War Scenario: Beginning Of The End

jamwal · Sep 14, 2011

Chapter 35

1420 Hours
PPN World News

In a stunning development a few minutes ago, Indian authorities blamed China for the nuclear attack on their soil that triggered a nuclear war with Pakistan. In a hurriedly convened press conference, a senior defence ministry official presented evidence to this effect that included pictures and videos of a captured Chinese nuclear submarine and its crew off Pakistan's sea coast. Apart from the Chinese crew, Indians captured General Asgar and one of his aides who were apparently trying to escape from Pakistan in the same submarine. A recorded conversation, between General Mao Hu, a PLA intelligence officer posted in Chinese controlled part of J&K, and Admiral (Retd.) Xedong of CPC, was also recovered, According to portions of conversation played in the press conference, Admiral Xedong ordered General Hu to launch the nuclear missiles. Apparently, the nuclear tipped missiles were smuggled into Pakistan at General Asgar's behest as a bargaining chip against his bitter rival General Beg. But General Hu used them to launch a clandestine nuclear attack on India.

Chinese officials on the other hand refused to issue any statement on this matter. Their silence on this matter is quite suspicious considering the fact that Admiral Xedong is one of the more likely candidates for the coveted Chinese PM's post once the current PM steps down.

If these allegations by India are proven to be true, then China will find itself in a very isolated position.
Most of its neighbours have already put their own armed forces at high alert preventing the Chinese from concentrating bulk of their forces against India. Russia has already condemned Chinese involvement with General Asgar and put its forces on high alert.

USA too, issued a strong warning and dispatched two of its CBGs to the area after a Chinese warship shot down a Taiwanese fighter plane over Taiwan Strait. In a strongly worded statement, American president condemned the "irresponsible" attitude shown by Chinese military and warned them against any aggression against US allies and assets anywhere in the world. Japan too, has condemned the incident and put its own forces on high alert.

As if external pressure was not enough, Chinese authorities are also battling suddenly resurgent separatist movements in Buddhist majority Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang. According to news reports, both provinces are in serious turmoil after local rebels in both provinces launched bloody attacks against Chinese military and ethnic Han settlers. Although China has ordered evacuation of all foreigners from the two provinces and cut off all internet services since last night, reports of continuing violence are still pouring in through various sources.

jamwal · Sep 14, 2011

Chapter 37

1750 Hours
Indian Ocean

The deadly game of cat and mouse between Indian and Chinese submarines had been going on and on for hours. Nothing unusual about that. The crew had been in similar situation for much longer periods of time before. But currently, stakes were much higher. Not only their own lives, but lives of possible billions of people could be destroyed or changed unalterably by any mistake on their part. This was making them nervous. Captain of Indian Akula was aware of the fact and was doing everything in his capacity to help his crew deal with the tension in his own stern way. The way was to keep every crew member so busy that he simply wouldn't have any time to be scared. The trick was working but even he knew that there was a limit to it. He prayed feverishly that the situation will be sorted much before the snapping point was reached.

Sitting in his chair, he was poring over the constant stream of data flowing over his console. The two Chinese submarines, one attack and another missile carrier had been advancing very slowly towards Indian coast. Former was drifting slowly east around 23000 meters in front of Akula and the other around followed it a 1000 meters behind. Some of the major Indian coastal cities and A&N islands were already under the range of their missiles and they have not shown any inclination to launch their missiles. Indians could guess following two reasons for this behaviour,

1) They had no authorisation for launch.
2) In case they had authorisation, they were trying to make sure that the area was clear of any Indian anti-submarine assets before launch.

Of the two possibilities, Chinese had already been beaten on the second.

Although he had upper hand in the second, he still preferred that it'd rather be first. Chances were slim but a man always has hope, sometimes the greatest power, at others, the greatest illusion. To make things worse he had no way to make sure until Chinese made a move. Silently, he cursed the Chinese one more time and wished them to make a move. Even hostile, so that the unbearable tension and suspense could break.

Probably a mischievous God listened to his prayer and granted his wish. Chinese made a move, but in a totally unexpected way. It happened when sound of a fairly loud sonar ping startled the hell out of every crew member on bridge.

Sonarman announced excitedly, "Sir, we are being pinged by a submarine at a distance of 21000 m from Bandit 3 and 4."

"Is it one of ours?"

"No sir. Based on its acoustic signature, it doesn't sound like ours or even Chinese."

Captain arched his eyebrows at the slightly nervous sonar operator, "Then?"

Clearing his throat he replied, "It seems to be American."

Akula's Commander exclaimed. "An American submarine? Why will those idiots get involved here? That too in this manner announcing their presence to everyone? "

Captain reprimanded his junior officer at once, "We can discuss how and whys of American involvement later, if it's indeed an American submarine. Right now, concentrate on the task at hand. Designate the new contact as Delta 1. Give me an update on Bandits."

"Bandit 4 is turning towards Delta 1. 4 showing no change. No indication of any hostile intentions yet."

"It is highly unlikely that our presence is not a secret anymore to either." Commander remarked ruefully.

Captain nodded gravely, "I agree. Turning to his weapons officer he asked, "I presume that Delta 1 is still out of range of our torpedoes?"

He replied with a nod, "Aye captain."

Commander again exclaimed with surprise, "We aren't thinking of engaging the Americans at this stage, are we?"

Captain grimaced inwardly at his second-in command officer. "If push comes to shove, then maybe we'll have to. But right now, it's Chinese reaction that's more vital."

He didn't have to wait long for the Chinese reaction. Before he had finished speaking, Bandit 4 had completed turning towards Delta 1's direction and started gaining speed.

"What the hell they think they are doing?"

Weapon's officer spoke up tentatively, "Chinese are within American's torpedo range while Americans are not. I think Bandit 4 is trying to get within firing range of Delta 1."

No one else on bridge had any better idea. In spite of its obvious craziness, that was the only thing that could explain Chinese action. Captain nodded and said simply, "We'll know soon enough."

At that instant Delta 1 responded to the Chinese charge by letting out another ping. Within seconds, sonar man announced, "Sir, Bandit 3 is turning in our direction and gaining speed. It's still out of our torpedo range though."

Almost immediately another update came, "It seems like Delta 1 has flooded its torpedo tubes. I believe that they have a firing solution on both Bandits."

Captain gripped the arm rests of his chair tightly, "What's the status of Bandit 3?"

"It's still heading in the same direction constantly gaining speed. Current speed is 11 knots and increasing."

A lot of thoughts were currently passing through Indian Captain's mind. What were Americans doing there? If their intention was to sink the Chinese submarines, they could have probably done that much before Chinese knew what hit them. Even after Bandit 3 started its charge, they possibly tried to warn it off by firing off a sonar ping rather than a torpedo. Could it be possible that they were on Indian side or were they just trying to break up the fight? Announcing their presence by pinging in possible hostile waters had no logic. It had also made the Chinese aware of Akula's presence which they were not, as was the most likely scenario before. But considering the distance between them, it was highly unlikely that American's had been aware of Akula's presence either.

Shaking his head in frustration he again turned to his weapon's officer, "Be ready to fire on Bandit 3 on my order." to which he replied eagerly, and "Aye captain."

Sonar man made another announcement, "I hear splashes. Bandit 4 has launched 2 torpedoes." Without pausing, he spoke again, "Delta 1 has launched 2 torpedoes too."

Captain muttered under his breath, "Just what the doctor ordered." Then to his weapon's officer, "Is Bandit 3 in our range yet?"

"At current speed, in less than three minutes."

Captain took a deep breath and ordered, "Fire tubes 1 & 2 at Bandit 3 as soon as it's in range."

"Tubes 1 & 2 ready for Bandit 3, aye."

In the meanwhile, Bandit 4 and Delta 1 were locked in a deadly duel. Although seemingly brave, Bandit 4 was less than a match for Delta 1. Americans were more than a generation ahead of Chinese in naval warfare. Their torpedoes not only had longer range and higher speed, but also much better terminal guidance. Therefore, even when Chinese had launched first, it was the American Mk48s, which found a terminal lock on their target first. Once they acquired the targets, their guiding wires were cut and Delta 4 immediately made a sharp turn and launched decoys. Chinese on the other hand were forced to cut wires and disengage a little earlier than required. Superior quality of American equipment was again obvious as neither of Chinese torpedoes could lock on to their target and were instead drawn away from Delta 1 by its decoys. One of American torpedoes was neutralized in similar way, but the other found its mark with deadly result for the Chinese. The torpedo tore through the hull of submarine and it sunk within minutes.

For Indians, although the technology gap was not as stark, it was comfortable enough for them to sink Bandit 3 without much trouble.

jamwal · Sep 14, 2011

Chapter 38

1920 Hours
Spartly Islands

Spartly Islands is name of a group of islands spread between seas of China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and oil rich kingdom of Brunei. Most of the islands are small inhabited coral reefs interspersed with a few comparatively larger islands covered by dense tropical forests. Human population is sparse and most of the islands have little significance except as means of asserting the maritime boundaries of respective countries. And herein lay the catch. This whole area is believed to be one of the richest oil and natural gas fields. As such, even though the islands which are next to useless by themselves, are priceless pieces of real estate hotly contested by all the surrounding countries. There have been small scale conflicts and tensions between the participants since a long time. China owing to its size and military prowess has been particularly successful in staking its claim on quite a few islands, much to the chagrin of its neighbours. In most of the cases, Chinese military personnel just sneaked in to the inhabited islands and raised the red flag daring any of other countries to take it down. Although other countries didn't like it a bit, they could do nothing except seething in impotent rage.

FalunGa was name of a midsized island claimed by Chinese in similar fashion. Although it's much closer to Vietnamese coast, Chinese had been able to stake their claim by bullying the weaker Vietnamese. North-western part of island, facing Vietnam was dominated by an extinct volcano peak, leaving an area of less than 4 square km of inhabitable land for the occupiers.

Over the years, Chinese had made the island a hub for their maritime patrol vessels in addition to an intelligence gathering outpost. A small number of Chinese patrol vessels and an occasional small frigate used the base to refuel and restock regularly. From being an inhabited island in 1970s, the place had grown to be an important military base populated by at least 300 Chinese technicians and military personnel. These were in direct command of a PLA officer of at least Lt. Col rank. During the time that hostilities started between India and China, a forty four year old Lt. Col Peng was officer in charge of base and he was not a happy man at the moment. Intelligence had suggested that something was definitely cooking. Neither of the other stake holders in Spartly Islands, Philippines, Vietnam or Brunei had ever approved of Chinese tactics in what each country considered its own backyard. Each one of them had been trying to undermine the Chinese and claim as much territory as possible for themselves. Defiant according to some accounts, even belligerent attitude, shown by Indians had given wings to many hopes to detractors of China. Something diplomatic or even military by any of these countries was definitely on. Only what and when they didn't know. Lt Col Peng knew that it couldn't be a military offensive. Chinese dragon was more than capable of roasting and swallowing anybody foolish enough to attempt anything like that. But he had orders to follow and these had been to step up the base security.

Three additional patrols of two soldiers each were added to the existing 24x7 security detail and some more flood lights near the docks were installed. Although the base was still less than ideally defended, that was the best that could be done under the circumstances. Engineers and mechanics formed bulk of the Chinese population on base and those mugs could be barely tolerated with ships, guns were just not something that they could be entrusted with. HQ had promised at least a platoon worth of reinforcements two days ago, but he hadn't heard anything about it since then.

Now as the night advanced, he found himself sitting in his air conditioned office, smoking a cigar and double checking the status report he had to file next morning. The day had been very long, with him personally supervising installation of fences and trip wires, digging of trenches and shouting at the guard patrols to stay awake. To add to his woes, a medium sized patrol vessel had damaged its rudder while on a routine patrol and had to be taken out of action for at least six days. Feeling more tired than he had ever felt his whole life, he closed the file, leaned on back of his chair and inhaled deeply on his cigar. Apparently, the damned thing itself was another of infamous Chinese copies and gave him a coughing fit. Cursing incoherently in between his coughing fits he stumbled out of his chair and threw the cigar on floor in disgust.

Gathering up his belongings and files he got out of his cabin and ordered his orderly to lock it up behind him while he himself started his walk towards his residence which was nothing more than a per-fabricated shelter. But at least it had a mattress and a bed. But before that he decided that he needed to check on his men. The extended patrols were taking a toll on his men and he had no idea when fresh men from mainland were going to arrive in order to ease the burden. Carrying a small satchel which contained some of his belongings and documents, he started a brisk walk towards the nearly deserted beach where he could relax for a bit as well as check on the new guard posts he had ordered.

From the distance, he could see the newly installed flood lights on each corner of the beach gleaming brightly. Very soon, he saw silhouettes of two armed soldiers as they ambled past the harsh light spot created by the flood lights. Nodding in a satisfied fashion, he stood at a distance watching the two soldier patrol as they walked through the light into darkness and back again. Taking one last look at the area, he willed his tired legs to move back to his personal cabin to a bottle of American whiskey that his men had captured from smugglers yesterday. "Hope that doesn't turn out to be another fake like those damned "Cuban cigars".

Behind his back, the two man patrol party continued their vigil. The two men were responsible for keeping an eye on almost the whole stretch of the sandy beach. Although some new lights had been installed, a large area was still without light coverage. Their patrol area thus consisted of irregular patches of light in a mostly dark beach being pounded by powerful waves. Walking slowly the team reached the last light pole and halted for rest. One of the soldiers took told his companion to wait while he went slightly ahead behind the rocks for a much needed leak. Standing beside a large rock, he unzipped his pants and started the work. He was at it for a few seconds when he noticed a slight movement at the edge of his eyes. If he wasn't occupied at that time, he would have probably investigated the incident. But as it happened, he ignored it, and it would have been only a matter of debate, if the outcome would have been any different even if he had gone on to investigate.

Just a moment after he was finished, there was a small whooshing sound and an arrow pierced his neck from behind. The startled soldier dropped on wet ground; choking on his own blood. His companion met the same fate seconds later. Four men in black clothes and masks slithered out of the darkness and quickly cut the throats of dying soldiers. Each soldier was carried by two men each and their bodies were dumped carefully out of sight. Once the work was finished, one of the attackers spoke in to his communications device in heavily accented English, "Otter 1 reporting to Crocodile. Beach is clear. "

Reply in not so accented English came in immediately, "Roger that Otter 1. Good work. Rendezvous with Otter 2 and 3 at Waypoint Charlie in fourteen minutes."

The men switched on their night-vision devices and started to sprint towards the heart of the base nearly a KM away. Although the route was longer, they kept to a path that kept them away from the lights.

Lt. Col Peng was nursing his third drink of the night in his bed. Despite his misgivings, the liquor was genuine and had given him a good deal of buzz. Coming after the highly stressful day he intended to enjoy each sip of the expensive whiskey. The stash of bootleg DVDs that was seized from the same smugglers was proving to be a good source of entertainment. Grasping the glass in his hand he leaned against the pillows and closed his eyes listening to the soundtrack of one of the Chinese movies. He was feeling far too drunk to actually watch it. In spite of all the crap he had to go through, life was not that bad after all. Sighing contently, he finished his drink and slipped even more in to his bed. His first clue of the fact that something was wrong came when things suddenly went very dark and at the same time he started having difficulty breathing. He struggled desperately to get his bearings and fought against the alcohol induced stupor made even stronger by his fatigue. A sudden hit on kidneys, almost made him puke, also made him fight off the effects of alcohol on his brain. He realised that his hands and feet were bound tightly and his face covered in some kind of dark cloth. He tried to scream but a gag prevented that. Another hit in same area made him bend over himself in agony and his scream was again muffled by the gag. Rough and firm hands dragged him to his feet and started to drag him somewhere. He tried to resist and was rewarded by another vicious hit that knocked him out.

When he came to his senses, he found himself in the same predicament, his face was still covered by a thick mask and his legs and arms tightly bound. His first instinct was to shout. His throat was parched and he needed water immediately. But almost immediately he remembered his roughing up from the last night checked himself. The self restraint was largely unnecessary as his mouth was still gagged. One thing that he sensed soon enough was that he was not on solid ground anymore. By the slow rhythmic bobbing of the hard metallic floor underneath, he realised that he was a prisoner on a ship. Trying desperately to get out of his restraints he started to twist and turn which resulted in him bumping in to another person. He froze immediately, fearing that it was one of his captors. Lying still, he cringed waiting for the hard hitting blow and was more surprised than relieved when none came. Instead, a set of fingers frantically poked and groped him. Feeling bewildered he turned and tried to touch the unknown hand with his. It was soon established that the man was not an enemy and both immediately set about to loosen each other's bonds. The task was not easy and it took them almost an hour to finally break free. At last, with impatient and trembling hands Lt Col Peng tore off the mask from his face and turned to face his helper. It turned out to be one of the men from his base, Xia Shi Gila. The junior ranked soldier immediately tried to stand up and salute his senior but Lt Col waved him to relax. Sitting cross legged on the hard floor he croaked, "What the hell happened?"

Gila was feeling dizzy from his earlier attempt to jump to attention and he plopped down on the hard metal floor. "We were attacked last night. Many of our men killed and the rest dumped on this boat. It all happened in minutes. We don't know what hit us."

Peng rubbed his forehead and looked around. He realized that he had been dumped inside the engine room of Chinese patrol vessel with damaged rudder. As his junior spoke he tried to take stock of his surroundings. The port holes had been covered and only a trickle of light came through. He could see somebody moving in the feeble light. Ordering the young soldier to keep quiet, he slowly moved towards the moving man and found another of his soldiers bound and tied in similar way as they were. Working feverishly they managed to unshackle the man and then found another tied in similar way. All the men had similar stories to tell. Numerous masked men in dark clothes had appeared out of nowhere and had killed or captured all the Chinese personnel on island. Some of them had been placed on to the patrol vessel which had been towed in roughly southern direction away from the usual shipping lanes. They had heard loud explosions just minutes after leaving the island.

Cursing loudly, Peng stumbled towards the portholes and tried to look outside. The glass had been painted black and windows sealed from outside. Ordering his juniors to find and open the door he tried to assimilate the situation. No matter which way he looked at it, he was screwed royally. His seniors would certainly take a very dim view of the incident if he ever survived the ordeal. At minimum they would just fire him. But a very long trip to a re-education camp or death by a firing squad seemed more plausible.

Few minutes later, he was out of the engine room on to the deck lost in gloomy thoughts oblivious to what was going on around him. Seventy more Chinese were found bound and gagged on various parts of the ship, all repeating the same story with only minor variations. There was not a clue of the attackers though. It was like they were ghosts. He listened to them absently while looking at the night sky. Day break was still hours away and he could virtually see his life and career disappear along with the night.

jamwal · Sep 14, 2011

Chapter 39

0350 Hours
PLA HQ
Beijing

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Chinese General Chan with three stars on his shoulders shouted in to the phone. "That base is one of our biggest in the region. How could something like that happen without us knowing?"

His subordinate, a Brigadier under his direct command was on the other line. "I don't know sir. We just received a SOS from the base informing us that some unidentified people had overrun their defences and killed or imprisoned all of the defenders. Even the Base Commander is missing."

"I don't care about who or how many are missing or dead, I just want to know who did this and punish them." General Chan hissed with barely suppressed rage.

The Brigadier thought for a few seconds as he contemplated his reply. News of numerous major setbacks, one after the other was playing havoc with their carefully planned strategy. What had started out as a win-win game had turned in to a nightmare turning worse with each passing moment. "All that I can say at this stage is that whoever did this was very well equipped and trained. The whole mission reeks of a top class special operations team and a big one at that. The base with three hundred people was overrun within an hour with no causalities on their side. We should be really careful with this."

This statement gave a pause to the furious rants of General Chan. Although the attackers had overrun the whole base but still had not assumed full control. They had come in like a surprise typhoon, destroyed everything in their path and then vanished. There were almost a dozen Chinese bases in the region, all of them much smaller and much easier targets. The fact that the attackers had chosen to attack that particular base while ignoring all the low hanging fruit was most worrying aspect of the situation. Not only had they good intelligence regarding the layout and defences of the base, its flawless execution also meant that they had prepared for it in advance. Not many countries had such kind of resources and skill at their disposal. Chan nervously chewed on his mustache as he considered all the points. "Are there any American or Russian assets in our seas? Anybody or anything suspicious enough?"

Relieved of the tension that had been gnawing on him during the pregnant pause, Brigadier replied immediately, "No sir."

Chan snorted derisively, "You should say that you haven't been able to detect anything yet. Somebody just destroyed our base in our own backyard and we have no clue hours after it happened. Something is really screwed up."

Poor Brigadier had no idea how to answer that, "We are trying our best to catch the miscreants. "

"These are no ordinary miscreants Brigadier. You probably don't have any idea what you are dealing with. "Shaking his head in mild irritation he asked, "Tell me something that you know. How are you searching for the attackers and our missing men?"

"We've pressed all of our remaining ships and aerial reconnaissance vehicles from Beihai and adjoining bases. But I believe we'll need more than that. If I may have your permission, can we call for reinforcements from Hangzhou? "

"Are you really that stupid Comrade Haw? Do you really think that we can move our assets from that area with Japanese and Americans breathing down our necks? Those ships and planes stay where they are."

Brigadier objected weakly, "But sir, it'll take us weeks to cover all that area with what we have it here."

General Chang realised that the Brigadier was telling the truth. Pausing again for a while, he took some deep breaths and asked "What's the location of our 3rd fleet?"

"They'll pass Malaysia in few hours."

"Call them back and order them to help with hunting down the hostiles in Spartlys."

Brigadier was startled. Searching frantically for polite enough words he mumbled, "Sir? But, what about our plan regarding Indians?" What will Admiral say to that?"

Chan snapped back, "You need not worry about them, Colonel. I'll talk with the Admiral and even the President myself. We need to consolidate our resources not spread them thin. They are the nearest. And most capable to search and defend our remaining bases. I want them to form an impenetrable wall around west of Spartlys. "

"Yes sir." Brigadier replied and then spoke with nervous voice again, "Sir. There is one more bit of news that you need to know."

"What is that Comrade?"

"Vietnam has announced test launch of a ballistic missile tomorrow."

General Chang almost jumped to the roof, "Vietnamese have announced what?"

Brigadier thought that he was beginning to enjoy the sound of panic in his senior officer's voice. "They have announced that they'll test launch a short range ballistic missile tomorrow."

"What the hell they think they are doing? Testing a missile at this time when so much shit is flying around! When and how did they develop that missile? It's impossible."

Brigadier Haw agreed. "We'd have known if they were actually developing it themselves. This sudden announcement is very suspicious."

Chan asked "Have Americans or anybody else issued a statement yet?"

"No sir. It's too soon for that. We'll hear something in a few hours, hopefully."

Chang took in a deep breath and exhaled, "Let others take care of this missile business Comrade Haw. You need to concentrate on my orders. One more thing, news of this attack should not be leaked out anywhere "

Brigadier thought of letting hot shot General know what he actually thought of feasibility of the order, but wisely decided to keep quiet about that. He took his leave with a small reply. "I understand sir. "

jamwal · Sep 14, 2011

Chapter 40

0350 Hours
Phalcon AWACS
Skies over Laddakh

The AWACS had been in air almost continuously for a week now allowing for maintenance and refueling breaks. That particular patrol had been under progress for three and a half hours. A lot of things were going on Chinese side but till now they had shown no inclination of launching a full scale attack. That particular fact was needling Mission Controller more than anything else. Although, most of the Chinese bases had been put on highest alert after Indian attack on Chinese bases in PoK, Chinese so far had not started moblising their Air Force and Army assets near the border. The closest thing that could've caused a shooting incident was when a couple of J10s under control of a Chinese AWACS flying 100 Km inside Chinese territory had come within 2 KM of border. They could've been on an intelligence gathering mission to test and needle the Indian defences. They hadn't been completely unsuccessful in this. Commander of the local Akash battery had no choice but to switch on his radar and track the incoming bandits. The J10s had immediately turned on their tails and went back after powerful Rajendra radar started to track them both. No other plane had come in as close after that. Chinese AWACS was still there flying in an oval pattern, it's emissions clearly visible in the powerful tracking radar of Indian Phalcon which in turn would've been similarly visible to the Chinese. Only thing that was different from peacetime were round the clock CAP missions on respective bases, offensive deployment of assets still hadn't happened.

MC glanced nervously at the blips denoting the 11 Chinese fighter aircraft flying in a pre-set pattern around their respective bases. 240 Km to his North-east he could detect tell tale emissions of powerful S-300 radar. Its signal going on and off as some big mountain formed an impenetrable wall as the Phalcon traveled or as Chinese switched it on and off.

debasree · Sep 14, 2011

waiting for more fire works ,keep it up jamwalji

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 41

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, the Chinese President was forced to issue orders to this affect after the 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 its 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 its arch enemy Pakistan, from where the rogue missile was launched, Indian Navy had captured a crippled Chinese submarine. Along with its 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 its 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 sides.

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 42

0720 Hours
India

"What do you think of it Angad?" DM asked the 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 its transport to Pakistan. Then we have 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 three 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 spoke up before Angad could answer, "What do you think General? Can we take on Chinese right now?"

General Singh glanced on his companions from the 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 SFs 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 the 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 their 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, we are 100% sure that it was a well planned spec-ops mission. Very few countries 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."

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 43

1030 Hours
Few KM North of Gonggar PLAAF Base

Qinghai–Tibet railway is one of the biggest marvels of human engineering. This railway was the first one connecting Chinese occupied Tibet to mainland China. Constructed at the cost of nearly $ Four billion, it traverses one of the most inhospitable and harsh terrains. Total length of track exceeds 2000 Km and highest railway station in world is on this line itself (5000m +). A significant portion of the railway is constructed over semi-permanent perma-frost which poses its own challenges during warm conditions. Special measures were taken to solve the problem, which included passive cooling, deep concrete supports and sun shades.

Apart from the engineering challenges faced during the construction, the extreme altitude and cold weather poses serious problems to passengers and daily operations. It's not possible to operate normal trains at this altitude. So China had to import special trains with built in oxygen supply for passengers and ultra high grade environment control. Even the diesel locomotives are custom built.

Quite a few people thought all of this effort as a waste of money and effort. But the Chinese government thought different and poured all the resources it could spare. The strategic advantages brought about by this line vindicated all the stubbornness displayed by Chinese. Amount of cargo being transported in and out of Tibet increased by nearly 300%. But the most obvious advantage was the strengthening of Chinese stranglehold over Tibet. This railway line provided China with unprecedented ability to deploy forces over most of Tibet much faster and cheaper. Thus they had a significant advantage over India which left most of its border routes undeveloped in an extremely counter-productive defensive strategy.

At the moment this fact was quite obvious to the three man Special Forces operative team as they lay waiting just a few meters away from the famous track. Intelligence reports had indicated that numerous trains loaded with men and weapons were on their way to Tibet from mainland China as PLA rushed to quell the rebellions in Tibet and Xinjiang, while at the same time maintaining enough forces on standby to deter India. The railway track was proving to be invaluable in these conditions. Many of the PLA bases were constructed close to railway lines to take maximum advantage. Although the forces were stretched thin, steady arrival of reinforcements was proving to be life saver for Chinese commanders. It allowed them to keep existing forces directed towards India on station, while still maintaining overwhelming superiority over spirited but less capable rebels.

As of now, mission of the spec-ops team was to cripple this vital cog in Chinese occupation of Tibet and then some more.

The sophisticated Motorola radio handset cackled in to life in hands of the team leader, "Leopard Alpha, This is Leopard Charlie. We confirm arrival of target in fifteen minutes at ambush point 1."

"Roger that Leopard Charlie." Leader of Alpha team had to shout in to the radio to make himself heard as icy winds nearly drowned out his voice at normal volume. If he hadn't spent two weeks acclimatizing to the altitude he'd have serious trouble doing even that. Trekking such long distances, carrying heavy loads was simply out of question. Inhaling the cold air deeply, he ordered his companions to get ready. On the leader's signal, the two men broke away and took positions at a few meters distance from each other. The trap was almost ready. All they had to do now was to wait for the prey.

Their target, a cargo train of nearly forty trailers carrying an arsenal of Chinese armoured personnel carriers and tanks was within their sights in a few minutes. It's specially designed diesel engine pulled the load quite effortlessly as it chugged on. Leopard teams waited with bated breath as the moment of reckoning came closer. The operatives checked their weapons and adjusted the sights one last time. Right on the estimated time, the train reached its intended point and its engine shook as bunch of small explosives went off under its wheels. A small group of soldiers and engineers on-board looked here and there bewildered as wheels of the engine broke away amidst showers of sparks and fire. Their emotion of surprise soon turned to horror as four rocket propelled grenades slammed in to the engine and the single passenger compartment behind it from different directions. The soldiers who survived the initial assault jumped out and started to run only to be mowed down by murderous small arms fire. The attackers had ample time to plan the ambush and not a single person on the train was left alive. They emerged from their cover still firing on anything moving and started converging on ill-fated train.

Within the next few moments a small army of armed men had collected around the train, working feverishly unstrapping the APCs and tanks. They lacked proper equipment to do the job and thus the going was slow. Leopard Alpha leader noted the fact and shouted instructions in broken Tibetan to hurry up the process. The result was a significantly rougher handling of the vehicles as they left the trailer to land on the ground, but the process picked up speed. Time was of the essence. It was only a matter of time before Chinese noted the missing train and sent somebody to investigate. Whoever did this better be a long distance away from the site before Chinese reinforcements arrived.

It took nearly 20 minutes for men working at breakneck speed to unload the vehicles and fill their fuel tanks. Once finished, a large number of men got in to the vehicles and started to drive them away towards the road nearby. One Tibetan man came jogging towards Leopard Alpha and smiled. "Thanks for the help. Will see you soon."

The leader saluted and smiled back. "Take care Wangdak. There is still a lot of work to be done."

Wangdak grinned and saluted back. Both men shook hands and he turned to climb in to one of the two Chinese Type-96 tanks that had been unloaded from train. Leopard team went on to its work immediately. Working separately, they attached more explosives to the stricken train and then melted away in to the terrain. A few minutes after their departure, a series of explosions shook the area as the explosives did their work, destroying the train along with its cargo and damaging a large portion of railway track along with it. Leopards felt rather than saw the explosions, but didn't turn to see the result of their work. They still had more missions to complete. One of them was another sabotage mission that'll put the Qinghai–Tibet railway out of commission for months by destruction of one of numerous bridges on the line.

The convoy of stolen vehicles soon came followed a road that led to their destination, Lhasa-Gonggar Forward Air Base, nearly fifty Km south-west of Lhasa. Owing to highly tense conditions, lots of PLA convoys were traveling from one location to another and they moved fast without raising any suspicion. They were just another convoy on its way to deployment somewhere.

In spite of that, every man in convoy was nervous. It was only a matter of time before news of the attack and theft of vehicles was reported and an alert sounded all over the region for the rebels. They needed to act really fast if they wanted to have any reasonable chance of their mission succeeding. They soon reached Galashan tunnel, one of the longest tunnels in Asia at nearly 2.4 Km. Beyond it a 3.8km long bridge lead to a small town named Jiazhulinzhen. Lhasa-Gonggar base was just on its outskirts. Normally a civilian airport which served tourists and Tibet residents, it was a hotbed of activity. But at that time, a significant part of the air traffic was military. Numerous Chinese military transport planes were present on the base, loading and unloading men and supplies. According to rumours a detachment of J10s was scheduled to land at the base within next twelve hours to fly CAP missions. But as with most rumours, it was not confirmed yet. But the security seemed to be beefed up and every vehicle was undergoing stringent security checks.

The convoy lead ground to a halt just outside the main gate of base. Two security guards with confused expressions on their faces walked hesitatingly towards the slightly unusual visitors. Four rebels in PLA uniforms with their fingers ready on triggers of their AK56s jumped out from trailing Type-92 APCs and flanked Wangdak's tank as he opened its hatch. Chinese guards halted and saluted on seeing the leading officer. Although they had no information of arrival of any convoy, they knew better than to challenge a PLA Colonel. Wangdak's confident orders in flawless Mandarin removed any hesitation that they had in their minds. Clearing the first security hurdle, the convoy drove in to the airbase and spread out, taking up strategic positions around its premises.

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 43 Contd

For the Chinese, the first indication that something was amiss came when nearly a dozen armed men walked in to the air traffic control building and tied up all the guards after disarming them. Once finished, four men stayed back in the control room with loaded guns pointed at the profusely sweating traffic controllers who were ordered to refuse all requests for landings and take offs. All the passengers were shunted into the airport lobby. This was not hard to do as there were little passengers owing to escalating tensions with India. Their numbers were further reduced with military aircraft forming bulk of traffic.

In the meanwhile both Type99 tanks followed by two APCs drove up to the military hangar area. A small guard detail was cut down in a hail of bullets before it had any chance to react. A small group of armed rebels then jumped out of APCs and swarmed into to the area, searching for weapons and supplies and killing anybody who resisted. They found an IL76 and two Y8 transport planes, both of which were promptly set on fire.

Another group of APCs drove around the premises finding and destroying any anti-air defense asset they could find. The maps they had were not very reliable but their job was made easy as encountered very little resistance. The men were about to finish the last of the KS-1A SAM launchers when warning of arrival of Chinese reinforcements came in.

Reinforcements were coming in from a small Chinese military base few Km south of Lhasa. Tibetan spotters positioned near Galashan tunnel noticed their arrival and went to work. They waited as first of the vehicles crossed the tunnel and reached the bridge. A soon as it was there, the bridge was rocked by a massive explosion which blew apart a large portion cutting off all the reinforcements. One truck and an APC were destroyed as the powerful explosion tossed them in to cold river water below. Another explosion inside the tunnel a few minutes later destroyed any remaining chance of retaking the base from rebels anytime soon.

But the two Mi-17s armed with machine guns and rocket pods which followed the convoy minutes later had no need of any road. Unfortunately for Chinese, they too proved to be of little use. Two shoulder fired SAMs took care of both, as the first chopper crashed even before it had spotted any rebel. Seeing the fiery fate of its companion, second immediately turned tail and raced back.

Wangdak ordered his men to gather up and load all the military supplies that could be carried away and move out. Their work there was done. His men followed his orders with clockwork precision and started moving out within minutes. Their departure was marked by a series of explosions which first blew up the ATC building followed by fuel storage facility. Last of the explosions made pockmarked the runway with multiple craters, putting the air base out of operational readiness for days at least.

The whole operation had unfolded in front of a few hundred civilians, many of them foreigners, all of them with phones and cameras. Only a miracle could censor news of such an event.

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 44

1100 Hours
Mes Aynak, Afghanistan

Mes Aynak in Afghanistan is sixty nine KM south east from Kabul and twenty five km from the Pakistan border. It lies along the famous Silk Road and was one of the biggest Buddhist centers in Afghanistan till 7th century AD and major stronghold of Kushan Empire till 4th century BC. Kushan Empire is largely forgotten, it's still famous for its archaeological importance as the second biggest archaeological site related to Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan. It gained notoriety in late 1990s as a training camp for terrorists run by Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and was again promptly forgotten until a Chinese mining company won the contract for mining copper in 2007 for $ 3.5 Billion. The area is believed to hold the second largest copper deposits in whole world. Afghanistan government is expected to earn $800 million even before the mining starts in by way of royalties worth billions coming in later.

Owing to its unexplored archaeological treasures, Chinese agreed to halt all mining activities until the site was properly surveyed and excavated by archaeologists. Although the mining was expected to start in 2014, there was considerable pressure on under-funded and under-staffed international archaeological teams to release as much area as possible for mining. Such moves had been condemned from various quarters, with some people equating actions of Chinese firm equivalent to those of Taliban destroying Buddhist statues and artifacts in Bamiyan. But money is a strong motivator and Chinese had succeeded in persuaded enough people in power to start mining excavation on a plot on site much before the agreed time line. By early 2012, five hundred Chinese workers hired by Chinese State Mining Corp. had already landed and begun initial groundwork on the site. A large number of Afghan civilians were also hired and pressed to work. For a country like Afghanistan it was like manna from heaven and nobody except the archaeological community and Americans was really complaining. Sentiment among American public, whoever cared to know about the issue was of righteous betrayal. Thousands of American lives were lost and trillions of dollars spent in helping Afghans and it was the Chinese who were stealing multi-billion dollars under their very noses.

Although most of the supervisors and all of the management was Chinese, going was good initially. But as with most foreign run operations, the tensions started to develop between the local workers and their foreigner supervisors. While Chinese could not understand the Afghan or muslims revulsion of pork, alcohol and ban on most forms of entertainment, Afghans on their part were put off by what they felt somewhat arrogant and exploitative attitude of their Chinese supervisors. But after a few initial hiccups, both parties were able to get along tolerably well. The mining process was slowly picking up steam with scale of operations increasing steadily.

It was on such a day that Rastin Khan walked in to the cabin of his Chinese supervisor asking for a holiday for himself and a few of his colleagues, which incidentally included most of his fellow villagers who worked alongside him. Wen Gong was one of the few Chinese personnel on site who knew Pashto, one of languages spoken by Afghans. He took a look at the company's official holiday calendar and pointed it to Rastin, "No holiday here Rastin. Can't do that."

Rastin towered over his Chinese supervisor in height by at least fourteen inches and he looked up and down on the diminutive man as one would look at a kid, "You don't understand. It's my brother's marriage and I along with my cousins and village men need to be there. It's just for four days."

Wen shook his head emphatically, "No, what you ask for is simply impossible. We cannot allow so many people to go on leave at this time. Eighteen workers! Why do you need so many people for so long anyway?" Even before Rastin could open his mouth to reply, he spoke again, "It's impossible anyway. You'll have to come to work. We need every single man here."

Rastin expressed an expression of exasperation. He was not used to some dwarfish guy in funny clothes and language; boss him around like a lowly servant. But the mining job one of very few paying jobs in the country and he swallowed his pride and controlled his steadily rising anger, "He is my only surviving brother. If I and my village men are not present in wedding, it'll be very inconvenient and shameful for my whole family and my village. I cannot afford to lose face like this."

Now loss of face was one expression that Wen was familiar with. But still he had to save his own, "I cannot help you in this matter then. You can take one day off tomorrow but we are facing shortage of workers and anything beyond that is impossible."

"One day!" Rastin exclaimed with disdain. "What will I do of one day's leave?"

Wen cut in coldly, "That's all Rastin. Take this or leave the job. We have a long line of applicants begging for work."

Rastin shouted in anger, "Just because you have the mine, you think that you can treat us like dirt? My father is head of my village and we take orders from no one. Least of all, stinky little rats like you."

The burly Afghan's loud voice had begun to cause some commotion amongst his fellow countrymen. Some of them stopped whatever work they were busy with and started jostling to hear the conversation. This attracted the attention of Chinese guards, who started waving and gesturing the workers to get back to work. The commotion was interrupted by the sound of door crashing open and supervisor Wen following flying into the crowd. A stunned silence befell the crowd only to be broken by sounds of Afghans shouting and gesturing wildly by the appearance of Rastin a moment later. A few Chinese officers flanked by armed guards came running to the rescue of Wen who was lying dazed surrounded by a somewhat hostile crowd. Arrival of armed guards further infuriated the Afghan, resulting in a fair bit of jostling.

Although the unarmed Afghans formed a smaller part of the workforce, Chinese workers thought better of antagonizing them further. But an example had to be set. It was one unruly worker today, tomorrow there will be five. Such behaviour in a Chinese enterprise was simply unacceptable and the senior Chinese manager fired Rastin and few of his friends on the spot. The announcement was greeted by loud abuses and flash strike of all the Afghan workers. They were in turn warned of dismissals themselves, but the warning fell on deaf ears. Instead, it served as the proverbial last straw for the Afghans, who went on a rampage inside the premises. A large quantity of recently imported shiny new machinery was broken and set on fire, followed by parts of the office building. Chinese guards were becoming increasingly nervous and it was only a matter of time before a few bullets were fired. Rastin along with six other workers were shot, three of them died some time later.

Members of powerful local tribes took the incident as a personal insult and grave provocation. As is the case with all such cases, blood had to be paid for with blood. It being Chinese made no difference. A Lashkar of one hundred and eighty men was soon assembled which ambushed the mining site just a few hours later. They attacked armed with RPGs, machine guns and AKs before the besieged Chinese had any chance of organising proper defence or call for help. Most of the NATO forces were away from the area and had little desire of getting involved in another useless bloody skirmish involving locals and Chinese. As such, the Afghan Lashkar had little difficulty in overwhelming the defences and taking hundreds of Chinese personnel hostage. Except for a twenty senior officials, all of them were tied and forced marched towards general direction of Pakistan before letting go.

The incident didn't go well with Afghan government either. It immediately came under enormous domestic pressure to renegotiate the contract with Chinese, if not kick them outright.

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 45

0500 Hours
4th November 2011
Somewhere in India

Defence Secretary Pillai had twenty-four hour access to the Indian Defence Minister who was also handling charge of the Prime Minister. The PM had been operated upon to correct his heart condition and was still in ICU. Although the work load and responsibilities were enormous, DM seemed to be thriving and egging on his colleagues and subordinates to perform even better. DS Pillai didn't mind it at all and had been involved in hectic parleys with Chinese himself. He called DM with a new message from his counterpart in Chinese ministry. "Sir, Chinese want to negotiate. They've agreed to some of our demands."

If he was affected by the news, DM gave no outer sign of it, "Some of them?"

"Yes sir. They've agreed to allow us access to Admiral Xedong in prison. We can dispatch a team to interrogate him this evening itself."

"They are not deporting him? What about rest of his co-conspirators?"

"According to them, investigations are still going on and they haven't arrested anybody else yet pending further developments. Access to other suspects will be on case by case basis."

DM nodded warily, "Sure. What else?"

"They are ready to consider our claim on PoK, pending further high level talks of course."

DM showed first sign of real interest, "That's interesting. Anything about Shaksgam Valley and Aksai Chin? "

"According to them, those areas are Chinese territory. Concessions if any will be given on areas held by Pakistan only."

"We'll see to that. What are their demands?"

"Unconditional release of all of their civilians, sailors and soldiers that we have in our custody. Giving back their submarine and nuclear missiles; an official apology for attack on Chinese positions inside POK and sympathy on Xinjiang and Tibet civil unrest issue."

DM snorted in amusement, "That's interesting. You've done a good job Shri Pillai. Let me think on this or a while."

Call was disconnected and everybody in room shared glances. Apparently, Chinese had been facing their worst nightmares, isolation and condemnation from rest of the world, rebellion in two provinces, covert attacks by multiple parties on overseas assets and worst of all, loss of face.

NSA chief Angad spoke first, "That's quite generous of our peaceful neighbours!"

DM raised his eyebrows questioningly to which Angad replied, "They have given up nothing while asking for everything. POK was never theirs to begin with; it was between us and Pakis. Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley don't even figure in negotiations. We get to interrogate Xedong but no extradition. We can't prosecute him in our courts, almost all of other big fish will wiggle free and we'll never get one single extradition. Fat lot of good it'll do to us."

"Now, look at their demands. They've asked for all of our bargaining chips and then some more. Sympathy on Xinjiang and Tibet! What the hell they are smoking? Asking for release of prisoners is one thing but what's the deal with their unconditional release? I say, let every single one of them rot in our jails till the guilty Chinese are extradited and executed."

DM sighed and spoke, "You said it yourself that a lot of highest ranks were involved in whole conspiracy. Do you think either of them will get punished? Even Xedong has been arrested only because Peng probably sees him as a threat and thus he is the most convenient scapegoat. If I had my own way, I'd have launched those Gilgit missiles on these idiots the moment we had captured them. Would have saved us the hassle of negotiating with these retards."

"I'd have shrunk in horror if anybody had said this a week earlier, but right now, I can't say that I disagree. After what they've done to us since the last fifty years, I feel like obliterating them myself..." Angad paused for a while looking absently at the bunch of papers lying before him. "Anyway, what do you think we should do right now? Send a team to interrogate Xedong right now?"

"I don't suppose that's going to mean anything. Maybe Xedong is just a smoke screen. I am reasonably sure that he will say exactly what he will be taught to say by his masters. A bloody sacrificial goat if anything at all." DM shook his head in anger then spoke again, "But we don't have any good information on rest of his companions ourselves. So we can't put any pressure on them. Let's take the bait for now. See what we come up with. Assemble a team and coordinate with Chinese over this offer. Regarding POK and Aksai Chin, I'll pick up a team for negotiations myself. Nobody makes any public statements right now and everything is strictly on need to know basis unless I specify otherwise. Now let's get busy."

jamwal · Sep 16, 2011

Chapter 46

1155 Hours
4 November 2012
PPC International News

In a further body blow to Pakistan, senior most leader of Baloch Nationalist Liberation Front, Gaffar Khan has declared Balochistan as an independent country. Appearing in a televised press conference in Switzerland, he declared Pakistan as a dead entity and while proclaiming Balochistan province as an independent country. We are quoting parts of the statement that he read out to media.

"Pakistan was never a real nation. Unlike other nations, it was based on nothing but an ideology of hatred and bigotry. We, the proud Baloch people, have been suffering under the unjust and unwanted rule of Pakistani military which comprises almost exclusively of Punjabis. Our voices have been brutally trampled upon and silenced for decades. Thousands of innocent Baloch civilians have died in excesses perpetrated by Pakistanis. My own son and his pregnant wife were tortured and killed by these barbarians. The Pakistani military which fancies itself as champions of Islam by bombing and killing unarmed civilians, is but no more. Today along with blessings of all of Balochi leaders we are going to end this unjust occupation of our land. From now on Balochistan is an independent sovereign country free of Paki tyranny. Governments of India and Afghanistan have already given recognition to our nation and I urge heads of all the other nations to follow their lead."

There has been no reaction from Pakistan as yet as the country is without any semblance of governance after retaliatory Indian nuclear strikes. Its powerful military which called the shots earlier is broken and scattered, first after the infighting between two powerful Generals and Indian attack that followed. There has been absolutely no opposition to Indian advance in Pak occupied Kashmir either where locals have been largely supportive of Indian troops till now. We are still waiting for reactions from other nations to come in.

debasree · Sep 16, 2011

good going jamwalji

anoop_mig25 · Sep 18, 2011

good going but complete story but its story and i doubt reality would be like this

jamwal · Sep 19, 2011

Chapter 47

1400 Hours
4 November 2012
Taiwan News

Major cities in the Chinese mainland were rocked by violence after rumours of death of Admiral Xedong leaked out. He was arrested on charges of masterminding a conspiracy to smuggle nuclear tipped ballistic missiles to Pakistan, one of which destroyed a small western Indian town killing more than 25,000 people. India had released an audio recording of Adm. Xedong conversing with a Chinese intelligence officer in Pakistan, where he had ordered the launching of missiles. An investigation team organised by Chinese President Lin had arrested Xedong and whisked him away to an unknown location for interrogations. Absolute secrecy was maintained so as to prevent his co-conspirators from influencing the investigations.

But today as rumours of his death started appearing on internet, people started appearing in streets of his birth place Guanzhou carrying placards condemning President Lin. Within hours there were reports of protesters taking to streets in Nanjing, Wuhan and Gulyang. A small group of protesters in Beijing trying to march towards Tiananmen Square was forced to break up by Chinese riot police. Some of the protest marches got out of control as people indulged in arson and pelted stones and Molotov cocktails at official buildings and the police forcing authorities to enlist the army in dealing with protesters. Internet access in most parts of China has been severely curtailed as almost all sites and forums not sanctioned by Chinese authorities have been blocked. An official from the home security department however claimed that Admiral Xedong is alive and well in protective custody. Terming the unrest as a result of malicious rumour mongering, he denied all reports of Xedong's death as an attempt to disrupt peace in China.

Taiwanese parliament has expressed serious concern over the situation in China as relations between the two neighbours are at an all time low following a downing of a Taiwanese fighter plane by a Chinese warship. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior law maker from the ruling party expressed concerns that China might use the excuse of spreading civil unrest and tensions with India to launch a surprise attack on Taiwan in an attempt to capture it. Echoing his sentiments, official spokesperson of Taiwanese government issued a warning to China cautioning it against further misadventure. Taiwanese defence forces are already on full battle alert to guard against any such attack. United States too has come in support of Taiwan and dispatched two carrier battle groups as a warning against any Chinese misadventure in the region.

jamwal · Sep 19, 2011

Chapter 48

1655 Hours
4 November 2012
Forward Army HQ
Turtok, 101 KM North East of Leh

Advancing Indian forces in Pak occupied Kashmir were facing logistical nightmares of the highest magnitude possible. Except for occasional pot shots few left-over jihadis and defiant Paki army personnel, resistance they were facing was almost non-existent. But most of their problems were related to terrain and shortage of transports. Nobody had really planned for such operations and as such decisions that would require months, if not weeks, of careful planning and setting up of logistics chains were being made on the spot based upon vague assurances of speedy resupplies from distant HQs. There were very few operational roads connecting the two parts of the divided state and those were swamped with panicked refugees trying to stream in to India. Relief camps had to be setup to help the civilians and in India which other organisations except the army are expected to deal with such a mess!

The civilian administration of J&K, in spite of all its lofty talk of love between the divided people and porous border whines had simply washed it's hands off the whole mess expecting the army to do all the dirty work. Thankfully for the army commanders, DM had personally intervened and sent some stern messages to state's CM to share the workload, thus freeing up resources desperately needed by the army elsewhere. Even then, the rush of refugees was hindering work as their long caravans clogged up miles of the few motorable roads, leaving the army with little choice except helicopters to transport men and supplies. The fact that the bulk of fleet was busy strengthening defences against China was just another inconvenience.

The hectic work detail was taking its toll on helicopter crews. Ferrying men and precious cargo always has been their job and most claimed to enjoy it. But doing the same round the clock without rest in war like conditions in unfamiliar territory is enough to cause fatigue even in best for the best of crew. And fatigue causes mistakes which could prove disastrous. The CO of Turtok base, Colonel Mudabar Chidambaram was more than aware of the fact and was trying his level best to ease the workload. But his efforts were not proving enough. His small base was inundated with frantic requests of supplies from various quarters and he couldn't do anything except send the pilots on one more sortie, one after another. He knew for a fact that his luck wouldn't hold out for long and the feeling was making him queasy. Although all the pilots under his command were highly trained professionals, there was a limit to which they could be pushed.

The base was first started as part of Operation Sadbhavna by the Indian Army in its mission to help the locals by setting up much needed medical camps, schools and vocational training centers. The rugged area had little contact with rest of the world and the for the ethnic Balti tribals of the area, work done by the army was the only thing that they could identify as governance. The base had first started off as a small helipad where helicopters from Leh landed carrying supplies to be distributed in surrounding areas. It was still exactly like that when hostilities broke out and as such, its meager resources and infrastructure were overwhelmed in a matter of hours.

Although it was only three days since the nature of work at base had changed, for Col Mudabar it seemed like another lifetime. A large portion of the local population had been evacuated except a few who stubbornly stayed back to for various reasons, mostly related to their livelihood. Right now, instead of friendly locals, base was swarming with tense armed forces personnel.

The first signal that some of his worst fears were coming true was when the communications officer reported loss of contact with one of Mi 17 helicopters approximately 10 Km south of Shaksgam Valley, in control of China.

The area had always been one of the most difficult to operate in. It was covered with some of the highest and least accessible mountain peaks with little human habitation and sustaining infrastructure. Even Pakistan didn't place any significant military resources there considering the high cost and the fact that they had gifted away surrounding areas to China. They lacked the will and resources to control the area anyway.

In a war to capture the territory, this would most probably an advantage for the attackers, but not in this case. After near complete surrender and abandonment of posts by Pakistani Rangers and army, Indian Army was obliged to fill up the gap. But lack of any dependable infrastructure, roads etc. was a major impediment to their efforts to establish control over the region. But the most worrying aspect of the situation was nearly certain war with China. The area needed massive influx of Indian forces in shortest time possible and the many choppers like the old workhorse Mi 17 were flying back to back missions, dropping men and supplies.

Loss of radio contact was not an uncommon phenomenon in such areas. Not all of the machines had modern communication systems on board and thus were prone to communication blackouts under certain conditions. Although, most of the time it was some non-critical problem related to comms gear, it always increased the heartbeats of people involved. It didn't happen very often, but whenever it did happen, it sure subtracted a few minutes of life from everyone connected to the mission.

Currently the base was experiencing one similar situation. A Mi-17 transport helicopter with call sign Mike11 was on a sortie to drop some much needed supplies and ammunition for advancing Indian troops on a mission to consolidate their newly won positions in PoK, some 4 Km south of Chinese controlled Shaksgam Valley. Due to bad weather in the area, the pilot had lost his way and there had been no communication since last fifteen minutes. As usual, Col Mudabar was personally coordinating the flights and the creases on his forehead were getting deeper with every passing second. Each passing moment brought the night closer and there were less than an hour before it became impossible for pilots to navigate without night vision devices. Communication people on the ground were frantically calling the lost helicopter without pause as other helicopters landed or took off with their crew and cargo. But there had been no response till now.

"Any luck contacting Major Kale yet?" he asked one of the comms engineers. Missing chopper was on its way to drop the supplies for Major Kale's team and there had been no contact with him either. The answer was negative and Col. Mudabar grimaced on hearing it. "What the hell is going on down there?" he asked loudly to nobody in particular.

"Shall we send another chopper to search for them?" the question was asked by a burly Jat Subedar, most of whose duties till date had been loading and unloading of helicopters.

"Do you have one lying spare for the job?" Col snapped back annoyed. Subedar was slightly confused by the reply and was about to answer something when the voice of Major Kale came alive on radio. There was lots of static and the comms engineer had to fiddle quite a bit with the radio knobs to make the transmission audible. Col snatched the mouthpiece at once and asked Major Kale, "What's going on out there Major? Where are you guys and where is our Mi-17?"

Major Kale had to shout to get himself heard, "We were attacked. Lost the chopper and ...." rest of the transmission was lost as his voice was overcome by the static. But it was enough to freeze everybody within earshot. Only Col Mudabar seemed unaffected and he took control of the radio himself, shouting in to the mouthpiece, trying to contact Major again. He seemed slightly relieved when Kale came back on air again. His story was just as bad as his first line. Major Kale's team was at an unnamed location, simply known as Point 4677, nearly three KM south of Shaksgam Valley awaiting the chopper to drop supplies. The Mi17 had come in almost right at time and was hovering and dropping supply crates when a MANPAD was launched from a hill in north taking down the copper like a brick. Only the co-pilot had survived that too with broken legs and crushed ribs. The army team rushed to the stricken helicopter to rescue any survivors when they came under heavy machine gun and grenade fire. Two soldiers were immediately killed and three more injured before they were able to take cover and fire back. But the attackers had advantage of surprise and better positions. Indians had lost five more soldiers before they could disengage and find better positions.

Survivors had to fall back and had nothing to help them with reinforcements or extraction for quite some time to come in an unfamiliar and hostile territory. Col Mudabar slammed the mouthpiece down on the table in frustration and looked around at the worried faces around him. Gesturing with his eyes and hands he ordered everybody else to get on with their work while he took up the radio again to contact his seniors.

jamwal · Sep 19, 2011

Chapter 48 Contd

Help for the ambushed Indian team came in an unexpected way. It just happened that three prototypes of the new indigenous Light Combat Helicopter were finishing their high altitude weapon trials in Leh when hostilities broke out. LCH was supposed to provide heavy mobile firepower in scenarios just like this one. All the trials had gone on well to match or even exceed the expectations. So, the proposal of the senior test pilot to perform the ultimate trial by fire in combat received a guarded go ahead. Within minutes of receiving the distress call two of the LCHs, armed to the teeth with 20mm canon and 35mm rockets were rushing to aid the ambushed Indian infantry team.

Even while carrying near full loads, they could fly at altitudes nearing 6500m which provided them considerable protection from most of portable MANPADS and small arms fire. Thermal sights cued to the weapon controls allowed the pilots to locate and destroy man sized targets from any height. Rushing at speeds in excess of 300 kmph, the two choppers were in the area within minutes and started scouring the area for hostiles. Although the area in which people could disperse was large, the actual area navigable by foot was quite small owing to high mountains, glaciers and mountainous ravines. Therefore the Indian chopper team had little difficulty in locating the hostiles, who were marching towards northern border along the borders of one such mountain river.

The lead chopper, piloted by Squadron Leader Mayur located the fifteen men hostile team first at a really vulnerable moment when they were trying to cross a small glacial river a few Km from the ambush site. Even flying at extreme altitudes, Indian helicopters had no difficulty in following the suspects owing to superb avionics on board. They kept watch waiting to provide Chinese a taste of their own medicine. They didn't have to wait too long as the Chinese men reached an icy ledge on banks of the river. The point was one of very few in the region that could be used to cross the river by infantry. Even then, they needed ropes to pass over.

Unfortunately for Chinese, they had chosen a wrong time to do so. Their orders had been to make life difficult for Indians in any way possible. Young PLA Captain leading the platoon had followed the orders enthusiastically that had resulted in deaths of 7 Indian soldiers and destruction of a Mi-17, spreading panic within Indian camp. Unfortunately neither he nor his superiors had foreseen the consequences.

Currently the Chinese soldiers marched back to their base inside Shaksgam valley on a route that passed through hostile territory interspersed by mountains, glaciers, ice and rivers. The group was standing on a ledge on the bank of one such river, trying to cross it using a temporary rope bridge, when first of the LCH located them. Chinese were blissfully unaware of their impending doom as it hovered thousands of feet above, hidden by clouds and its rotor noise masked by winds.

First of the Chinese soldiers to die didn't even know what killed them as a salvo of three rockets fired from first chopper landed smack in between them as they stood on ledge trying to keep the rope-way stable.

The explosions blew them away to pieces and broke the ropes on which two other soldiers were trying to cross over. Both fell in to the icy glacial river and drowned within a minute. Rest of their companions fared only marginally better. A couple of them managed to pull up their guns to eye level but that was the most that they could do. Another salvo of rockets, this time fired from second chopper obliterated the confused group before they could gather any idea of what was going on. Only two Chinese soldiers survived the carnage. They were cut down by canon fire immediately after.

By picking a place and time favouring them, Indian chopper pilots had executed the ambush flawlessly. Chinese MANPADS crew had no chance of acquiring the helicopters and firing off any missile before being annihilated.

The incident didn't go unnoticed on either side which were already rushing reinforcements in to the battle. But the two LCH didn't stay to check as they turned back to their base at maximum speed.

jamwal · Sep 19, 2011

Chapter 49

0120 Hours
5 November 2012
Phalcon AWACS
Skies over Laddakh

The incident caused a fair amount of heart burn inside Chinese military. In spite of being stretched to the limit by Uighur and Tibetan rebels, PLA still had formidable offensive firepower at its disposal and the Mission Controller onboard Indian Phalcon AWACS was first to notice it when Chinese launched a large salvo of their much hyped DH-11 long range cruise missiles. Phalcon's radar had detected the missiles while they were still 7-8 minutes away from Leh and the crew was sending out warnings frantically.

Mission controller aboard Indian Phalcon AWACS was shouting in to the mouthpiece, "Lima this is Eagle Eye, we have 16 confirmed DH-11 inbound right at your position. I repeat, 16 DH-11 inbound at your position. Take cover immediately."

In what could be considered a mixed bag, All of Chinese missiles were launched from a single location. Sabotage by Tibetan rebels, while not entirely successful had still affected Chinese military significantly. In ideal conditions, Chinese would have launched a larger number of missiles from a wide encircling arc, confusing the defenders and saturating their air defense assets. But owing to shortage of missiles and safe places from where to launch, they were forced to launch all missiles from a single location. Although it made the job of tracking these missiles somewhat easier, it also meant that the air defenses in that particular corridor would be overwhelmed and at least some of the missiles would pass through unscathed.

Although important, such thoughts were hardly occupying anyone's mind on the besieged base. Instead, they were working furiously to meet the attack head on and save whatever they could before launching a counter attack. The base was operating at war level and all the civilian traffic had been suspended. The runway was being used exclusively by military transporters and fighter jets which were immediately airborne within a minute of the warning. The planes which could not take to air were moved to underground bunkers and rest moved as far away from the base as possible. Six more MiG 29s fully fueled and armed joined four others which were already on CAP duty. All this while crews of air defence wing waited tensely for the Chinese missiles to come within their kill radius. Owing to its high strategic value, Leh airbase had received some serious defence upgrades consisting of multiple Akash and SPYDER SAMs placed all around as well as inside the base. It was going to be the first baptism in combat for both of the systems.

One Akash battery placed in Chapo, nearly 110 Km forward of the base was first to acquire a lock on incoming bandits. Twelve SAMs arose majestically, almost simultaneously, to intercept first of DH-11 which were flying just 10s of meters above the mountain peaks

Of the Twelve missiles launched at seven different cruise missiles, four found their targets while the rest missed. Some failed as they lost lock on target amongst mountains, while the rest exploded harmlessly after their target was destroyed by another missile. By the time crews could reload the launchers; remaining DH-11s were already out of their kill zone or had passed by without ever coming within range.

