War Scenario. part XLVI

Previous Part

0650 Hours
PPC World News

In a somewhat expected event, a senior member of Chinese ruling party, Admiral (Retd) Zlin Xedong was suspended and placed under arrest on charges of misuse of his authority. It was declared in a statement issued by a senior spokesperson of CPC. According to statement, Chinese President was forced to issue orders to this affect after government's investigators uncovered solid proof of his involvement in a plot to spoil developing mutually beneficial relationships between China and India. In a well planned conspiracy that involved many senior and middle level officers of Pakistani military, Admiral Xedong plotted clandestine attack on India in complete violation of official Chinese policy of peaceful and prosperous co-existence. Involvement of some other senior Chinese PLA officers is also under investigation. Exact motive of conspirators is not clear at the moment,

After the investigative team intimated President Peng of it's findings, he immediately ordered Adm Xedong to be placed under arrest awaiting further trial while investigations against other officers get completed. According to many analysts, this step is probably aimed to mollify India smarting after a surprise nuke attack which it alleges was planned and financed by Chinese military. Just hours after a devastating retaliatory nuclear attack on it's arch enemy Pakistan, from where the rogue missile was launched, Indian Navy had captured a crippled Chinese submarine. Along with it's full crew, Indian Navy had also captured rebel Pakistani General Asgar. From him, they had recovered recorded conversations between Admiral Xedong and a low ranking Chinese liaison officer. According to the recordings, Admiral Xedong was heard planning more attacks on India. Chinese spokesperson while sympathizing with India expressed hope that the steps taken by China in it's mission to punish the miscreants will generate goodwill amongst Indians and world community. When asked by a reporter whether international agencies or India will be allowed to interrogate Admiral Xedong and his co-conspirators, the spokesperson declined to answer.

Responding to the statement, a senior official from Indian government praised the action taken by Chinese government as a positive one but also said that much needs to be done in order to punish the guilty. In an answer to a question regarding further role of Indian forces in Pak Occupied Kashmir, he said that the area is now formally under Indian control as another part of erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Refuting the allegations of land grab, the spokesperson went on to say that part of J&K under Chinese control should be handed over back to India as it was ceded illegally by Pakistan to China. There has been no reaction from Chinese on this as yet.

Reactions from other countries have been mixed. Although most of them except for notable exception of Israel and Russia have condemned the overwhelming nuclear attack on Pakistan, all of them unilaterally urged Indian government to be more pragmatic with China. In a televised interview, General Secretary UN Behn Ki urged both India and China to tread cautiously while billions of lives are in grave danger. He also urged China to find a peaceful solution to ongoing civil unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang. Although Chinese government has imposed strict curbs on news related to these provinces, sources indicate that the situation is getting worse by the day with escalating violence from all all sides.



0720 Hours
India




“What do you think of it Angad ? “ DM asked NIA chief who seemed to be lost in deep thought. It took a few seconds for him to realize that DM was addressing him. He had been thinking about the new development and was just dying to let it out. After a bit of start he answered, “They are lying. I'll bet my last rupee that Xedong is just a straw man. It cannot be a lone wolf or rogue mission. Support of a lot of people, right up to their higher ranking CPC people is necessary to pull off anything like this. We are talking about Chinese nukes being launched by Chinese personnel . Now they arrest some random ass and make him a sacrificial goat. We are not sure that even he would be punished at all. ”

“And you base this upon ?” DM asked.

“ Base upon ? “ Angad exclaimed with wide open eyes and gestured with his hands. “ You saw all the proof yourself, right from the missile plant to it's transport to Pakistan. Then had the testimony of those captured Pakis and Chinese submarine crew. There is no chance that Xedong is the only mastermind behind all this. I'll eat my shoes if somebody proves me wrong. “


“But what's their motive then ? In spite of all their bravado and saber rattling previously, they haven't even expressed any official outrage over loss of 3 of their submarines and the men and missiles that we captured from Gilgit..” DM seemed puzzled and amused at the same time.

Angad allowed himself a wicked smile, “It was your decision to pay back the Pakis in kind that's led to the current situation. By firing the nuke from the shoulder of Pakis, they thought that they could humiliate us and tank our economy and self esteem. They thought that we'll be too afraid to retaliate and thus lose face, become weak and more prone to their bullying. Then they could strengthen their claim on occupied and disputed territories and prance around on world stage as the undisputed champion. But our retaliatory strikes poured cold water on all of their dreams. Capturing that Chinese submarine was our wildest dream come true. The intelligence that we gathered is invaluable.
They now know that we are privy to most of their plans and are more than willing to give them a bloody nose. They probably thought that in worst case scenario for them, we'll engage Pakis in a conventional war and they could come to the aid of their deeper than ocean fliends and make it hell for us. But we preempted their trump card with our own.”


General Zoravar Singh, who had been listening to the conversation quietly interrupted Angad, “All that's fine, but that still doesn't answer the question. What should be our response ?”


DM sopke up before Angad could answer, “What do you think General ? Can we take on Chinese right now ?”

General Singh glanced on his companions from Air Force and Navy before answering, “We've been preparing for such a situation for some time. Although we are not as strong and well equipped as we'd like, but still we can hold our ground as long as it takes. Our Navy has already given them a bloody nose in two sectors. Army and Air Force are already mobilized and just awaiting orders. Our SF are already operating inside Tibet. They'll take it a few notches up as soon as we give the signal.”

DM sighed, “Pitched battles with Chinese. I'm 100% sure that this thought will give another heart attack to our PM. “

Angad grinned and shrugged. DM glanced at him before continuing, “But realistically, what are our options ? China isn't going to be a push over like Pakistan. What can we hope to achieve in terms of a military or political victory over them. By victory, I don't mean any kind of lame brain “moral” thing. I want something that I can use to bargain something useful from them later. Aksai Chin, Tibet anything like that.”

General Singh replied, “I'll be honest with you sir. If Chinese attack us, we will give them a real beating that they will ever forget. It's not 1962.
In case we attack them, they'll put up as fierce resistance as well. I cannot guarantee any territorial gains that we can use as bargaining chips later on. “


DM observed, “Typical zero sum game , eh . What's your opinion about Chinese? Do they think in similar way ?”

“Based on whatever I know about Chinese, I'd say yes. Now that they realize that we've crossed nuclear threshold much earlier they expected, I believe that they'll think a lot before committing to a direct fight. At least that's what I could deduce from Chinese president's statement and their actions till now.” He finished the sentence glancing in Angad's direction who silently nodded in agreement. “


DM spoke with some anger “ Hmm. But that's not a satisfactory conclusion to this mess. We suffered a nuclear strike and the people who actually plotted it all will likely go scot free.”

Angad who seemed to be lost in his own world again replied, “As General said, we do have our men inside their territory. We can inflict considerable amount of pain on them and blame it all on non-state actors, much like their beloved Pakis.”
He paused for a moment as if lost in thought again, then resumed, “ Apart from all that, Lin said that he'll order his forces to stand down and strangely it's been like that only. Their formations are on high alert but there is absolutely no indication that they are mobilizing in a war like mode against us as yet. “


Navy chief spoke up, “That's not entirely correct. We downed one of there nuclear submarines just yesterday along with another that was taken down by Americans. Two other attack submarines are still there just outside our waters. We're tracking one but other is hiding somewhere.”


DM's ears perked up, “Yes, I've been wondering about this too. What do we make up of American involvement in this ? And what about that incident in Spartly Islands. Any further news on that ?”


“Well, except for TV clips from Malaysian channels, we don't have any information on that. Those Chinese personnel were found drifting hundreds of Kms from their base. From whatever we could make of it, it's 100% sure that it was a well planned spec-ops mission. Very few countries except can pull it off there. US of course is one.
As far as that submarine incident is concerned, we're not entirely sure of their motives even now. In my opinion, they were trying to play cop when Chinese submarine decided to act Paki forcing Americans to sink it. But as I said before, it's just an educated guess.”

DM nodded in approval,”Your guess is quite accurate. I had received a call from their Secretary Of Defence just a few minutes before this meeting started. He made an offer of mediating between us and Chinese just to stop the war before it turns worse.”

Suddenly perked up, Angad asked, “What did you say ?”

“Haven't promised anything yet. They also said two of their aircraft carrier groups are steaming full speed in to South China sea and Japan, Chinese also know this.”


Angad smiled, “I don't think that Chinese will swallow it so easily.”

DM looked him in the eye, “We're not going to let that attack go unpunished either.”

War Scenario. Part XXXIX

Previous Part


1150 Hours
CIA Office
Washington DC, USA



Last few days had been really hard on the CIA chief. His eyes, now encircled by dark circles showed that the man had not been able to catch up on sleep for quite some time. He was dragging his feet through the corridors with slumped shoulders and lost expression. The situation for rest of CIA personnel in the office was made worse by his increasingly irritable temper. His subordinates wanted him to doze off for a few hours and get some much needed sleep, both for his sake as well as their own. But nobody was willing to make the suggestion to his face, not at this time when yellow matter had not only hit the fan but also got splashed the people passing by the windows.

Those normally predictable Indians had proved to be really unpredictable when they needed to behave the most. Not only they had nuked the hell out of one of the most vital US “allies” in South Asia, but had also picked up a fight with US's biggest trading partner. The stock markets had tanked all over the world while the fuel prices had sky rocketed to $ 220 a barrel within two days. Governments in numerous countries had been forced to shut down trading in stock markets after stock worth hundreds of billions had evaporated in a matter of hours. Already, self-styled analysts and experts were shouting themselves hoarse claiming all kinds of consequences, ranging from alien intervention to a nuclear world war. Some of the more colourful “experts” were playing on the much hyped date of 21/12/2012 predicting end of the world. The result was a wave of mass panic and hysteria spreading all over the world which the governments had been unable to subdue. Riots had broken out in many cities causing even more panic and destruction.
Cosby was sitting on his chair staring at the documents containing all the details while a small army of agents and analysts ran around bringing even bigger piles of papers to him and other senior officials in the room. He felt drowsy staring at the sheets and felt himself drifting towards sleep. Even the strongest coffee was proving useless in keeping him awake and he inched closer and closer towards blessed oblivion, even if it was for a few minutes. His trance was very rudely broken by the 3 star Admiral who had been shouting on phone earlier.
“Hey Cosby! Cosby, wake up buddy. We are officially in deep shit now.” Admiral Adams bellowed while trying to shake the dozing spook awake.

In spite of his best efforts to sound alert and in control, Cosby could only manage a sniffled yawn, “Uh ..what ?”

Admiral jumped up and down excitedly “Have you been sleeping all this while now ? Those damned Chinese have downed a Taiwanese F-16 over Taiwan Strait !”

All the traces of sleep immediately vanished from Cosby's eyes. “What the hell are you talking about Admiral ? Why'd Chinese do such a thing ? “

Admas just exploded, “You are the intelligence guy here Cosby. You figure it out. We had no information when Pakistanis launched that nuke on India. None when they tried to launch another one and absolutely no clue when Indians took the decision of nuking the cursed place off the world map. Do we run the biggest and most advanced intelligence setup in the world or what ? Now one of my guys in Taiwan phones and tells me that Chinese have picked up a fight with Taiwanese, and you ask me such questions ! ”

Cosby rubbed his head tiredly and groaned pitifully, “Fuc* ! “

Admiral Adams looked at the exhausted man sympathetically, but there was too much sh1t going on for him to be nice, “ First Indians destroyed Pakistan, now Chinese are about to do the same thing with Taiwan. At this rate, we'll have no allies left in that part of the world.”

This time, a 2 star Army General, General Matthews spoke up, “He is right Cosby. We got to do something. Losing the service of those terrorist Pakis is one thing, but loss of Taiwan will really screw things up for us in that part of the world. We have to have Taiwan intact and on our side.

Adams nodded vigorously and added, “If Taiwan is lost, we can say goodbye to all the oil in Spartly Islands. Not to mention what it's going to cost us when people all over the world see us humiliated by loss of our allies while we keep twiddling our thumbs.”

Cosby stared at the pile of papers in front of him while speaking, “True. First Taiwan, then South Korea, then Japan. these greedy Chinese will never stop. “

Adams lit a cigar and puffed on it, “For Chinese, it was Tibet first. We did nothing then either.”

Cosby retorted “Neither did Indians, who had most to lose. After Tibetans of course.”

Matthews who had been pacing the room impatiently interrupted, “Gentlemen, this is no time to discuss history. The point is, the fight between India and China needs to be broken off before it gets too serious. Much before Chinese use it as an excuse to solve their Taiwanese problem once and for all. That means right now. Every single second counts.”

Adams nodded, “You are right General. But how do we do it ? I have only two Carrier Battle Group (CBG) in near area. One is on the eastern coast of Japan which was supposed to conduct the joint exercises with Japanese. The second is in Guam for resupply and repairs. We can't intimidate either China or India with what we have.“

Cosby who had been silent all this while gave no indication that he heard anything that the two men had been discussing. He picked up a sheaf of papers and waved it , “These intelligence reports say that a full scale rebellion has broken out in Tibet and Xinjiang.”

Matthews waved away the information dismissively, “That's not important right now. Chinese always had that problem “

Adams disagreed at once, “ We need to utilize whatever we can General. Have you gone through the reports yet ? Tibetans claim that they've blown up a nuclear missile base.”

Cosby interrupted, “It's just not their claim Admiral. We know for sure that they are telling the truth. But the reprisals by Chinese have been very brutal. PLA has wiped out dozens of villages for revenge, Surviving Tibetan rebels are fighting with all they have, but they wouldn't last much long unless they get more help.

Meanwhile in Xinjiang, Uighur muslims have declared a war on Chinese Han settlers. Approximately 8 hours ago, a mob of Uighurs laid siege to a Han settlement, burnt down dozens of houses and took nearly 200 Hans hostage. Not even one survived when the rescue operation launched by Chinese blew up. Whole province is on fire as Uighurs are fighting pitched battles with Chinese military as well as civilians.
Why not use this to our advantage ? “

War Scenario. Part XXXVIII

Previous Part

1100 Hours
Daxmung Village
110 km North-East of Lhasa
Tibet

The 5 truck convoy flanked by 3 APCs thundered in to the village square throwing the normally tranquil village of Daxmung in to a tizzy. Although the village folks were no strangers to PLA and it's tactics of intimidation, rumours of violence in surrounding areas made them more nervous then usual. It was no surprise then, that all the people stopped whatever they were doing and shut themselves inside their homes. A gruff looking Chinese major poked his head out of hatch of one of the APCs and shouted on a loud speaker, “ All men of this village above 18 years are ordered to come out to the square and answer our questions. We just want some information. No one will be harmed if you cooperate with us.”

He repeated the order 3-4 times while driving through the lanes, getting angrier with each passing moment as no body even dared to peep out. Finally fed up with repeating himself he warned, “All the men are ordered to come outside to village square within 30 seconds, other wise I'll level down this whole damned village with artillery with each one of you idiots inside.”
At his signal, soldiers dismounted from trucks and rest of the APCs and formed a cordon around the houses. With their rifle butts, they pounded doors and windows, shouting obscenities at the villagers hiding inside.

There were some hints of activity inside the houses as sounds of hushed whispers and stifled sobs started to come out of the besieged homes. A single old man clutching a stick for support opened door of one of the houses and nervously walked out. A younger man followed him out immediately and tried to drag him back, but the older man firmly pushed him away.
Seeing the two men, Chinese Major snorted derisively, “That's it ! That's the total number of men in this fuc**** village ? Come out of your holes you stinking rats and answer my questions. Otherwise you all will die.”

The two Tibetan villagers had reached within a few feet of the APC and both stood there nervously shuffling on their feet. Slowly doors of some other houses opened and more men shuffled fearfully out of their housed and formed a huddle around the two men. PLA major scanned the motley group and took out a poster and threw it on the ground, motioning the villagers to pick it up. The poster contained sketches of four Tibetan men. The villagers picked up the poster and passed it around amongst themselves with each one staring at the sketched faces with a fearful confusion.

“ Have you ever seen any of the men in these poster. “?, he asked, nonchalantly while lighting a cigarette.

The villagers exchanged confused glances amongst themselves and most of them shook their heads.

“ Half of you are shaking heads while the rest are standing like statues ? Do you know these men or not ? Answer me .”

The young man who had first come out along with an older one stepped forward and said timidly, “We have never seen these men before. Neither of us know their identity.”

The major stared at the young man for a few seconds and then nodded, “ I see. Who are you ?”

“My name is Dechen” pointing to the old man standing a few steps besides him he said, “and I'm son of the village's Headman. We know every single person in this village and people who pass through. I am absolutely sure that neither of these men have never even set foot here.”

All of a sudden, the PLA major grew livid and spat out his cigarette. Grabbing Dechen by collar of his tunic he first shook him and then threw him aside. Using all of his lung power he shouted, “Don't lie to me you ******** I know for certain that these men were given food and shelter in this village. Just tell me who helped them and where did they go afterward and each one of us will go home happy. Lie to me and your whole miserable village will be burnt to ashes.” Grabbing another man by his neck he shouted again, “ Are you going to tell me the truth or not.”

The scared villager was shaking uncontrollably and could nothing apart from babbling for mercy. Showing a disgusted expression the major pushed him away and faced the huddled villagers. “I'm giving you one final chance to clear your names and save your village from charges of treason and waging war against glorious republic of China. You tell me who these men are and I'll leave you alone. You'll even be rewarded for your service to the Party. Lie and each single one of you, including your women and children will be shot and burnt while still alive. Make your choice.”

Terrified by the warning, the men hurled themselves at the feet of PLA major begging for mercy and claiming innocence. Grimacing, he kicked one of the men and shouted, “Just tell me where are these men ?”

Getting no answer except for claims of innocence he kicked some more men prostrating at his feet and spat in disgust. “Very well. I gave you filthy pigs a chance and you blew it. Now suffer for your insolence.”

Grabbing an AK-56 rifle from a soldier standing near by, he switched it on to full auto and emptied the magazine in to the crowd of villagers in front of him. A number of men who were sitting or standing on the ground collapsed after getting shot. Hearing deadly chatter of the gun, some of the women from surrounding houses who had been watching the carnage from inside rushed out of their houses wailing and crying for mercy. PLA major calmly changed the empty magazine with a full one and took aim at the group of women. Some of the women froze in their steps while others rushed on regardless of the pointed barrel. Glancing at his soldiers with slight amusement in his eyes, he shot the running women then fired rest of the bullets on remaining men.

Handing back the still smoking gun, he lit another cigarette and watched the carnage he had just caused with cold eyes. Dozens of bodies lay bloodied and twitching in the small village square. People who escaped being shot, lay down wailing with fear and sorrow. Spitting out his half smoked cigarette, he crushed it under his boots and signaled his soldiers to get back in their vehicles. Climbing in to his APC, he surveyed the broken village once more and closed the hatch before the convoy started moving away.

War Scenario. Part XXXVI

Previous Part

0810 Hours
Somewhere South of Malaysia
Indian Ocean


The Indian Akula was lurking in the relatively shallow waters of Indian Ocean on an routine patrol when the hostilities commenced all of a sudden. Till then, it's work had mainly consisted of avoiding merchant ships and gathering intelligence on the odd military vessel that came within it's range. But the sudden escalation had turned a routine intelligence gathering patrol in to a combat patrol. Right now the newest submarine of the Indian naval fleet was drifting along at speed of 7 knots just outside territorial waters of Malaysia
It's crew was on highest alert and complete silence had been enforced on deck. That meant everything that could cause any kind of noise that included music players, loud conversations were banned. Sonar crew was bent over their respective consoles intently analyzing every contact that showed up on their passive sonar. Previously most of their contacts had been noisy merchant vessels and fishing trawlers of all shapes and sizes. Some of the crewmen claimed that they could hear them from miles away even without any gadget. Presence of so many vessels provided them some cover to hide their own noise. But it also worked for the enemy in similar way. Correctly detecting and identifying targets of interest in such conditions was a herculean task even with the ultra-modern electronic gear on board. But the news of nuclear conflict in the sub-continent had changed the conditions drastically. Most of the shipping companies plying in this area had stopped all their activities in this area pending further improvements in the security situation. A few small fishing trawlers were still active, but most of the cover offered by big vessels was gone. As with normal conditions, the advantage or disadvantage of the situation affected both sides equally.

Although the sea floor had been mapped extensively by commercial as well as military organizations, no submarine crew took the task of navigating those waters lightly. The sea is shallow and sea bed highly uneven. As if that was not enough, the sea bed is littered with wrecks of countless ships making job of navigators hairy at best of the times. In a nutshell, such were the conditions under which the Indian submarine was guarding India against another sneak attack by Chinese


Captain of Akula was monitoring all the reports being fed in to his console without pause for hours. He leaned away from his console and stretched a little in order to drive away the cramps that were beginning to set in. Addressing his sonar man he remarked, “The sea is pretty quite now, isn't it ?

Sonar man replied, “Indeed it is. It's a fish market otherwise. No pun intended.”

“Still, don't let your guard down. I'm sure that we are about to see some action very soon.”

As if on cue, one of the sonar crew members announced, “Sir, we have 3 faint contacts. One at bearing two-three-zero and other two at two-five-five. Approximate distance 39000 m and 38000 m respectively”

All signs of relaxation disappeared from the crew to be replaced by a renewed sense of urgency. Captain took a look at his console where the output from the submarines passive sonar was being fed. According to the map, the contacts were moving in from behind a small inhabited island .

“What's their speed ?”

Calculating exact speed and bearing of targets at such distances has always been quite difficult. Sonar man paused for a while before answering, “Approximately 17 knots each sir.”

Even the most modern ships are practically deaf when traveling at speeds excess of 15 knots. At such speed, sound of water rushing by overpowers every other sound that might be captured by sonar under lower speeds. Therefore while traveling, submarines dash at high speed and drift at lower speed alternately. By lowering their speed they can take stock of their surroundings for any threats, then rush at high speed before slowing down again. Thereby repeating the process again and again, they can travel with a reasonable amount of situational awareness..
Captain stood up , “Good. This means that they most likely haven't detected us yet. Turn to bearing two-four-zero and make speed 4 knots.”

Helmsman acknowledged the order at once, “Bearing two-four-zero, speed 4 knots, aye.”

The silent submarine slowed down to near drifting speeds as it turned to face the incoming vessels. Inside, it's highly trained crew strained to capture any clue that could help them identify the possible new threats. Every class of sea vessel has it's distinctive sound when it's traveling. Even different vessels belonging to the exact same class and category can be identified by their acoustic signatures that are almost always unique. Navies spend enormous amount of effort and money to gather such data about their opponents. Naval vessels often stalk enemy ships and submarines for days to correctly gather such data which is then analyzed and spread in to rest of the fleet to make identification of enemy vessels easier. Once a ship has such previously collected data in it's computers, all it has to do is to compare the acoustic signature of a suspected target against the database it carries for an accurate identification.

After a few minutes sonarman announced, “Sir, we have a positive identification on all three targets. The one on two-three-zero is Chinese SSN Type-093, serial G13. On two-five-five , we have one Type-093, serial G-18 and a Type-094 serial L21 approximately 800m behind it. Designating the targets as Bandit 1, Bandit 2 and Bandit 3.”

A worried expression clouded faces of everybody present in the bridge. Type-093 were the latest Chinese nuclear attack submarines designed and manufactured with significant help from Russia. Although Akula was more than a match in one-on-one combat, presence of two made the conditions slightly more difficult. But thing that really gave everybody the goose bumps was presence of Type-094 SSBN. The submarine which first entered service in middle to late 2000s was capable of carrying 16 JL1 SLBMs with an approximate range of 2500 KM. It would've been a grave threat if that submarine could come within launch range of any major Indian city or even Naval base at Andaman.


As of now, the lone Indian Akula was the only Indian asset that could intercept the speeding Chinese. All other ships including sole operational aircraft carrier Virat were too far away to help. If the Chinese were to launch any SLBM, only the Akula could stop them for now.

Captain ordered his helmsman to come near the surface and send out warnings to rest of the fleet.
Once the message containing bearing and number of enemy submarines was sent captain ordered the speed to be reduced to zero and lay still gathering all the intelligence they could before making any move. Validity of his decision was soon proved when his sonarman announced presence of another Chinese Type 093 submarine at bearing two-one-zero. It was traveling at lower speed and thus comparatively quieter . It was detected as it increased speed, most likely to keep up with rest of the fleet. As soon as he had finished announcing the presence of fourth submarine, sonar man announced again, “Sir, all of the enemy submarines have increased their speeds to 24 knots.”

The way they were traveling, the Type-094 would've been close enough to launch it's missiles at A&N islands in little over 1 hour and on to Indian mainland in another 4. Time was of the essence and the sudden increase in speed as they traveled towards Indian coast suggested that they meant to do exactly that. Indians would lack any other choice except to intercept and destroy the Chinese submarines, except for the fact that there were not enough Indian assets in the area.
While he was still contemplating his tactics his communications officer handed him over a paper containing the latest directives received from HQ. It was brief and self-explanatory as most military communication is supposed to be. He was ordered to intercept and destroy enemy submarines before they could launch their missiles. No help was coming for at least 4 hours. He stared at the paper slip was a few seconds. Even if any ship or plane could come to help, Chinese submarines would've launched their missiles and exited from the area.

His second in command, a Lieutenant Commander stood by expectantly waiting for orders. Captain put the paper slip away and took a deep breath before addressing the crew, “All right men. We have our orders to intercept and destroy the incoming Chinese submarines before they can launch any of their missiles. Some of our ships and planes are coming to help but it'll take some time. If the Chinese decide to launch before help arrives, we are all that stand between another nuclear attack on our nation. I want all of you to be completely alert and on your toes. That's all for now. Man all battle stations.”


As ordered previously, Indian Akula was lying completely still in water as the Chinese submarines came closer and closer still completely oblivious to the enemy's presence. Indian crew watched nervously on the display screen as the four blips denoting the four Chinese submarines passed by their position one by one within minutes of each other. 2nd in command commented,” They are not slowing down at all.”

Captain answered, “ It's their slowing down that should worry us. They can't fire while traveling so fast. ” He waited for a few minutes for Chinese to pass and then turning to his helms man he ordered, “Helm, make speed 12 knots. Match bearings with Bandit 3.”
The Indian submarine slowly engaged gears and started started following it's still oblivious quarry.
He didn't want to increase speed by too much for two reasons. First, he wanted to be 100% sure of the enemy's position. Gaining too much speed would've put a penalty on his situational awareness. Second, he wanted to be as sure as possible of not giving away his location to any other enemy submarine that might be following the ones in front of him. But very soon, the Bandits reached near the range limit at which they could be accurately tracked and targeted by Akula forcing it to increase it's own speed.
But unlike the racing Chinese who were dashing like there was no tomorrow, Indians took pauses between their speed bursts to slow down and listen before rushing again.
It was in between such pauses that they detected the Bandit 3 and 4 slowing down while 1 and 2 still raced ahead. With mounting anxiety Indians noted that the Bandit 3 was very near the range of launching it's missile on some of the major coastal Indian cities. Keeping their own speed at a comparative lower figure of 8 knots,, Indian crewed listened intently to any sign of missile launch preparation by Chinese. Bandit 3 was still traveling too fast too launch it's own missiles, so they waited matching their own speed to that of Bandit 3. One immediate loss of this approach made itself visible soon enough. Bandit 1 and 2 soon went out of range of their tracking sonar and torpedoes. But it also evened out the odds somewhat, leaving Akula with only two enemies to take care of instead of four.

Lt. Cmd wondered aloud, “Why the hell those escorts raced away from the SSBN ? Shouldn't they be guarding it ?”

“They probably want to sanitize the area first or plain old diversionary tactics only. One of our anti-sub planes is patrolling that area I hope our guys get a fix on them soon enough.“ navigating officer guessed.


The chase went on for a few minutes more after which both Bandit 3 started to slow down and lowered it's speed to 5 knots. At the same time it gradually started decreasing it's depth even more slowly. Bandit 4 too slowed down after gaining getting nearly a KM on Bandit 4 and deployed it's towed array sonar. This forced Akula to reduce it's speed further to avoid any chance of getting detected on the much sensitive towed sonar array.

“I have a really bad feeling about this.” Captain remarked .


“So do I. I don't like this one bit.” Lt. Cmd replied.

War Scenario. Part XXXV

Previous Part

0615 Hours
2 November 2012
Delhi Class Destroyer
Arabian Sea


In spite of near complete destruction of Pakistani's military, Indian military personnel were not relaxing. One of venerable Delhi class destroyers was patrolling the Arabian Sea, south of Gwadar, Pakistan which had been burnt to ashes only a few hours before. A group of technicians and operators on board the ship's bridge was bent over their consoles watching every thing with full concentration.

Sonar operator announced, “We have an underwater contact at grid sector C221, around 31 Km from our current location.”

“Do we have any assets in that area ?” Captain asked.

“Negative sir. A Shark is on a combat patrol 50 KM south, but we have no submarines operating so close to Pakistani coast at this time.”

“ Any identification of submarine?”

“Not really. Parts of our under-water sensor array have been damaged due to the nuclear explosions. We don't have a 100% fix.”

“Looks like we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Turning to his communications officer he ordered, “ Designate the suspected contact as Bandit 1. Launch Sea King immediately “
To navigation officer, “Make speed 10 knots and bearing on an intercept with the bandit.”

A few minutes later comms officer reported ,“Sir, Sea King from Delhi has begun dropping passive sonobuoys .”

“Any progress ? “ Commander asked .

“Not yet.”

Commander nodded and waited silently. There was no escape for Bandit 1 unless Indians made some mistake or if it was really lucky. He didn't believe in luck and he was not making any mistakes, not in such a situation for sure. He didn't have to wait long. Within 5 minutes, report of the contact came in via the communications officer, “ Sea King has made the contact sir. It's a Chinese Type-09 nuclear attack submarine. At it's present speed of 11 Knots, it'll enter our waters in less than 2 hours.”

“Shit!” WSO exclaimed, “These subs can carry nuclear tipped SLCMs.”

“In current situation, we are assuming that it is carrying nuke missiles. There is no time left to play games .” Turning to his navigator he asked, “ How far is Bandit one from our current location. ?”

“We'll intercept on it's estimated path in 50 minutes.”

“Good. Keep our current course and instruct Sea King to keep following it. .”

As soon as he finished the sentence, slightly panicked voice of sonar operator broke in,”Sir, Bandit 1 is coming up to a possible SLCM launch depth.”

WSO announced after a few seconds, “Sea King has a firing solution on Bandit 1.”

Although Sea King carried two A244 torpedos, their size and impact was much too small as compared to much bigger ones carried by the ships and submarines. But it was the only choice that Indians had at that moment as both of the bigger vessels, Delhi destroyer and Akula submarine were too far away.
Captain weighed his options. He could choose to wait for the Delhi destroyer for it's bigger and longer ranged torpedoes and depth charges and risk the Chinese submarine launching it's missiles and running away before the ship could even come within firing range. Or he could order the Sea King to drop it's much smaller torpedoes right now. Although the smaller torpedoes were not an ideal weapon to sink the Chinese submarine, he didn't have the minutes to wait for a sure-shot kill.
“Order Sea King to launch it's torpedoes right now.”

Sonar operator confirmed the two torpedoes hitting water. They acquired their target within seconds and started homing in by themselves. Chinese didn't miss the sound of torpedoes hitting the water and immediately started taking evasive maneuvers. The submarine immediately put itself in to a deep dive angle on full throttle and launched decoys. This way it was successful in diverting one of the A244, but the other one found it's mark and hit it's target near propeller on it's port side. The explosion tore a hole in to the submarine's hull and damaged the propeller shaft assembly beyond repairs. There was also some damage to one of it's bigger ballast tanks which was just emptied a few moment ago as the submarine was coming near to surface. As the water started to seep in, the submarine started listing dangerously to it's side owing to imbalance in weight. It's Chinese crew was forced to seal off most of it's rear area and empty rest of the ballast tanks. The submarine came to the surface a minute later still listing slightly to it's port side and lay still. Although it was not completely destroyed, the fact that it was tilted on it's side ensured that it could not launch any of it's missiles.

Sea King hovered in a tight circle with it's crew keeping a close eye on any movement while waiting for it's mother ship to come close enough to launch a boarding party.

On board the destroyer, a round of congratulations and pats on the backs was in progress when the sonar operator nearly jumped out of his seat, “ I think I just heard gun shots from insides of the submarine! “

Although everybody in the bridge seemed bewildered, Captain seemed looked amused, “Gun shots inside the submarine ? Are you really sure ?”

“It surely sounded like gunshots to me.” Sonar operator replied looking slightly embarrassed.

“Hmm. We can't rule out anything at this time anyway. Turning to his comms officer he ordered, “ Try contacting the submarine before we try boarding it. ”

The comms officer had been trying everything but had no luck getting any response from the Chinese. He replied, “We are getting no response sir. It's like either they are not answering deliberately or their communication gear is damaged.”

“Very well. Looks like we'll have to board the submarine. Are our men ready for it ?”

His 2nd in command replied, “A ten man team is getting ready as we speak. They'll be ready to go in 5 minutes.”

Captain nodded approvingly, “Good. Cut open hatches of the submarine if you have to. But do it quick. There is no time for us to waste.”


A heavily armed team of 10 men from the ship boarded two boats and climbed atop the tilted submarine, while the destroyer and it's Sea King kept watch. They banged on the hatch shouting at the Chinese inside to open it. Still getting no response, they started cutting open an entrance using blow torches. They had just started the process when the latch was unlocked from the inside and a motley group of Chinese sailors peeked out cautiously. One by one they climbed out with their hands raised and were immediately taken in to custody. No man from either side knew any common language. Although they tried communicating by sign language, the idea was soon dropped and the Chinese were quickly bundled off to the destroyer. Indian team then decided to take chances and entered the submarine. In spite of the unexpectedly easy entry, they were not expecting a real cake walk

Leaving 2 men to guard the exit, rest of the team started advancing towards the bridge. The fact that the already cramped submarine was was tilting to an angle made their advance a bit more complicated. Nevertheless they kept advancing and reached the bridge without facing any opposition. There they were greeted by the sullen faces of a few Chinese seamen. Except for 2 officers carrying handguns, rest of the crew was unarmed and they all surrendered without much persuasion.
One of the officers knew a little English and he tried talking with Indians. Using gestures and some broken English, he took them to the living quarters where a large group of Chinese sailors was gathered around the Captain's cabin chattering excitedly. On seeing one of their officers guiding the armed Indian party up to the door, they fell quiet and spread around the door.

Leader of Indian party, Chief Petty Officer Lakshman faced the Chinese officer and asked for reason behind the spectacle. Chinese officer in turn pointed towards the door and said, “Captain ! Our captain inside.”

Lakshman first looked at his team mates then asked, “Ask him to open the door. He will be treated honourably and fairly.”

Chinese shook his head vehemently, “We have Pakistani. Pakistani has Captain inside. We need help to save Captain.”

Somebody from the Indian team exclaimed, “What the hell is he talking about ! He has Pakistanis on board ? For what, cooking pork ?”

“Keep quiet and let me try to understand the situation.” Lakshman snapped and turned to Chinese officer again, but Chinese were unable to explain anything more beyond vague gestures.

Getting frustrated with the logjam, Lakshman banged on the door and shouted in Hindi. He was startled by somebody shouting from inside in same language, “Who the fu** is it now ?”

Lakshman shouted back, “We are from Indian navy and this submarine along with all it's crew is under our control now. Open the door and come outside with your hands up in air. You will not be harmed.”

The man inside the room laughed ironically, “I could've never expected to be in a situation like this even in my wildest dreams.” He snorted again and shouted with renewed anger, “Their damned captain is still alive. Tell all these Chinese ******** to fu** off otherwise I'll snap his neck like a chicken. And I need medical attention for General.”

Indian team outside shared quizzical glances. This was way beyond strange even for them. Feeling slightly bewildered Lakshman replied, ““What General and who are you? “

Man inside the cabin laughed again, “You still don't know ? Well, that doesn't matter. Get these idiots off the boat and send an unarmed medic inside right now.”

“We have Chinese crew of this submarine under control. We assure you of your safety and full medical attention. Just open the door and let us in.”

“You'll first get these Chinese out of my eyesight and then send a medic inside as I said earlier.”

Lakshman was getting irritated, “Do you realise that you are in no condition to demand anything ? This submarine is leaking and will sink in a few hours. You can stay locked inside and first watch your General die then drown with him to your watery grave. Or open the door like a reasonable person and let us help you.”

“I don't care about dying, friend. But I have something that will prove very valuable to you. If I die, the information dies with me. Now you decide if the information that I carry on me is valuable enough for you or not.“

Lakshman sighed resignedly and gestured his men to start rounding up the Chinese “Alright. I'll get them out of submarine right now. As soon as the last Chinese is out, you'll open the door and let us in.”

“Fair enough. I'm waiting.”


But the Chinese didn't oblige easily. As soon as Indians started escorting them out, the Chinese sailors started shouting and refused to budge. Neither side could understand what other was saying and it was only after the Indians threatened to gun down some of more unruly members that the Chinese started to file out one by one with angry expressions on their faces.

Indian boarding party received a fairly big surprise when they entered the Captain's cabin. Inside they found a Pakistani army officer with a gun pointed at a terrified and bound Chinese submarine captain. Another Chinese officer in PLA General's uniform lay dead on the floor with 3 bullet wounds while a Paki army officer, who was at once identified as General Asgar himself was spread unconscious on a table. He too had been shot once through chest. The Paki officer was unarmed and everybody taken in to custody. Once at the ship, interrogation started immediately. The captured Paki officer identified himself as Lt. Zia, a trusted aide of General Asgar. The story he told his interrogators was nothing like anybody expected.

According to him, General Asgar had ordered the launch of first nuclear missile as soon as the Chinese had informed him of the arsenal's arrival. By this, he had expected to shift the blame to General Beg and force him to step down under the threat of similar nuclear strikes on Pakistan as well as India. What he hadn't counted upon was the duplicity of Chinese. Within minutes of the first launch, Pakis had intercepted a communication between General Mao Hu and a senior CPC member in China. CPC member was quoted as ordering General Hu to fight to the last Paki. When General Asgar confronted General Hu with the intercept, the Chinese at once kidnapped Asgar and moved him and his aide to the submarine berthed at Omara. Loyalties of numerous Paki army officers had been bought earlier without anybody being wiser and Chinese faced no opposition while they took a Pakistani general hostage inside his own country. They had then ordered the launch of remaining missiles and planned to escape under the confusion. But the swift retaliatory strikes by India had put a spanner to their plans. Additionally their submarine took some damage by the nuclear attack at Omara.
With most of their plan screwed up, Chinese had no further use left for Asgar and meant to execute him as soon as possible. But Mao and Asgar somehow overpowered their captors and had managed to shut themselves inside the cabin in same condition as the Indians had found them. To strengthen his claim, Rashid provided Indians with a memory card containing the captured communication between General Hu and his senior in CPC.

War Scenario. Part XXXIV

Previous Part

0409 Hours
2 November 2010
Falcon 1 AWACS
Skies near Pakistan's southern coast



News of successful interception of M11 had just came in and the atmosphere of anxious gloom disappeared. MC allowed himself a wry smile and said a silent prayer in thanks. Their work was not yet over though. They were still monitoring anything that could be of interest. The silence was broken by voice of radar operator, “Sir, we are detecting multiple missile launches from the sea.”

“That must be our boomer. “ MC answered excitedly. “How many launches ?”

“Still counting, 7,8,9,10.” A white faced operator turned towards MC, “My god ! They've launched almost everything they had. Weren't they carrying nukes ?”

MC glanced at the young technician and answered, “I don't know. That's above my pay grade.”

“Pay grade or not. Even a kid knows that at least half of those missiles were nuke tipped.” technician thought silently.

“How much time left to impact ?” MC asked.

“Still tracking their trajectory sir. Can't say anything right now.” came the reply.

MC nodded, “Alright. Only nukes serve these Paki buggers right.” then thought to himself, “Only 6-8 nukes wouldn't be enough.”

He need not have worried. An armada of ballistic missiles was pouring down on various other Paki targets from Indian mainland. Unfortunately for Pakis, they didn't have any kind of defense against this kind of attack.

0410 to 0600 Hours
Terrorist Islamic Mullahcracy Of Pakistan


First to go was the Omara naval base as it was the nearest. A Plutonium based 10 KT warhead exploded 300 m above ground and every structure that existed turned to ashes within a moment. Two Agosta submarines which were moored on the docks were thrown meters away like toys by the shock wave. The heat also vapourised a large quantity of sea water and a massive cloud of steam bellowed upwards. The crumpled submarines lay like broken toys on the newly dried sea bed before
water came rushing in and washed them ashore like soda cans. All the civilian vessels unfortunate to be near by disappeared like they never even existed.

Next to go was Gawadar port. Warhead and yield blast were identical, but effects on ground were much more spectacular. Dozens of ships, most of them Chinese just vanished after the heat from the blast turned them in to vapours. A major fuel and gas dump, most of which was underground caught fire and the ground was rocked by 100s of sympathetic explosions, wiping out every indication of the fact that something man made had ever existed there.

Effects were similar on Karachi port. The three strikes on 3 naval targets wiped out every naval asset and most of shore based defences of the Pakistani armed forces.

Next target was the the nuclear weapons storage base at Wah. Constructed almost entirely underground on a rocky soil, it was considered to be almost impregnable. This base like a few others was targeted by three 20 KT+ nukes. But instead of exploding in mid-air,the specially constructed warheads made out of depleted Uranium and Tungsten penetrated nearly 30 meters underground before exploding. The resulting explosions hit every structure over ground and under
ground with the force of Richter 10 earthquake. The structures that happened to be in the middle of two or three shock waves crumpled like sand castles burying everything and everybody under tons of concrete and rock. Even the structures hit by 2 or less waves were damaged irrevocably. Within seconds of the explosions, the ground exploded upwards like a volcano, throwing up enormous amounts of radioactive and molten dirt and rock hundreds of meters in to the air. Not a single person was left alive. The adjoining air force base was laid to waste by 2 short range Agni-I missiles

All the other major nuclear weapons storage sites in Dera Nawabshah, Sargodha, Gujranwala
Fatehjang, Masroor, Quetta and Kamra were taken out almost similarly by a mix of nuclear and conventional explosives.

Sui gas plant, target of numerous Baloch nationalist attacks was taken out by a Prithvi missile carrying a thermobaric warhead. All that was left of the multi-million dollar facility was a scrap heap of twisted metal.

Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore cantonments were devastated by a mix of nuclear and non-nuclear air-burst and underground explosions. Causalities in these 3 cantonments were near 70%, the rest being too seriously injured to be of any threat to anybody else or any of use to
Pakistan. Numerous terrorist camps near LoC in Muzzafrabad, Gilgit and other parts in Pak Occupied J&K were razed to ground using artillery and air strikes.

Paki Army men and Rangers deployed on Indo-Pak borders were one of very few survivors to escape from the armageddon. Even then, their efficiency was severely compromised by near complete destruction of their leadership, bases and supply lines. A large number of such survivors abandoned their positions or surrendered to Indian armed forces all over the border.

Civilian causalities although high by the numbers, were comparatively light considering the scale of attack. Even then, almost 10 lakhs (1 Million) civilians perished in the attack. Thousands more kept dying every minute after that for want of medical and material aid. Already weak civilian infrastructure of the country collapsed and riots and mass flights from populated centers started happening. All pleas of help from international community fell on deaf ears as aid agencies were wary of sending their workers in a nuclear war zone.

Four Chinese bases in PoK were not spared either. They were targeted first using Brahmos missiles to neutralize most of their anti-air assets then bombed to dust by repeated air strikes. Dazed survivors, many of them civilians had no where else to go as Indian SF had cut down all of the communication lines. With most of their defences destroyed and facing gruesome executions by mobs of locals thirsting for revenge, most of them either ran away in panic or chose to surrender to Indian army wherever they could find them.

War Scenario. Part XXXIII

0357 Hours
2 November 2012
70 Km South East of Gilgit, POK


Two figures atop the mountain waited anxiously for the planes to appear. Without turning his head from the sky that he was scanning with his binoculars one of the men said, “Wish the birds were here already.”
His companion who was manning the laser designator just grunted something unintelligible.
“What?” first man asked.
The reply was drowned by the ear splitting thunder as two Jaguars flying a few meters above the peaks passed overhead and dropped 2 Sudarshan laser guided bombs each on both mouths of the tunnel. Guided by the laser spot, all four bombs found their mark and exploded with loud noise. Every person near by felt the earth shaking as the powerful explosives tore through the tunnel entrances. The explosions caused a large volume of rocks and concrete used in the construction of tunnel to collapse on the tunnel entrance and blocked it completely from both sides.

“That's what I was talking about.” 1st man shouted exultantly.

“I can't hear you. I think I've gone deaf.” Other man replied rubbing his ears.

“You are a whining bitch.”

“Shut the fu** up or I shove this MANPADS up yours.”

“Hah! You heard THAT all right.”

“Shh..can you hear that ? “

Both men stopped their banter and looked upwards. A distant noise of jet engines was coming closer and closer. “Looks like PARA guys are here.”

Picking up his binocular he looked up to the sky and sure enough he could see the outline of a C -130J Hercules transporter getting closer every second. It was supplemented by small dark specks that grew larger and larger into parachutes.

Within minutes the area was swarming with Indian PARA soldiers. Except 3 soldiers who received injuries while landing on the rough terrain, everybody else landed safely. The soldiers rapidly converged on both sides of the tunnel and took positions. Leader of the PARAS, a veteran Lt. Colonel Megh Singh contacted the Stalkers on radio, “Stalker Alpha, Jumper 1 and Jumper 2 are in position. What's the status of that bridge. We don't want any Chinese arriving with reinforcements before we are finished with the ones inside the tunnel.”

“Jumper 1, the bridge has been destroyed and all Chinese personnel within a 2 KM radius neutralized.”

“Thanks for the help Stalkers.” Lt. Colonel Megh replied and turned to his soldiers. “All right men, time for action.”




0357 Hours
Missile Defence Force HQ
Mumbai

Inside the underground bomb proof bunker, Brigadier Rajinder Singh was staring at the long range radar console. Warning of an impending missile strike had came in just seconds ago jolting everybody in to action. Not that they had been slouching earlier, but the sound of klaxons always has some strange effects on people who hear it.

“How much time ?”

“370 seconds before it becomes terminal. Rakshak 1 ready by for launch, Rakshak 2 in 10 seconds” one technician on deputation from DRDO replied.

“You sure there are no other bogies ?”

“Yes sir.”

On the screen they watched as the Pakistani M11 came closer, waiting anxiously for it to come within the kill-zone. They did not had to wait long. Within seconds a beeping sound let every body know of the fact. “Launch Rakshak 1.” Brig Rajinder Singh ordered with a calm voice that belied what he was feeling inside. He started a countdown on a timer and ordered, “Launch Rakshak 2 on the 0 count.”
He again went on to staring at the radar screen as one small blip of Rakshak 1, a PAD missile rose from it's launcher and started it's journey to intercept the enemy missile. 5 seconds later, another blip announced the launch of Rakshak 2. Seconds seemed like hours as the two blips from Indian side gained altitude and converged on the M11.

“10 seconds to Rakshak 1 intercept, starting now. “one technician announced. “9 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 ,1.” then silence as the two blips merged.

“What ?” Brigadier Singh shouted anxiously then smiled as data was updated on the screen in front of him.

“We have a successful intercept by Rakshak 1. Rakshak 2 will self-destruct in 20 seconds.”
Brig Singh jumped up from his chair and congratulated the grinning DRDO techies by slapping them on their backs. “When all this is over, I'll throw a grand party for everybody in this bunker. What's your favourite booze son ? Anything you ask for.”

One of the technicians replied apologetically, “But I don't drink sir. “

“But you will when we have that party. Better start preparing now.” Brig. Singh laughed.

War Scenario. Part XXXII

0340 Hours
2 November 2010
6x Su30-MKI Flight
Skies over Gujarat sea coast




Mission Controller aboard IL-76 based AWACS took a look at the radar screen and picked up the mouth piece to contact Striker formation, “Striker team, this is Falcon 1. Guardian will join your formation over WayPoint 1 in 3 minutes.”

“Roger that Falcon 1.”Wing Commander Narendra, flight leader replied and craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the approaching 3 plane formation of Su30-MKIs tasked with providing air cover to his Striker formation. Right on time the Guardian flight took defensive positions around the other 6 Su30-MKIs that formed the Strikers.
He strained his eyes to catch a glimpse of the Air-to-Air missiles that the Guardians were carrying. In low light of the half moon, all he could see of the Guardians was flames of their engines. He wondered if they could see the much bigger payload his formation was carrying from that distance.

He took a deep breath as the Sukhois approached next waypoint. Voice of the MC came through radio once again, “Striker formation, increase your altitude to 8000m. Time for payback. Falcon 1 out.”

“Roger that Falcon 1”. WC Narendra replied and put his plane in to a steep climb. “Time for payback indeed.”








0345 Hours
2 November 2012
70 Km South East of Gilgit, POK



The two Chinese soldiers were standing guard over the unnamed mountain for two hours in to their shift. Their 2 comrades were asleep inside their cleverly camouflaged bunker. The two sentries were fully alert, backs erect and fingers on triggers as they stood guard . A HN-5 MANPADS, Chinese copy of Russian 9K32M Strela-2 lay in between them. Every 10 minutes, one of the sentries would put a small night-vision binocular to his eyes and scan his surroundings. Each time special attention was given to the railway line that passed through the foot-hills of their mountain and vanished in to a tunnel of another bigger one adjacent to theirs. The tunnel marked entrance of railway line in to the lush green valley just behind the massive mountain. Every 30 minutes, either one of them would pick up the small hand held radio placed on the ground and report the situation. Each time he received replies from 2 other watch positions placed similarly on adjacent mountain tops. This chore done, the soldier would walk back to his position and again start scanning the area below him.

Two dark figures lay as still as rocks behind them, watching and marking their every move. It was not the first time they were doing that. The 10 men team divided further in to smaller groups had been collecting intelligence for 2 weeks now. But tonight was different. They had been lying face down for an hour on the cold hard ground while a cold breeze chilled their backs. One of the figures whispered in to his small mouth piece, “Stalker alpha in position and ready. ” He received immediate replies from two other teams . He looked towards his team mate lying besides him and nodded. Then whispered softly, “It's a go.” Both men brought out silenced Tavors and took aim on heads of the two Chinese.
“On my mark, 3,2,1.” There were muffled popping noises as the two guns fired and slightly louder thumps as the two Chinese soldiers dropped unceremoniously to the ground. The two men broke cover and raced towards the bunker trying to be as quite as possible as possible. A small battery powered light illuminated the entrance. Their rifles drawn and eyes to the sights they tip-toed inside to find 2 Chinese fast asleep inside. Without pausing they put 2 shots in to each man's head.
This work done, both came out and contacted their mates on radio. The two remaining Chinese posts had been neutralized too. All that was left was report from 4th team which came in 3 minutes later , “Fireworks attached. “
“Acknowledged.”

Most difficult part of their mission complete, the men slightly relaxed and checked their watches. They still had 12 minutes till the delivery of airborne package. The man with Tavor took out one small gadget from his backpack and placed it on top of the bunker. It was just a small radio marker that could be used to identify the correct location. 2 of the other teams on other mountain tops did the same. In the meanwhile, his compatriot had placed a laser designator and started adjusting it's aim. His target was entrance of the tunnel. Other mouth of tunnel, the one facing the valley was marked similarly. 9 minutes still left and they waited.




Chapter 28

0347 Hours
2 November 2010
Phalcon AWACS
Skies near Pakistan's southern coast



Concrete intelligence regarding remaining 3 missiles had came in minutes after the meeting between GP, Angad and military representatives had ended. Two of the missiles had been detected at the Omara naval base. The base was approximately 230 Km west of Gwadar and had come up in the last 2 years with active but hushed Chinese assistance. 3rd one was further east on Chama, a small island less than 40 KM west of Karachi. The coordinates were hurriedly forwarded to the Air Force which had plans to neutralize any such target ready for years. Striker flight was the one chosen to destroy those missiles.


The six Sukhois engaged afterburners and put the planes in to a steep climb. The engines screaming and the airframe under quite a bit of stress, pilots waited till they reached 8000m and then leveled out. One by one they fired off their Air to Land version of Brahmos. The missiles dropped for a few meters then the booster kicked in propelling them to near Mach 3 speeds. Their work done, all Sukhois turned over and started racing back to their base. Personnel aboard the Phalcon watched as 6 blips started racing towards their targets, 2 missiles against each target .

“Missile launch ! We've just detected a missile launch from Chama island.” Excited voice of one of the radar operators broke the attention of technicians concentrating on six Brahmos flight.

MC rushed to the console and looked. “Damn it all to hell. They've launched that fuc***** missile ? Keep tracking it's trajectory. Send alerts to HQs immediately. Any idea where it's going ? Dilli ?”

“Looks like it's going south. If it's M11 then Mumbai is one prime target.” radar operator replied without taking his eyes off the console.

“What about missiles at Omara and how long till that satellite feed is available again?” MC asked getting more scared with every passing moment

“No sign of launch yet. Satellite will be in range in 60 seconds.”

“20 seconds to Brahmos impact.” radar operators tasked with tracking Brahmos flight announced.

MC bit his lips willing the Brahmos to destroy the Chinese missiles before they took off. His charm worked with the rest. The 4 Brahmos directed towards Omara base slammed in to their targets without any of the M11s launching. The ones directed towards Chama island destroyed the empty launcher killing only the personnel on ground. MC walked to his chair staring at the just launched M11 missile coordinates. “Assh*** launched it even before they knew we were coming. They were going to launch it no matter what !” He stared at the screen connected to satellite feed wishing the images via satellite could come sooner. He clutched his chair's arm rest tightly as the satellite link was established. Images at first blurry, then more focused and sharp started streaming in. He could see columns of smoke rising out of the Paki naval base, but couldn't confirm if the missiles were destroyed.
“Well ?” he inquired loudly.

“It's a kill. We've destroyed the remaining missiles.” was the reply.

“Only if we could destroy that bitch too. Shit !” he groaned.

War Scenario. Part XXXI

Previous Part

2335 Hours
Onboard AF1
Skies over Agra
India


DM reacted to the news same way Angad had. He immediately barged in to the PMs cabin where Dr. Rudra was busy examining him. Both men looked at him with identical alarmed expressions. Dr. Rudra opened his mouth to protest but kept quiet on seeing how flustered DM looked. He in turn sprinted to PM's bedside and poured out the whole scenario without pausing for breath.
“That can't be true.” PM said with wide eyes even before DM was finished.

“Wake up sir. It is true.” Turning to the doctor with an irritated expression he asked, “Have you given him a narcotic or something ? “

“No. Nothing yet.” Doctor replied in a surprised way.

Turning to Pm with even more irritation he said, “He has not given you anything ! Then why are you behaving like you've been drugged ? Wake up and smell the coffee. The nuclear threat just got worse. We have to take action !” He almost shouted out the last sentence.

“What do you want me to do ?” PM stammered.

DM took a deep breath and started speaking, “ You are the chief decision maker for us. DyPM should've been here to take your place if you are sick but he is in Japan on a tour. That means either you give our military permission to take out those nukes right now or give somebody else the authority till you get back on your feet. As of now, I'm the senior most person who can make the best informed decision. So let me decide what to do.”

PM kept staring blankly at his DM for a few seconds and started speaking when DM opened his mouth to say something, “Alright Shivendra. You do what you think is right. “

0030 Hours
2 November 2012
Arabian Sea


Captain Vikram Batra read the encrypted message again and took out a small laminated photograph of Lord Ram out of his pocket. Clutching the small photograph he closed his eyes and whispered a short prayer. Lord Ram had commanded his army across the sea to fight against an asur Ravan who had kidnapped Sita. Although Cap Batra will not be commanding any army across the sea, his work did have some passing semblance to what Lord Ram did. Like the ancient King, in a way he too will cross the sea and bring the righteous wrath upon the enemies. The thought made him smile and feel stupid at once. “This is no time to harbour any illusions of grandeur old man.” He said to himself and looked around the bridge of the ship he was entrusted to command. In a way, he could afford to feel grand. After all, he was only the first officer to command Arihant, India's first nuclear submarine. His chest again slightly puffed with pride on remembering that he was also going to be the first officer to lead India's first nuclear submarine in to combat.
“Back to work, back to work.” He commanded himself as he put the small photograph back in his shirt pocket.

Around him, the crew members were engaged in their work with full attention. Taking in a deep breath, he picked up the intercom and started a short address to his crew men, “Hello everybody, This is your Captain speaking. As you all know, our country has been attacked by nuclear weapons. Even as I speak, our enemies are preparing for more attacks on our country and our loved ones. Right now, it's not about anything like money or religion or politics, it's about our survival as a nation with a glorious history and a prosperous future. For this purpose, we've been ordered to destroy certain enemy targets. From this moment onwards, we are officially at war. I expect each one of you to remember your training and behave accordingly. That's about everything I have to say for now. Man all battle stations.”


He cut the intercom and ordered, “Make depth 100m.”

“Depth 100m, aye.” Navigation officer responded smartly.

“Helm turn One-zero-zero.”

“Turn One-zero-zero , aye.”

“Make speed 18 knots.”

“Speed 18 knots, aye.”

INS Arihant turned slowly and started it's journey towards Pakistani coast. It was only a matter of hours before it reached close enough to make it's name come true literally.

War Scenario. part XXX

Previous Part

2310 Hours
1 November 2012
Udyog Bhavan
Kolkata


“Are you fuc*** kidding me GP ? “ Angad never swore and bit his tongue as soon as he realised that he just did. “Sorry for that. But are you really sure about this ? “

“There is no doubt sir. Take a look at the pictures that I've sent you. I've marked everything of interest.” GP was unnaturally calm about the whole issue

“I'm looking at them right now. But have you confirmed it from our side too ?” Angad asked with ever increasing excitement.

“Checked, double checked and checked again sir. Do you want me to explain ? “

“Wait for a moment. Let me get some military people on the line. ” Angad replied hurriedly and went offline to arrange a video conference. He was done within five minutes slightly out of breath. “ You still there GP ? I've called for General Vaidya, Air Marshal Nirmal Jeet and Rear Admiral Kailash Nath They have those pictures too. Now start explaining.”

GP was ready, “The pictures marked 1 to 21 were taken by Israeli satellites over the span of last 3 weeks. The rest are ours. I'll begin with Israeli ones. Picture one is of a Chinese missile manufacturing plant in ShirChu, Jhiangsu province taken on 11th October. It's one of the main production centers of M9 and M11 missiles. On 2nd picture, take a close look on the area circled in red. You can see a small group of vehicles that look like container trucks except for their size and design of the cab. Next picture is a blow up of these vehicles. Here you can estimate the length of these trucks which comes out to be nearly 14 m, much longer than any container truck in use anywhere.
Next picture in the series of is of coastal docks in Tiajin, a naval base around 20 KM from Shirchu taken 3 days later. Here you can see these trucks lined on the upper right corner of the photograph. Satellite pictures taken same day show that the trucks had vanished from Shirchu So these are the same 4 trucks that we saw there. Next 3 photographs are of the ships which were docked there that day. “
GP paused and looked at his screen, “Are you following me ?”

“ I see that you've marked one of the ships. Anything special ?” General Vaidya asked without taking his eyes off the printouts of the images.

“That's the most interesting part sir. But I'll come to that later. As you can see in next picture, the trucks are not there. The parking area is empty. Either they drove them off some where or placed them on one of the ships. 2 of the ships docked there are destroyers, one is a refueling tanker and the rest small tugs. The ship that you noticed is the only civilian ship big enough to carry all these trucks.

That ship left the base on 17th October. It docked once in Malaysia for refueling a week later where it identified itself as Xajing, owned by a shipping company based in Hong Kong. It was on it's way to unload some toys in Pakistan. We did background checks of the company. It's just a shell company for CGBC group, a conglomerate of businesses owned mostly by senior members China's politico bureau. “

Seeing the expressions on their faces, GP realised that his audience was slowly catching on,. He paused for breath and began, “Every thing's clear till now ?

“Yes. Please continue.” Angad replied somewhat impatiently.

“ Next picture is of Gwadar port in Pakistan where the ship docked on 28th October. It's again marked in a red circle on the left. In the same picture on it's upper left corner, you can see two of the trucks that we saw earlier in ShirChu and Tiajin, again marked in red.”

“What's you point GP ? These trucks could carry anything. They could really be transporting toys for all we know.” Angad said cautiously.


“I can bet my year's salary that it was certainly not toys. First thing, if you are shipping something, only containers are used, not the whole truck. Second, size of shipping containers is a standard all over the world and these containers do not match anything. Third, cab part of these trucks too much like the trucks Chinese transport their missile upon. Fourth, dimensions of the containers are just right to contain one M-11 missile each. Fifth, trucks originating from a Chinese missile plant are unlikely to carry toys. At least not the kind my kids play with.”
he paused then added, "Not to mention, I sincerely doubt Pakis having the money to buy toys, even Chinese."

Air Chief Nirmaljeet looked frantic, “Mot******. By hell, you are right GP ! But there was only one missile strike. There are only 2 trucks in this picture and there are no trucks in the rest. Where the hell are they ? The ship has not left the port yet. Has it ? “

GP shook his head, “No sir. According to our sources, it's still docked. Even if two of the original four trucks are on the ship, one is still missing. We are still looking for that one.”

General Vaidya looked really grave “Shit. That's not good at all.”

GP paused for a while before beginning again, “Actually that's not all. Take a look at the other set of pictures. “ He waited while the others looked over them.

“Damn ! This train looks like it's transporting at least 2 missiles. But where the hell is it ?” Nirmaljeet asked with visible alarm.

General Vaidya looked like somebody had punched him in the gut. Without waiting for GP he answered the question himself, “That's on the railway line Chinese have constructed through PoK.”

“Correct General. We saw this train vanish in to one of the tunnels on that line this morning. It's still in that tunnel inside PoK.”

A shiver went down GP's spine as he said that. It had taken all of will power to control the tremblings in his body ever since he first understood the meaning of the pictures. Now he felt his self control weakening he went through the pictures again. “We're in real deep shit.” He muttered under his breath.
Booming voice of General Vaidya broke his reverie. “GP, where are these missiles now ?”

“Train mounted ones are being stored in a tunnel in south of Gilgit about 110 KM from LOC. We believe that particular tunnel is being used as a storage site for more weapons and barracks for at least 240 soldiers at any given time.”

“A train tunnel being used like that ?” Nirmal Jeet asked with some incredulity.

“Yes. They've been digging that particular mountain for 4 years. We have reports from our agents on grounds to confirm this fact. The last three photos of 2nd batch are of this particular tunnel including one taken from the ground of one of it's exits. Chinese have long terms plans for this region.”

“What about the other three missiles in Gwadar ? “

“It's entirely possible that all 3 have been unloaded and hidden somewhere safe. We are searching for them with everything we've got. In fact one of our satellites is scheduled to make a pass over the region in 20 minutes. We've alerted our men on ground too. I hope something will come up soon.”

Angad was twirling a pen his hands nervously, “It's not good enough GP. Not good at all. Lives of crores are at stake. We need to find those missiles and neutralize them yesterday.”

General Singh intervened, “Let him do his job Angad. This situation is much more dangerous than we previously imagined. Let's call up the ministers and get the permission to take these missiles out. ”

“But we don't have information about all the missiles yet.”

“That's why we start right now. There is no time to waste.” Nirmal Jeet replied for General Vaidya, then addressed GP, “GP, you have to contact us as soon as anything comes up. There can't be any slip ups now. Use everything you've got. Do you understand ?"

GP nodded as other participants of video conferencing broke the link. He stared at his screen for a few seconds apparently lost in deep thought. Then he looked at the watch and started waiting for the satellite feed about to start in 15 minutes.

War Scenario. Part XXIX

Previous Part

2130 Hours

1 November 2012
Udyog Bhawan
Kolkata, India



The 3 story inconspicuous Udyog Bhawan in Kolkata was completely unimportant to everybody except for the RAW and ARC people who worked there. GP, Deputy Director NTRO was going over the latest satellite images and intelligence reports gathered over the day when the red phone on his table rang. He felt a irrational fear creeping up his gut as he looked at the instrument. The news of the nuke attack had came via this phone minutes after it happened. It was going to be be quite some time before he could go back to answering the calls on this secure line normally again. Nevertheless he let go of the pictures and lifted the phone. “GP here.”

“How're you doing GP ?”

The subdued voice of Meir, Directorof Mossad's Research Department felt felt a lot different from it's usually cheerful tone. “What do you think old friend ? This hasn't been exactly a good day.”
GP heard Meir sigh on other end of the line, “I'm really sorry for what happened today GP. I wish that whoever did this must rot in hell for all the eternity.“

Was Meir trying to pry some information out ? Although India and Israel were allies and the two intelligence officers good friends, but intelligence business is unlike all others. Countries spy on enemies as well as their allies alike. GP let out a bitter chuckle, “Only if wishes were horses.”

Meir replied in a mysterious voice, “But I do have something for you to ride upon.”
GP's ears perked up a little. “ Do I need to pay rent for the ride ?”

Meir chuckled, “Well, if you insist. How about a bottle of scotch and a fried fish from your kitchen next time we meet ? “

GP was mystified, “ That'll be my pleasure. You, of all the people should know that.”

“That I know very well my friend. The thing is that you guys have already done us a favour. We are just returning it.”

“Suits me.”

Meir turned serious, “You remember the small payload that your ISRO launched for us in April ? “

A bulb just clicked on in GP's mind. PSLV launch that month had carried a satellite designed and made by Israelis in complete secrecy. It's capabilities and applications were a well guarded secret. Apart from a select group of people that included the satellite's designers and some in intelligence circles, nobody had any idea. GP replied in a slightly reproachful tone, “Yes I do. You guys have been awfully shy with that one. “

“ It's time that we let this complain sorted out. Can you check the mail ? There is a surprise for you. Please let me know if you like it.”

GP was suddenly inpatient, “What is it ? “

“What else it could be GP ? We deal in information and information it is. I hope you keep your end of bargain when we meet again. Till then, take care and Namaskar.”

“Shalom friend”.

Gp replaced the phone on it's cradle and opened his secure mailbox. A mail with blank message body and an encrypted attachment had just arrived.. He put in the decryption key and extracted the files. There was a small text file and a bunch of high resolution satellite images. He opened the text file first and read it through. With mounting excitement he clicked on the images and started browsing through them. It was with a shaking hand that he picked up the intercom and called for his best analysts to come in to his cabin.

War Scenario. Part XXVIII

Previous Part


2120 Hours
1 November 2012
India


Scheduled TV programming was interrupted on almost all TV channels as the ashen face of Defence Minister appeared on the screens. He started reading from a prepared speech,

"My dear countrymen, I'm here with a bad news for all of us. Today we came under a surprise nuclear attack. Mirwai, a small town in Rajsthan with nearly 55000 population was devastated by a nuclear bomb delivered through a missile. The attack happened at 6 pm today without any warning. Although the missile was launched from Pakistan, a military spokesperson speaking on behalf of the Pakistani authorities has denied that they were involved. I can't tell you the exact figures right now, but more than 20000 people are believed to be dead and many more injured. We are doing everything we can do to help the stricken people. Even as I speak, supplies and relief material are being rushed with utmost speed. Indian army which operates a small base there and Air force, have pressed in all of their resources to help the survivors in every way possible.

As of now, no one has taken any responsibility for this dastardly attack, but I'd like to assure all of you that whoever did this will dearly pay for this crime against humanity. Our forces are now on the highest alert and are taking every action to identify the culprits and also to prevent any further attacks. Our chain of command and most importantly, will to fight are still intact and will remain so.

Our country needs help of every single citizen in these troubled times. Irrespective of our differences, every single one of us needs to support the government and armed forces. I appeal to all of you to remain calm and follow the instructions provided to you by local authorities. Please do not panic or try to relocate unless absolutely necessary. The government will take whatever steps are necessary to protect everyone.

Jai Hind"


Cameraman signaled end of transmission and DM slumped limply in to the chair. He ran his hands through his thinning hair twice and got up to his feet. His aide came up a cup of tea which he waved away. He was in no mood to eat or drink anything.
He opened the small door of the media room and started walking towards the PM's cabin in the special Boeing 747 informally known as AF1. PM and DM along with some senior defence and civilian officials had been bundled in to the special plane within 20 minutes of the time when first warning of the missile attack came. An IL-76 based AWACS on a patrol over Rajsthan had first detected the missile as it's reached it's terminal stage. The crew had immediately sent warnings, but it was not enough to help Mirwai. There was little any one could do anyway .

