THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  Chapter 1

  The Beginning of the Fall

  1.1 Staging the Attack

  (10th January 2016 2300 IST: The midnight sky was dark with no moon in sight. The weather was cold yet bearable.)

  A special task force unit, named the 1st Para-commandos parachuted into the forests of Chhattisgarh from a high flying IL-76. Their task was to take part in a surgical strike on the command center of a rebel organization inside the forests of Chhattisgarh. The mission was to knock down the command and get control of the center belonging to an insurgent group active in that region.

  The primary objective of this mission was to collect military intelligence; the secondary objective was the destruction of all types of enemy forces on the ground. Although the 1st Para-commandos corps had a prestigious track record of operations in Sri-Lanka and Maldives, the task at hand was daunting. Recently the Indian army had inducted a new assault technique to conduct, seek and destroy operations in difficult terrains ranging from mountains to forests.

  As a result the Indian army included a special type of unconventional warfare tactics developed in the West as part of commando training. The Indian army inducted the new weapons and tactics from the NATO Forces required for the mission. A few months back, the 1st Para-commandos had returned from a training exercise in the USA where they had got the training to combat terrorists, while using the most advanced technology and inflicting minimal collateral damage.

  Meanwhile trained paratroopers swiftly recovered from the drop and proceeded to the rendezvous point in a small opening in the forest. The team members checked their equipment and weapons, on getting their captain’s instructions. Following this, the captain broke the radio silence to report to the command, on getting an 'all clear' signal from the team.

  Radio Message: Bravo to Command, Teams in position. Permission to proceed. Over

  Command: Roger Bravo. Live Satellite feed on your screen in 5 minutes. Proceed with caution. Over and Out.

  Even in the darkness of the forests the captain of the unit could be easily recognized by his aquiline nose, curved like the beak of an eagle. Captain Ranbir Chauhan, a graduate from NDA Pune and IMA Dehradun, hailed from a family of soldiers and officers dating back to his great grandfather who fought for the British army in Afghanistan. Captain Chauhan was also the best cadet of his batch and was commissioned into the prestigious Parachute Regiment, known for their bravery and valor.

  He also finished his commando training from Commando Training Camp in Belgaum, Karnataka and then volunteered for training at the high altitude warfare school in Srinagar. He had also got trained from Counterinsurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) in Vairengte, Mizoram to become the youngest ever to complete this feat.

  For his impeccable record, he was one of the few, handpicked by the top brass of the Indian army, to get trained in US on a new electronic warfare system developed to conduct precision strikes on valuable targets. The NATO had codenamed this project HAWK to conduct counterinsurgency operations in different parts of the world. Recently Indian army got the technology on the pretext of fighting terrorism and mounting joint attacks on nuclear facilities in Pakistan, but they were going to use it in anti-Maoist operations for the first time.

  The team members were overawed by the size and the majesty of the trees in the forests. As they moved the grass crackled beneath their feet because of the recent dry spell, but they had to maintain caution as enemy spies could easily distinguish between animal and human movements. Even in the dark Captain Chauhan could see rich patches of excellent grasslands providing food for the herbivorous like the wild buffalo, chital, barking deer and nilgai.

  The canopy of the trees rose ever upwards as far as their heads could lift. The most commonly found trees in the forest were teak, lendia, salai, mahua and tendu. The forest canopy itself looked like a hoary fortress which could scare the bravest of them, especially on moonless nights; however the night vision came in handy. The soldier's' instincts made him canvass the branches for any vigilant eyes of the enemy spies who could be camping on the top, but then he remembered from briefing that the enemy does not have enough leverage to deploy human intelligence in middle of forests.

  Meanwhile the swirling wind carried a fragrance with it which refreshed the spirit; it was a heady mixture of all the scents of the forest mixed with the intoxicating smell of the mahua tree. The tribals of the region make local liquor with it; there is a high demand for it in this area. Some soldiers ate few jamuns blown down by the wind that littered the beaten path. Immediately the captain warned them to discontinue the practice and focus on the mission by making a sharp hand movement.

  As soon as he finished the gesture Captain Chauhan heard a loud sound of twigs breaking down violently towards their right as if something was moving towards them disturbing the silence of their walk. Immediately the whole team went on alert and targeted their guns towards the direction from where the sound was coming. In no time a chital stag appeared in front of Captain Chauhan and looking at the team in position with guns trained on him, it almost froze, stunned by human presence, subsequently not knowing what to do.

  Captain Chauhan saw the Stag shivering with fear; he immediately removed his weapon and showed his hands as a gesture of peace to the animal. Then he asked his team to slowly move back from the stag to ease the pressure that they had created on the animal. With the team at a safe distance, the stag moved back slowly to where it had come from and Captain Chauhan breathed a sigh of relief.

  Their location was still a secret and the team continued on their path laid out on their visors. Captain Chauhan looked again towards the trees and he saw a pair of owls high up in the canopy of the trees peering down towards him. Beyond the owl, the stars peeped down at him like silver asters, glinting and shimmering intensifying the horror of the night. The cruel suspicious round eyes of the owls looked scarier when seen through his night vision and as a result he decided not to look up again.

  But then a thought dawned on him which was briefed to him before the mission. The forest was bound to be infested with cobras! This was another creature that would scare the daylights out of the bravest of the brave. He remembered his days of commando training where they were instructed how to catch and eat cobras from forest terrains and also remembered how difficult it was to bring under control the fast slithering and ferocious snake.

  Instinctively his eyes canvassed for a possible ant hills near the region as cobras are known to live inside ant hills. But soon the mission objectives displayed on his helmet visor brought his focus back on the trail.

  Captain Chauhan and his team moved very carefully through the ravines of the forest. They followed the route displayed on their helmet-mounted visors fitted with night vision goggles. Surprisingly the team moved very swiftly through the terrain of the forest and in no time the team was in direct line of sight of a two storied building with a small generator unit.

  The lights were still on inside the building and it looked as if it was the only one with any signs of activity in the vicinity of the tribal village, which lay completely abandoned. The building looked more like a haunted house in the middle of a very dense forest. Originally built by the Britishers as a rest house for hunting expeditions, a guerilla outfit now used the building to carry out the operations against the state. The intelligence reports suggested that the building acted as the command and control center for a rebel organization linked to the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The helmet displayed that the immediate task in hand was to kill all the inmates, destroy all signaling devices and capture any form of intelligence.

&nbs
p; In the meantime the team took a position at a safe distance from the building and Captain Chauhan brought out his night vision binoculars again to survey the region. Just then a message beamed on his radio from the Charlie Team of engineers who were already in position for a recce of the region.

  Radio Message: Charlie to Bravo, Detecting radio signals around the building, possible motion sensors. Over.

  Radio Message: Bravo to Charlie: Engineering reconnaissance approved. Over.

  A two member team from Charlie Company crawled slowly towards the facility to place receiver antennas to monitor the radio signals from the motion sensors. The Maoist unit had placed a few motion sensors to monitor any movement during the night time around the region. To assess the conditions, Captain Chauhan shut down the night vision temporarily to check if he saw two shadowy figures crawling under the fence and grappling on the ground.

  Soon little stars, flashed on and off in Captain Chauhan’s mind, as he followed the two members setting their equipments through a murky haze of black. One was almost on the top of the other, trying to sneak in through the narrow opening. Looking at this, Captain Chauhan started breathing profusely as he followed the two men following unconventional approach. His breathing seemed muffled and murderous to his team who had never seen him panic before any engagement, but they kept to themselves.

  Captain Chauhan was nervous as he knew the command had not briefed the team of any possible conventional engagement and any mistake by the Charlie team could wreak havoc on the entire mission. This concern was because the two individuals were visible even to the naked eye in the starlight and there was no backup.

  A pregnant pause followed and Captain Chauhan tried to get his composure back and steady his breathing. However, his throat passage felt as if it was reduced to the size of a penny but then it seemed someone hissed in his ears when the radio silence was broken again.

  Radio Message: Charlie to Bravo, Negative. Manual deactivation is risky. Seems XingXing class sensors. Over

  The Chinese-made motion sensors were used extensively by the insurgents in India. They were cheap but effective and very difficult to be deactivated manually. Another message beeped on the Captain’s radio.

  Radio Message: Command to Bravo, Standby. Satellite picked intel on backup pockets. Caution advised till the package is identified. Over

  Captain Chauhan tried to see through his night vision to find out if anything was visible but could not see any movement. After waiting for a few minutes he radioed back.

  Bravo to Command: Nothing on my scope. Package probably not hostile. Stage is hot and wired. Permission to shift to delta tactical assault. Over.

  Command to Bravo: Permission granted. Over

  Delta tactical assault was the name given by the special task force for an extremely potent attack on a facility that seemed to have hi-tech fortifications which could result in collateral damage. Two sets of commandos in red and blue teams combined with engineering units and unmanned vehicles while supported by helicopter gunships carried on the task. As part of the operations, three MI-35 gunships with special sensors as part of Eagle team had taken position at a distance from the facility to initiate the attack.