Another Akash battery placed in Arganglas took out another five, but that still left out seven DH-11s which moved on to their terminal phase as they neared their designated targets. People still residing in the city now watched as seven white streaks came in from the north. Short ranged SPYDER missiles rose to intercept these and managed to knock out three before first of the cruise missiles found its target and hit the runway. The warhead consisted of runway denial explosives and damaged it enough to stop all aircraft landings and takeoffs for hours if not days. Another missile probably targeted at the helicopter wing missed its aim and crashed in to the War Memorial just a few meters north of it. Although the helicopter hangars suffered some damage, losses were not high as most of the equipment and personnel were already away from the area. Third missile was hit by the radar guided AAA fire and crashed outside the airport in a civilian populated area causing dozens of causalities. Last of the missiles escaped the entire last ditch AAA fire and hit the underground pens of MiG 29s. But the structures were made to handle exactly such kind of hits and the damage was minimal.

Considering the amount of firepower launched to take it out, the base had escaped virtually unscathed. Only serious damage was to the runway which was put out of order for a few hours. None of the aircraft and other vital assets were damaged. Four MiG 29s which were on CAP duty earlier were starting to get a bit low on the fuel and were diverted to Srinagar.

While Indian personnel in the base worked to repair the damage, others elsewhere started on their missions to inflict at least equal if not more pain to Chinese for yet another attack. Work on a counter attack had begun as soon as the warnings of incoming missiles had come in. By the time last of the Chinese missiles had been cleared out of skies, Indian missile crews were ready with their own reply. Although Chinese had a seemingly overwhelming quantitative advantage over Indians, civil war inside their two provinces and the escalating conflict with Taiwan-US and tensions with Russia had stretched their resources to the limits. Thus providing Indians with a fighting chance if they planned their moves right.

India had already declared its willingness to go nuclear against China in face of any more provocations and thus replied back in a way that few people anywhere had ever expected.

Within minutes of Chinese attack, Indians had launched their own Shaurya hypersonic cruise missiles. Although Chinese too had fairly robust air defense systems in form of S300 ABM, sheer scale of attack overwhelmed their defenses, helped in no less deal by the uniqueness of a hypersonic cruise missile. Of the nineteen missiles launched, thirteen found their targets. Unlike Chinese, the Indians had spread their choice of targets on multiple bases and the effects on Chinese military capability in those areas were crippling. Most of their military bases north of J&K in Tibet were hit with conventional explosive warheads, except for four which were annihilated with nuclear bunker busters. Those bases were suspected to store Chinese nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

Chinese military assets in Aksai Chin were given special attention. Two whole Chinese Rapid Reaction Force divisions had been mobilized into the region to thwart any Indian offensive and these took the brunt of the damage. The Chinese edge in armour was more or less neutralised, first by three conventional missile strikes, then by bombing raids by Jaguars which followed minutes later.

The disproportionate response by Indians dealt a crippling blow on Chinese ability to wage war in Laddakh-Tibet sector and they needed to move fast in order to capitalize on it. Compared to Aksai Chin, Shaksgam Valley area was lightly defended. One reason was its previous border with ally Pakistan and another was its difficult mountainous terrain. Anything needed to maintain strong defensive positions in the area was prohibitively expensive and difficult like hell. For the Indians, biggest hurdle in Shaksgam Valley was weather and terrain. On the other hand, comparatively flatter terrain of Aksai Chin was more conducive to troop movements and pitched battles both by armour as well as infantry. Both India and China had strong military presence along this border. Although Chinese had better roads and were numerically stronger, precision missile and air strikes had neutralized much of their offensive capability.

After near complete destruction of Pakistani military, Indian armed forces were feeling confident enough to move most of their Pakistan centric defenses towards the China border, thus strengthening their position vis-a-vis Chinese. It was only 2-3 hours after the Chinese cruise missile attack that the first of Indian soldiers re-entered Indian territories illegally held by China.

jamwal · Sep 19, 2011

Chapter 50

0100 Hours
6th November 2012
Somewhere In India

Just like the last time, Chinese President came to the point of interest immediately, "Mr. Shivendra, I must strongly protest your army's actions in Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley. I thought that we had an agreement on not escalating the violence till we catch and punish the criminals on our side."

DM Shivendra shot back, "Are you that ignorant of what your military is doing right in front of you or are you just playing with us Mr. Peng? Also, our armed forces are acting under our direct orders and our orders were to not to take any further attack lying down. Your army attacked us without any provocation near Shaksgam Valley, and then fired sixteen cruise missiles at us. You think that we'll take all that provocations lying down? I had warned you earlier against any further misadventure which you ignored."

"That helicopter of yours was shot down by some overzealous guards when it seemed like it was going to cross over to our side. It was an honest mistake."

DM ground his teeth in anger, "Honest mistake! Your men not only shot down the helicopter which was 10s of KMs away from territory occupied by you, but also ambushed our soldiers who went out to help the survivors. Your men were no ordinary border guards. They were well trained Special Forces operatives and were under specific instructions to sabotage and harass our military personnel. We have their dead bodies and identity papers to show for it. Don't you lie with me on this one Mr. Peng? We all know who was responsible for what."

Seeing uncomfortable the look on other people's faces present in room, DM took a deep breath to calm himself then continued, "Even if you were not at fault there, who is going to take responsibility for firing off sixteen missiles at us ? Was that one of your investigative tactics? "

Chinese President answered with a menace in his voice, "I don't think that you understand what is at stake here. Your country has already suffered one nuclear attack. I don't even want to imagine what a full fledged nuclear war will do to your beautiful nation."

This was the last straw for DM who shot up from his chair and hissed in to the mouthpiece, "If you are blackmailing us with your nuclear toys, then you'll do well to remember the fate of your Pakistani poodles. They tried playing the same game with us and see what that brought for them. You make one stupid move and I swear that your fate will be worse than Pakis. You must be extremely naive to think that I'm making empty threats."

All the pretense of diplomacy had vanished from the conversation.

Seeing the move backfiring, Chinese Pres immediately changed track, "I hope you understand that we are not fighting over a personal issue here. Lives of one-thirds of the world's population are at stake here. Any hot-headed decision will be catastrophic for the whole world. "

"Please don't lecture me on this. It became personal for me and for everybody else when we saw more than thirty thousand fellow Indians burn to death in an instant. What surprises me that you still have the gall to call and threaten us."

Chinese President's voice assumed a conciliatory tone, "I completely understand what your country is going through, but you must understand that the attack was a conspiracy between Pakistanis and a few Chinese rogue elements. We can't let isolated incidents disrupt peace when so much is at stake."

"I'll tell you what is at stake for you. If you don't agree to what we demand, then be ready to say good bye to your China as you know it. With Pakistan, we limited our strikes to military targets. We wouldn't be so considerate in your case. Every single city of yours in our range will be burnt to ashes. I'll personally start the massacre by firing off your two missiles that we captured from Gilgit. I had warned you of what we are capable of in our last conversation and trust me, I'll do exactly that."

"We'll do exactly what we agreed upon in our previous conversation, as soon as you call back your soldiers from our territory."

DM answered with a twisted smile, "I'm sorry to say it to you, but Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley don't belong to China anymore. Even as we talk, our soldiers are pushing back yours to reclaim what's rightfully ours."

"We don't have much time to play such games. I'm requesting you to put an end to hostilities and recall your soldiers. Otherwise things will get nasty real quick."

Ignoring the threat DM continued, "I hear Tibetans and Uighurs are giving you lots of trouble. Also, the US is right at your throat over that Taiwanese F-16 incident. I suggest you forget about Aksai Chin and Shaksgam and concentrate on rest of your trouble spots."

"You must know that we have the capability of doing much worse with your dissidents than what you can do with ours." was the predictable reply, which most people in the room just shrugged off.

Everyone in the room watched the verbal duel between the two leaders with bated breaths. Indian blitzkrieg in two sectors had routed the Chinese defences. In Aksai Chin, two pronged attack by Indian mountain divisions had over run most of their defensive strongholds and taken control of vital highways that Chinese had constructed. Indians had preferred bypassing Chinese forces and encircling them wherever possible instead of engaging in pitched battles. Shaksgam Valley which had only token military presence too was overrun without much trouble. Guerrilla attacks by Tibetan rebels assisted by Special Forces had disrupted Chinese supply lines and thrown most of their battle plans out of order. Even if PLA succeeded in pushing Indians back over the next few days, it'd still be a major embarrassment for much hyped Chinese military might. And as of now, PLA looked too disorganized and disoriented even to put up a decent fight.

Indians had been bracing up for an attack further south in Arunachal Pradesh, but so far the fight had been limited to artillery duels with neither side committing to a full scale fight, which suited India just fine.

After the successive setbacks, Chinese had realised that their own position was precarious and were looking for a way to save their face. Everybody knew that Chinese President was on phone only because he was on the verge of a very embarrassing defeat. His aggressive posturing was nothing more than false bravado and attempts of intimidation, which had no effect on Indians. Seeing all of his attempts of bullying Indian leadership in to submission, Peng changed tracks.

"Listen Mr. Shivendra, We all realize that a war is not in our interest. We need to end the conflict before it expands and turns nastier. Nuclear weapons have already been used. So far, only military targets have been attacked but you know we have to end this before either of us is forced in to something even more destructive. We need to wind all this down"

DM leaned back on his chair and looked around the room at the people surrounding him and spoke, "What are you offering us?"

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