Begining Of The End: Story

[jamwal]

Chapter 27

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



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

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

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

[silod]

Hello All,

I am a new member and joined the forum today on 4 Feb. All the well wishes to Jamwal for treating us superbly with his writing skills.

[Bala Vignesh]

Jamwal sir,
The way you describe the things is absolutely brilliant... Waiting for the fireworks to begin...

[manish.rastogi]

too good, too good...you have got everything one would want from an ideal scenario....and have covered it brilliantly too!!

[ravar]

Jamwal saar, excellent work so far! Please keep posting more!

[RamaY]

WoW Jamwal ji!!!

I thought this thread was to discuss one of Dileep's stories and didn't pay attention...

Awesome story and writing... great work!

[jamwal]

Chapter 28

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



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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chaanakya]

Gripping and tense. I was wondering why first launch at Mirawi was not detected.

BTW, its a restrained response through Brahmos ( with non nuclear warhead) for a nuke strike against India.Tunnel strike is awaited and I think it would also be conventional as you describe. Ailing leader would get Nobel Peace Prize unless Gwadar along with chow-mien is fried forever.

Question: which are the two cities whose complete destruction would bring Pakistan to its knees without compromising its leadership's ability to decide for abject surrender?

[jamwal]

Mirawi strike was detected, but a bit late. There was no AWACS or satellite coverage on the launching area at that moment.

[jamwal]

Chapter 29

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


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

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

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

“You are a whining bitch.”

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

“Hah! You heard THAT all right.”

“Shh..can you hear that ? “

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

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

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

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

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

[jamwal]

Question: which are the two cities whose complete destruction would bring Pakistan to its knees without compromising its leadership's ability to decide for abject surrender?

IMO, Karachi is one. Islamabad, Lahore apart from vital military installations elsewhere fall in to the category too. But I don't think that loss of civilians will affect Paki decision making in any way. As long as military is in control, loss of cities is unlikely to force them to surrender. Pakis do breed fast.

[silod]

Wow, the fireworks are about to start..... Hold your nerves.

[jamwal]

Chapter 30

0357 Hours
Missile Defence Force HQ
Mumbai

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

“How much time ?”

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

“You sure there are no other bogies ?”

“Yes sir.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

[nits]

“We have a successful intercept by Rakshak 1. Rakshak 2 will self-destruct in 20 seconds.”

Jamawal - you have covered every aspect of Indian Military in your scenario... This is one of the best Scenario i have ever come across on BR... Words like Brilliant, Marvellous are now felt too short...

Let the writing flow...

[abhishekkaushal]

Brig Singh jumped up from his chair and congratulated the grinning DRDO techies by slapping them on their backs.

One rarely comes across such praise for the drdo people. Hope they'll perform better in the future to earn some more respect (well, not just in stories! )...

[jamwal]

Chapter 31

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Bala Vignesh]

Glad to see the indians responding in kind for once.. Ten nukes though is overkill, IMO.

[nits]

Glad to see the indians responding in kind for once.. Ten nukes though is overkill, IMO.

With Love from India... they well deserve it sir IMHO...

[RamaY]

Glad to see the indians responding in kind for once.. Ten nukes though is overkill, IMO.

In fact they are not enough. Every Paki city worth its name should be destroyed, completely. And a few at Chinise focus centers in POK area.

When the decision to nuke Pakistan is made, it is better to clean the land for all kinds of vermin. Nuke military installations first, followed by every city and town, and finally all the dams on Indus. Let the mighty Sindhu clean the pakiness in to the arabian sea for good.

[sarabpal.s]

Why punishing whole Pakistan for few Mullahs.
Public there is quiet because of danda otherwise common has different view about indo-pak IMHO

[niran]

Why punishing whole Pakistan for few Mullahs.
Public there is quiet because of danda otherwise common has different view about indo-pak IMHO

Saar, please write this up and etch it in your brain

Every Poaki is a Terrorist even if proven otherwise

[Tanaji]

Why punishing whole Pakistan for few Mullahs.
Public there is quiet because of danda otherwise common has different view about indo-pak IMHO

And you know this because?

[Prem]

About time Poaks go through Agni Pariksha. The one who esxape unscathced , can bet taken care of latter on.

[Gurneesh]

Why punishing whole Pakistan for few Mullahs.
Public there is quiet because of danda otherwise common has different view about indo-pak IMHO

A silent watcher is almost as guilty as the criminal.....

[jamwal]

Chapter 32

0410 to 0600 Hours
Terrorist Islamic Mullahcracy Of Pakistan


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[sarabpal.s]

Why punishing whole Pakistan for few Mullahs.
Public there is quiet because of danda otherwise common has different view about indo-pak IMHO

A silent watcher is almost as guilty as the criminal.....

People prematurely making comments. without thinking twice.

my comments is based on thinking policy .


For jamwal

I read it somewhere that the most part of year fighting nuclear war close to border is not possible because of the weather pattern. we can attack border area with nuke is only in between monsoon when wind flow toward Pakistan,any other day or month of time we would have to face same after affect as pakistan as wind bring radiation air towards India.

Another factor is indo-pak nuclear war threat is well-known all over the world, did not you think world community try to pursue India to not attack with same response.

[jamwal]

Nuclear bases close to border were destroyed using a mix conventional and nuclear weapons which explode below ground. Risk of radiation carrying winds blowing in to India in this case is minimal.

India has No First Use doctrine, not Never Use. 1st strike was a grave enough provocation, 2nd attempt means all the gloves are off. All the Indian strikes were done within a span of 120 minutes of the 2nd missile launch from Paki territory. Too soon for international pressure to work against a determined (and probably scared to sh**) India.

[Bala Vignesh]

Jamwal sir,
Whatever happened to our spec ops boys on pakistani soil???

[sarabpal.s]

i am not here to question your story writing,
which is very good 2nd thing the pace it is coming
keep me glued to br site for more.

[nits]

Sir - Busy in Aero India ? hope to see more coming from you for Chinese...

[dnivas]

We need moar.

[shelly]

????? need More ?????

[jamwal]

Hardly anything to do with Aero India. Very busy at ophiss.
Will try to post 2 chapters by Tuesday

[jamwal]

Chapter 32 (Part 2)

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

[jamwal]

Chapter 33


0615 Hours
2 November 2012
Delhi Class Destroyer
Arabian Sea


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

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

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

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

“ Any identification of submarine?”

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

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

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

“Any progress ? “ Commander asked .

“Not yet.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Dileep]

Isn't the official unit of measure Nautical Miles and yards in these circles? Or is that USN onlee?

[SAditya]

Nice Surprise...
Great update...Waiting eagerly for the next update!!!!!!!!

[jamwal]

US hasn't shifted to metric system and they do use yards to measure the distance, AFAIK. No idea about Indian Navy. Using metric system is just an educated guess

[jamwal]

Chapter 34


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Fair enough. I'm waiting.”


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

[hpatel]

wow - great story - what next?