SOUTHWEST OF RAHIM YAR KHAN
DAY 2 + 1435 HRS
“All rhino-alpha tanks! We are pushing on, on my mark!”
Kulkarni changed comms to his own tank: “Ready?”
The driver chimed back: “Ready, sir.”
“Then push on!”
The Arjun tank jerked forward and the engines rumbled and groaned as the vehicle began to move out of its position by the side of the east-west road. It pitched up as it crushed over some civilian cars abandoned by the fleeing Pakistani civilians in the town and then fell back on the road. Kulkarni and the others were holding on to the rails inside the turret to prevent themselves from being smashed against the equipment inside. Once they stabilized, Kulkarni pulled up Rhino comms again:
“Rhino-alpha tanks! Execute! Execute! Bash on to the highway!”
He checked his sights and rotating it a full circle to see that other tanks behind him were taking positions in the convoy along the road, merging in one behind the other to form a long line of tanks and other vehicles, moving west like a snake.
Kulkarni would have liked to spread the tanks out over a wider front than this road, but in this urban environment, the terrain prevented it. But one thing was sure, they could not wait for the fight for Rahim Yar Khan to end before pushing on to the strategic N5 highway west of the town. There was no more time. The nuclear threat had just materialized on the Punjab front with the detonation in eastern Lahore. It was only a matter of time before it might happen here. And Kulkarni wanted to reach his pre-war objectives before the Pakistanis sapped his strength with nuclear weapons. He wanted his tanks straddling the N5 highway to remind the enemy high command that this strategic lifeline had been cut by the Indians. It was intended to have as much psychological effect as real, forcing the enemy to realized that defeat was inevitable and near.
Kulkarni and Sudarshan also hoped that keeping the residual Pak army forces inside Rahim Yar Khan in close proximity to themselves would force the enemy high command to refrain from the use of nuclear warheads that might also destroy what forces they had out here. The Pak army units inside the town could not challenge Kulkarni’s heavy armor west of the town, but they served as useful hostages to help prevent any strikes on Rhino and Trishul task forces.
In theory, at least…Kulkarni reminded himself.
His tanks were now operating in NBC wartime conditions. The tank turret and crew compartments were sealed and all radiological and chemical sensors were active and running. The turret was also now operating in a positive air pressure environment to prevent outside particulates from entering inside. His turret would remain hatched now until the war was over or the nuclear threat had subsided.
A loud cyclic whumping noise overhead increased and then decreased. Kulkarni peered through his sights to see three air-force Apaches flying past them as they swept ahead of his columns to the west. These would act both as recon as well as anti-armor assets using their hellfire missiles.
“Those air force boys are having a fine day!” Kulkarni’s gunner responded. Kulkarni could make out a tint of jealousy in the man’s voice. That brought an increasingly-rare smile on his face, but he kept his peace. So the gunner continued for the benefit of the other crewmembers: “They take out the fun targets and leave us to sort through the shit looking for nuggets!”
Kulkarni knew this to be at least partly true. The Apaches had gone hunting T-80s inside and north of Rahim Yar Khan, eliminating what remained of the once-prestigious Pak 1ST Armored Division forces. They had encountered severe anti-air gunfire over Rahim Yar Khan and two Apaches had been destroyed in that fight. So now the air force had changed tactics. The Apaches were streaming far and wide over the open terrain west, north and south of the town, striking enemy rear columns and inbound convoys while the air force strike aircraft went over the town looking for hiding enemy tanks in the streets below.
“I can’t complain,” the loader added sheepishly. Kulkarni thought his voice had an innocent honesty to it.
The gunner sighed as though conceding to the point. “Neither can I.”
And neither could Kulkarni. As the overall Rhino force commander, he appreciated any and all help that was given to him by sister units and services. Even the air-force, he admitted to himself as though the impossible had happened in his mindset. But now that his own tanks were heavily depleted from combat attrition against heavy enemy forces and the fact that half his remaining force was bogged down besieging the town and protecting his flanks, the actual force he was leading to the strategic highway numbered no more than twenty tanks and about two dozen supporting vehicles from Trishul…
He realized if someone had offered him this force strength to hold the strategic target prior to the war, he would have questioned the competency of the officer involved. But here he was, pulling off the seemingly impossible.
Just another day…a voice in his head told him.
Of course it is!
“Approaching the objective!” The driver said over the tank comms, jerking Kulkarni from his thoughts. He spotted it through his own sights almost at the same time as they cleared around some mud houses and exited the road, heading towards the highway.
The gunner’s response was instantaneous: “
Shit!”
Kulkarni had to agree. The N5 highway was clogged with civilian vehicles and massive numbers of civilians all over the place, making their way north and south: away from the approaching Indian forces…
The civilians saw the approaching Indian tanks at the same time and a panic spread through the crowds. Rumors had been spread by the jihadists that the Indians were gunning down civilians without regard, and that no one was safe. Kulkarni had heard that signals intelligence report a half hour ago over the Steel-central comms. Basically it was a recruiting tool, plain and simple. The Jihadists -and the Pak army- were saying to the able bodied men and women in the city to join the jihad to protect their families from certain death and to protect their Islamic lands.
