Fifteen minutes later they were both aboard and a young Flight-Lieutenant closed the doors of the Embraer from the inside. The flight-crew up in the cockpit throttled up the engines and the small jet began rolling towards the runway.
Brigadier Adesara walked inside the bunkers west of the destroyed airstrip. Once inside, he heard the chaos amongst the staff officers as everybody was trying to complete their tasks at the same time. They were supposed to have dedicated command trailers for this kind of work on the modern battlefield but the Chinese UAVs in the skies above had rendered that possibility suicidal.
They had been trying to locate and terminate Adesara and his staff for days now. Their tactic was simple: if they spotted anything that remotely looked like his command post, he could expect an artillery strike on it within minutes. The Chinese had been doing that for days.
Till they had been able to, that is!
The Smerch counter-battery launchers near Saser had effectively neutralized the field guns and short-range rocket launchers within the two Divisions facing Adesara’s defenses. That had brought a welcome respite to Adesara’s besieged staff. Still, he insisted on maintaining headquarters security.
“So how is the deployment taking shape?” Adesara asked Colonel Sudarshan.
The two mauled Chinese Divisions were digging in while they awaited the arrival of reinforcements. Once they had replaced their losses, the assault against DBO was expected to be restarted.
“Moving ahead. 10TH Mechanized is deployed and ready for operations. General Gupta has arranged for the arrival of two more Mechanized Battalions as well,” Sudarshan said as he stood alongside the map table with Adesara.
“So good news then?” Adesara queried.
“That’s not all. We also heard that the first two attack helicopters arrived at Saser a couple hours ago!”
Adesara whistled at that.
“Pretty soon we should have enough to push the Chinese on their side of the LAC and then some!”
“Agreed.”
“So what’s the bad news?” Adesara braced himself for the inevitable.
“We lost one Heron UAV an hour ago after it was detected by one of the surviving Big-Bird radars operating near the Qara-tagh-La. The air-force has called off all long-range UAV flights in that sector until they are able to take that threat down. So DIA is now pushing for priority satellite Intel on the PLA inbound forces. But given requirements over Sikkim, Tibet and the northeast, there are not enough assets to go around. However, we do know that at least two fresh PLA armored battalions are beginning to arrive east of us,” Sudarshan said. His voice was laced with concern. Adesara noted that.
“Okay. So if we sit on our hands we inadvertently let the fresh Chinese Division slide into the pre-prepared positions left by the first two Divisions we fought off. Once that happens they have a prepared base of fire against our defenses. Again! No way are we letting that happen again. We stop that from happening by acting right now!”
“I agree, sir,” Sudarshan nodded. “We need to shut down the Chinese now while we have the initiative. We destroy their prepared positions at the LAC and they lose their base of fire. Their incoming reinforcements will then be forced to fight us on the move.”
“My only concern,” Sudarshan said, “is these two incoming Chinese tank battalions. Mechanized infantry cannot take on heavy armor head-on. We will need some air and artillery support to handle them!”
“That can be arranged. But remember the bigger picture! Take the 10TH Mechanized straight up the Chinese gut. When your other two Mechanized battalions catch up and reach here, use them to expand on the attack and secure this entire territory east of the LAC and south of the Chip-Chap River. Smash any and all enemy units in your way and keep rolling east!”
The smoke spread through the air as the wheels of the Embraer ERJ-135 aircraft touched down on the concrete of the runway. As the slight vibrations receded and the aircraft settled on the ground, Chakri thought about removing the cover from his window to see the airbase outside, but decided against it. He had had enough of flying all over the country now. He wished for his feet to be back on terra firma…
The air-force Flight-Lieutenant had already unstrapped himself and was walking up the cabin. Chakri could feel the aircraft turning as it rolled along on the taxiway. He noticed the home-minister yawning and awakening from his short one hour nap. Chakri cursed himself for not following his colleague’s lead on that one.
The aircraft halted a few minutes later. Finally he got up from his seat and walked down the cabin to the front where the Flight-Lieutenant had already unlocked the door. The cold, polluted air of New-Delhi felt like a welcoming committee to Chakri and the home-minister. They realized that they hadn’t been back here for almost three days.
As the two ministers stepped onto the tarmac and looked around, they could see one of the terminal buildings that were nothing more than a pile of rubble. Some of the burnt out ground vehicles were also nearby…
“How bad were our casualties here? Chakri asked the IAF Group-Captain who met them near the aircraft. The latter looked at what the Defense-Minister was pointing to and shook his head:
“Fifteen dead at the airport here. A lot more died when our air-headquarters building took a direct hit.”
Before the defense Minister could say anything else, the rumbling noise of two Mig-29s taking off from the runway behind them filled the air. The Group-Captain motioned for both men to head towards the two parked AW-101 helicopters nearby that would take them to South Block.
Five minutes later the helicopters were spooling up while the two ministers sat inside along with the air-force officer. He handed both of them headphones that allowed them to talk over the sounds of the rotors via the aircraft intercom. The home-minister turned to Chakri:
“I have arranged a meeting with the Ministry of External Affairs. They say they have been in touch with the Pakistanis regarding their air-force operations over Ladakh. Do you want me to set it up in your office?”
Chakri nodded. A meeting with the Foreign-Minister would clear up the Pakistani angle on the ongoing war.
About time too…
The IAF was none too pleased having Pakistani F-16s on their blind side when they were busy fighting the Chinese…
“Okay. Assuming that the Pakistanis try to milk this situation for all its worth, we need to be sure where the boundaries are. Air-Marshal Bhosale says that he can shut down the PAF activities in Kashmir within a day. The problem is, that brings the war down to the western front and that’s something that we don’t want just yet. We need to be sure about what the Pakistanis are up to!” Chakri shouted over the rotor noise outside.
“Indeed! The question is: what if they are acting in collusion with the Chinese? I have a RAW report that I will be going in detail once we land that suggests high level contact between Beijing and Islamabad the last two months. And based on what you told me on the way over, the Chinese are having a tough time against us all along the front. What if they try to dissolve our strengths by pulling the Pakistanis into the mess?” the home-minister asked. Chakri thought about that before he answered:
“That’s a very real possibility. And I will have to talk to the Service Chiefs to see what we can do to prevent the Pakistanis from taking any false steps in support of the Chinese. But my gut feeling is that Islamabad will see the trouble Beijing is finding itself in and decide it does not want to jump aboard a sinking ship!”