Storm Over Vegas

by Alden MacManx

Chapter Four: Gathering A Storm

Five weeks later, Hal was stuck with being Command Duty Officer on a Monday after a rough weekend. The monsoon was in full swing, with storms coming in from first the southeast, then from the southwest. When he relieved Major Roaring Storm that morning, Hal not only got a complete turnover, he also got something he had managed to avoid so far. A casualty list.

“How did One-Five Sierra and One-Five-Seven get injured?” Hal asked.

“One-Five Squadron was working with Zero-One Squadron in handling a storm cell yesterday afternoon. Zero-One, along with Zero-One Bravo, were trying something the Colonel suggested. The storm had a massive lightning discharge and collapsed in a massive downburst. My ponies could not get out of the way fast enough. They’re going to be out of it for several weeks. Dislocated wings, broken legs, one concussion. They’ll be all right, but I had to call in Blue Star and the ambulance squad to get them home.” Roaring Storm explained.

“I knew it has been busy this weekend, but I didn’t know it was that bad. At least the reserves weren’t called in.” Hal said.

“How’s Raven doing?”

“Bitching up a storm in some languages I don’t know. All she will tell me is that the languages used were Lakota Sioux and Navajo. She’s due by Wednesday.” Hal said.

“Yeah, Happy Day was like that before she had Lightfoot.” Roaring Storm said, mentioning his wife and daughter. “She’ll survive, whether she believes it or not.

“Okay, then. I’m heading home to crash most of the day. If anything happens, don’t call me, I’ll be sleeping.”

Hal looked at his fellow Major. “Crash hard, but stay by the phone. I just got this feeling that today is going to be real difficult.” he advised.

“Right. I had it, you got it, see you later. MUCH later, I hope.”

After Roaring Storm left, Hal studied the Order Book before ponies arrived for Muster at eight. Flight Four, Squadron One-Three has the duty at Station Papa this day, so Hal had to meet with the Gold Bishop to give her the orders for the day. The weather was unsettled, like it has been the last few days, so he decided to send out two additional squadrons for monitoring purposes, one southeast, one southwest.

After muster and giving out orders for the day, Hal went back to Command/Ops to look over the situation map table, a large piece of plastic with an old map of the Las Vegas area under it, spanning a hundred miles in all directions. Elena Strong Wing, the Red Queen, joined him there, with a clipboard, as did Parseval, the Gold King. As Duty Officer, Hal was in command. During the peak of the monsoon, Flights One, Three and Five traded on-duty time with Flights Two, Four and Six daily, with daily command rotating between the six Majors.

“Latest readings called in from Papa Flight. The others are flying back now, they should be here soon.” She said before picking up a grease pencil and started marking the map.

“Those numbers do not look good.” Hal said as he looked over the numbers. “I’m going to have Papa do some sweep flights down towards the south. The weather’s coming in from that direction.”

“Probably a hurricane coming up from Baja.” Elena mumbled around the grease pencil.

“Bit early in the season for a hurricane.” Hal replied. “Not unknown, but very unusual.”

Elena finished with the marks. “True, but all the signals point that way. I’m going to see if I can get a patch with Santijuana for a weather update.” Santijuana being built on the old site of San Diego.

“Good luck. If what’s coming is as bad as it looks, we won’t be able to punch an AM signal down that way until the storm passes.”

“If that don’t work, I’ll have a telegram sent.”

“Get on it, Elena. I got some orders to cut for today. Of all days for Hard Ass to take a day off…” Hal sighed.

“You got to let him know about this, Hal.”

“I’ll wait until I get the Santijuana data. Get on that, please. Oh… send messages to Havasu, Yuma and Riviera as well. Might as well get as good a picture as we can.”

“On it.” Elena said before heading out to the Nellis communications station.

After getting the requested data and transferring the numbers to the map, Hal looked over the numbers some more before calling in two captains and four squadron leaders. He showed them all the map before cutting orders. “Bronze Team, I want you to cover the valley between here and Primm. Constant coverage, rotating units. If something’s coming, I want to have as much notice as possible. Gray team, you cover this side of the mountains, down about thirty miles from Boulder City. I’m going to call Station Romeo in Riviera and see if they can get us some warning.”

“What about Primm Flight?” Bronze Bishop asked.

“I’ve already cut orders for them to patrol to the south. I think you know as well as I do that it is going to get ugly today. We had best get ready for it.” Hal told the bishop.

“If not today, then tomorrow at latest.” the Gray Bishop, Screaming Breeze, said.

“Right. I want you and Gray Team checking out the eastern approach, while Bronze team handles the west. I think west is more probable, and the way things are feeling, I don’t want to subject the rookies to what I think is coming on their own.” Hal told his subordinate, mentor, and friend. “I want you to patrol to about halfway between here and Riviera. I’m going to call them and see what they have been reading. We really need to put in a better emergency responder comm system in.”

“Been talked about for decades, Hal. Blue Blizzard doesn’t see the need.”

Hal snorted. “That old fart couldn’t squeeze water out of a wet sponge, much less a storm cloud. Let’s get a move on, ponies. Weather don’t wait for any pony.”

After the officers left to get their teams ready, Hal, as Duty Officer, went to a seldom used, but vitally necessary, console. This console is one of the few Emergency Alert transmitting stations. Sitting himself down, he looked everything over closely before deciding which level of alert to send.

Hal pushed a button, and heard the EA tones go out. At the proper time, Hal opened the mic. “This is a Weather Advisory from the Nevada Aeronautical Survey Weather Control Team. A Severe Weather Advisory is now in effect for all areas south of Las Vegas. Unsettled weather is being reported, with a significant chance of storms forming, possibly as early as noon and continuing through the night.

“Stay alert for further updates, and keep your eyes to the skies. This is Major Hal Sleet, Duty Officer reporting. We now return you to your normal broadcasts.” He concluded before closing the mic. The message he just sent, thanks to his use of the EA system, had been transmitted over all radio stations in the Las Vegas Metro area, being heard by most ponies in the city. Hal then braced for the phone to ring, which it did within a minute.

Hal fielded calls from several offices and officials, all requesting confirmation of the report. He confirmed everything, emphasizing that this was the lowest-level alert, but more could be coming, and Weather Control was monitoring closely.

One call he handled was from Colonel Stormcloud, who complimented Hal on his handling of matters so far. “Just one thing, Sleet. I may be calling on Team One today to try my new storm mitigation plans. If conditions are right, I want to see how it will handle a macroburst cell.”

“Sounds good to me, Colonel. I’m in charge here, but you are in overall charge. If you think I’m doing something wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me. This IS my first serious weather threat while I’ve been in charge.” Hal told his boss.

“You’ve got two experienced Majors with you today, including my Exec. You can call on them if you think you need to, or they will smack you hard if you do something stupid.”

“Roger that, Colonel. I have the conn. Let me get back to it.”

After hanging up, Colonel Stormcloud picked the phone back up and dialed a number. It picked up on the third ring. “Cornflower.”

“Cornflower, this is Colonel Stormcloud. Today looks like it. Be ready.” he said in terser tones than usual, even for him.

“Understood. I’ll be listening and waiting for your call.” she said before hanging up quickly, as did Stormcloud.