Coercion
Sure enough, ground-based acquisition radars were scanning Song Ning's aircraft from several directions. The system classified every contact as a "secondary threat," meaning no fire-control radar had locked on yet. But he knew the front line was getting closer with every second. Given the chaos the Pakistani military had endured all day, a SAM battery firing on an unidentified aircraft would be perfectly normal.
The Mirage wingman was holding an angle on the J-10 that kept it outside the Mirage's radar cone, and the Indian pilot was clearly about to bolt for the border.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot down the wingman, now." Sami's voice crackled over the radio.
"No. I will not do that. It would be a grave breach of discipline." Song Ning replied. Then he did something that made the group captain tremble with fury: he turned northwest, carrying his full weapons load out of the fight.
Sami had no time to argue. Matanga's Mirage had vanished from his scope again. He assumed the lead would naturally rejoin its wingman and turned to chase the wingman's last position as indicated by Song Ning's radar. But the Indian flight leader was craftier than that; he did not rejoin. His Mirage 2000H had disappeared into some unguessable patch of sky. With Song Ning gone, Sami had lost most of his sensor coverage. Aircraft 01's IRST had never managed to acquire a target.
The Chinese major was plainly coercing the group captain into turning back. But abandoning prey was not in Sami's nature. Like a reckless, tireless wolf, he shifted targets and accelerated after the fleeing Mirage wingman. This aircraft was low, its heading barely changing; it was running for the border by the shortest possible route. It had no stomach for a fight, but fuel concerns kept it from going to full afterburner. This gave Sami his opening. He lit the burner, quickly pushed past the speed of sound, and closed rapidly. At roughly ten kilometres, the IRST finally acquired the wingman's infrared signature. The group captain tried the laser rangefinder several times, but he was unfamiliar with the J-10B's system and could not get a reading. After too many attempts, the MFD flashed a warning: the laser needed approximately seventy seconds to cool. He abandoned the rangefinder and fell back on experience. He had practised tail chases against Mirage IIIs many times and knew exactly how to estimate range from the six o'clock of a delta-wing aircraft by eye.
The gap narrowed fast. A few dozen seconds more and he would be at optimal firing distance. Part of him was still annoyed at Song Ning, but the thought that his kill tally would soon leave No. 5 Squadron's Hassan in the dust brought a surge of satisfaction.
The Mirage ahead, oblivious, drifted into the IRST's tracking aperture. Lock. But for Muhammad Sami, down to his last missile, the range was still too great.
"Group Captain, check seven o'clock. You're being tracked."
Sami glanced back. The wingman ahead had also broken sideways; Song Ning's warning must have coincided with a radio call between the two Mirages. He realised he had just created a serious problem for Song Ning. At this distance, the Indian pilot behind him could certainly read the markings on the J-10B.1 He made a snap decision: press the attack on the first aircraft while activating his ECM to jam the two Mirages' communications with their base.
"Zero-two, he's seen me. The first one is mine, but you need to act. Now." He pressed the release.
A missile dropped from the J-10's wing and ignited. The Mirage wingman was squarely inside the no-escape zone. As Sami broke downward, he watched the Mirage try to flee in the opposite direction. The missile pulled harder and followed. This one would not miss. The immediate problem, however, was that he himself could hardly escape the Mirage behind him.
Captain Matanga was close on the tail of the aircraft bearing the PLA's August First roundel.2 His communications were jammed by a combination of low altitude and the enemy's ECM; he could not relay this staggering discovery to base. He had no time to consider whether this meant China had entered the war. He knew only that his one chance of survival was to destroy the Chinese fighter in front of him. He had seen that it carried no more missiles; the moment was now. The Mirage 2000's superb instantaneous turn rate should let him swing the aircraft at two kilometres onto his nose for a missile shot, but the target was not cooperating. It was diving, bleeding altitude for angular velocity, and hanging just outside the Magic's seeker cone. This appeared to be a deliberate tactic: the enemy pilot knew the Mirage was running out of fuel and could not sustain many more turns.
Mid-chase, a violent red flash erupted in the distance. Matanga turned his head just enough to see his wingman's ejection seat fire. In this one ambush, his Tiger flight had been all but destroyed by Chinese aircraft that had appeared from nowhere. Fury ignited. He stamped the rudder and hauled the stick, driving straight after the enemy. A reckless move; an overly aggressive turn could swing him out in front of his quarry. But the captain was past caring. Someone would pay for this. He was determined to settle accounts with this undeclared Chinese intruder.
"Zero-one, you need to open the range. I can't shoot with you this close." Song Ning's voice on the radio. He had finally made his decision, but he was afraid of hitting Sami's aircraft.
"Copy."
Sami pulled the nose up and pushed the throttle to the wall, climbing away.
Matanga watched the aircraft slide rapidly from the edge of his canopy to above his head. He was too low on fuel to follow in full afterburner. He could only watch as the distance between them slowly opened.
Song Ning's radar aperture had locked solidly onto the last Mirage. The system quickly settled into single-target track, the most feared mode of pursuit; nearly impossible to break. He was certain the Indian cockpit was screaming with warnings.
"Once you've decided, don't hesitate." The group captain was panting, shouting. He knew he could fall inside the Magic's tracking envelope at any moment.
Song Ning pressed the button. Two SD-10s dropped from the rails and streaked toward the last Mirage 2000H on the battlefield. He knew this was something he had no choice but to do. The truth had to be buried. If Matanga escaped with what he had seen, China would face a diplomatic catastrophe.
1. PLA markings (八一军徽): The August First star (八一, "August First," the anniversary of the founding of the PLA), a red star with the Chinese characters 八一, is the standard roundel painted on all Chinese military aircraft. At two kilometres' distance in clear air, this emblem is unmistakable. Matanga's visual identification of the roundel is the crisis that forces Song Ning's hand: if the Indian pilot reports what he has seen, it constitutes proof of Chinese military intervention in the India-Pakistan war. ↩
2. Song Ning's decision: The chapter's title, "Coercion" (胁迫), operates in two directions. Song Ning's withdrawal coerces Sami into turning back (which fails). But events then coerce Song Ning into firing: once Matanga has seen the PLA markings, there is no longer a choice between discipline and engagement. The only way to prevent a geopolitical crisis is to prevent Matanga from reporting. Song Ning fires not out of combat instinct but out of political necessity. The final line of the original Chinese text acknowledges this explicitly: "the truth had to be concealed." ↩