Chimera (10 page)

“That sounds like a lot of firepower, General,” the PM continued.

“Yes it is, sir. But compared to what the Chinese have deployed in Tibet, it’s still the bare minimum required for a good defense.”

“And you don’t think it will be seen as a provocation by the Chinese given the current situation?”

“It might be seen as provocation, but remember that they have three times that many troops in Tibet at this time engaged in combat,” Yadav continued as he saw that the Indian leader’s views hadn’t changed from a fundamental standpoint.

“For which they have a just cause. What cause do we have for mobilizing these Divisions?” the PM said.

Chakri shared a look at Yadav in silence and then sighed where he sat in silence.

Cause? How about defending our borders? Does that sound like a good enough cause, you idiot?

Yadav said calmly:

“Defending our borders, sir. That’s a just enough cause, isn’t it?”

TWO MONTHS LATER

day 1

OVER CENTRAL CHINA

DAY 1 + 0000 HRS

Four hundred kilometers above the earth, a lone satellite passed silently over the central Asian landmass. It had been going over similar orbits for weeks. And during each pass, its small but powerful optics focused on the landmass below. The real-time imagery it provided was sharp and revealing. If it was daytime in the region the resulting images were in color. If it was dark, as it was right now, the images were seen through infrared optics. The imagery was used by the personnel of the newly organized Indian Aerospace Command, or IASC, who had been keeping a wary eye on the Chinese military bases in the region.

Trying to, anyway.

But the Indian space assets were stretched thin trying to cover a two thousand kilometer front. And there was never really any hope of monitoring such a large landmass on a real-time basis anyway.

The scarce availability of assets meant that the people at the Aerospace Command had been able to maintain a constant vigil only on select high priority targets. Some of these included PLA units and PLAAF airbases in Tibet. But almost exclusively, the targets of focus had included Chinese missile bases and deployed batteries that were capable of lobbing cruise-missiles and ballistic-missiles at Indian targets. The ballistic-missile arsenal, conventional and nuclear exclusively was under the control of the Chinese 2
ND
Artillery Corps. Their only Ground-Launched-Cruise-Missile, or GLCM, unit was the 821 Brigade. It was deployed in Tibet as of right now. This was not unexpected. The 821 Brigade was the premier unit operating the CJ-10 “Long-Sword” long-range GLCMs. With a massive two-thousand kilometer range, the Long-Sword missiles could be launched from deep inside Tibet and reach most targets in northern India. It was a real and definitive threat. And the 821 Brigade had deployed about fifteen WS 2400 8x8 Transporter Erector Launcher or TEL vehicles along with over seventy five CJ-10s in northern Tibet over the last month. These units were spread out and highly guarded on the ground against Tibetan rebels by large contingents of PLA forces.

With over half of their GLCM force deployed in Tibet, the 821 Brigade had left their remaining force distributed along the Taiwanese and Korean facing coasts. Such a large force deployed specifically against India was obviously meant to be a threat. And there was a question among the Indian side on whether these missiles had been tasked exclusively for the strategic nuclear role alongside other ballistic-missile brigades or whether they carried conventional warheads.

To make matters worse, there was no Indian counter-force weapon with which New-Delhi could respond. The Indian counterpart to the already deployed Long-Sword missiles was the “Nirbhay” cruise-missile. Unfortunately, it was just now entering the first production run after having finished its development and testing phases. This meant that the Nirbhay was not available to the Indian missile forces, which were currently dependent on the highly lethal, but short-legged “Brahmos” supersonic cruise-missiles. With a range around three-hundred kilometers, it was strictly a tactical weapon relative to the Chinese Long-Sword missiles. It was available, however, in air, sea and ground launched versions, unlike the Chinese counterpart. And when launched from a suitably modified Su-30MKI, the missile could reach deep inside Tibet.    

The Chinese also possessed a tactical counterpart to the Brahmos missile. In the past month they had deployed in southern Tibet a large number of YJ-62 subsonic cruise-missiles along with requisite number of launcher vehicles. Indian intelligence had also confirmed the presence of these missiles at Wugong airbase near the Qingling Mountains in central China. This was where a significant number of their H-6 long-range bombers, copies of the Russian Tu-16 Badger, were based. But with ranges under three-hundred kilometers, relatively poor navigation and slow speeds, the YJ-62 missiles were easier to shoot down and its launchers easier to target and eliminate. But it added numbers to the Chinese inventory of Tibet based cruise-missiles.

The Tibet Theater wasn’t the only area of responsibility for the Indian Aerospace Command. The Indian Navy wanted high resolution images of the PLAN shipyards as well. But this was lower in terms of priority compared to the missile units in Tibet. Simply put, even if a Chinese naval force left port and headed for the Indian Ocean, it would still require days before they would get there. On the other hand, the missiles aimed at India from Tibet and central China could hit targets within minutes, and so they demanded regular attention.

Which the Aerospace Command gave them unflinchingly. As the Indian Cartosat satellite, on loan from the ISRO, approached northern Tibet, its optics focused on the pre-specified targets in the region…

“Okay. Here we go,”

The Air-Force Group-Captain in charge of operations at this ungodly hour said to his boss, Air-Vice-Marshal Malhotra. Malhotra was commander of the IASC in Bangalore and reported directly to the Indian Air-Force Air-Headquarters in New-Delhi.

