Not good.
Kulkarni chimed into the rhino net: “all elements: let’s make this as quick and painless as we can! I want to be clear of this obstacle and on to the Islamgarh road within thirty minutes! Out.”
Kulkarni noted that his tank was the amongst the first four tanks making their way past the minefield. It took his driver exactly two minutes to clear the path and enter on the other side. As the tank made it past the end of the lane and past the standing combat-engineers, he noted the two BMP-IIs of trishul force parked on the southern embankment of the tar road heading west. The map on ABAMS confirmed it: Islamgarh road.
They had entered Pakistani territory.
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.
“Okay, 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-IIs 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!”