Chimera

“All right, General. Keep me informed. Looks like I will be holed up somewhere around here for now. We need to find ways to wrench the strategic initiative in this war from the PLA and the PLAAF. The media needs to be controlled as well. They are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We haven’t made official statements yet and neither has Beijing. But in the meantime we have a furiously burning air-headquarters building in our capital that is being filmed and shown around the world. That is going to hurt morale within our armed forces and our people. This is going to be as much a media war as much as anything else. We have to get the people and the media the images, the visuals if you will, of China burning. We hit Lhasa this morning and by all accounts it was a debilitating blow. But we have to do more. Strike more visual and economic targets that cannot be hidden. First we have to make sure that our battle lines do not collapse,” Chakri said as he ran his hand through his gray hair.

“There is also another factor,” Yadav replied. “The Chinese probably used cruise-missiles to attack us because it gave them the best possible advantage for a surprise attack. They did not need to forward deploy their short-range ballistic-missiles close to the borders and therefore raise suspicion. They tried their cruise-missile attack and it was partially successful in its objective. We are not dead, but we are not yet in control either. We had to conduct a hasty evacuation and several targets and airfields got hit badly. It wasn’t a complete decapitation, but it gave them something for the surprise element. Now surprise no longer exists. We already destroyed Lhasa airbase and their main long-range radars south from there. So the war is on. And now there is no need for their short-range ballistic-missiles to be held at bay. Same goes for us as well.”

“So we should expect them to start moving their ballistic-missile launchers out of their bases and south towards the border?”

“If I was in their place, I would have been lobbing those ballistic-missiles as soon as I realized that my primary cruise-missile strike failed. So yes, we need to consider such strikes imminent…”

EAST OF DAULAT BEG OLDI

LADAKH

DAY 2 + 0630 HRS

“Incoming fire! Take cover!”

The first artillery shells screamed overhead and landed on the airstrip at DBO as the Ladakh front was opened up by the PLA. Within minutes similar fire was falling on all major frontal areas at the LAC while long-range rockets were flying to their targets on the Indian side of the border, hitting known gun batteries, supply depots and logistical arteries…

DBO was currently being defended by a reinforced Infantry Brigade under Brigadier Adesara. Facing him to the east, across the LAC, were several Chinese Brigades and armored forces rolling in from the plains of the Aksai Chin. Adesara had specialized counter-battery Smerch MLRS systems under his command and several light field-gun batteries. The Chinese counterpart to Adesara had over two-hundred field-guns for this narrow sector alone. Adesara had a squadron of BMP-IIs under his command and a troop of T-72Ms. His Chinese counterpart had a regiment of T-99 MBTs and other assorted vehicles designed to utilize the vast open plains of this region of Ladakh to full advantage. It was easier bringing these vehicles in via well-established roads from the Aksai Chin, but very difficult to do so from the Indian side because of terrain. Out there on DBO, Adesara was faced with a stiff fight…

The morning sunrays streaked through the dust clouds that now enveloped the entire DBO airstrip, giving it a reddish-brown haze as small fireballs rose into the air on the flat airstrip, rendering it unusable. The thundering noises were coupled with the screeching of the shells going over the heads of the Indian soldiers east of the airstrip. The shockwaves rippled through the ground in their bunkers and trenches.

Adesara’s staff officers were already at work gathering information and preparing responses. However, he was not at the command post. Adesara, Colonel Sudarshan and several radiomen were climbing the gravel covered surface of the only dominant hill east of the airstrip. This hill lay on the middle of the flat terrain north of the frozen Chip-Chap River. Every step taken on the loose gravel was potentially treacherous. A slip led to a small landslide of gravel and rocks along with the unfortunate soul who went down with it. But Adesara and his men had been here for a long time and had learnt the art of quick climbing on shifting terra. They quickly climbed up the “citadel”, as the hill had come to be known among his officers.