Chimera

He wondered whether it was his destiny to be here today. Had it not been for the fact that had this particular vehicle’s commander hadn’t fallen sick with pulmonary edema a day before, he might have been watching this particular battle alongside Adesara from a forward headquarters.

As command expects me to do.

Damn that to hell. This is where I belong!

He peered through the commander-sights on the vehicle and saw the first clear feature of the ZBD approaching range.

“Gunner, target ZBD! Left! Three kilometers!”

The cannon turret moved slightly to the left and then stabilized before the gunner shouted out:

“Target identified!”

“Fire!”

LEH

LADAKH

DAY 2 + 1205 HRS

The screen lit up with eight lines of bright tracer fire heading east just as other lines of tracers headed west.

“Holy shit!” one of the Lieutenants exclaimed. The senior officers in the room ignored the young man.

There were several flashes of light as the camera zoomed out and adjusted thermal color contrast to show three flaming ZBDs staggering to a halt in the east while two BMPs lit up in flames. Now tracers were flying in all directions as both sides engaged in a desperate battle for supremacy…

“Which unit is this?” Gupta asked his operations chief.

“Elements of the 10TH Mechanized-Infantry Battalion, sir.”

“Sudarshan’s chaps?”

“Yes. Sudarshan is out there at DBO along with his HQ group and three BMP troop formations that made up his advance element. The rest of the 10TH Mechanized Battalion is still driving up from Saser and approaching Daulat-beg-oldi, but they are taking fire from Chinese artillery.”

“How on earth are they targeting our boys with artillery so precisely?”

“The same way we are: under directions of their UAVs. We think they have several of these flying over the LAC watching our movements as we are watching theirs,” The Major-General replied and then crossed his arms as he continued to watch the feed from the Divisional headquarters. Gupta was not pleased to hear what he had just heard:

“Damn those buggers. Haven’t the air-force chaps been able to nail those Chinese drones yet?”

“Not yet, sir. They say they are working on it. Seems these smaller UAVs are too small for radar detection and there are not enough fighters to try and do a visual search all over Ladakh. The liaison says they are planning to try something new later today that might work.”

“Oh that’s bloody wonderful! Our boys are getting hammered out there even before they get to the frontlines thanks to those commie drones and the air-force is twiddling their thumbs at us. Whatever it is they want to try, we better hope it works. Otherwise Adesara and his boys are going to have to fight an uneven battle because his reinforcements won’t be able to make their way to him intact. Any good news?” Gupta asked

“Yes sir. The Chinese artillery is taking a beating. Our counter-artillery units are making a killing. So far anyway. It won’t be long before the Chinese bring in their own counter systems, but at least we are knocking out a good number of Chinese field batteries,” the Major-General noted.

This time Gupta did not answer as both men stared at the UAV thermal optics feed.

The four remaining BMPs under Sudarshan’s command were deploying smoke and reversing out of their positions while continuing to exchange fire with the seven Chinese ZBDs now less than a kilometer away from them. The unit was under threat of being flanked by other ZBD groups that were charging in from the north and Sudarshan had seen the threat approaching. He was denying the Chinese commander a vulnerable flank by initiating a fighting withdrawal.

As he did so he was also buying time for his Battalion anti-tank platoon two kilometers behind him to reload their Nag missile load-out. It was now a desperate running battle between gunners from both sides at near point blank ranges…

Within only a few minutes the first Chinese ZBDs raced over the gravel wall and slammed through the positions vacated by the Indians. They quickly bypassed the burning hulks of the BMPs destroyed by their gunfire. All through the way the turrets were still blazing away at the remaining four BMPs…

Gupta looked over to his operations chief:

“We are losing this battle. Sudarshan is getting overrun and Adesara is fighting off waves of tanks with Infantry and a handful of light armor vehicles. Get over to the air-force guys and tell them that Chinese S-300 threat or not, we need priority air-support over at DBO or else we are going to lose the Karakoram pass by the end of the day today!”

SOUTHEAST OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI

DAY 2 + 1245 HRS

“Driver! Stop!”

The NAMICA chassis shuddered to an abrupt stop and the dust trailing behind caught up, enveloping the vehicle. The platoon-commander looked through his sights and passed the confirmation to the other vehicles in the troop.