Chimera (81 page)

“
If
Beijing allows that many Tibetan generations to survive their genocidal activities there to start with,” Chakri added quietly.

“
That
is
not
the point!” the NSA retorted. “If you
want
to strike them, do it over
Chinese
soil! The 15
TH
Corps can be handled by conventional means. We have enough forces in the valley under General Suman now that the two enemy Divisions there have collapsed.”

“I don’t want to use our nuclear weapons at all!” the PM said. It got him a frown from all others in the conversation except Ravoof.

“We have
already
been struck!” Chakri said forcefully. “Bhutan is
our
responsibility and our paratroopers
have
died there in the hundreds thanks to the Chinese nuclear strike! General Potgam just lost two Para battalions along with hundreds of regular army and air-force personnel.
Our
men! Tens of thousands of Bhutanese
civilians
are dead as well! And had we
not
detected those launchers in time
we
would not even be alive! Beijing deserves everything we can throw at them at this point!”

“And then they will respond to our strikes with strikes of their own,” Ravoof replied. “And then we will do it again to them and the cycle goes on! Where does it stop? When both India and China have lost all of their major cities and millions of their citizens? There
has
to be another way here, Chakri! Striking military targets inside China with nuclear weapons is one thing. But become too successful at it and they
will
respond against our cities?”

“We cannot
not
respond to the Chinese attack!” Chakri shouted.  

“No,” the PM said, “what we
can’t
afford is to throw away the conventional victory in Tibet for our lust for Chinese blood. The whole reason they attacked us with nuclear weapons was to force us to do the same and help them dilute the sharp nature of their defeat in Tibet. This is why they didn’t go after our cities. This is also why there were no more launches from them in the last few hours. It was a lure to drag us into a fight we
cannot
win and away from a fight we
did
win! We need to look past that lure and see what we have accomplished. Now that their launchers in Tibet are destroyed and their forces in the Chumbi valley and Bhutan are defeated,
we
have the upper hand. Especially after the hit on their command center.
That
constitutes an advantage I
am
willing to use!”

“Do we even know who’s in charge in Beijing now?” Ravoof asked.

“Hard to say,” the NSA added, “but probably somebody from the military. We will know more soon enough. In the meantime, let’s keep an eye on their DF-31 missiles. Movement on those units will mean a follow up strike against our cities is in play, and
that
will be the point at which we will launch our counter-response.”

“So what is our response in the meantime?” Iyer asked.

KORLA

NORTHWESTERN CHINA

DAY 15 + 1310 HRS

“Confirm, Korla-tower. We are beginning approach in one minute.”

“Pattern is clear.” The radio squawked.

The Lieutenant-Colonel piloting the aircraft had his right hand on the throttle as the engine whine decreased slightly. His left hand was on the controls as he and his co-pilot brought the KJ-2000 down below the gray cloud cover over Korla. The view from the cockpit was negligible as they broke through the clouds. After a few seconds the aircraft cleared under them and the partially snow covered ground around Korla was visible.

The co-pilot pressed the button for lowering the undercarriage. The aircraft shuddered discernably as the large wheels of the modified Il-76 lowered themselves and locked into position. The pilot also lowered the huge wing flaps. The flaps lowered with a constant humming noise.

“You see it?” the pilot asked as he looked out from the cockpit glass.

“To your left, twenty kilometers,” the co-pilot replied as he spotted the concrete runway at Korla.

“I have it.”

This aircraft was one of the last pair of KJ-2000s in the PLAAF that had survived the two weeks of war with the IAF. Both sides had taken hits to their airborne-radar force. The Indians had lost a CABS AEW and all of its crew over northern Bhutan less than two days before. Most of its eastern aerostats were down as well.

On the Chinese side, the 26
TH
Air Division had paid a heavy price. At the start of the war this Division controlled the special-mission support aircraft for the PLAAF and as such had been in the IAF cross-hairs right from the start. The Division had lost a Tu-154 electronic-warfare aircraft north of Arunachal-Pradesh early in the war, but its KJ-2000s and KJ-200s had been luckier until a week ago.

The Lieutenant-Colonel brought his aircraft into a large radius turn and aligned himself with the runway just as the escorting pair of J-11s broke formation and climbed back into the cloud cover above.

As the aircraft altitude reduced and the experienced Lieutenant-Colonel gingerly adjusted the approach, the screen from the cockpit glass suddenly disappeared in a brilliant flash of light. Both men instantly brought their arms up to cover their eyes as the light dissipated somewhat and revealed a small yellow ball of flame rising above the ground north of them.

“
What
was
that!?
” the co-pilot shouted as he leaned through the right side of the cockpit glass to see the fire ball going up inside a mushroom shaped smoke cloud…

“It was a nuclear detonation! We just lost Uxxaktal airbase!” the Lieutenant-Colonel shouted. “We need to get out of here!
Now!
”

He immediately pushed his right hand on the throttle controls all the way forward. The whine from the engines outside instantly increased and the aircraft shuddered. The engines were soon groaning at maximum throttle settings. He pushed the radio frequency on the comms for Korla.

“Tower! We just lost Uxxaktal to a nuclear detonation! It must be the…Korla tower?” he said and then checked his frequencies. They had been correct the first time, but he had set them wrong in his urgency. He corrected that back again:

“Korla tower, this is…” he began to speak as their front view disappeared in another flash of white light. This time the light was over Korla and much brighter than before.

He and his co-pilot pulled the control sticks back even as they shielded their eyes using their shoulders and shouted in pain. The aircraft pulled up immediately and the fuselage strained and groaned under the intense stress.

By the time the flash of light subsided, they were already at a very high pitch-up attitude, which for an aircraft the size of an Il-76, was extremely stressful. Both pilots realized this and instantly pushed the sticks back and the aircraft began leveling out, climbing above the ball of pure yellow fire now taking shape over the airbase. Of course, they had been heading straight for it and the pressure waves expand in three-dimensional space…

It hit the aircraft a few moments later just as they pulled level.

The sudden bang instantly eliminated all aircraft controls and the engine whine died as the aircraft began diving. The pressure wave had ripped three of the four engines right off their pylons under the wings along with most of the control surfaces. They were close enough to the explosion that they saw the floor of smoke and dust that had enveloped the ground in a circular pattern around the detonation point. The ground now completely filled the view from the cockpit as they both attempted to pull level with whatever controls they had left.

They managed to do that and the aircraft pulled level just as it passed into the smoke floor on the ground and made a belly landing on the frozen paddy fields a few kilometers south of the runway. The aircraft broke into several pieces and flipped and rolled into the muddy waters. There was only a small fire, given that they had been very low on fuel at arrival to Korla.

But there was no question of survivors from such a violent crash and as the center fuselage barrel of the KJ-2000 covered in slushy mud rolled to a halt next to a demolished farmhouse, a massive black smoke-filled cloud was rising through the large hole in the gray cloud cover above created by the nuclear detonation…

BARSHONG

NORTHERN BHUTAN

DAY 15 + 1320 HRS

“No…
no!
” Vikram said as he ran over.

He landed on the ground next to Pathanya, who was laying on his back, covered in dust and his body covered in bruises. He was bleeding out of the corner of his mouth as a trail of blood rolled down his cheeks. His leg was crushed under a rock that had landed on it.

“Look at me, boss!
Sir!
Look. At.
Me!
” he shouted as he moved Pathanya’s head over with his hands.

Pathanya’s eyes moved slightly as he coughed up some more blood trying to speak.

Okay…he’s alive. For now!

Vikram looked at Pathanya’s leg and tried moving the rock away, but he didn’t have the strength. He looked around for something to use as leverage and looked east. He froze in his actions as he watched a large, brown cloud of dust rising into the blue sunny sky above, drifting east. It was drifting away from them. He looked down and saw that the valley was filled with the smoke and dust like water filling up the cracks…

Barshong was gone.

And so were the 11
TH
Para Battalion soldiers deployed there after they had overrun the Highland Division headquarters earlier.

Vikram was still staring at the rising cloud when he heard rustling behind him and turned to see Tarun straggling over. He patted Vikram on the back and a mound of dust fell off his uniform from it. Vikram pointed to the rock on Pathanya’s leg and together they pushed it aside, relieving the pressure on the leg. Instantly Pathanya cried in agony as his body felt the severed leg once again…

“We need to get him out of here!” Tarun said quietly as he saw the broken leg under the rock.

“Where’s your backpack?” Vikram asked.

“Heaven knows! I don’t even have my weapon anymore!” he replied, kneeling beside the Captain.

“
Shit!
” Vikram looked around and saw a radio lying half-buried in gravel a few meters away. He got up on his feet and ran to it, sliding in the gravel as he grabbed the speaker and brought it his ear.

“This is Spear-Two to any Juliet-Foxtrot-Bravo units! We are in need of
immediate
medical assistance west of Barshong! We have a man in
critical
condition! Does anybody read? Over!”

He waited for several seconds but got no reply except static.

“
Damn
this thing!” he said to himself as he reached for the set, pulled it out of the gravel and dusted it off. He realized it had been knocked out by the explosion. Tarun ran over.

“So what’s the deal?”

“No joy!” Vikram replied. “We are on our own. Get the Captain ready to move. Use whatever you can find to patch his leg up. Seen any of the others?”

Tarun shook his head and pointed some distance away where Ravi lay motionless under a tree-trunk that had fallen on top of him.

“Doesn’t matter,” Vikram replied, clearing the lump in his throat. “We
have
to move right now!”

“Where are we going?” Tarun asked as Vikram got up, dusted his uniform and then walked over to pick up a Tavor rifle from the ground nearby, checking its sights to see if everything worked.

“South,” Vikram replied. “We have to get to Thimpu or Dotanang. Or even some village that has a working telephone.”

Tarun glanced at the rising dust cloud thousands of feet in the air.

“If Thimpu still exists anymore.”

NEW-DELHI

INDIA

DAY 15 + 1400 HRS

“Is it done?” the PM asked with his fingers rubbing his forehead.

“It’s done.” Iyer’s voice came over the phone seconds later.

“
And?
” Chakri asked, probing for more details.

“And both airbases are destroyed. Confirmed smoking craters where the bases were supposed to be.”

“Casualties?” the PM asked, bracing himself.

“Korla,” Iyer replied with deliberate carefulness, “had been pretty much abandoned except for military personnel for the last few weeks. So it is going to be in the ballpark of the low thousands from both detonations combined. And most of them will be PLAAF personnel. The 26
TH
Air Division forward operations center has been destroyed as well as one of the two KJ-2000 AWACS. The last aircraft of the type has been pulled further north to Wulumuqi. We believe the 55
TH
Fighter Regiment Su-27s are also destroyed except for four which were in the air at the time.”