  Moving very slowly, Captain Chauhan looked towards the choppers through his scope and it suddenly dawned on him that it was not a training exercise. Thoughts went in his mind as no one knew how the AI system would behave in a real combat situation and Captain Chauhan felt a sudden bout of adrenaline rush while seeing the choppers taking position. He became extremely vigilant and hypersensitive; he could hear his own heartbeat. A drop of sweat came down from his forehead while he tried to control the excessive shaking of his body. His hand trembled while he tried to look through the barrels of the gun at the target while trying to get back composure. He remained in the same position for several minutes when another message on the radio disturbed him from his state. Captain Chauhan recovered and listened.

  Command to Eagle 1: Reroute to Bravo position for Delta tactical assault. Coordinates will be on your screen. Wait for further instructions. Over.

  Eagle 1 to Command: Roger that. Estimated ETA in 15 minutes.

  Bravo to Eagle 1: Approach vector tight. Maintain stealth. Over.

  Radio Message: Eagle 1 to Bravo: Roger that. Over and Out.

  The Eagle unit composed of three helicopter gunships modified to perform specialized operations in the Delta Assault Sequence. As part of the plan, the first task of the choppers was to build a 3D map of the entire building to assist the engineers in planning the attacks. Initially the choppers placed themselves at a safe distance from the facility to fire a beam of high intensity sonar from a high altitude.

  After this the engineering team on the ground collected the infrared signatures coming out from the building to map the position of inmates. However the thick walls of British era did not make their task very easy. Finally the combined results from the two units were then sent for analysis to the command.

  Bravo to Charlie: It's a go to set parameter around the building. Over.

  Charlie to Bravo: Roger That. Over.

  As commanded by the captain, a sub team of engineers moved very cautiously to put infrared imagery cameras around the building to get another three dimensional view. While Captain Chauhan tracked the movements of the engineers through his barrels he felt a nervous tic under his left eye. On account of the presence of the HAWK in the mission, he felt his men had become mere doppelgangers; yet once they were part of Special Forces capable of inflicting fear in the minds of their deadliest enemies but now they were like mere mannequins cast adrift from their souls and made docile by the ever increasing presence of the machine.

  However, this time something strange happened to him while looking through his visor which he had never witnessed before. The Captain was getting the constant mordant smell of death, even though the assault was yet to start. Simultaneously, he was having premonitions of men blown apart and their bodies turning into jellies out of the shearing heat from the explosions. Never before in any attack had he had such premonitions; he felt odd but suddenly he felt as if a friend from his military academy was trying to wake him up from a dream when another message beeped on his radio.

  Charlie to Command: Sensors hot. Transmission begins in 5 minutes. Over.

  Command to Charlie: Roger that. Maximum combat simulation time expected 15 minutes. Over.

  Charlie to Command: Roger that. Over and out.

  1.2 The Delta Assault Technique

  In the Delta tactical assault that was planned, the data from the sensors were fed into a supercomputer in the command base. Then a possible assault strategy on the target was built after analyzing the data. The tactics deployed to plan the assault used classified Artificial Intelligence techniques which used a mix of neural networks and machine learning techniques of field data collected. As a result of the simulation the potential damage zones were isolated through a scenario planning based on the inmate distribution in the building.

  To inflict the maximum damage on the target the size and quantity of explosion were determined accordingly. Also the simulator picked up a few locations for precision strikes and among them it selected the dormitory as the site of choice for using the most potent explosives as most of the inmates were resting in their dorms. Furthermore the simulator also provided the possible impact parameter of the explosion based on the material, structure and wind flow patterns in the region.

  Next the simulator ran the module for the most probable scattering zones for the survivors after the initial round of attacks. At the same time the simulator provided suggestions on channeling the scattering of the people on an understanding of basic human psychology. The model also suggested the placement of the particular form of lighting to confuse the survivors to fall into a trap.

  It also recommended the possible placements of teams and weaponry to inflict the maximum damage on the survivors. Besides the simulations, to confuse the survivors to fall in a trap, an unmanned vehicl
e Vidyut was programmed to be strategically placed to inflict maximum damage. Vidyut, which in English meant lightning, derived its name from the relentless firepower and accuracy it packed, was air-dropped after the assault was finalized.

  Vidyut could hit anything which carried an infrared signature. However, the special camos provided to the commandos reduced their infrared signature drastically protecting them. Initially the plan was to send Vidyut to the high density scattering zone, as provided by the simulations, to inflict the maximum damage.

  The next step was to place the blue team, which had snipers, to the low density scattering zones of the inmates. And then the red team led by Captain Chauhan was tasked to enter the command room and take down the remaining survivors. To that end, the capture of the radio codes and servers, without any damage were the top priority of the main assault team.

  Bravo to Command: Kill zone identified. Good to go. Confirm Vidyut’s kill zone. Over

  Command to Bravo: Don’t worry. Killzone clear. over

  Eagle1 to Command: Target Identified and locked on