese were headed. Each of these locations was named with code name “Juliet” followed by a numeral. If the Chinese pushed them off these locations then all forces were to fall back to Romeo for regroup and counter-attack. If even this line fell, the last battalion line of defense north of Walong was the “Ragnar” line.

After that, if need be, we will fight them house to house in Walong…

Malik thought as he walked down the bank of the river towards the Dhruv helicopter parked nearby, waiting to take him back to Battalion HQ. Krishnan walked with him along with several of Malik’s staff officers.

The two man flight-crew of the parked Dhruv saw them approaching and immediately climbed back into the cockpit. Moments later the sounds of the turbines spooling up filled the ever darkening valley. The army-aviation Captain flying the helicopter lowered his helmet mounted NVGs to help see the valley more clearly. As Malik climbed back into the cabin and took his seat, he turned to face Krishnan standing outside:

“Stay vigilant tonight. We will give whatever support we can muster regardless of whatever is happening right now. Report anything suspicious directly to me. Understood?”

“Yes sir! We will hold the line!” Krishnan said even as he snapped off the salute and walked away from the helicopter. The chilling high winds from the helicopter downwash were breaking through his clothing. Thirty seconds later he watched as the helicopter flew down the valley and headed south, disappearing in the darkness. The sounds of the helicopter still echoed in the valley for several minutes before silence ensued. Krishnan stood there and glanced back at the imposing black silhouettes of the peaks to the north. He watched his breath as a small visible puff in the cold air before walking away to where his temporary command post lay on the southern slope of the peak nearby. His two-hundred men were now settled in for a long, cold night ahead…

NEW DELHI

DAY 1 + 0045 HRS

Chakri was just as abruptly interrupted from his sleep as the PM had been in his office a few minutes before, but his reaction was more composed. He immediately got up and walked along with the three men from his SPG and ordered for the phone. After he had ensured that the PM was already on the way to Palam for immediate evacuation, he picked up the phone and called up General Yadav. The latter was at Army-Headquarters where yet another frantic midnight evacuation was underway, so he was told that General Yadav and his staff were already on their way on board another air-force AW-101 towards Palam. Chakri put down the phone and walked out to see that for him there was no helicopter but rather a ground convoy of black SUVs waiting to whisk him away to safety.

Once inside the vehicles, he ordered for satellite comms to be opened between the AW-101 carrying General Yadav to Palam right away. It took a few minutes to set that up, but the vehicle was equipped for this kind of role. The comms opened up and Chakri heard Yadav’s voice above the background helicopter noises. He got to the point right away:

“General, what’s the final count?”

“One-hundred-seventy-five. We were damned lucky to have detected it all in time. We still have some time to react though, because at the current speed the missiles are still roughly an hour away,” Yadav said.

Chakri looked out at the empty midnight streets as his convoy of vehicles sped down the roads. He saw a sleeping New-Delhi populace that knew nothing of the threat.

Neither does the rest of India… he realized.

“Yadav, do we know what their targets are?”

“We have a rough idea. Based on what Air-Vice-Marshal Malhotra from the Aerospace Command said when he phoned in the threat, mostly the targets are in the northeast and the Ladakh region. In addition roughly thirty-six missiles were seen heading in the rough direction of Delhi, Bareilly and Agra. It is a safe bet that Beijing is attempting a decapitating strike against us. But like I said, we have been lucky and should be able to evacuate almost everybody out of here in time.”

“That’s good to hear, Yadav, but what about civilian casualties?” Chakri asked, and half expected the reply before it came: