Chimera (47 page)

“Frankly, gentlemen, I have had it with the enemy armor advantage in this sector. I want the 43
RD
Armored to reach the 4
TH
Mechanized A-O and push through here,” he jabbed his finger on the digital screen, “to what we are calling as point-victory. That is where you will be in a position to interdict the Chinese M-S-R. Get there and hold position while what remains of the 4
TH
Mechanized and 5
TH
Infantry Brigade eliminates the remaining Chinese forces caught between your units and mine and joins up with you.

“Gentlemen, let’s be clear about this: our mechanized battalions are fast moving units. I want to release them to do what they do best. I want 43
RD
Armored to slug it out and
destroy
the Chinese T-99 force. Find and kill all enemy tanks you see out there. The Aksai Chin is sitting here asking for freedom, gentlemen. I have additional units coming to this sector, including the 3
RD
Mechanized, and I want the way clear for them. Your tanks are night-combat capable, aren’t they? Make use of that!” Adesara said with force.

Kulkarni looked up from the maps:

“Yes sir!”

He began to stuff his page of notes into his uniform pocket and then snapped off a salute which was returned crisply by the two senior commanders. The men began piling outside the trailer and started walking towards the line of parked Arjun tanks. An LCH returned from the north along the valley and flared for landing near the 199HU landing pads. Kulkarni looked at the parked helicopters showing black stains near their engine exhausts and near the gun turrets from endless missions. His gunner was standing outside on the chassis near the driver’s hatch.

“Pretty scary, sir. These men here have been fighting for
years
by the looks on their faces!” he said to Kulkarni.

“Their equipment is pretty worn out too,” Kulkarni added as he climbed up the chassis and stepped on the turret. His gunner slid into his hatch. Kulkarni switched on his comms:

“Rhino-One to all Rhino elements. We are now at the FEBA. All units on red-con status!” He lowered his mouthpiece and turned to face his loader:

“Load sabot!”

As the loader got to action handling the huge tank round in his hands, Kulkarni checked his commander sights and verified the night-vision systems as all of his tanks reported their status. He keyed the comms again:

“Rhino-One to all elements: expect enemy heavy armor! Watch for friendlies as we approach the FEBA. Engage and destroy all enemy tanks you see. Keep an eye out for the T-99s. It’s dangerous and do not underestimate its night-fighting capability. We are better trained and equipped. This may not be Rajasthan, but this is still our Arjun tank and this is still the 43
RD
Armored Regiment! Move out!”

The line of tanks rumbled forwarded with a jerk, rolling over the loose gravel as they headed into the open terrain beyond Saser…

Brigadier Adesara was standing with Sudarshan as two AXE utility vehicles rolled up to take them back to their respective posts. Sudarshan looked at Adesara:

“About damn time!”

“
Indeed!
Break through to that commie M-S-R, Sudarshan. It’s time we retook the initiative out here,” Adesara ordered and walked away. 

NORTH OF PARU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0150 HRS

Fernandez chewed out his last cigar about the same time as the officers inside his command trailer finished punching in the coordinates for the three launchers. The latter were already deployed outside on their hydraulic stabilizers into the wet, snow-covered mud of the valley with their launchers pointed north at a high elevation. The DIGICORA metrological radar vehicle crew had already evaluated weather information and adjusted the launchers. The 214mm rockets were loaded with fragmentation-warheads and loaded in the tubes.

The launch control officer looked over his shoulder at Fernandez once he was ready to launch. Fernandez smiled around the cigar in his mouth:

“Hit it, boy!”

Three seconds later the hills around Paru town reverberated with a low swishing noise and the Bhutanese citizens of the town looked to the north to see successive streaks of yellow light rising from the ground and disappearing into the night sky…

THE WANG-CHU BRIDGE

NORTH OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0155 HRS

The thunder from the explosions reverberated through the valley and the ridges northwest of the bridge disappeared under a carpet of dust, smoke and brief flashes of light. The mountain of smoke descended into the valley and covered the village…

“Oh
shit!
That
was fucking lovely!” Vikram exclaimed.

Pathanya peered through the IMFS optics and spoke into his radio:

“Good effect on target, Hotel-Six! Preliminary assessment suggests massive enemy K-I-A on ridge west of winchester-charlie! Hold second salvo. Will advise. Over.”

“Roger. Standing by,” the link chimed out.

“All right boys,” Pathanya said as he lowered his IMFS and glanced at the settling cloud of dust in the valley, “no time to relax. That strike was good, but now the enemy will spread out and maneuver. He knows that he has run into some Indian defenses. Expect flanking moves and keep…”

“
Incoming fire!
” Ravi shouted as a field artillery round slammed into the hillside just below their positions, followed by the screeching howl of more rounds.

“
Shit!
Get to cover and spread out!” Pathanya shouted as he quickly grabbed his comms set and SATCOM equipment and prepared to get into a rocky defilade position he had identified for just this kind of situation.

The Chinese artillery rounds were slamming into the hillside east of the bridge, and the Chinese company commander was walking his fire up the slope, expecting his opponents to be occupying the hill. His artillery barrage was composed of high-explosive rounds and spread over the area of the hillside. It was obvious that they knew where Spear-One was.

They have eyes above us. Probably unmanned drones!

Pathanya thought as the gravel from explosions fell over him.

“Spear, this is warlord-central! What’s the
hell
is going on?!” the radio squawked amidst the roar of explosions and shrapnel flying overhead.

Pathanya grabbed the set lying in the dirt nearby and covered the speaker with his hands to be able to get his words across:

“This is Spear-One! We are taking suppression barrage east of winchester-charlie from enemy field arty! Enemy has eyes above us and attempting flanking maneuver under cover of barrage! Requesting priority counter-battery fire from Hotel-Six!”

