0410 to 0600 Hours
Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan
First to go was the Omara naval base as it was the nearest. A plutonium based 10 KT warhead exploded 200m 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 nearby, disappeared like they never even existed.
Next to go was Gwadar 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 vapour. 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 three naval targets wiped out every naval asset and most of shore based defences of the Pakistani armed forces.
Next target was 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 underground 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 two 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 two 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 three cantonments were near 70%, the rest being too seriously injured to be of any threat to anybody else or any of use to Pakistan. Numerous terrorist camps near LoC in Muzzafrabad, Gilgit and other parts in Pak Occupied J&K were razed to ground using artillery and air strikes.
Paki Army men and Rangers deployed on Indo-Pak borders were one of very few survivors to escape from the Armageddon. Even then, their efficiency was severely compromised by near complete destruction of their leadership, bases and supply lines. A large number of such survivors abandoned their positions or surrendered to Indian armed forces all over the border.
Civilian causalities although high by the numbers, were comparatively light considering the scale of attack. Even then, almost 10 lakhs (1 Million) civilians perished in the attack. Thousands more kept dying every minute after that for want of medical and material aid. Already weak civilian infrastructure of the country collapsed and riots and mass flights from populated centers started happening. All pleas of help from international community fell on deaf ears as aid agencies were wary of sending their workers in a nuclear war zone.
Four Chinese bases in PoK were not spared either. They were targeted first using Brahmos missiles to neutralize most of their anti-air assets then bombed to dust by repeated air strikes. Dazed survivors, many of them civilians had nowhere 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.
0615 Hours
2 November 2012
Delhi Class Destroyer
Arabian Sea
In spite of near complete destruction of Pakistan'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 everything 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 Kilo 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 five 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 its 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 its 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 torpedoes, 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; the Delhi destroyer and the Kilo submarine were too far away.
The 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 its missiles and running away before the ship could even come within firing range. Or he could order the Sea King to drop its 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 its 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 im
mediately 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 its mark and hit its target near propeller on its 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 its bigger ballast tanks which was just emptied a few moments ago as the submarine was coming near to surface. As the water started to seep in, the submarine started listing dangerously to its side owing to imbalance in weight. Its Chinese crew was forced to seal off most of its rear area and empty rest of the ballast tanks. The submarine came to the surface a minute later still listing slightly to its port side and lay still. Although it was not completely destroyed, the fact that it was tilted on its side ensured that it could not launch any of its missiles.
Sea King hovered in a tight circle with its crew keeping a close eye on any movement while waiting for its mother ship to come close enough to launch a boarding party.
On board the destroyer, a round of congratulations and pats on the backs was in progress when the sonar operator nearly jumped out of his seat, “I think I just heard gun shots from insides of the submarine! “
Although everybody in the bridge seemed bewildered, Captain seemed looked amused, “Gun shots inside the submarine? Are you really sure?”
“It surely sounded like gunshots to me.” Sonar operator replied looking slightly embarrassed.
“Hmm. We can't rule out anything at this time anyway. Turning to his comms officer he ordered, “Try contacting the submarine before we try boarding it.”
The comms officer had been trying everything but had no luck getting any response from the Chinese. He replied, “We are getting no response sir. It's like either they are not answering deliberately or their communication gear is damaged.”
“Very well. Looks like we'll have to board the submarine. Are our men ready for it?”
His 2nd in command replied, “A ten man team is getting ready as we speak. They'll be ready to go in five 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.”
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