Standing with Malhotra was an Army Colonel, the liaison with the Strategic Forces Command or SFC. Both men were up and awake at this time because RAW HUMINT had confirmed increased levels of activity in 2
ND
Artillery Corps areas in northern Tibet in the last twenty four hours. They were now watching the large screen in front of them as it showed a geographical reference-grid overlay on the grayish-white infrared view of the satellite in near real-time… 

Because of the angle of the view caused by the satellite’s position above the horizon as it passed the target, the view of the 821 Brigade battery in question was being blocked by the mountains nearby. But as the base slid into view beyond the hills the dark gray background was dotted with white puffs throughout the Chinese base. These represented hot regions against the cold winter terrain. Some of these white puffs were more like clouds and seems to be slowly drifting away...

“What the
hell!
” the Group-Captain exclaimed as he suddenly stood up from his chair, causing it to fall back on the floor. Malhotra’s response was not any calmer:

“
Oh shit!
The bastards are
launching!
”

As if on cue, another white flash erupted against the black background causing the satellite’s optics to flare out and readjust the coloration on screen. Within those couple of seconds, a hot white speck leaped into the air from one of the launchers and began moving southwest. The Group-Captain’s team began adjusting the optics and the view zoomed out to try and track the course the missiles were taking. There was no question about it: the missiles were heading south and south-east from Tibet…

Malhotra found a lump in his throat as the implications became clear.

Dear god! They did it! They actually did it!

But there was no time to ponder now. It was time to act.

Malhotra moved decisively even as other struggled to come to terms with the quickness at which things were happening. He moved across the room and picked up the phone. The Colonel from the SFC did the same a second later. The phone calls from both men were answered immediately as they were supposed to be. Malhotra spoke quickly but quietly:

“This is the Commander, Aerospace Command. We are detecting large numbers of launch plumes at cruise-missile bases across northern Tibet. Launches are ongoing at this time with southerly inbounds. I say again, we have in-bound Chinese cruise-missiles. Send out the warning orders to everybody. We are looking at a category-one alpha-strike by China!”

In the operations center outside the conference room, Malhotra’s people were attempting to make sense of things. They were already moving the satellite’s optics to other bases in the region. The same views were detected everywhere. Malhotra completed his call and came back to see his men struggling to handle the vast amount of data pouring in. Luckily a large portion of the processing was being handled by computers. They classified the threats and passed them via satellite communications networks to the SFC and the various IAF air-defense centers via the respective regional commands.

“What’s the count?” Malhotra asked his operations chief once he saw a tally adding up on a second wall-mounted side-screen as the men inside the center added launch locations and numbers to it… 

“Hundred plus and still counting,” the Group-Captain reported.

Malhotra took a deep breath and crossed his arms in silence. As they watched their team get to work, the large screen continued to show the slowly dissipating thermal plumes from expended launch tubes of the Chinese launchers…  

NEW DELHI

DAY 1 + 0020 HRS

The Prime-Minister looked up from his book as he heard a lot of commotion outside his reading room. He heard voices of men shouting out orders. The voices were familiar to him: his personal security officers from the Special Protection Group or SPG… 

The door to his reading room suddenly opened with a thud.

Three men in black suit and ties ran into the room. The Prime-Minister noticed they were armed. His chief security officer was holding his personal sidearm while the two other men had their FN-2000 rifles held in their hands. The SPG commandos found him standing near his personal library of books, looking alarmed and somewhat shocked at the rude and loud entry into the room.

“Sir, please come with us now!” the SPG team-leader spoke urgently.

“What’s going on Sunil?” the PM asked with a shaky voice.

“Sir, no time! We can brief you along the way. There is an Air-Force helicopter approaching the helipad outside in a few minutes to evacuate you and your family! We need you to
move
!”

The PM was still holding on to the book, unable to grasp what was being barked at him…

“But wait. What..?”

“
Now
, sir!”

The SPG team-leader grabbed the PM by his arm and nearly forced the confused and somewhat frightened man to move out with them. The two men with rifles led the way as they all walked out. In the other rooms the PM saw other members of the security team leading his family members outside. Once out of the residence and near the helipad, he saw heavily armed members of the SPG were standing guard all around the perimeter. The first sounds of the approaching helicopter were already filling the cold night sky...

“Sunil, I demand to know
what the hell
is going on!” the PM shouted above the chaotic noises around him from his family, the security personnel and others.

“Sir, all I know is that the Chinese have launched missiles against us. The Air-Force detected the attack and is tracking them now. We have been ordered to evacuate you and other members of government and military to Palam airport from where you will take off on board an Air-Force airborne command aircraft and stay there until the threat is neutralized,” the SPG team-leader responded calmly. They were trained to be calm in exactly these kinds of situations. Both men then looked up as the distinctive three-engine noise of the AW-101 helicopter from the Air-Force HQ Communications Squadron appeared from behind the residence. The grassy field around the small concrete helipad was now being crushed against the downwash of the helicopter blades…