“Say
again
, Spear-One! I don’t
read
! Comms is
One
-By-Five! Over!”

“
Damn it!
” Pathanya shouted over the explosions before he calmed down. But before he could speak again, General Potgam chimed in:

“Stand by, Spear-One!”

Pathanya heard the conversation now taking place:

“Hotel-Six, this is warlord. Can you suppress enemy tube arty fire on Spear-One?”

“Hotel-Six here to warlord: that’s a
big
negative. We have
no
country-battery eyes on winchester-charlie! We do not have W-L-R eyes on target. It has not been airlifted into Paru yet! We need visual eyes on red arty! Over,” Fernandez shouted back.

Pathanya was stuck amidst all this with his radio to his ears and his eyes squinting at every nearby explosion rocking the hillside…

“
Oh shit!
Ganesh is hit!” Vikram shouted from where he was, loud enough to be heard above the explosions.

“
Medic!
” Ganesh screamed in pain.

Pathanya dropped the comms set and ran out into the explosions towards Ganesh as Ravi did the same. They ran over the shredded tree trunks and the smoking craters before reaching a cluster of rocks where Ganesh had taken cover. He laid on the ground between the rocks now, his leg covered in blood and the rocks nearby stained with it. His moans of pain sent shivers down Pathanya’s spine as another explosion rocked the hillside and sent mounds of dirt flying all around them. Ravi, the team’s medic, slid into the rocks and got down to work.

“
Easy
there buddy! Hang on! Ravi is taking care of it,” Pathanya said as calmly as he could.

Ganesh could only reply with a suppressed moan. Pathanya looked over to Ravi who shook his head:

“We need to get him out! He’s got a deep shrapnel wound that I can’t see. I can’t do much for him other than killing the pain!”

“Do what you
can!
Stabilize him!
I am going to go get some help,” Pathanya shouted as he got to his feet and ran across the ravaged hillside to his own position. He got there in time to see the radio speaker buried in gravel and foliage but still working…

“Warlord to Spear-One! Do you read?! I say again: do you read?!”

“This is Spear-One! I read you five-by-five! I am taking casualties over here! I need that
damn
enemy arty suppressed! Over!” Pathanya shouted as he slid on the gravel nearby.

“Roger that, Spear-One! Hold Five. Warlord has redirected R-P-V coverage north of winchester-charlie. We are getting eyes on the enemy guns now. Hotel-Six will suppress. Over”

Finally some good news!

Pathanya looked up but could only see the night sky. But above his head, one of the Nishant UAVs now under JFB command was attempting to do the seeker role in a hunter-killer mission along with Fernandez and his men at Paru. The UAV was equipped with thermal imaging and showed the glowing white balls of fire exploding on the hillside at the Wang-Chu Bridge and then further north the flashes of white emanating from enemy field guns. It didn’t take long for the latter location to be identified and calculated. Three Pinaka launchers quickly swiveled their launch tubes and adjusted for range, elevation, warhead and weather conditions and sent another streak of eighteen 214mm rockets into northern Bhutan…

At Haa-Dzong, Potgam was watching the battle unfold from the battlefield computers set up inside his operations center. The UAV feed was patched in to his screens from the flight-control trailer near the golf-course. Potgam watched in satisfaction as a carpet of small explosions lit up around the enemy guns. The gun flashes from that Chinese battery instantly stopped. He turned around to his operations staff and laughed.  

“
Good
. Send my regards to Fernandez and his boys. Job well done. Now get Spear team some medevac support,” Potgam ordered.

THE WANG-CHU BRIDGE

NORTH OF THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 7 + 0230 HRS

“Okay. Here’s the plan…” Pathanya said as he slung his rifle around his shoulders. The rest of the team had gathered up around him.

The hill they were on was still covered in smoke. The trees all over this side of the hill had been ripped and shredded by the Chinese guns. Pathanya and the others were choking from the smoke and dust, struggling to speak.

Pathanya pointed his arm towards the dilapidated Wang-Chu village west of the bridge. They had seen PLA soldiers taking positions in there, preparing to attack across the bridge and up the hill that Spear was on. Hotel-Six launchers were replenishing and were temporarily unavailable. All Pathanya could count on for the moment in terms of support was the Nishant UAV overhead and the inbound flight of two helicopters from Delta-Flight. One of those helicopters was a Lancer attack chopper.

Pathanya coughed under the smoke and then continued:

“Those houses there are occupied by the PLA. The bridge is wired to blow, but the frozen riverbed won’t stop the enemy infantry from rushing across. We can’t stay here anymore. We have to keep rolling back to Thimpu, harassing these guys all the way using Hotel-Six rocket arty. There is an inbound evac helicopter that will get Ganesh out. The problem is that they can’t land anywhere here on this slope. No place flat enough. So we have to advance south beyond that bend of road to the south where Delta birds will be waiting. Keep your eyes peeled and move silent. We are going back down that slope without waking up the reds. One false move and they are going to open up with everything they got. Understand?”

Pathanya looked around to see everybody nodding in silence. He removed the rifle sling, pulled up his rifle and headed out, slowly moving past the broken branches and tree trunks. The others did the same. Two of them slung Ganesh around their shoulders as they helped him descend the tricky slope…

At least the ice and snow melted away…

Pathanya thought as he realized why he wasn’t slipping on the same rocky terrain he had climbed up before. He watched the red-dot sight of his rifle through his night-vision goggles and observed the eerily silent windows of the houses across the bridge. He looked behind for a quick second to see others coming down the hill. All of them moved without a sound.