Chimera (55 page)

One way or another…
Feng didn’t add.

Now was not the time for doubt, but Chen was no fool.

“Indeed. The war will get over soon enough, if the rumblings from Beijing are to be believed. But if they are indeed true,” Chen tossed the glossy images back on the table, “then the fourteen fighters we lost today to take out this base would be waste of resources, all things considered.”

Feng felt a shiver rise up his spine as he grasped what Chen meant.

“Meaning what, exactly?” he asked to verify what he had concluded.

Chen let out a derisive laugh.

“Oh come now, Feng!” he said after several seconds. “You and I can both see the writing on the wall even if Jinping and Wencang have not! We are close to losing the air war, if we haven’t done so already. We are throwing second line J-8IIs into the fight to replace combat losses in J-10s and J-11s. And they are getting massacred, as is to be expected. These stand-off missile strikes are the only effective weapons at the moment that are delivering results. But how long will it be before the Indians mop up the final S-300 batteries in southern Tibet? Twenty-four hours? Forty-eight? Then they will come after our stand-off bombers, tankers and special mission aircraft over northern Tibet. There is no stopping that. We can delay it using innovative tactics as you are doing. But they will adapt, as we would in their situation. And once that happens we would have lost the strategic initiative.”

“You mean we would have lost?” Feng asked hesitantly.

He understood the realities only too well. But one could never be sure when talking about such things. Chen walked over to the digital map of Tibet showing PLA dispositions that he was charged to protect.

“Is it really that hard to believe, Feng?” Chen asked with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think will happen to our ground offensive once you and I are no longer able to push enough forces into the air to protect our land-forces? Do you know the bloodbath that is taking place in Ladakh right now? Of course you do. We all do. Despite what NCNA puts out every hour. Give it another day or two and both sides will be running out of men and ammunition to throw at each other over there. The only land offensive going well is the one through Bhutan. But it’s too insignificant in the grander scheme of things. What is Bhutan but a minor rump state in the mountains? We promised the CMC and the Chairman that we could bring India to its knees within days. Those days have now passed!”

Chen walked back to the table and picked up his peak-cap and also his personal sidearm which he put into his uniform holster. Feng got ready to escort the General out. As Chen put his cap on and opened the door of the conference room, the light glistened off the medals on the chest.

“But have no fear, Feng. Regardless of how tenacious the Indians are in their pursuit to defeat us in this war, they will
never
defeat us. We will not
let that happen.
Ever!
”

day 8

THIMPU

BHUTAN

DAY 8 + 0100 HRS

“Wake up you lazy bozos! Time to get up!”

Pathanya jokingly kicked Ravi and then Vikram as they lay on the floor of the room in their sleeping bags. Ravi jerked awake immediately and went for the rifle by his side before realizing where he was. Vikram simply mumbled something and turned over to his side fully aware of the friendly tone in Pathanya’s voice. He hoped the Captain would simply go away. But it was not to be. Pathanya kicked him again, slightly harder this time.

“Get
up!
We got to go.
Move!
”

Ravi, Sarvanan, Tarun and the others were already up and sitting inside their sleeping bags by this time. The room was still dark, the town having lost electricity following the Chinese attacks on Bhutan. They could all see their cold breaths in front of their faces as they spoke.

Vik fumbled about and forced himself to get up. Pathanya could easily sympathize with his men. Spear team had been on the frontlines of the ground war in Bhutan for four days now.

Colonel Misra had relieved Pathanya of the task of defending Thimpu and the arrival of the 11
TH
Para-SF Battalion into the city had effectively secured it from the PLA. This had allowed Pathanya to finally give his men sleep, real food, time to rearm and also to refocus. And they had taken the better half of a day doing just that.

But vacation time was now over…

The war was not waiting around for them. Thimpu and eastern Bhutan had been secured over the past day and the PLA Highland Division had been forced to pull back into northern Bhutan where they were now squarely on the defensive, holding on to large chunks of land already captured during their initial assault. Now Potgam was planning his own counteroffensive as more and more army units began entering Bhutan to beef up his forces. And while Dhillon was already coordinating with IV Corps to free eastern Bhutan from two brigades of the PLA Highland Division, Potgam had the single responsibility for recapturing Bhutanese territory north of Thimpu from the third brigade of the Chinese Division.

First part of that was to push the Chinese Battalion strength force just outside the northern outskirts of Thimpu back to Dotanang and then Barshong to the north. Barshong was the staging area in northwestern Bhutan for the Chinese Division and its recapture would effectively vacate that Division from Bhutan for all practical purposes. Dotanang, between Thimpu and Barshong, was the Brigade headquarters for the unit leading the offensive against Thimpu.

Potgam had given this task to Colonel Misra and he in turn had passed his orders to Pathanya and his men an hour ago…  

As Pathanya saw his team waking up and finding their bearings, he took the maps and notes from the Colonel’s briefing and stuffed them inside his uniform chest pockets. Outside, two Paras on sentry armed with Tavor rifles walked by and peeked in at the commotion. They nodded to the Captain and walked off.