The net result of that, however, was massive chaos and panic all along the highway as Kulkarni’s tank convoy began spreading out and approaching, their turrets sweeping left and right for possible targets in the mass of people in front of them. He saw the shrieks and screams in fear as people abandoned their belongings and vehicles on the jammed highway and ran west into the desert beyond the road. He also saw what looked like TV media vehicles parked a kilometer north on the highway, trying to leave but stuck in traffic…
“All Rhino-alpha tanks,” Kulkarni keyed his comms, “watch for enemy combatants within the civilian crowds here. Destroy what targets present themselves, but for god’s sake don’t shoot civilians while the media crews are filming the whole thing!”
His tank shuddered to a halt about thirty meters from the concrete of the highway.
“Driver, why are we halted?”
The driver chimed in: “Sir the road is clogged with vehicles.”
Kulkarni cocked an eyebrow in surprise: “So? Crush them! No better way to block this road than to have crushed vehicles and a sixty ton tank sitting on it!”
“Uh…copy! Hang on.”
The vehicle rumbled forward and accelerated towards the empty cars on the highway. The tank pitched up and then landed on the roof of the car with a massive crash, smashing the small sedan to pieces under its treads. Small pieces of the car flew in all directions as the Arjun accelerated over it to the next vehicle. Kulkarni could only imagine the hidden smile of the driver up in front. It was not every day that he got to do what he was doing now and had probably wanted to do for a long time…
Kulkarni rotated his sights north and south and saw civilians running away in long columns. He even saw what looked like some Pak soldiers removing their uniforms near a bus and changing into civilian clothes while being jeered at by civilians nearby, probably accusing them of cowardice. Many youngsters were busy taking pictures on their cell phones as other Arjun tanks followed Kulkarni’s lead and smashed and crashed their way on to the highway. Kulkarni’s own tank rumbled past to the other side of the highway and jerked to a stop. The gunner swiveled the turrets to look for Pak army or jihadist targets but found none.
Kulkarni switched comms: “Rhino-actual to steel-central. Over.”
“Steel-central copies, Rhino-actual. Send traffic. Over.”
“Steel-central, rhino-alpha is at waypoint ‘red’ and has secured it. I say again, we are at waypoint ‘red’ and are holding. Over.” Kulkarni was surprised at how anti-climactic this whole thing was. He might as well have been radioing in his food and water requirements…
“Good job, rhino-actual. Steel-actual sends his regards. Secure objective and stand by for further orders. Steel-central out.” The link chimed out.
“What do we do now, sir?” The gunner asked casually.
“Good question,” Kulkarni muttered. “I guess we hold this place until told otherwise. See any targets, you light them up, of course!”
“Of course.”
Kulkarni swiveled his sights and saw the other Arjun tanks also doing the same over a two kilometer stretch of the highway. He pressed some buttons on the ABAMS screen to orient part of his forces north and south, facing down the highway while his platoon of tanks faced west into the desert, wondering what was behind the visible horizon of wild bushes and trees. He saw the recon Apaches to the north as they flew past the highway heading east, probably to rearm and refuel, he speculated. And to the north, the flash and rumble of artillery passed through his tank. Brigadier Sudarshan was busy hammering targets north and south of where Rhino tanks were, but that was all above Kulkarni’s pay grade. He could only speculate unless Sudarshan decided to tell him something.
That made for a lonely afternoon of waiting. This was bad for many reasons. Not least of which was that it gave the initiative to the enemy. It pushed Rhino from being an initiator of death and destruction to a responder. It also added strain to his crews, who were wound up like a spring, ready to uncoil on the enemy. Now they had to sit and wait. And that could cause them to break. Kulkarni didn’t feel like speculating what “breaking down” meant when those men were sitting behind a long barrel tank gun…
As the Tunguska vehicles of Trishul force moved into position around the highway, assorted engineering and recon troops began pulling up from the east. Kulkarni saw explosions rocking the center of Rahim Yar Khan to the east, behind him. He could also hear the crackle of machine gun fire punctuating the air and tank rounds leaving their barrels.
Swiveling north, he caught sight of reporters, two kilometers away, talking in front of cameras pointed towards the Arjun tanks blocking the highway. He knew the Pak army commanders would be seeing all this. And the media would be reporting in short order that Indian armor forces had penetrated deep inside Pakistani territory and cut off the strategic N5 highway, splitting the Pak army defenses along the border into two. These two segments could no longer communicate physically along this north-south highway. They would either have to fight through Rhino tanks or maneuver further west into the desert and skirt around this blockade, adding to already over-blocked roads and highways. The ball was now neatly in the other court, as Kulkarni soon realized. And the reality of it all would settle into the Pak army minds soon enough.
His real question, however, was how would they respond?
Yama i would say it ends with 2014. 
