Fenix (23 page)

              The driver chimed in: “stand by. We are climbing over the embankment.”

              The tank pitched up thirty degrees as it rolled over the sand embankment and landed horizontal on the tar of the road. Three other Arjun tanks did the same further south. There were now four Indian tanks blocking the Islamgarh road as their turrets swept left and right for targets. All they found was a smoke column one kilometer away where an abandoned Pakistani border post was smoldering. There were no other targets to see except for some villagers escaping on vehicles, west of them.

              Kulkarni opened his tank comms: “move forward, two-hundred meters. Let’s create some breathing space beyond the breach point.”

              “Roger.”

              The tank jerked forward with a rumble. The gunner continued to swivel left and right for targets as the morning sun already began heating up the desert.

              “See any targets?” Kulkarni asked.

              “No sir. All clear.”

              “That’s not good. Where are the Pakis?” Kulkarni opened comms with Sudarshan: “steel-central, rhino is at the
LOD
and preparing to advance to waypoint baker. No enemy yet. Requesting sitrep on over-the-horizon threats. Over.”

              “Rhino, this is steel-central. We copy your advance to baker. Expect enemy infantry positions west, two kilometers. Expect armored and mechanized forces on your right flank beyond three kilometers. We are seeing inbound enemy columns. Out.”

              The enemy was on their way to meet him in battle. As other Arjun tanks expanded the breach point and headed towards the road, two tanks from rhino-four rolled past his line on the road and began to take up position north of it. Kulkarni looked through his sights to the west and saw nothing but sand, rocks and shrubs. But the enemy was out there, somewhere
just
out of sight.

              As he watched, three Mig-27s streaked past at low level, disappearing within seconds. Kulkarni hoped they were going after the enemy columns…

              “Sir, I see a green road sign, five hundred meters west down the road. Can’t read the language. Is it Urdu?” The gunner asked. Kulkarni decided to take a look. Sure enough, it was a road sign, gathering dust: “it says ‘Rahim Yar Khan road, twelve kilometers’. In Urdu. Written in an Arabic style. Get used to it. You will be seeing a
lot
more of this in the next few days!”

              Kulkarni looked at his watch. Ten minutes since they parked on the road and about thirty percent of his force had crossed the breach point. The minutes were ticking away at a murderously slow pace.

“O
kay, let’s move out.” Kulkarni replied as the last of his tanks began clearing the breach point in the minefields.

              The tank rumbled forward on the tar road leading twelve others in a single column. The bulk of the force was spread south and north of the road. The view from his sights revealed a Pakistani border outpost further west, abutting the road from the south. These border posts were evenly distributed along stretches of the road that ran parallel to the border, mirroring similar Indian deployments on the other side. Rhino had breached in a location where the road ran close to the border and was roughly equidistant from the two nearest Pakistani posts. The one to the north was not Kulkarni’s concern. It had been struck by Indian artillery two hours ago and was now deserted. A small column of
BMP-II
s from trishul had already reached its perimeters. They would secure and hold that position.

              The border post west of the breach point was more in Kulkarni’s direct path and had
not
been reconnoitered by Indian forces except by airborne drones from steel-central.

              This post was Kulkarni’s first objective.

              It showed no signs of occupation. He looked through the sights to spot any movement and saw none. It was just the regular group of small buildings and positions painted sand-brown. A small flag post visible on top of the mound in the center of the post was barren: signs that the Pakistani troops here had retreated tactically over the last few hours to better-held positions further west.

              Regardless, caution was the order of the day. Kulkarni couldn’t care less about the post. He would roll over it, crush it under his tank treads and move past. He had no intention of making his way through any booby-traps laid by the Pakistanis to “welcome” him on their home turf.

              “Any activity at the post?” He asked his gunner.

“Negative. No signs of life.”

                “Time to knock on the doors and see if anyone is home. Level those bunkers!” Kulkarni ordered.

              The tank shuddered with recoil as the gunner launched a high-explosive shell towards the Pakistani border post. It hit the open slit of a bunker and exploded, sending a ball of concrete dust and sand rolling into the sky. Three other tanks in the front column did the same, decimating most of the buildings at the post.

              No enemy response.

              Perhaps the position really was deserted
…Kulkarni thought. As his tanks rolled close to the post’s perimeter, the smaller dust and smoke columns merged into a haze, hanging above the post against a bright blue morning sky…

              “So much for that,” the gunner offered as their tank rolled past the main gates. The driver made it a point to roll over the signpost at the main gate marking the name of the Pakistani unit that occupied this position just hours before.

              “All rhino elements, make sure you cover
any
activity on our flanks,” Kulkarni ordered. “The Pakis here have retreated to better positions west. They will
not
be giving up these lands without a fight. Don’t get complacent out here!”

              Now the road turned northwest, meandering all the way. Eventually it would turn into the Rahim-Yar-Khan road which would take them all the way to the town by the same name and the strategic highway that passed through near it.
That
was fifty-kilometers away. And right now they hadn’t even made it past the first
two
. A long way to go.

Kulkarni pulled up
ABAMS
to see how his other tanks were holding on his right flank. He had just pressed the zoom-out button when the tank shuddered violently and a thunder rolled through the interior of the tank. The
ABAMS
screen flicked off and then on again as the shockwave dissipated…

              “
What the hell!
”

              “Enemy artillery fire!” The driver yelled. “A shell landed
just
twenty meters on the road in front of us!” 

              Kulkarni peered through his sights to see what the hell was happening as more shells began impacting around them. The view from his sights was not pretty: Enemy heavy artillery shells were hitting the ground all around his tanks. Inverted cones of sand and dust were erupting over the green shrubbery. The air was a screaming cacophony of inbound shells and exploding thunderclaps…

              Kulkarni felt the tank jerk to a stop and he looked away from the sights: “what’s going on?!
Why
have you stopped? Are we hit?”

              “
Negative! Negative!
” The driver shouted. “I have a huge crater on the road in front of us! The road is destroyed!”   

              “Then get us
the fuck
around! Get off the road,
damn it!
” 

              The tank jerked again to the side and then rumbled forward, skirting the smoldering crater carved out of the tar road. Kulkarni got on the comms again: “all rhino elements:
keep moving!
Do
not
stop! I say again, do
not
stop or they will bracket us in their kill zones!”

              He switched comms instantly: “steel-central, this is rhino-one! We are taking fire from enemy tube artillery two kilometers west of the breach point! We are maintaining advance! Over!”

              “Any casualties?” Sudarshan asked.

              “Negative, sir. But that won’t last. Somebody needs to go put those damn enemy guns out of commission!” 

              “Roger, Rhino-one. We are working on it! Ferrite-actual is moving into position. In the meantime, continue the advance to waypoint baker! Out.”

              The tank shuddered again as another explosion ripped through the ground nearby. Kulkarni had to hold on to the turret frame to prevent himself from being smashed against the sides. Advancing through the incoming fire prevented the Pakistanis from bracketing Rhino force into a stationary kill zone. It reduced the artillery’s accuracy and chances of scoring a direct hit against the top turret armor. But how long would that luck hold out?

              “Enemy positions!” The gunner shouted. “One kilometer northwest! They have optics on us!”

              At least that explains the shifting artillery fire
…Kulkarni thought as he peered through the sights. He saw optical reflections against the morning sunlight hitting the Pakistanis directly. That was helpful to the Indian forces, as expected. Kulkarni had every intention of grabbing that advantage.

              “All rhino elements: enemy defensive lines nine-hundred meters west.
Open fire!
And
do
not
stop! Fire on the move and roll over the enemy! Force their artillery to either fire
on
their own troops or to stop fire. Either way, we have nothing to lose!
Execute!
”

              The sound of two-dozen high-explosive tank rounds leaving their barrels was loud enough to drown out the incoming artillery. First the line of Arjun tanks disappeared into a cloud of flame and smoke…and then the Pakistani lines. The high-explosive tank shells slammed into their positions. The smoke from the main guns washed over the ever advancing mass of Arjun tanks as they kept moving, firing tank rounds as fast as the loaders could ready them…

              It was all about maintaining fire superiority. It didn’t matter if the tank rounds hit any specific target or not. If they did, that was wonderful. If not, they forced the enemy to keep their heads down and deal with the explosive concussions ripping through their bodies. The vibrations affected their aim and the thunderclaps forced them to lose focus and coherence. War is as much psychological as it is physical. Kulkarni understood that only too well.

              Peering through his sights in thermal mode allowed him to see past the clouds of smoke, sand and dust that had enveloped the Pakistani positions. His other sights were already having difficulty from “brown-out”. They couldn’t
see
through all the particles flying all over the place and threatened to envelop their entire view. The enemy artillery fire slackened off as well.

              “All rhino elements! Check fire! Halt! Halt! Halt!”

              The tank shuddered to a halt and the guns stopped firing. Kulkarni continued to peer through his sights while his gunner waited for the view to clear. He depressed the button to flick the view from thermal to visual, changing the white-black monochrome view into shades of brown, green and blue of the sky above. For his purposes, however, the view was no better: they couldn’t see anything.

              “Rhino-two, -three and -four. Do you have targets?”

              “Negative.”

              “No targets.”

              “Uh…we are
brown-out
. Can’t distinguish
anything!
”

              Kulkarni realized that they had driven up right in front of the Pakistani infantry lines. He must have been facing perhaps two companies of troops at best. The rest of that Pakistani battalion must be nearby somewhere…

              “Rhino-four,” he said without peering away from his sights, “peel off here and flank southwest with your boys. I want to see how far south this enemy defensive line stretches. Rhino-three, do the same to the northwest. Rhino-two, you are with me. We are rolling over these bastards to our front. Rhino-three and –four, rendezvous with us down the road, two kilometers out.
Don’t
get bogged down. I want you guys scouting, not slugging it out. Understood?”

              “Roger. Rhino-three copies all. Out.”

              “Rhino-four at your service. Combat recon all the way.”         

              Kulkarni saw the twelve tanks of rhino-four to the south swiveling to the southwest and spewing smoke and sand as they began rolling in formation. He swiveled his sights to the north and saw another twelve tanks of rhino-three doing the same. That left the bulk of Rhino still staggered around him, and the dust cloud was settling.

He switched frequencies: “all elements, rhino-one and rhino-two: charge on my mark. Engage and
destroy
all enemy forces. Watch for enemy infantry who might let you roll over their positions and engage you from the rear. Gunners, prepare for a close-in fight!”