“Get those trucks moving with the casualties to the medical center at Haa-Dzong! Now! They still have helicopters operating out of there. They can get these guys out. Move! Move! And somebody find the Para detachment C-O. Either he’s dead or he’s somewhere in there. And get the comms up and running. Last thing we need is a Chinese spec-ops team rushing this location from the northern hills. Warlord has RPVs overhead, but I wouldn’t trust them completely to keep us safe. I want every paratrooper who can walk and fire his weapon to re-establish perimeter around this airport. Now, gentlemen! Go! Go! Go!”
As everybody started to move with a purpose around the place, Fernandez grabbed the nearest radioman he could lay his hands on…
“You! Is your radio working?” he thundered.
“Sir! Yes, sir!”
“Good. You are coming with me then!” Fernandez ordered just as the noise of truck engines filled the air. Fernandez looked at Saxena who was waiting with his rifle slung over his shoulders.
“Let’s go, son. Lead the way.”
The three men walked carefully through the debris of the terminal, bypassing the demolished equipment and the building structures. Fernandez looked up and saw the night sky where there should have been a roof. Slight snow was beginning to fall through. They made it through to the other side and reached within view of the tarmac…
“Damn,” Fernandez observed.
Yeah.
Saxena agreed in thought as he walked around a burning wooden supply crate that had originally been carrying flares. The shattered wreck of the Mi-26 lay sunk inside a huge bomb crater on the tarmac, bellowing a pillar of black smoke. The only identifiable piece of the fuselage left in one piece was the tail boom. It lay on the grass a few hundred feet away.
A series of craters had been dug out of the tarmac area. The latter had never been of very solid construction anyway. Saxena looked to his right and almost felt radiated heat from the still-smoldering control tower from where he and the rest of his FAC operators had been running operations.
The runway, however, was remarkably intact. Several bomb craters were chipping away at the sides, but no central crater on the runway itself.
“Damage looks pretty intense. Thoughts?” Fernandez said.
“Bad, sir. Normally this level of damage is repairable at a military airbase with availability of repair equipment. Not over here. We don’t have anything we need to repair this base until we fly the equipment in using helicopters,” Saxena said as he walked towards the nearest bomb crater.
“Which could take days. I need a better option,” Fernandez ordered.
“I don’t know what to tell you sir,” Saxena replied as he peered over the edge of the crater in front of him. “This damage is total!”
He looked over to the north and saw the small tar extension to the runway usable by light aircraft and helicopters…
“Sir, you see that tar area over there? We could use that to restart some basic helicopter operations; Mi-17s, Dhruv helicopters and the like. It’s big enough and the undamaged runway looks long enough to bring in maybe one or two Dornier aircraft at a time. Perhaps even An-32s with some minor repair. It’s a trickle of what we were bringing in before, but it’s a start,” Saxena offered.
Fernandez was not happy to hear that. But he realized it was not Saxena’s fault. His radioman’s CNR squawked. Both officers waited to see what the radioman was listening in to. The latter looked at Fernandez:
“Sir! Warlord-central is informing us that warlord is inbound via helicopter! ETA two minutes!” Fernandez raised an eyebrow at that.
“So the old chap is coming in himself, eh?”
He nodded to Saxena.
“Can they land over here?”
“Yes sir. That tar area over there I was showing you.” Saxena replied.
“Good. Mark it with green smoke,” Fernandez ordered. Saxena removed a Green-Very from his backpack and snapped it to life. Fernandez turned to the NCO:
“Tell warlord-central that L-Z is open and marked with green smoke.”
Two minutes later green smoke was rising from the tarmac as the sound of a Dhruv Helicopter filled the air. Saxena and Fernandez waited near the LZ as the Dhruv circled around the airport and then flared for landing near the cloud of green smoke. It touched down and the downwash spread the green smoke in all directions. As the engines wound down, Saxena and Fernandez walked over as four paratroopers armed with INSAS-UBGL rifles jumped out of the side doors and took up positions near the LZ. Potgam stepped out behind them.
The gruff looking commander looked around and saw the devastation wrought by the Chinese at his main logistical node in Bhutan. He had a frown on his face that would wilt a junior officer in seconds. He was also in his combat fatigues with a belt-mounted sidearm. The freezing winds in the valley caused him to remove his cap and cover his balding head. Once the cap fit him snugly, he returned their salutes. Neither Fernandez nor Saxena said anything until Potgam did:
“Those bastards will pay for this, gentlemen. Mark my words. They will pay,” Potgam said and then faced Saxena who nearly froze under the stare of the three-star general in his face.
“Son, are you the FAC team-leader?”
“Yes sir!” Saxena replied back.
“Damn fine work under the circumstances boy. Tough situation overall. But handled well. I heard your boys suffered substantial casualties,” Potgam said in as polite a voice as he could manage, which wasn’t much. Saxena managed to choke out a response:
“Yes sir. Team FAC-Alpha is combat-ineffective right now. I am the only survivor. We need a replacement team to take charge of operations down here.”
Potgam grunted at that.
“And have a new wet-nosed kid take command of this shitty mess? No. You stay right here. I have arranged FAC-Bravo to replace your losses, but you stay in command. You aren’t getting off that easily. This war is rapidly stretching our limits and resources. We need all the experienced guys we can get. Unless of course you have lost the nerve to stay here and fight! Have you?” Potgam thundered.
“No sir! Give me the tools and we will kill them all!”
“Good. Gentlemen, let’s get on with it. We don’t have any time. Latest R-P-V Intel suggests that the Highland Brigade north of Thimpu has finished digging and is now preparing to advance. They will make contact with our special-forces guys up at the sharp end, north of the capital. Once that happens we will need all the support your battery can provide, Fernandez,” Potgam said as he led the way back to the terminal. Potgam continued talking:
“Fernandez, get things organized a bit over here and then leave someone else to manage things until one of the Brigadiers from my staff comes down here to take over. I need you back at your battery when the shit hits the fan. Saxena over here can get this mess sorted out. Additional Paras are slated for arrival and will beef up security. Colonel Misra and his 11TH Para-SF Battalion will be the first unit arriving here. He will be field commander for the Thimpu front when he arrives. The reason I am telling you this is because it all depends on this airbase becoming operational and staying that way. Without it, Thimpu will fall, gentlemen.”
DAY 7
“Gentlemen, welcome to hell!” Adesara smiled wearily