The Thar Incident - 2
Continued from Part I.
*****
The turning of the Dhruv's rotors created a mini sandstorm that engulfed the helipad at the Pokharan special test facility. The pad itself was mostly used by high level dignitaries that were visiting the site and occasionally it was used to casevac injured personnel from the site. The IAF usually flew those flights, but this Dhruv belonged to another agency, and the helo was completely unmarked even the tail number was in low visibility gray lettering.
Inside the Dhruv sat a five man team from 22 Para (SF), two officers (a Captain and an Lt. ) and the rest were all NCO or equivalent ranks. One of the NCOs was highly experienced in satellite-communications and the Lt. was actually a medical officer. The men were nominally attached to one of the newly constituted Independent Battle Groups (IBG) that were believed to be in the Bikaner area but as the IBG was at its peace station, the men were available for other work.
As the physicist from the Pokhran site clambered aboard the helicopter, the CO of the 58 Engineers joined him as did the representative of the NSC. A lance naik appeared briefly to and pushed a heavy suitcase containing some basic equipment, a geiger counter, a small ionization detector (both developed at BARC), and a hand held air sampler made by DRDL, the sampler would tell you if there were any toxic chemicals or harmful biological agents in the air.
As the hatch in the back of the copter was shut, the Dhruv gently lifted into the dark night sky and over the din of the rotors the Capt from 22 Para (SF) shouted out to the DAE man,
"Do you know what were are dealing with?"
The DAE man shook his head, "Dunno.. could be anything... all I know is that the NSC says it fell from the sky and took out two of our migs on the way down"
The Capt looked at the NSC man, "We were first told that this might be a SAR for the pilots, possibly across the border... I only got the revised mission profile after we took off... what's the real deal."
The NSC man looked on grimly, and after a long pause spoke, " The pilots are dead.. but lets keep an open mind."
The Capt. looked back somewhat unsure of what to say.
As the Dhruv circled the base, the men inside could make out the shadow of the Mi-8 landing on the pad below. Within minutes the Mi-8 was being loaded up with BL-4 compatible hazmat suits and oxygen bottles. It was a familiar drill for the men flying the Mi-8. The Mi-8 and its crew belonged to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The only points of interest was that the pilots were always armed, and for some reason always wore breathing apparatus. The Mi-8 was originally part of the famed BSF air wing (or "Advani's Air Force" as some had jokingly called it when it was expanded in 2001). Nowadays ofcourse the airplanes were "on loan" to another department - the Disaster Managament Agency - another of the Government of India's secret leviathans that seemed to mysteriously appear out of innocuous line items in the CISF and CRPF budgets.
Unbeknownst to the men in the helicopters at Pokharan other giants were on the move at that late hour. At another NSC managed facility in the Aravali hills, company strength of heavily armed men were piling into three Mi-17 helicopters and the commander of the 11 IBG at Bikaner was being roused out of his sleep by a junior officer holding a single line message from Integrated Defence Forces HQ in New Delhi. The single line message when decrypted would simply read ... "Mobilize".
*****
The turning of the Dhruv's rotors created a mini sandstorm that engulfed the helipad at the Pokharan special test facility. The pad itself was mostly used by high level dignitaries that were visiting the site and occasionally it was used to casevac injured personnel from the site. The IAF usually flew those flights, but this Dhruv belonged to another agency, and the helo was completely unmarked even the tail number was in low visibility gray lettering.
Inside the Dhruv sat a five man team from 22 Para (SF), two officers (a Captain and an Lt. ) and the rest were all NCO or equivalent ranks. One of the NCOs was highly experienced in satellite-communications and the Lt. was actually a medical officer. The men were nominally attached to one of the newly constituted Independent Battle Groups (IBG) that were believed to be in the Bikaner area but as the IBG was at its peace station, the men were available for other work.
As the physicist from the Pokhran site clambered aboard the helicopter, the CO of the 58 Engineers joined him as did the representative of the NSC. A lance naik appeared briefly to and pushed a heavy suitcase containing some basic equipment, a geiger counter, a small ionization detector (both developed at BARC), and a hand held air sampler made by DRDL, the sampler would tell you if there were any toxic chemicals or harmful biological agents in the air.
As the hatch in the back of the copter was shut, the Dhruv gently lifted into the dark night sky and over the din of the rotors the Capt from 22 Para (SF) shouted out to the DAE man,
"Do you know what were are dealing with?"
The DAE man shook his head, "Dunno.. could be anything... all I know is that the NSC says it fell from the sky and took out two of our migs on the way down"
The Capt looked at the NSC man, "We were first told that this might be a SAR for the pilots, possibly across the border... I only got the revised mission profile after we took off... what's the real deal."
The NSC man looked on grimly, and after a long pause spoke, " The pilots are dead.. but lets keep an open mind."
The Capt. looked back somewhat unsure of what to say.
As the Dhruv circled the base, the men inside could make out the shadow of the Mi-8 landing on the pad below. Within minutes the Mi-8 was being loaded up with BL-4 compatible hazmat suits and oxygen bottles. It was a familiar drill for the men flying the Mi-8. The Mi-8 and its crew belonged to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The only points of interest was that the pilots were always armed, and for some reason always wore breathing apparatus. The Mi-8 was originally part of the famed BSF air wing (or "Advani's Air Force" as some had jokingly called it when it was expanded in 2001). Nowadays ofcourse the airplanes were "on loan" to another department - the Disaster Managament Agency - another of the Government of India's secret leviathans that seemed to mysteriously appear out of innocuous line items in the CISF and CRPF budgets.
Unbeknownst to the men in the helicopters at Pokharan other giants were on the move at that late hour. At another NSC managed facility in the Aravali hills, company strength of heavily armed men were piling into three Mi-17 helicopters and the commander of the 11 IBG at Bikaner was being roused out of his sleep by a junior officer holding a single line message from Integrated Defence Forces HQ in New Delhi. The single line message when decrypted would simply read ... "Mobilize".
posted by maverick at 9:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home