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“Warlord had one of his RPVs recon the area an hour ago,” Fernandez replied as he pulled out a new cigar and put it in his mouth without lighting it. “It’s a good spot. Granted that it’s vulnerable, but warlord has promised paratroopers once they have been flown in. They will provide security for our perimeter. It’s good enough out of Paru town so that the civvies are in no danger, and close enough to the airport and connected by road to provide decent logistics.”

Fernandez looked around. His men weren’t very convinced.

“Boys, I know that location looks pretty hairy, but it’s the only good option and all of you know it too. Damn it, this is war! Don’t expect all our options to be safe and cautious. When it starts raining steel, and mark my words, it will rain soon enough, it’s better that these civvies are as far away from us as possible. We cannot sacrifice them on our account! Check your vehicles and your men. We are moving out in five!”

WUGONG AIRBASE

CENTRAL CHINA

DAY 6 + 1630 HRS

The airbase was on fully active. The reverberating sounds of turbofan engines coming to life filled the air. Ground-crews were hurriedly readying the brand new Xian H-6Ks of the 36TH Bomber Division. Other elements of the strike mission were already taxiing towards the runway.

Wugong airbase was secure by virtue of its location deep inside mainland China. It made sense to base the H-6 force there on account of the aircraft’s ability to reach numerous possible hostile countries utilizing its long combat radius. At the moment Wugong was part of the unified Lanzhou-Chengdu MRAF and under control of Lieutenant-General Chen.

The first aircraft to take to the air were a pair of Su-30MKKs and they took off in a paired formation on the wide runway built for the much larger H-6s. Following behind them, an H-6U tanker rolled on to the runway and turned to align itself as the two Su-30s became airborne.

This particular aircraft was to follow the two escort Su-30s as a refueling aircraft for the long flight. The overall distance to be travelled was more than twenty-five-hundred kilometers. The Su-30s were heavily armed for air-to-air missions and carrying only internal fuel. One refueling from the H-6U on the ingress route and another during egress would provide them the endurance they needed to cover the strike force bombers.

The bomber force was made up with six H-6Ks loaded with six under-wing pylon mounted YJ-62 missiles each. These missiles had been modified from the baseline anti-ship variant to allow targeting of land targets and had an effective range of around three-hundred kilometers. The problem today was the same as it had been one week ago when the PLAAF had struck Indian targets with cruise-missiles on the opening night of the war. They had no missiles apart from the CJ-10 Long-Swords that were truly long-range and the Long-Swords were not under PLAAF control at the moment. Their limited numbers put them solely in the strategic role under Colonel-General Liu of the 2ND Artillery Corps. And even then, the missiles were not ready for air-launch use.

This made the PLAAF utterly dependent on missiles like the YJ-62. The limited range of this type made it useful only for tactical targets and not deep penetration. The warhead was lighter than required and the guidance less than accurate, meaning it ended up flying more or less in a straight line to the target. That made it predictable and vulnerable to Indian defenses.

But there was really no choice on the matter. With the PLAAF forced to be on the defensive, flying over the targets by fighting through swarms of superior Indian air-defense fighters was not an option anymore. But exceptions did apply. Especially when Indian defenses in a particular sector were light…

When the six bombers had assembled in the skies above Wugong a half-hour later, the formation headed southwest. It was preceded by the two escort Su-30s now meeting up with their tanker over Qinghai.

SHYOK

LADAKH

DAY 6 + 1700 HRS

“Oh, this ought to be interesting!”

Major-General Mohanty noted as he stepped outside of his command trailer along with the operations officer for the 3RD Infantry Division.

Both men stepped off the entrance and onto the gravel and walked towards the line of freshly painted tanks parked along the supply route from Leh. The fading sunlight glistened on the new winter camouflage paint on the tanks.

Well. Half hour of combat will change that!

Mohanty saw a Major from the lead tank jump off the turret and run over to meet the two senior officers. He snapped off a salute, which Mohanty returned. He shook hands with the young man as he spoke:

“Major Kulkarni. I see you managed to get your unit here in good order,”

“Thank you sir! 43RD Armored reporting for combat!” Kulkarni responded proudly. Mohanty smiled at that, and then became serious: