Chimera

Despite Colonel Malik’s statement about the emergency relocation of their attached air-force UAV squadron, they had lost all contact with that unit minutes after the missiles had struck. There was no way for Krishnan and his men to know that a large portion of men in that squadron now lay dead or wounded after having taken a direct hit on their small airbase to the south.

The problem was that the need for the UAV support was at its peak at the moment. Every Indian field commander wanted news of what was going on north of the border with the PLA, and there just weren’t enough assets to go around now…

To make matters worse, the loss in communications meant that not only was there no contact with anybody up the chain of command, there was also no hope of indirect support should they make contact with the Chinese. The local tube artillery batteries under the 2ND Mountain Division Artillery Brigade had taken a mauling at the hands of the Chinese missiles. And with the air-force also reeling from the attacks, the possibility of close air support was low, to say the least.

It was a bleak picture from Krishnan’s standpoint. But that was to be expected following such a heavy attack, and things would improve as the Indian military shifted into war mode at both the mental and physical levels, something which would take at least a day, if not more. So for the time being, local field commanders like Krishnan had to improvise…

“They are coming south all right. The question is when,” one of Krishnan’s company commanders said as he joined the Major. Krishnan offered the Captain one of his cigarettes, which the latter gladly accepted. He offered the younger man a light, shielded from the cold winds by his hand. A few puffs of smoke later, the Captain continued:

“And they are going to try and take as much advantage of this mess they have created on our side. Sir, what is our plan of action if we make contact with the Chinese before we re-establish contact with Battalion or Brigade HQ?”

Krishnan turned to head the northern Himalayan peaks and gestured to them with his fingers holding the cigarette:

“At the moment we are electronically blind, deaf and speechless. We have no support of any kind and cannot make contact with anybody else higher up on the chain of command. So what do we do? What are we supposed to do?”

Krishnan smiled.

“We stand and fight!”

EASTERN ARMY HEADQUARTERS

KOLKATA, INDIA

DAY 1 + 0500 HRS

“How are you getting on with our reply?” Yadav asked the Eastern Army commander over the radio.

“862 Missile Regiment is on point for this one. They are getting ready. We will hit them in the Lhasa region which is about the farthest we can go anyway. The plan is to decimate the PLA’s 13TH Group Army’s ability to get off their staging areas. We will have to wait and see how that turns out though,” Lieutenant-General Suman said from his new operations center near Kolkata.

He relished the idea of taking the war to the Chinese using the Brahmos missile groups under his command. It seemed fitting to respond in kind.

He had a paper lying in front of him at the moment which detailed the preliminary report of the damage done by the Chinese missiles to the infrastructure and deployed equipment of IV Corps under his command. He was supposed to hold off the Chinese with what remained of his artillery and UAV support. And he had to fight through a disrupted chain of command caused by dead or displaced commanders.

It is only fair that they get a taste of their own medicine…

“Good. What do you need from my side?” Yadav asked. Suman shook his head to clear it and then focused on the problem at hand.

“Okay, first I need real-time intelligence on what’s happening across the border. My UAV squadrons are starting to come back on line now, but I could use additional support. They have taken quite a battering. Especially the longer range Searcher-II force out near Walong under IV Corps. Lieutenant-General Chatterjee has been begging me for reinforcements in artillery and unmanned aircraft. Artillery I can do, but not with the unmanned aircraft,” Suman replied.

The reply was immediate and clear:

“Consider it done. I will direct the air-force to transport one of our UAV units from the western border to replace your losses. They should be there as soon as I can arrange it. And we should be getting the latest update on the Chinese 13TH Group Army movements north of the border from the Aerospace Command boys soon enough. What else?” Yadav asked.