Vikram finally got to his feet and walked up to Pathanya as both men left the room and entered the courtyard of the palace. The dim flashes of light from the north and west was a reminder of the ongoing war. Two Indian Mig-27s streaked by and headed north of Thimpu. A large wall of flames erupted some kilometers north of the city and lit up the valley with a hellish orange-yellow décor.

Another napalm strike mission completed.    

“So what’s the deal, boss? Where we going?” Vik asked.

“Place west of Barshong,” Pathanya said as he pulled out the maps from his pocket, “about twenty-five kilometers north of here. 11
TH
Battalion Paras are pushing hard against the battered remains of the commie Battalion that we were engaging before the Colonel got here. They have managed to push them north and are still pushing them back to their Brigade headquarters at Dotanang, about twelve kilometers north from the outskirts of Thimpu. That’s where all these air strikes are going. The last intact PLA Battalion is at Barshong, acting as their reserve. Once the Paras finish off the one at Dotanang, they are going to move further northwest and engage the one at Barshong. For now we are going to be deployed in between Barshong and Dotanang to play hell with their rear echelons.”

“So we are going behind the lines,” Vik noted.

“Yup. So get everybody kitted out accordingly. The fly-boys from Delta will deploy us from the west. Fast, low and at night.”

“Yeah, that sounds like real fun,” Vik sighed.

NEW-DELHI

INDIA

DAY 8 + 0630 HRS

“Are they
insane?
” Chakri exclaimed as he heard what the Indian UN Ambassador had to say about the latest rounds of negotiations in New-York. The Prime-Minister was still in thought so he continued:

“The whole world
saw
on live television that they started this war by attacking our capital city and military bases with missiles. And they
still
propagate the idea that somehow
we
are responsible for precipitating
their
actions? How thick can they get?”

“Sometimes it works to your advantage to believe your own lies,” Ravoof said from across the room. “It makes you more confident in front of the world.”

The Ambassador nodded on the teleconference screen.

“Indeed. And their contention, true or not, is that our support for the Tibetan rebels and their fight against the Chinese in Tibet is what precipitated their response. They claim we had our special-forces units deployed inside Tibet to assist the Tibetans and that we had training camps on our soil for arming and equipping these so-called rebels.”

The Prime-Minister finally stepped into the conversation as he looked over to Chakri and the NSA, sitting side by side: “Is this true?”

“Does it matter?” Chakri replied instantly with a frown.

“
Yes
it does!” the PM threw back at Chakri. “Our policy in front of the world has always been to
not
provide the Tibetans with anything other than moral support and a place to stay! If the Chinese claims are substantiated on our side, the entire world will leave our side and go back to sitting on the benches again. Can you
imagine
what the results of that would be?!”

“I think at this point our policy should have more to do with defeating China on the battlefield and for the Tibetans to whom we have a
duty
to help after what Beijing has done in their homeland for the past
year!
If the White-House or Downing-Street wants to sit on the fence because of their
moral
objections, I really don’t give a
damn!
Russia is still by our side and we are buying a lot of emergency supply of arms and ammunition from them. And they don’t particularly care one way or another whether we assisted the Tibetans or not!” Chakri shouted back as others in the room tried to intervene.

“I think you just confirmed that we
did
in fact help the Tibetans,” Ravoof observed silently.

Chakri dismissed the observation: “Believe whatever you want.”

“Oh
god!
Are you saying that
we
started this war? That Beijing
was
right all this time and we were involved in Tibet?” the PM said in shock.

“And it was long overdue if you ask me,” the Home-Minister added.

The PM was shocked to hear all of this from his two senior ministers.

“How
dare
you?!” he said finally. “You created your own operations outside the realm of what this government’s policies were and precipitated this war! If your men hadn’t entered Tibet then we would not be in this situation right now!” the PM pounded the table.

“How dare
I
?” Chakri shouted back. “May I remind you of Beijing’s genocidal activities in Tibet in the last year? Or the reasons why the revolts began in Tibet in the first place? Is this nation and government not to stand for anything anymore for the sake of maintaining status quo in Tibet? The Dalai Lama is dying. And he may very well die in the next few months. If that were to happen, are we to sit idly by while Beijing replaces him with a puppet of their liking? Are the Tibetans to have no say in the fate of their culture at all? And more to the point, have you forgotten what Beijing did to our nation in 1962? How dare I? How dare
you?
How dare you forget what Beijing is and has been towards our nation and the Tibetans?”

“Gentlemen!
Please!
” Ravoof shouted at the top of his voice and brought the room to a tense silence. The PM was still fuming. So was his Defense-Minister…

“Everybody please calm down and take a deep breath here,” Ravoof continued. “We need to be united if we are going to lead this country out of this war in one piece. Regardless of what the Tibetans did from our soil to support their revolt and whatever it is that we did to support them is now no longer relevant. That was months ago. This war is now and no longer about that, as much as Beijing tries to raise it. For now, the Chinese military aggression is what must be controlled. Now where are we on that?”

Ravoof looked to Chakri who stopped fuming and sighed:

“We are finally taking control of the skies above the battlefield across the board. The air-force has secured airspace over southern Tibet. The Chinese are still launching stand-off cruise-missiles at us, but that is the limit of their aerial offensive capabilities at this point. They have taken enormous losses against us. They may decide to bring in units from the mainland as reinforcements, however.”