DM was visiting PM at his residence when their bodyguards burst in to the room and bundled them off in to a chopper and then to AF1 with little ceremony. Much to consternation of every one, PM had suffered severe chest pain moments after plane was airborne. On board doctor, a middle aged Air Force Major Rudra had treated him and put him under observation. News of the country's PM collapsing on hearing such news, even of this magnitude would've been really bad for morale. So it was DM who had to go on TV instead of PM to read the bad news. He had done so with much reluctance but had kept the fact to himself only. He walked slowly towards the PM's cabin and stopped in front of the door, apparently lost in thought. Two guards on the door smartly saluted him and that caused DM to come out of his reverie.
"I wish you guys stop doing this every time you see me. " he smiled tiredly at the young soldiers.

"I'll keep it in mind from now on sir." Older of them smiled back politely.

"Thanks. Is doctor still inside ? How is PM feeling now ?" DM asked.

"Yes sir. Mr. PM wanted to see you as soon as possible. He is waiting for you." with this, he knocked on the door once and on hearing the permission to enter, opened the door and ushered the DM in.


PM was lying on a bed apparently sleeping while his wife and Maj Rudra were sitting on chairs besides him talking in low voices. Both stopped talking on seeing him and Maj Rudra got up to salute him. PM opened his eyes and looked at him with resigned eyes.

"How are you feeling now sir ?" Suddenly not sure whom to ask this question, DM asked with a slight hesitation.

"Much better. Thanks to Dr. Rudra here. " PM replied looking at the doctor who looked on impassively. "Any new developments ?"

"A little. Some of our people are standing by on a video conferencing call. Are you feeling well enough for this ?" DM asked with some concern looking at PM and the doctor in turn.

"Sure. Lets begin right now." PM replied with some display of energy.

DM gave the doctor a questioning glance to which he replied, " Yes of course, he can do anything he wants short of strenuous physical activity right now. But please be sure that he doesn't get too stressed. My work here is done anyway. I'll pop in from time to time to keep an eye. I think I should leave, if I have your permission."

He gave everybody in the room a quick bow and left. PM's wife also left the room after instructing both men to be careful about her husband's health.
PM watched her close the door with a tired smile and then turned to DM, "So, what did you find out ?"

DM in the meanwhile had called for some senior officers and analysts on board the plane to enter the room and had turned on the video conferencing screen for other people to join in. Faces of people, some old and most of them new to both the ministers filled the room. After hurried introductions, everybody quickly got to the business. Chief spook Angad was first to begin via a video link,

“The missile was launched from a location somewhere east of Karachi. Our analysts believe that it was a Shaheen, just a repainted Chinese M-9. The bomb was Uranium 235 based with yield of slightly less than 20KT . It's copy of an old Soviet design that was stolen by China. Apparently they also sold the same design to Pakistan and North Korea. The missile has a possible range of less than 700km with this kind of warhead. If anybody is wondering why didn't they try hitting New Delhi, Bombay or any other big city, then I assume it's because of Shaheen's limited range only. Mirwai is one of the very few possible places that can be hit with that missile when fired from that distance.

"Do we know who actually launched it ?"

"Unfortunately, not yet. Control of Pakistani nuclear arsenal was supposed to be with General Beg only. But the missile was launched from the area under control of General Asgar." Angad answered.

DM jumped off his seat and begin in an excited voice, "That can mean only one thing. If General Beg had full control of every weapon, then it's entirely possible that he had launched the missile. That way he can injure us as well as gather support for his fight against Asgar." He started pacing the small room as he spoke then his voice trailed off, "But.."

Curious at his behaviour, PM asked "What ?"

DM shook his head slightly and said, "Same thing can be said about General Asgar too. He too is a prime suspect just as Beg is. If he proves that it was Beg, not him that launched the missile then Beg is screwed beyond redemption. Even him being the American poodle wouldn't help him then."

HM butted in before DM had chance to finish, "Screwed how ? Pakistanis have already started celebrating this strike against the kafir Hindu India. In my opinion,the culprit will gain support of Islamists and gain power, not get screwed as you said it."

DM gestured defensively, "Hey, I'm just thinking aloud. Either way, you can't have everything. You win some, you lose some. For either of them, there are going to be benefits as well as repercussions. The perpetrator took his chances and I'll be damned if I know who did this just by talking and guessing like this. "

PM who had been listening quietly asked, "If it's like what you people are saying, don't you think that either of them will try to take the credit ?"

On the screen, HM just stared blankly while DM shrugged his shoulders trying to think of something. "Could be terrorists." he added.

Angad cleared his throat and said, "True. But they would've taken the responsibility as soon as it had happened. Not a single one of the rag head terrorists out there is going to miss an opportunity like this. Strangely, no one has. But most importantly, an attack like this is beyond he capability of almost all of terrorist groups out there. There is no way that a bunch of terrorists could have pulled this off without Paki army help."

"What about a rogue military commander acting independent of every one else ? DM asked

General Vaidya, a 3 star general replied, "Same as with terrorists. Possible, but highly unlikely without either of the two Generals knowing."

For a few seconds, everybody involved in the meeting fell quiet having reached a dead end. Then voice of PM broke the silence, "Excuse me for the silly question, but didn't Beg had full control of all the nukes ? Then how can Asgar be possibly involved in this ?

"He could've taken the control of one or two missiles that Americans didn't knew about." HM took the bait.

DM was quick to pounce on it, "And launched it on us without trying to take any advantage ? If he really had those nukes then he could have bargained with Beg and Americans for anything. This doesn't makes any sense."

HM challenged him, "Well, tell me one thing that does."

DM shrugged and slumped back in chair, " I don't know."

Angad looked slightly uneasy on the screen“ I don't know if it seems important, but Gwadar is not too far away from the launch site. For what it is worth, Chinese seem to be awfully busy lately there. Far more than what seems normal.”

“Busy ? How ?” DM asked.


“According to our intelligence reports, number of ships docking there has increased by 15% during the last 3 weeks. Of course it could all be unrelated, but somehow I can't shake off the feeling that something fishy is going on.”


“You don't have details ? It's your job to get this kind of information. We can't do a single damn thing based on your hunches only.”

Angad took the remark as the unneeded insult as it was. He was still bitter over the fact that his proposals for more intelligence satellites and human intelligence had been gathering dust for years now, “ What else would you expect on the money that we actually spend on intelligence ? “

DM let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. But he knew that Angad was right. Intelligence organisations had been demanding higher budgets and more freedom from political intervention for years, but successive governments including the present had been dithering on many important proposals. Who knew this attack could've been avoided if they had advance warning.


HM piped in, “Please leave all that for the moment. What's done is done. We have to do something right now. We can't just sit here and yap away. Thousands of our people have died in 4 attacks, one of them a nuclear one. All in a single damned day. Nations have gone to war on much less. Why are we still not bombing the hell out of those terrorist pigs ? The missile was launched from Paki territory, it's a Paki missile as well a a Paki bomb. What other proof do we need ?“

“For starters, identifying who actually gave the orders.” DM replied.

HM opened his mouth to say something but then kept quiet. With the condition Pakistan was in, nobody had any idea whom to punish. In frustration he banged his fist on the table and groaned loudly, “Damn it all. I say we launch everything we have on those bast**** and be done with it. Do you realise how bad it is going to be for our economy, or prestige, everything that's precious to us ? We lose the confidence of everyone in the world and our own citizens. We get nuked in broad daylight and can do nothing except twiddling our thumbs inside our collective asses. “

General Vaidya cleared his throat and begin, “ We can take steps to neutralize their remaining weapons.. Actually it's going to be suicidal if we don't. We just need your permission to do so.” He finished looking at PM directly who appeared to be lost under deep thought.

He took a deep breath and replied, “I'm afraid that I can't allow that without positive proof General. We need concrete evidence of who actually did it.”

Most of the people presented in the meeting groaned inwardly.

There was a knock on the door and Dr. Rudra asked for permission to enter. DM broke up the conference for a while and called him in. Doctor entered the cabin glancing at the video screens once and then faced the PM, “Sorry to interrupt the meeting, but some more medical tests are needed and I can't do that on this plane. I'm afraid that we'll have to get you to a hospital.”

Both ministers were slightly taken aback and PM asked with surprise in his voice, “But why ? I feel absolutely fine.”

The doctor had heard this line many times. He replied impassively, “May be you do, but you heart doesn't. I believe that one of your arteries has some degree of blockage. We need to get you to a hospital without any delay.”

“I'll be damned. Just what the doctor ordered.” DM thought to himself. Then asked, “Where can we take him ?”

“I checked with the pilots. Agra is the nearest place with sufficient medical equipment.”

“You came in all prepared, didn't you ?” PM asked with a slight resentment. But I can't go to any hospital right now. Our country is at war right now. “

DM's eyes widened a little at this, “Good to know that he realises this.” While the PM continued to argue with Dr. Rudra who kept shaking his head like a stubborn mule on every argument that PM put forward. Finally he said, “Sir, I don't have the authority to make you do anything. But as your doctor I strongly advise you to get yourselves examined in a hospital. We may not need to operate yet. If everything is right, you can still be in action. The tests wouldn't take longer than five hours.”

Pm looked towards DM with exasperated eyes. “Do you believe him” ?

“There is no harm in getting you examined on ground. I'd rather do it as soon as possible.”

“Ah well. What the hell ! OK doc. Five hours on ground. That's the maximum I'm giving you.”

Doctor smiled slightly, Thank you sir. I'd better control my temper if I were you in this condition.” He gave a slight bow and went out.

DM looked at the departing doctor with arched eyebrows then said, “Looks like we'll have to break up the meeting for a while.” PM started to protest but he went on regardless, “It'll give our guys time to gather more intelligence. Not too bad of an idea after all. What's your opinion General Vaidya ?”

“Agree completely. I'll go and check security arrangements.”