Chimera

Adesara was committing all he could spare from the forces in the sector into the attack. There were no reserves left behind worth speaking of. That made this plan risky to say the least. And both Adesara and Colonel Sudarshan knew this.

But if you have to play, you better play to win!

SASER

LADAKH

DAY 5 + 0415 HRS

Wing-Commander Dutt could not have agreed more. He checked his sidearm and patted his flight-suit pockets to ensure he had some extra clips for it. He stood aside his parked LCH as they approached the time for launch…

His helicopter was outfitted with eight Nag anti-tank guided-missiles, four on each side in a 2x2 pod load-out. That was about all that could be carried at the moment given the very high altitudes they were on.

Oh yeah, there is also the gun rounds…

Dutt corrected himself and looked over to see the second LCH parked a little further away. He checked his watch again:

Two minutes to go.

He waved to his WSO and started climbing into the cockpit. His crew-chief walked up to the side glass panel of the cockpit and helped both crew members strap in. A few moments later the turbines on both helicopters were spooling up and the main rotor slowly gathering RPM. The Saser valley filled with the whine of the rotating turbo-machinery. Dutt activated the helmet-optics that instantly turned the murky dark environment near Saser into a brightly lit green-white-black terrain. His WSO was already looking left and right to verify chin gun turret slaving to his helmet. The crew-chief standing outside confirmed gun slaving and closed the cockpit side-glass panels before locking them in place.

Both helicopters were on full power now as they waited for the Smerch battery to the west across the road to cease fire and clear the airspace of rockets. The FARP should not have been that close to their deployment locations, but terrain negated any other choice. Flat open spaces were a luxury in short supply…

When the Smerch battery rocket-launchers fired off their salvo and were being approached by their replenishment vehicles, the two LCH pilots maxed out on the throttles to initiate dust-off and pulled off the gravel of Saser with a groan. Dutt’s heart was in his mouth as the engines groaned under the weight of the helicopter and the thin mountain air. But a few seconds later they were climbing away, much to the cheer of the HAL volunteers on the ground below. As they built up forward velocity, Dutt throttled down. Soon they had disappeared from view at Saser and entered the Daulat-beg-oldi sector…

SOUTHEAST OF DAULAT BEG OLDI

DAY 5 + 0431 HRS

“Do it!”

Colonel Sudarshan ordered the Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of operations for the 10TH Mechanized Battalion. As the latter officer began shouting radio orders, Sudarshan walked over to the nearest parked BMP-II and climbed on top of its hull. The warm metal near the engine was welcome against the freezing snows all around. He stood on top of the turret and took out his binoculars.

He surveyed the continuing bombardment of the Chinese locations to the east. On his side he saw the dozens of parked armored vehicles as his ears picked up on the radio chatter from his forward command post behind him:

“Thunder-One to all elements! Destroy all enemy in grid box Five-Two-Nine. Sweep and clear! Advance! Advance! Advance!”

The valley filled with the thunderous roar of dozens of diesel engines as the 10TH Mechanized Battalion advanced to contact…

DAULAT BEG OLDI

LADAKH

DAY 5 + 0440 HRS

Adesara noticed the bursts of tracer fire from the BMP-II auto-cannons as they laced the terrain to the southeast. He pressed a button on top of the IMFS with his index fingers and the device changed views to infrared, turning the sector south of the Chip-Chap River into a black-white-gray dynamic portrait.

Adesara’s signals officer walked up and stated the obvious:

“10TH Mechanized is advancing. They report higher than expected enemy resistance. Advance is continuing. No casualties to our vehicles yet!”

“That will change soon enough!” Adesara noted soberly without lowering his optics.

As if on cue, a distant fireball marked the end of another Indian BMP-II. Adesara frowned.

Three more of my boys dead.

God damn it!

SOUTHEAST OF DAULAT BEG OLDI

DAY 5 + 0451 HRS

Sudarshan was leaning over the maps inside the tents pitched near his battalion command vehicles. The banks of radios were alive with chaotic combat chatter as young tank commanders leading the assault were shouting orders and updates over the radios. Sudarshan’s operations staff were trying to make sense of it and trying to update the tactical maps.